I really doubt that 1 Corinthians 10:13 is to be taken in the plural sense. The passage before this verse seems to be directed to the individual. It is also suspicious that there seem to be no other scholars espousing such a view whereas Boyd makes it sound like it's obvious in the greek. Lastly, I have a really hard time believing that God would let us be tempted more than we can bear. Jesus suffered temptation just as we did and yet he somehow escaped ever sinning, even when he was on his own in the desert for 40 days. The verse certainly implies that God has some control as to how much temptation we receive and so to say that God is in some degree responsible for us sinning contradicts Him being a loving God, seeing as sin does nothing but cause us harm.
Thanks for your comment. Just to clarify Greg's perspective on this portion of scripture: The passage does indeed apply to individuals, but it presupposes that individuals are part of a community. Each of us must take care that we stand, as v. 12 says, and we do this, in part, by belonging to a kingdom community. As Greg said in the sermon, the New Testament doesn’t have a conception of an individual Christian who is autonomous from, or unattached to, the larger body of Christ. Greg would agree that, as individuals, we are each responsible for any temptation that we choose to fall to. But part of our culpability may be that we have failed to be attached to a kingdom community. And while it may be theoretically true that each individual has the power to resist temptation alone since Jesus did, it would still be extremely unwise for any individual Christian to assume they are as spiritually strong as Jesus, and thus not in need of a supporting community.
I really doubt that 1 Corinthians 10:13 is to be taken in the plural sense. The passage before this verse seems to be directed to the individual. It is also suspicious that there seem to be no other scholars espousing such a view whereas Boyd makes it sound like it's obvious in the greek. Lastly, I have a really hard time believing that God would let us be tempted more than we can bear. Jesus suffered temptation just as we did and yet he somehow escaped ever sinning, even when he was on his own in the desert for 40 days. The verse certainly implies that God has some control as to how much temptation we receive and so to say that God is in some degree responsible for us sinning contradicts Him being a loving God, seeing as sin does nothing but cause us harm.
Thanks for your comment. Just to clarify Greg's perspective on this portion of scripture: The passage does indeed apply to individuals, but it presupposes that individuals are part of a community. Each of us must take care that we stand, as v. 12 says, and we do this, in part, by belonging to a kingdom community. As Greg said in the sermon, the New Testament doesn’t have a conception of an individual Christian who is autonomous from, or unattached to, the larger body of Christ. Greg would agree that, as individuals, we are each responsible for any temptation that we choose to fall to. But part of our culpability may be that we have failed to be attached to a kingdom community. And while it may be theoretically true that each individual has the power to resist temptation alone since Jesus did, it would still be extremely unwise for any individual Christian to assume they are as spiritually strong as Jesus, and thus not in need of a supporting community.