Tag Archives: tempted

Tested!

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TESTED!

At once the Spirit sent Him out into the wilderness, and He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended Him. (Mark 1:12-13).

Mark’s version of this phase of Jesus’ training to be a son is quite sketchy. He gives no details about this event and yet, according to Matthew and Luke, it was a significant encounter with His arch enemy and one that would set the direction of His mission to reveal the Father as the perfect Son from here on.

He had always lived in fellowship with and obedience to the Father from birth even in an obscure village in Galilee as the son of a peasant carpenter. The Father testified to this at His baptism. But from now on, He would be facing the enemy head on, living in a fish bowl in the public eye, and open to public scrutiny from both supporters and enemies.

The success of His mission depended on declaring and demonstrating who He was – not the son of Joseph and Mary but the Son of God. He came as an accurate representative of the Father to reveal the true nature of their God to His people who had lost their way over centuries of rebellion, punishment and the influences of the surrounding nations.

It was time for them to know who their God was and to return to Him in repentance and trust. Jesus came to show them the way and to pave the way by removing sin and reconciling them to the Father. But how was He to do this? Before He ever opened His mouth to proclaim the good news that God was still in charge and that He had sent His Son to bring them back to Himself,  He had to be sure of His modus operandi. How was He going to convince the people of His identity?

The Holy Spirit had a bold plan. He didn’t send Him into the wilderness to study in a “Holy Spirit School” for forty days. Instead, He let the devil loose on Him just as He had done to His people centuries before when they came out of Egypt. As God’s “son” they had to endure the inhospitable and dangerous environment of Arabia as their classroom in their “school of learning to trust God” for forty years. Jesus must be put through His paces in the equally inhospitable wilderness for forty days.

Isn’t this a rather drastic way to further His education? Why not just sit Him down and give Him some guidelines for conducting His public ministry? No, that was too easy. He had to thrash out His trust in and loyalty to the Father in the “school of experience.” We have to turn to Matthew and Luke for the details of this clash. What was the devil’s plan? To get Him to cut loose from the Father just as he had lured Adam and Eve to do.

Three subtle suggestions – one goal; break the unity between the Son and His Father by getting Him to go it alone. After all, if He was who He said He was, the Son of God, did He not have the authority and power to act as God? If He was hungry, could He not just do a little magic like turning stones into bread? No one would notice and that would deal with His immediate need. It was just a small thing, really – like eating a bit of forbidden fruit.

“No way!” Jesus retorted. “It’s much bigger than you are suggesting. If I did what you are telling me, I would be putting myself under your authority and that is unthinkable.”

“What about getting God to do what you want? Jump and let the people watch a miracle.  After all, didn’t He promise to send His angels to guard you when you fall?”

Jesus saw through that one as well. “Are you crazy? I live under the authority of God’s word. I don’t use it to get my way.”

“Okay, so why don’t you just bow down to me? No one will see you and you can have the whole world without a fight.”

Jesus was adamant. “Get lost, devil! Who do you think you are – God? I will never put myself under your authority. I know who I am and nothing will change that.”

Round one – Jesus, one; Satan, nil. When He left the wilderness, He knew like never before who He was and how He was going to beat the devil. He would trust and obey the Father, no matter what. That’s what sons do.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

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Beware Of The Trap!

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BEWARE OF THE TRAP!

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can have pride in himself alone without comparing himself to someone else, for each one should carry his own load.” Galatians 6:1-5

Now here’s a delicate situation. A fellow believer falls into temptation and you know about it. What to do you do? You have two options; leave it alone and don’t interfere or go to the person and point out that his or her behaviour is wrong. Paul said that you have an obligation to do the latter if you are being led by the Spirit.

But there’s a danger in doing that; the temptation to have a superior attitude because you have not done what he has done is very real. Instead of helping your brother to come clean and turn away from sin, you have now added your sin to his. The problem is that your sin is hidden in your heart and is far more subtle than his, whatever he has done.

Helping a brother or sister get back on the path is an act of love, not interference. That’s how Jesus wants us to treat one another because He knows that sin is destructive and alienates the person who sins from Him and from His body. But a superior attitude is equally sinful and destructive. We have to be constantly on guard against pride – the attitude that we are better than the person we are trying to help, or the false notion that we will never do what they have done.

Paul counselled: “Watch your heart. You can easily deceive yourself. You have the same sinful nature as his. You may not do what he did but you have the same potential to give in to temptation as he has.” Test your motive. Paul said, “Restore him gently.” When we remember that we stand on level ground before the cross, we have no reason to think we are better than anyone else. Don’t talk down to him. Get under the load with him and lift him up.

That leads to another thought. Paul seemed to be contradicting himself when he said, “Carry each other’s burdens,” and then, “Each one should carry his own burden.” What did he mean? When we come alongside another who has fallen, lift him up, dust him off and help him to continue on his way, we have shouldered the “burden” of his weakness with him. We have helped him acknowledge his sin, and turn away from it, and we continue to walk with him until he is strong enough to continue.

However, we carry a “burden” of responsibility which is ours alone; the responsibility of supporting a weaker brother but, even more than that, the responsibility of being honest with ourselves and honest about ourselves. If we live in self-deception, we will be as weak and vulnerable to sin as the brother we have tried to help. No one can carry that burden for us. It is ours alone.

Jesus was aware of the human tendency to independence. Before He went to the cross, He spent His last precious hours with His disciples coaching them to receive and rely on the Holy Spirit who would take His place as their Helper and Counsellor. He would reside in them and continue what Jesus began – teaching them and leading them into the truth.

They were to learn, through the Holy Spirit, to “remain in Him,” an imperative lesson because, He said, “…apart from me, you can do nothing.” Keeping our connection with the vine requires honesty. We have an obligation to help a fellow believer who is living in denial and self-deception, but we also have an obligation to keep ourselves free of the very same self-deception that tripped our brother up. We can only do this by keeping short accounts with God.

Our walk together with others in the body of Christ can be messy at times; we clash; we expose; we weep; we bleed, but in the end there is one purpose in it all – to clear away the dirt that clings to us and the obstacles that hinder us from what Jesus prayed for – that we may be one as He and the Father are one.

Our motive, then, for helping a fallen brother is not to lord it over him but to restore him so that the Body of Christ remain intact and not fractured by sin that destroys unity and leaves us vulnerable to the devil’s wiles.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.