Fighting Temptation with Truth
“Then the devil took Him along into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and he said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written: ‘He will give His angels orders concerning You’; and ‘On their hands they will lift You up, so that You do not strike Your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written: ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:5-7, NASB)
When we’re little kids, temptation looks innocent. Maybe it’s the late afternoon, dinner is in the oven and the table is set, but your mind just can’t get off of that jar of cookies on the counter. You try to resist temptation, thinking of how your mother would tell you no, but then you think to yourself that just one won’t ruin your appetite. Maybe you can just sneak one and no one will ever know. So you reach your hand in and grab it, but then think to yourself that you’ll probably want more– because just one won’t be enough when you could have three– and you swipe two more.
Maybe you get away with it. Maybe your mom doesn’t find out.
But the thing about temptation is that the older you get, the higher the stakes. The temptations we face have less to do with cookies and more to do with money, relationships, sex, popularity, pushing our agenda, and a million other things in between. As we get older, the consequences of giving into those temptations have ramifications that go beyond a spoiled dinner or a slap on the wrist. And that’s not to say that there are big sins and little sins or that they all come with different consequences. The wages of all sin is death. But it is to say that if we cannot be accountable to submit the little things to the Lord, we will crumble when it comes to the big things.
The good thing is this: we serve a God who has walked through the experiences we do and has come out victorious. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16, NIV)
Because Jesus walked successfully through temptation while He was fully God and fully man, we can be encouraged to do it too. And not only that, we can walk through temptation and still approach God in confidence, receiving all that He has for us and not feel the heaviness of shame.
Why? Well, Jesus models for us how to battle temptation and win. The important thing for us to remember is that feeling temptation itself is not a sin– even temptations of the worst kind. We can be assured of this because Jesus lived a life without sin. We do not need to feel shame when we are tempted or when we are going through a test of temptation and resist it. Sin only occurs when we give into that temptation.
Which begs the question: How does Jesus show us to resist temptation? In Matthew 4, we see Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by Satan himself. Three times, Satan presents different temptations to Jesus, all in the effort to get Jesus to prove He’s the Son of God. And each time, Jesus fights back not with His own words or supernatural power, but with scripture that is already made available to you and me.
This shows us that the Bible is our most ready and powerful weapon when we find ourselves in the throes of temptation. We can use it to fight it off and resist it. We can use it to build up our mind and spirit to grab tighter to the righteousness that will help us resist. It cuts into the enemy that cannot stand against the Word of God, because it is all Truth and Satan cannot deal in Truth.
That is why, during the second temptation between Satan and Christ, Satan says, “it is written.” During the first temptation, Jesus had already refuted Satan by citing Deuteronomy, so by the second time, Satan had already caught on to Jesus’ strategy of calling out scripture. In response, Satan tries to do the same but out of context in order to trick Jesus into taking his bait.
That’s why it’s so important, friend, to know and read the whole counsel of God. Not just the popular verses, not just in summary, and not just the parts that align with your comfortability level. I know I say it so much, and I’ll continue to say it until I’m blue in the face, even if it’s written on my tombstone. You need to know your Bible. Not just what I have to say about it, or your parents, or your pastor. You need to know what the words in black and white are and ask the Holy Spirit Himself to show you what they mean. You cannot rely on someone to do it for you, because if you do, you run the risk of falling into the traps the enemy will lay in order to tempt you away from God’s will.
Satan says things like “is it really true that God said that?” or, “Didn’t God promise this?” but he cannot quote the Bible in full accuracy. The only way to fight temptation is to know your weapon, the sword of the Spirit, in all its power. Deception cannot stand against Truth.
Temptation is a part of the human experience, and Jesus wasn’t exempt from it just because he was fully God while He was fully man. Instead, He walked through it to the point where He would include it in the Bible, free for us to see and study so we can follow suit. The Bible isn’t just a book we have on hand to make us feel like we know God. It’s not just something we casually study or treat like a homework assignment. It is a real and powerful weapon with real-life applications, readily available for us to lean on in our greatest moments of weakness.
When we fight back temptation with it, Satan has to go. He cannot fool you with half-truths when you know the whole Truth. Because the fact of the matter is, you might not be caught by man with your hand in the metaphorical cookie jar, but God is always in a position where He sees and knows when we fall short. And yes, He is there with forgiveness for those who are repentant and asking for mercy.
But there is nothing we can get away with when it comes to God. He has given us the tools to succeed. He doesn’t want to see us bound by our vices, because let’s face it: the temptations we face are hard to deny. So if we’re relying on our humanity to carry us through, we will fall every time. We have to submit ourselves to God’s will and pick up the tools He’s given us to walk in His paths of righteousness.
