Many Christians like to show a picture of strength to themselves and the world. We point to verses like Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (ESV). We believe that we should be able to stand strong, and we often present a facade to the world and even our fellow church members that hides (or tries to hide) our weaknesses. Then we consider ourselves failures because we don’t live up to our pretense of strength and perfection. And when others see the weaknesses, they may be turned off by hypocrisy.

The sad thing is that we often get to this place with good intentions and a desire to follow God. So what goes wrong, and how do we avoid the traps?

As always, take my answers as one set of thoughts from my understanding the Bible. I would never pretend to have all of the anfswers for any of the topics I discuss.

I believe that one of our first mistakes may be that we tend to look at Philippians 4:13 out of context. Paul is talking about coping with circumstances. Look at the preceding verses: “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” Philippians 4:11-12 (ESV). Thus, the “all things” Paul mentions in verse 13 is doing what must be done and adhering to Christ in all of these different circumstances. We know that he hasn’t changed the subject because verse 13 continues to talk about the Philippians ministering to Paul in reduced circumstances, which is what had led him to this speech.

Am I arguing that we can’t do all things through Christ outside this context? No, but I think that we see the verse out of context and focus on the first half of it and lose sight of the second half. We were never intended to be able to do much of anything without Christ. And Christ, I believe, expects much of that strengthening to come through his body, the church. When we hide our weaknesses from our fellow Christians, we deprive ourselves of the opportunities for strength and growth that are the whole point of the church.

There’s another verse that I think we sometimes misuse to our detriment in this area. That would be I Corinthians 10:13: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (ESV). Too often we think that this verse means that we should be able to stand strong in the face of any temptation. As a result, we allow ourselves to stay in tempting situations, and then we berate ourselves for giving in to the temptation.

But Paul is not saying that we should be able to stand strong in the midst of a tempting situation here. In fact, his point is the exact opposite. He says that God will provide a way of escape. If we don’t take that escape, then we open ourselves to the temptation. The context of this verse is also important. Paul is speaking very specifically to the Corinthian Christians who believe that they are strong and above those who are weaker and have issues with eating meat that had been offered to idols. Paul is warning them that they need to be careful about getting too close to idolatry. It’s one thing to buy meat in the market and not worry about where it came from. He’s say that it’s a very different thing to go and eat in a pagan temple and believe that you won’t get drawn into the idolatrous activity there. Similarly, if alcohol is a strong temptation, a bar is bad place to hang out. If you have issues with lust, maybe you should avoid being around scantily clad people of the opposite sex when possible. Resisting the devil so that he will flee from you looks more like walking away from the offered temptation than it does becoming immersed in it.

One other comment about strength and I Corinthians 10:13. Some people lose sight of the topic in this verse (temptation) and will say that God won’t send us anything we can’t handle. I don’t believe that’s true. He won’t send us anything that he can’t handle, but sometimes he does allow sorrow and pain to come beyond what we can bear. I believe it is always his intention that we turn to him and rely on him completely because only he carry us through such circumstances. However, I think it’s much easier to turn to God in those circumstances if we don’t feel betrayed because of a misunderstanding. God will provide a way of escape for every temptation, but there are other things he may allow to come to us that will overwhelm us and leave us utterly dependent on him alone.

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