jesusandalex asked you:
Hi Jed! What does it really mean when God say he will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand? I’ve watch video of artists who seem to have a relationship with Christ falls short of His glory and never return back. Why did God allow them to be tempted to the point of despair and death? Thank you!

Jed Brewer replied:

Hey Alex,

It sucks to see that happen.  It really does.

The truth is that we each make our own choices.  And sometimes, we make really, really bad ones.

God gave us free will because you can’t have love without it.  Love has to be chosen.  But with the ability to choose comes the ability to choose wrong.

The big problem is that sin has a momentum to it.  Once we start making really bad choices, we tend to keep on making more and more of them.  There are reasons for that, of course.  Pride is one – nobody wants to admit they were wrong.  Despair is another – if you get in a deep enough hole, you start to think you could never get out anyway.  Cowardice is a third.  Sometimes we’re just terrified to look things full in the face.

But you’re wondering where God is in the midst of all that.  The answer is that he’s standing right by that person, the whole time, pleading desperately for them to just turn around.

There is no sin that God’s grace can’t cover.  And there is no sin that God’s love can’t bear.  And that means that when people fall off and don’t ever turn it around, it’s because they choose it.  And they do so little bit by little bit.

But, now, why would God allow people to be tempted in the first place?  Part of the answer is that going through trials and struggles and tests gives us the opportunity to become stronger.  And we need to be strong in order to fully take a hold of the amazing life that God created us to live.  (c.f. Colossians 1:9-12, MSG)

A smart man once said that anything with a potential for great good has with it – in a fallen world – a potential for great evil.  And we can readily see that as we look around.  Marriage, for example, can be a beautiful thing.  It can also be a vicious and abusive enslavement.  The potential for both good and evil is very large.

Well, so it is here.  Free will carries the possibility of grave consequences.  We can choose the love of God and be transformed.  And we can also wreck our lives.

You asked what that verse (1 Corinthians 10:13) means.  It means that God wants you and him to be a team.  That God gives you free will, and then you and He must work out together where to go with it – how to make good, Godly decisions.  It means that you have a role to play in living the life God designed for you, but that God will be prepared to give you everything you need to live that role out. 

One time, Peter and Jesus were talking, and Peter looked at one of the other disciples and said, “Jesus – what about him?!”  And Jesus replied, “What do you care?  You must follow me.”

I mention that, Alex, to say that, in your life with Jesus, you’re going to see people slip, stumble, and fall.  That will happen.  But, when it does, your life still comes down to you and Jesus, working things out together, as a team, moment by moment.  Your life still comes down to making the right and Godly choice with what God has before you today.  Keep seeking the Lord, day by day, and you will get where you’re going.  And God will take care of everybody else.