a purer conversation...

"God Will Never Give You More Than You Can Handle" . . . Oh Really?

The great 4th/5th century Christian church father Augustine once explained that there are men who can superbly quote scripture at will, but lack the understanding it fully deserves. On the other hand, he rightly explained that there are those who only seem to understand scripture, but cannot readily quote it as to give their understanding any validity. His conclusion is this, “Better than either is the man who can both quote scripture at will and rightly understand it as it deserves” (Augustine, Teaching Christianity, Book IV:204). Looking at my own life, I feel that there is a tendency to rely on the good ole line, “I don’t recall exactly where it’s at in scripture, but the Bible says (fill in the blank).” If I grasp what the Great Teacher of Christian doctrine is intending to mean by this quote, then he is claiming that it is a wise thing to have both understanding of the Word and ability to point directly to where scripture states whatever it is I’m claiming. In the margin of my copy of the Augustine’s book, I wrote, “the more of the Bible you know, the more you can speak it. The less you know, the less you should speak it.” My thought at the time was something along the lines of “If you don’t know where something is in scripture, how do you really know what your claiming is actually scriptural?” This was a bit of an epiphany for me.

In all likelihood, many of the misconceptions and falsities that have crept into modern Christian living spring from this way of thinking. Thus we end up having to do more of the “unteaching of what is bad” than the “teaching of what is good.” Take for example the ever so common phrase, “God will never give us more than we can handle.” I cringe upon hearing this. The deception behind this thought is that it essentially denies the Fall of man and his utter depravity. The world is a bad place, no doubt, and because of mankind’s sin, the world is constantly warring against those who profess the name of Jesus Christ as Lord. Being a Christian inherently means that we will face certain opposition that will be more than we ourselves can handle (but by God’s grace and power alone, we supernaturally gain strength enough to endure!).

Paul’s opening words in his second letter to the Corinthian church echo loudly in my mind like the clash of a gong in a room made completely of corrugated steel walls and concrete floors, “For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despised life itself” (2 Cor 1:8b, italics added). Sounds to me like Paul, great Apostle though he was, was experiencing more than he could physically and emotionally handle. Nowhere in the God’s Word will you find, “God will never give you more than you can handle.” Augustine’s claim, “He who can both quote and understand Scripture is the one who deserves attention,” is worthy of all of our concentration. In other words, if we knew what Scripture actually said and where it says it, maybe Christians would come up with fewer ignorant, self-comforting statements such as, “God’ll never give you more than you can handle!” God’s grace and mercy be on the fool who believes this line!

I really need to add this comment to the end of the post, it completes the idea. Thanks Thomas, he wrote:
"But why would God give us more than we can handle?

"For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." - 2 Cor 1:8-9

We're supposed to be in a state of dependence. That's what God's after -- dependence and trust."

posted by Bryan Laramore @ 4:48 PM