Temptation

Temptation: the desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise

And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴ But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ⁶ and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’

and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
    and him only shall you serve.’”

Mathew 4:3-10 ESV

  Temptation is something we all face and it is part of living in a world that is fallen and having a free will to make our own decisions.  Temptation has often been displayed by having an angel on wone shoulder and the devil on the other pleading their cases on the decision we should make and how we should move forward.  The Bible passage above comes right after Jesus baptism.  I consider this Jesus coming out party.  The Holy Spirit comes down in the form of a Dove and the heavens open up and God proclaims that Jesus is His Son with whom He is well pleased.  Before we dive into the issue of temptation, we have to look at something that is important.  How do we balance this idea that Jesus was fully man and yet He was fully God.  So here is the rhetorical question that books could be written about, did Jesus divineness prevent Him from sinning, or since He had the power of God in Him, He was able to say no to the temptation so sin?  At the end of the day, this is one of those mysteries that we will not fully comprehend until heaven, but it is still something we need to wrestle with because it has implications of how we do life and how we read, interpret the Bible and how we view God and others.

   The first observation about temptation is that is not a complete falsehood or lie, because if it was, our chances to be swayed by such an idea would be zero.  It is like someone trying to get us to believe the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.  We all know that this is not the case and we can easily refute this lie and temptation.  Why temptation is so appealing is because it takes the  half truth and either twist it to make it look like the real deal with all the bells and whistles, and it mysteriously leaves out a portion of facts that are essential.  In the passage above Jesus uses the phrase “it is written” three different times.  Jesus realized that Satan was either taking the Bible out of context, or just omitting things.  Temptation sets out to distort the truth to make something look different than what it really is.  Temptation is all about manipulation.  It takes the truth and distorts it in such a way that it makes it false. 

   My second observation about temptation is this idea that it challenges who or what we value.  Yes, the core of temptation is challenging who and how we worship.  Temptation moves our focus from what we are currently focused on to something else.  No matter how cool the bells and whistles are, how often is the temptation leave us feeling empty in the long run.  In essence, temptation over promises and under delivers.  This is where the fear of missing out (FOMO) really comes in.  Temptation comes in and convinces us that if we don’t take this particular opportunity, we will miss out on a great opportunity.  Or it drives our fear of commitment because we fear if we commit to something, we can not do something else that comes along that is either greater or cooler.  Temptation and FOMO is often based on deception and not complete reality.  I call this the social media effect.  The whole picture is not being presented and often only the side that gets the most likes or support gets shared.  The hard work or the consequences are never shared or blown out of proportion. 

    My third observation with temptation is that it often takes us farther than we want to go, keeps us longer than we want to stay, and has a price we don’t want to pay.  How often does one night or a stretch of giving into temptation and bad decisions leads to horrible consequences.  Whether it is a night of heavy drinking that leads to a DWI or something worse, to saying or something that isn’t nice or correct to a significant person in our lives.  These things could and often do cost us misery, along with time, and we could lose money, respect, a job, or even a relationship.  Here is the thing, when we give into temptation, we can’t snap our fingers and things will be back to normal and everything will be fixed and back to normal.  If things are to be fixed, it will take time and a lot of hard work, which we have to be willing to do.  More importantly, we need to seek forgiveness from God and those who we offended and afflicted pain to.  Hard work doesn’t matter if forgiveness and turning from our ways is not involved.

   My fourth observation on temptation is that temptation is all about our ego and it destroys our perspective of who we are and especially who we are in God.  Temptation either inflates our ego and tells us that we are better than we really are and gives us a sense of false confidence. It is thinking that we don’t need God and that we have the talents and goodness to do what we need to do.  The flip side of the coin is that we are unworthy and that we do not deserve love, respect and that others are better than us.  Both sides of this coin often lead to some form of addiction to power, greed, self loathing and other things.  In essence, temptation seeks to destroy us and everybody around us, no matter the cost.

    My fifth observation is that temptation is not sin.  Temptation does not become sin till we act on it.  One can try and live their lives without facing temptation, but this mean we won’t be getting out of bed in the morning and even then I am not sure it will work.  In essence temptation is asking us to embrace the half truths and lies that this world has to offer and make them our own.  I am not sure where to pout this, so I am going to put it here, In the Bible, the Epistle James (1:13-18) tells us that God does not tempt us, but those temptations come from our sinful desires.  When temptation does show up and tries to bring us away from God, God does provide a way for us to overcome this temptation and not fall to it.  When we face temptation is a chance for us to say no to the temptation for us to draw closer to God and submit to His love and goodness instead of going down the path of pain and self-destruction.  We really can not talk about temptation without talking about Satan.  Whether it is the story of Job or the passage above, Satan is the driving force behind temptation.  Satan whole goal is not for us to follow Him, but it to make sure that we do not follow God and not have Him the Lord and Savior of our lives.  Satan has received his punishment and his goal is to bring everyone down with him. 

    There is a discussion of free will when it comes to temptation and I will save that for another blog.  To finish this out, temptation challenges us to hit the easy button and take the easy way out. Whether is fulfilling a need for self-reliance, authority, or worship of self in some way, its goal is to tear down and destroy.  In John 10:10, Jesus tells us that the thief (Satan) comes and uses temptation, seek, destroy and to kill, and that He Himself comes to not only give life but to give it abundantly.  In all reality, it’s a choice of two paths, and which one are we going to travel?  I am not sure if Kenny Rogers was referring to temptation when he sang this, but it applies, we have to know when to hold them, when to fold them, and when to walk away and when to run