Temptation-more than just a cat's treat

Sometimes, I’ll admit it, these bible studies are written for my own benefit.

If you’re a damnable sinner like me, you’ll be able to admit that you struggle with temptation.

A lot.

You’ll also admit to a feeling of disgust when you think about everything that tempts you in a day.

But, why?

Here’s a secret for you…

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Temptation isn’t bad.

Being tempted isn’t a sin, it’s a reminder that there’s sin in the world.

When temptation hits, it’s our reminder of mortality, and of our need to evaluate what is really important in our lives.

When I was in school, I hated tests. Not because I wasn’t smart, I was (notice the word was!) but it was because I hated memorization. Wasn’t good at it, and I’m still not!

But tests in school were tolerable because you could prepare for them. You could take the time to study and review all the information that you were supposed to know and go from there.

The tests that we face in life aren’t nearly so simple.

There’s no prep time, and usually you’re forced to make a decision in a split second. These tests are a lot harder and the results mean a heck of a lot more.

These tests are found all over the place, let’s check out John 6:1-7 for one such example.

What I really want to draw your attention to is verses 5- 6:

Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.John 6:5-6

Jesus takes this opportunity to test Philip, to make him think about what he trusted; the ways of the world or the ways of God?

We’re constantly being tempted by this same predicament and left to question whether we put out hope in the promises of mankind, or in the promises of Christ.

James 1:2-4 expounds further upon this idea of testing.

How weird is it to think of being tested as a blessing? To consider that the temptations we are currently living through could possibly benefit us in some manner?

But think about your decision making process. You have that choice to make, you put a lot of time and energy into the decision and it ends up blowing up in your face. What happens next? You either forget everything that happened, or, more likely, you remember and learn from your mistakes. This is the same thing that temptation does for our faith. When we’re tempted, we can make a decision to do what we know is right, or what we know is wrong. In either situation we are learning. Even in those times that we feel terrible about the decision that we’ve made, we are being strengthened and reminded of what our faith actually looks like, where it is wanting, and what we need to do.

When we look further into this chapter, it becomes more and more evident how much temptation can grow when left untended. Earlier we discussed how it can make you grow when realized and built upon, but unfortunately the opposite holds true as well.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.  But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.James 1:12-15

It’s very easy for temptation to grow into full blown sin. It’s very easy for said temptation to take over one’s life. This sin can grow and grow until it’s all encompassing and it becomes all that you can think about. You’ve gone past the point of even caring if what you’re doing is right or wrong.

The worst part is, there’s nothing you can do about it.

We all fall prey to the siren’s call of temptation. We all neglect what we know is right and move to doing what is more fun and produces the more favourable, immediate result.

 So, what do we do?

Rather, what should we do?

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.1 Peter 5:8-10

You heed the words of Christ. You depend fully on the actions that have made you a redeemed child in God’s sight. Will there be times of temptation? Of course there will! Will you succumb to those temptations? More likely than not, yes! Will you be forgiven? Yes!

Christ has promised that he will be there to strengthen you. Jesus gave his life on the cross, in order that yours and mine would be saved. He did this all the while realizing that there was no way we could resist all these temptations on our own, but also while giving us an example which we could follow whenever we were tempted.

Si Sabbath

Let me explain the title before we get started.

It started as a typo.

But as far as typos go, it made a lot of sense because too often we don’t say yes to Sabbath.

So there you have it; Si Sabbath.

I just got back from a church workers conference, the full title being the Sabbath Church Workers Conference. Not even slightly coincidental that the topic is the same as the conference title.

Having taken that week to be renewed and invigorated I was made all the more aware of how greatly I fail at doing the whole Sabbath thing. But as much as I fail at it, I’m glad that I have the option as to whether or not I am allowed to fail in this particular area.

“Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.”

 Exodus 35:2

Yikes!

I should be so dead by now! Well, for that and about ten million other reasons!

But can you imagine the fear that would strike into the heart of anyone who was trying to live according to God’s will? I would be terrified every time the Sabbath rolled around! Quite honestly, I might just stay in bed all day, lest I be found guilty of working and thus sentenced to death.

It hardly seems like the best way to devote a day to God!

Maybe if there were certain rules about how to relax…

That’s right, there’s a Pharisaic law for that!

It’s good though because having a rule about what you can and can’t do on the Sabbath is helpful for keeping you cognisant about rest and God and devoting a whole day to Him.

Or not at all.

Maybe it happens that everything just revolves around these man made rules and God is no longer even a part of the equation. Maybe we get so caught up with keeping these laws that we completely forget the reason behind the Sabbath. We don’t care about God. We definitely don’t care about our neighbour. We care about ourselves and our main effort will be in making sure that we follow the rules, even if that means forsaking the needs of our neighbors.

So what does Jesus say about that?

Let’s look at his reaction in Matthew 12:1-14

There are two statements that really stand out to me, the first in verses 7 and 8:

“And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

 Matthew 12:7-8

And the second:

“So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

 Matthew 12:12b

So, let’s look at the first one. Mercy and not sacrifice. It really flies in the face of everything that the Jewish people had learned up to that point. The Sabbath day had become a day of sacrifice, not necessarily in  terms of animal sacrifice, but in terms of what they were sacrificing, trying to gain God’s favour. However, the one thing that they weren’t sacrificing was their own self-protection. Jesus rightly points out that their recognition needs to be on what they’re doing for themselves, but rather what they’re doing for those around them. We’ve just seen in the verses preceding that the Pharisees have just called the disciples out on fulfilling their base needs on the Sabbath. What kind of dangerous ground are we treading on when we say to someone that they shouldn’t be allowed to eat because it’s considered work? I’m pretty sure that isn’t what God had in mind when he commanded the Sabbath to be a day of rest!

The second statement seems so simple that it shouldn’t have to be said, but unfortunately it was being completely overlooked. The idea of doing good wasn’t nearly as important as taking care of oneself. If it was work to take care of your ailing neighbour, you wouldn’t do it. If someone was dying on the side of the road, well, you might deal with it the next day, if they’re still there! Morals are very skewed when the need to protect yourself becomes greater than somebody else’s life!

It’s a lot easier for us to look at the Sabbath day as a series of rules and laws than as the blessing it was intended to be.

To more fully understand the blessing of the day it helps to go back to Genesis.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation."

Genesis 2:1-3

What did God do on the seventh day? He rested.

Why did he rest? Because everything that he made was good…and it was finished. The seventh day, the Sabbath day, was put into place as a celebration, a time to acknowledge what God had done and to bask in the perfection of creation. Rather than rushing around, worrying about what you should and should not do, it’s a day to stop and not to worry but to thank God for what He has given to us.

Now, I have a trick question for you: What day were Adam and Eve created?

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The sixth day of course!

So, that means that the first day they were around was…

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The seventh day! The day of rest!

Weird right?

They didn’t work their butts off and then take a day to try and get themselves up to a level where they would be able to just function. Nope, they started out with a day of rest, God did all the hard work and gave them the opportunity to get up to 100% before they could even consider working.

Ideally that’s what God still wants to do for us. The Sabbath is still around and is supposed to be used to bring us up to function at our full potential. Very few of us (myself included) would even think of using the Sabbath as it is intended. We might consider it if we were really exhausted and absolutely needed to take a break, but definitely not on a weekly basis!

For us the Sabbath day is no longer a command. It’s not a day that we’re forced to evaluate every little thing we do lest we be accused of working and sentenced to death. But Sabbath is a time that is set aside and dedicated to God. It is a chance for us to go back to the garden of Eden, to remember the perfection of creation, the perfect way in which we were created and at the same time to give thanks to God that he sent his son to be the one to reinstitute that state of perfection for us and all humankind.