Temptation: Satan Can’t Make You Do It!

There is a passage in James that discusses temptation that every Christian should pay attention to.

The passage starts with a proclamation for a blessing. James 1:12, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

Notice that the crown of life is given to those who endure temptation and promised to those who love Christ. God tells us here that loving Christ is the best way to endure temptation. This truth is held up throughout Scripture.

Psalm 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

If that verse is insufficient, Jesus puts it out plain and clear in the gospels. John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

The following verse, James 1:13, emphasizes that God does not tempt anyone with sin. Taking that a step further, 1 Corinthians 10:13 explains that God has made provisions for a Christian never to have to sin again. 1 Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

This verse does not mean that once a person is saved, they will never sin again; every Christian does. It means that God is faithful; he will not allow us to be tempted above what we can bear and will also provide a way to remove ourselves from the situation.  We cannot claim that “God understands,” which, when used this way, is the same as saying that God is allowing you to go against His Word.

How, then, do we endure temptation? What do we do to receive this crown of life? The short answer is to stop sinning, but that answer does not provide any practical advice.

Every Christian struggles with specific sins. What I struggle with may differ from what you struggle with, but we all have sins we fight with. We do something, are convicted, feel guilty, and know we should not have done that. (The opposite can also be true. We can be convicted by not doing something God wants us to do.) We go to the Lord, we confess our sin, He forgives us, and we tell Him we will do better next time. Then, sometime in the future, it may be a week, it may be a month, it may be a day, but at some point, we do the same sin and go through the process all over again: conviction, guilt, confession, a promise, and a sincere desire to never do this thing again.

God is faithful, and He has promised that we will not be tempted above our ability to say “no” and provide an escape route from the tempting situation. We are not using our escape vehicle.

God has provided two things. The Word of God is our escape route, and prayer enhances God’s force field against temptation.

When Christians sin, it is either because we believe there is no other option or, more likely, we like doing whatever it is.

I can tell you exactly how much broccoli I have eaten in my lifetime. I tried it once, thought it was disgusting, and have never eaten it again. On the other hand, I cannot tell you how many Big Macs I have eaten. I like them. I have eaten hundreds of them over the years. The point I am trying to make is not that eating broccoli or a Big Mac is a sin but that I eat what I like and don’t eat what I don’t like. People tend to do what they like to do and stay away from the things they dislike. This is why we sin; we enjoy it.

Every Christian should desire to have a heart like Christ’s. Since Christ hates sin, every Christian should desire to hate sin. God loves all of us sinners, but He hates the sins we commit. When we struggle with a particular sin, we should pray that God turns our hearts from enjoying the sin to being disgusted by it. As our dislike for the sin rises in our heart, the less likely we are to commit the sin.

Our escape route from sin is the Word of God. The verse quoted earlier, Psalm 119:11,  “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee,” is the key here.

Whatever sin you struggle with, start memorizing verses about that particular sin. For example, if you struggle with pride, many verses deal with it; find them and hide them in your heart. Then, when the temptation of pride rises its ugly head, start thinking of those verses. How hard would it be to act in pride while considering that a proud look is the number one thing on the list of things that God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19)?