Confidence in Corinth

We finished off the rest of the Eggplant Parmesan last night. Wasn’t the Confidence from Cosmovision a good reminder? But sometimes I find that my own sin robs me of my confidence. When I give in to temptation, letting it become sin, it renders me unsure and nervous about stepping out in faith, wondering if I can “outrun” temptation when it comes again. I imagine Satan whispering in my ear reminders of my failures. I guess that’s where we started this conversation, asking “Got confidence?”

Along our July journeys, Jeff and I had the privilege (the only word that comes close to fitting) of spending time in ancient Corinth, along with our friend and guide who happens to be Greek and a lover and student and teacher of God’s Word. Ancient Corinth sits at the base of an enormous mountain, and on the top of this “Acrocorinth” is the fortress and site of the Temple of Aphrodite. It was to this temple that thousands of temple prostitutes would go, but they lived throughout the city full of people like you and me, surrounded by idolatry and immorality. It was a celebration of sin. It was to the Corinthian believers battling constant, convenient temptation that the Apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to them:

1 Cor. 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Did you hear that? To people who literally had prostitutes walking among them, daily, with the Temple of Aphrodite looming above them, with shops full of idols all around them, with their market and shops in the shadow of the Temple of Apollo … he told them God would NOT allow them to be tempted without providing a way of escape, a way of victory, a way to be faithful. = A reason to be confident.

God has promised His children who walk in a world that offers and even pushes easy, cheap temptation that He will give them a way “out” and a way that leads to faithfulness, instead. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by “old enemies” of sin and feel like we are doomed to fail. Doomed to overeat or to fight or to abuse a substance or to over spend or to give in to sexual struggles or to any “old enemy” that appeals to our personal weak spots in our flesh. But this same Paul we heard from last week gives testimony from his own life that we can be CONFIDENT that God will give us a way to escape our sin.

That’s the Confidence of Corinth. Tomorrow I hope you’ll come back and go with me to the Cathedral, where I saw something I never imagined, and I was so thankful I know the Truth.