May 31, 2012
Temptation
Bill confessed to eating not one, but two lemon bars. “I just couldn’t resist. No…I didn’t
resist!” I think we all give temptation a lot of power and authority that
it really doesn’t deserve. Temptation isn’t really in the sin category, it’s
merely a precursor to sin. As often as temptation comes our way you would think
that we would be able to recognize it by seeing the red flags, hearing sirens
go off and feeling the change in the atmosphere. But no, we take the bait and
then blame temptation for the sin that follows. I’m not suggesting Bill’s
second lemon bar was a sin, I had two myself. However, the thought of resisting
never entered my mind. “No 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 a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Cor 10:13 NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I’m glad there’s another family around having a member who counts the remaining potato chips before closing the bag. In fact, it sounds like those potato chips get divided by the number of family members at your house, too, just like they do at mine! So, whence came the old adage that women are not good at math?
-----I love the “boundary between temptation and sin” topic. As we all have learned, temptation itself is not sin because Jesus was "tempted". So moving on to the power and authority temptation does not deserve, I have always worked to reduce temptation’s sway over me, but I never really thought of it in these earthy terms. And you seem to get your finger right on the heart of the matter: we give it the power and authority! It would seem to me, though, that withholding all such power and authority would reduce temptation to the state of being merely another unsensational alternative within a given situation. The problem is that dictionaries don’t agree. These unsentimental alternatives lack the sense of enticement to pleasure or gain commonly ascribed to all temptation.
-----I am not in the least tempted to gamble. I’ve done it before, and I never win. Nor am I tempted to sell illicit drugs, smuggle illegal aliens across any border, or eat more than my share of tapioca pudding. I don’t like these things; I‘ve never experienced the first two; none have ever done me any good. Even the thought of them repulses me. Truly, a temptation is an attractive alternative leading to personally detrimental consequences. Then, maybe it does have power and authority of its own?
-----No. It has the power and authority of our misguided inclinations and notions. Indeed, they are what makes alternatives into temptations. We are all drug addicts. Most everything we do is from the beckoning of a complicated chain of incentives ending at the unavoidably common one of more dopamine, more endorphin, or more adrenaline. Our brains crave these substances so much that they establish very strong memories of any behaviors which have led before to their release. The deeply sub-conscious end of this chain is only a drug craving; the painfully conscious end might be Sally’s mini-skirt, an extra potato chip, or some such other affair. It is by the process of pseudo-reasoning - fallacious logic - by which the naturally beneficial release of dopamine has become linked to the destructive attention given to a hemline.
-----When Jesus was being tempted in the desert, I don’t think He destabilized the powerful attraction His human body had for its naturally manufactured drugs. But rather, He always had practiced true reasoning, impeccable logic, that is, appropriate attention to the Word of God in all His thought processes. There were no chains of phony links between anything detrimental and the end release of dopamine into His synapses. So when Satan offered Him the nations, reminded Him of His rocks-to-bread ability, and of the angel’s protective care, these were not even inklings to Him about satisfaction. They were knowledge about detriments; they were repulsive, not attractive. It was the will of His Father interlinking with all His thoughts and behavior memories all the way down the chain to its very end link at the chemical level. Temptation had no route to flow within His mind.
-----As you aptly pointed out, we give temptation its power and authority. We think sloppily. Jesus thought carefully. We are tempted. He was not. Historically subtle is that line between sin and temptation.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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