Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.
Parallel translations
- WEB For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.
- KJV For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
- NKJV For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
- NASB For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
- NLT Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Because Jesus Himself suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted. His own trials make Him a sympathetic and effective helper.
Overview
Having truly suffered temptation, Christ understands the struggles of His people from the inside. This experiential knowledge equips Him to come to their aid. The verse offers great encouragement: the one who saves is also the one who sympathizes and strengthens in the midst of trial.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- 1 Cor 10:13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it.
- Heb 4:15–16For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.
- Heb 7:25–26Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.
- Jude 1:24Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy—
- Heb 5:2He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and misguided, since he himself is beset by weakness.
- 2 Tim 1:12For this reason, even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.
- Rev 3:10Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
- 2 Pet 2:9if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
- John 10:29My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
- Luke 22:53Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on Me. But this hour belongs to you and to the power of darkness.”
- Matt 26:37–39He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.
- Matt 4:1–10Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
- Heb 5:7–9During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.
- Phil 3:21who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.
- 2 Cor 12:7–10or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
How Hebrews 2:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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