Temptation

TEMPTATION

'He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan.' Mark 1.13.

With those ten simple words, St Mark dismisses the temptations of Jesus.

I think it was Oscar Wilde who once said that temptation was the one thing he could not resist.

However, temptation is the one thing that Christians are expected to resist. And, never more so than during the season of Lent, when we recall Jesus facing temptation in the Judean wilderness, for forty days and forty nights, at the beginning of his ministry.

What then is temptation and how are we to deal with it?

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I suspect that most of us tend to think of temptation as something which seeks to trip us up and, as a consequence, makes us fall short from being the person God has created you and me to be.

Maybe temptation is a very attractive Dolly Bird, with a low cut neck line and a hem reaching up to her navel, trying to seduce a lonely middle aged man, to recapture his long lost youth in her bedroom.

Maybe temptation is a slick car salesman trying to persuade us to buy a flashy car, with money we do not have, to impress people we do not like.

Or, maybe temptation is that ever loving wife, trying to encourage her husband to have just one more Devonshire cream bun, when she already knows he is on a necessary diet because of his weak heart, and of course, having first made sure that his life insurance premiums are up to date!

Seduction, persuasion and encouragement are often about trying to make a person lose control and, as a result, fall short of the person God has created us to be.

But that is not how the Bible sees temptation.

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The Bible does not see temptation as something negative but rather as something positive.

Let me explain.

The Greek word, which the Bible uses for 'temptation' is 'perazein' , which means. 'to test' or 'to prove'.

For instance, in the Old Testament we are told that God 'tempted' Abraham to sacrifice his son lsaac.

Now, this does not mean that God set out deliberately to trip up Abraham, and thereby make him fall. It is surely inconceivable that God would try and make a person do something which is wrong.

No, what God was actually doing was simply seeking to 'test' or 'to prove' Abraham's faith.

Just as metal is often tested far beyond any strain or stress it is likely to bear before it is used, so Abraham's faith is tested far beyond any strain and stress he is likely to experience before he can be used by God to become the Father of the Jewish nation.

Rather than failing, Abraham actually emerges from this experience a much stronger person than before.

ln the same way, it can be said that Jesus emerged from his temptation experience in the wilderness a much stronger person than before, having had his faith 'tested' or 'proved'.

lncidentally, please do not think that, once the temptation experience in the wilderness was over, that was the end of it. On the contrary, Jesus had to face temptation time and time again throughout his life.

For instance, when he was tempted to pray, in the Garden of Gethsemane, that he might be spared the suffering associated with the cross, he did not give in.

And again, when dying upon that cross, he could so easily have come down from it, and proved that he was the Son of God, but he resisted the temptation to silence the jeering crowds.

Temptations then, are occasions in life when our character is tested, and from which, we can emerge stronger than before. No wonder, St James in his epistle writes, 'Happy the man who remains faithful under trial; for when he succeeds in passing the test he will be given life, the prize which God has promised to those who love him’.

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If temptations are part of life's experiences, how are we meant to deal with them?

Now, there are some who would believe that the best way to deal with temptation is to avoid it, and therefore not even risk succumbing to its attractive power and influence.

They suggest, for instance, that Christians should not drink alcohol since one might drink too much and become drunk. They suggest that Christians should not buy raffle tickets, since it could lead to big time gambling which, in turn, could lead to their families going without food and shelter if they lost.

Before such an approach is dismissed, we should acknowledge that it has saved many potential alcoholics. Likewise, many cases of potential family poverty caused by gambling have also been avoided.

However, I always think that such an approach is rather negative and unbiblical. It arises from the popular idea that temptation is something to make us fall rather than something to develop our character.

In other words, I believe there is little to be gained by avoiding the temptation of a drink. On the other hand, there is much to be gained by a person having a drink, and then being able to resist ‘another one for the road', despite the pressure being applied by one's colleagues or friends. Such 'testing' produces a stronger and finer character than just avoiding drink in the first place.

And, my friends, we need never fear such an approach to temptation, because He who did not allow his own Son to be tempted beyond all limit, has also promised that: ‘He will not allow you to be tested above your powers, but when the test comes, he will at the same time provide a way out, enabling you to sustain it’ says St Paul in his letter to the church in Corinth.

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Let us, therefore, not seek to avoid temptation but rather endure it, so that such an experience may become an occasion for the strengthening of our faith and character, as it did for Jesus and for Abraham.