Recognizing temptation
Satan is hell-bent – literally! – on getting humans to sin. To do so, he tempts, tantalizes, entices, persuades, coaxes, and lures. But keep in mind that temptation itself isn’t a sin. Instead, it’s how one responds to this temptation that determines whether, in fact, he or she commits a sin. Christians believe that Satan uses several tactics to turn temptation into deliberate disobedience:
Blurs and obscures God’s black-and-white commands: Satan attempts to blur the absolute nature of God’s commands. For example, when Satan tempts Eve, he starts off by trying to get Eve to dismiss the black-and-white nature of what God said, saying, “Did God really say that?” Then he dismisses the consequences of sin, saying something to the effect of, “Ah, you surely won’t die. He’s just yanking your chain.” Satan loves rationalization and doubt, and I’m often eager to follow suit. When tempted, I often have a running dialogue in my head that goes something like, “Hmmm, is that really a sin? That’s a gray area that the Bible isn’t very clear on. I bet it’s not. In fact, I’m sure of it. I think.”
Makes sin look harmless and desirable: When Satan tempts Eve, he makes the sin look risk-free, dismissing the penalty of sin by telling her, “You surely won’t die.” After planting that seed, he goes further by telling her that not only is this act harmless, but it’s also desirable, because she’ll be like God if she does it. As I talk about earlier in the chapter, Satan carries a banner around saying “Sin is fun” and hopes you believe his advertising is truthful.
Makes sin look liberating: Satan also connects sin with liberation. When he tempts Eve, he implies that sinning will free her from the cage that God’s placed her in. But, as noted earlier, sin doesn’t unshackle you, but only exchanges one master for another.
Targets the most vulnerable spot: Satan loves to maximize temptation when you and I are vulnerable and weak. For example, when Satan tempts Jesus, the Book of Matthew says that he waits until Jesus has fasted (gone without food) for forty days in the desert – at the exact point in which he was most vulnerable.
Many people are most susceptible to sins of impulse (refer to the section “Categorizing two types of sin,” earlier in this chapter) when they’re weak or down about life. Even though sinning only makes a bad situation worse, it’s easy to want to run away in a moment of pleasure and fun rather than to deal with the tough issues of life. People’s escapes into drugs, alcohol, and sex are often the result of something deeper going on in their lives.
Paradoxically, people who seem to have everything going their way in life are often most vulnerable to spiritual sins. Pride and self-sufficiency begin to take control of their lives just when they think the world’s their oyster.
As you see, Satan is an equal opportunity tempter. He uses both peaks and valleys of life to lure people into his fold.
Values economy of effort: Satan must’ve taken an economics course at some point. Knowing that little and big sins both amount to equal separation from God, Satan is perfectly satisfied with using small sins to tempt you. In Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, the senior devil writes to a junior devil giving advice:
You will say these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from (God)... Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
Uses guilt to drive you away from God: When you slip up, Satan loves to use that uneasiness and remorse to tempt you into moving further and further away from God. Again, in The Screwtape Letters, Lewis writes about this:
(Guilty humans) hate every idea that suggests (God), just as men in financial embarrassment hate the very sight of a (check book). In this state, (a person) will not omit, but he will increasingly dislike, his religious duties. He will think about them as little as he feels he decently can beforehand, and forget them as soon as possible when they are over. A few weeks ago you had to tempt him to unreality and inattention in his prayers: but now you will find him opening his arms to you and almost begging you to distract his purpose and benumb his heart.
Paul makes a clear distinction between guilt and godly sorrow: Guilt drives people away from God and into their own world of despair, but godly sorrow brings them to repentance and cleansing (2 Corinthians 7:10).
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