| The Christian Life | July 1947 |
Profitable if endured
Temptations, Good and Evil
“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man.”—James 1:13
WHILE the word temptation is usually employed to describe a seduction to do wrong, it also properly can be used to denote a trial or testing along good lines. God cannot be tempted with evil, nor does he thus tempt anyone, but there is a difference between the temptations which he considers proper and those which come from the Adversary, or from our own fallen flesh.
The temptations which God employs for the good of his people are tests of loyalty to him and to the principles of righteousness. They are intended to be a blessing to all who endure them, and who pass the tests by maintaining their loyalty to him and to his will. In Genesis 22:1 we read that God did “tempt” Abraham. This was not a temptation to do wrong, but to do what God asked him to do. Abraham was given an opportunity to demonstrate his faith in God and loyalty to him by offering up his beloved son in sacrifice.
Likewise God tempts, or tests, all his people by revealing his will and giving them an opportunity to do it, oftentimes at the cost of sacrifice and suffering. He sets before us the opportunity of doing things for him which from the standpoint of the flesh we would shrink from doing even as Abraham must have found it quite contrary to his natural inclinations to offer Isaac in sacrifice. We should not lose sight of this fact! God does many wondrous things for us. The depth of his mercy and grace is beyond adequate comprehension. On the other hand, he expects us to do things for him, not to enrich, him, nor because he needs our help, but to prove our loyalty to the principles of righteousness which are the foundation of his throne, in order that he might further bless us.
The temptations of Satan are always along the lines of evil, and are designed to draw us from God rather than nearer to him. His temptations appeal to the natural inclinations of our fallen flesh, and only by the Spirit and power of the Lord are we able to resist then successfully. Satan’s temptations are often very subtle. He makes evil appear good, and thus sets a snare for us, by which, if we are not living near to the Lord, we will be entrapped.
Satan tempted Jesus along three different lines, all of which were appeals to avoid the course of sacrifice and to exalt himself in the eyes of the people and become ruler over them. Jesus knew it was the divine will that eventually he should become King of the whole earth; but he knew, also, that first he was to lay down his life in sacrifice as man’s Redeemer. This knowledge, and his full confidence in the wisdom of God’s plan, protected and strengthened him to resist the “wiles of the devil.”
We, too, who have been called to follow in the footsteps of the Master, and, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, know that God’s will for us is that we sacrifice the flesh and its interests and set our affections on things above, not on the things of the earth. But Satan seeks ever to divert our minds away from these spiritual aspirations, and instead to have us mind the things of the flesh; so the apostle emphasizes that we are tempted when we are drawn away by our own lusts, or desires, and enticed to follow a course contrary to the one of sacrifice in which we covenanted to walk.
The flesh is ever ready to co-operate with Satan’s suggestions. In fact, the flesh holds back from sacrifice anyway, and Satan’s wiles help the mind of the flesh to out-reason the mind of the Spirit. So the struggle goes on, and we will find it necessary to draw deeply from the fountain of divine strength in order that we may be strong enough to resist the powerful influences exerted against us as new creatures in Christ Jesus—influences of Satan and the world over which he is prince, exerted through our fallen flesh, which is a ready ally in any scheme that will lead us out of the narrow way of sacrifice.
God helps us to resist these temptations, not only by his promises of grace to help in time of need, but also by setting before us compensating joys of faith. Jesus himself was assisted in this manner—“for the joy that was set before him” he was enabled to endure the cross and to despise the shame, in spite of the fact that Satan tempted him with suggestions of fleshly ease and worldly honor. (Hebrews 12:2) His peace and joy will be ours if we follow the same course of faithfulness to the divine will. The way of the cross is not pleasant to the flesh, but the spiritual joys far outweigh the Material losses; so by divine grace we can—and will—continue in the way of sacrifice.