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"Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give
yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for
your inconsistency" (I Cor. 7: 5).
"Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of
serpents" (I Cor. 10: 9).
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is
faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (I Cor. 10: 13).
"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith" (II Cor. 13: 5).
It is not our immediate purpose to give a detailed exposition of every use of these
passages. What we are primarily concerned with is the question that arises from the
statement that Christ was tempted in all points like as we are. So far as I Cor. 7: 5 is
concerned, no point arises. The passages cited in I Cor. 10: deal with the provocation in
the wilderness already examined in connection with Heb. 3: and 4: In I Cor. 10: 9 the
word "tempt", in the opening phrase, "Neither let us tempt Christ", is ekpeirazo, "To try
out", and is used in the N.T. always in a bad sense (only other occurrences Matt. 4: 7;
Luke 4: 12, 10: 25). By no method of interpretation can the call of the Apostle to the
Corinthians in II Cor. 13: 5 "to examine" themselves be made to refer to what we
commonly understand by "temptation", so we pass on to the remaining occurrence in
Paul's epistles, which is I Tim. 6: 9.
"They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and
hurtful lists, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a
root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and
pierced themselves through with many sorrows."
Timothy is urged to "flee these things", and reminded that he had "professed a good
profession", and also of "Christ Jesus, Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good
confession".
While Timothy would be strengthened as he kept before him the constant and
unswerving integrity of the Saviour, there is not a word that would suggest that he would
find comfort in the thought that even his Lord, at times, was tempted by riches and the
love of money! Truly, the Saviour was "pierced through with many sorrows", but these
were for sins "laid on Him", not for any "love" of hurtful things within Him.
The word translated "to pierce through" is the Greek peripeiro, used by Josephus in
his record of the Wars of the Jews in the sentence, "They were pierced through on all
sides with Roman darts". Here it will be seen that the "temptation" of verse 9 becomes
the "probe" of verse 10, and sheds further light upon the primary meaning of all the
words translated "tempt".
Temptations to sin arise from within. Money, the external thing, is useful and
innocuous; the "love" of it is resident, not in the money itself, but in the heart. In
themselves riches are useful and of value, but he who "wills to be rich" falls into a
temptation and snare--it is the "will", not the riches; the "love", not the money, that
constitutes the snare.