Scripture: James 1

Understanding Temptation 

In this Plan we will study how we can overcome temptation – it’s a thrilling and exciting part of our discipleship. 

Paul does not back-peddle or hesitate when describing our place in Christ in Romans 8. He is clear; not only ‘is there now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus’, 8:1, (and v33-34), but through Christ’s death and the gift of the Spirit, ‘the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit’ 8:4. 

Then he goes on to state; ‘But if by the Spirit you put to death the desires of the sinful nature, you will live for those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God’ Romans 8:13-14 

To understand this we need to begin by thinking carefully; what is temptation? What exactly is sin? 

Let’s start with temptation. 

James describes our common human experience at the beginning of his letter; 

‘But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death’ James 1:14-15 

Look at this process. Temptation begins with a desire – an evil desire, perhaps a desire to wish harm on someone, or to hate them, or to distort the truth, or to take something that you want that doesn’t belong to you. As we dwell on the desire and nurse it, it begins to take hold of us. This can happen instantly, as happens in an argument, or it can form and grow slowly, step by step perhaps over months and years. Then the desire starts to become a substantial force in our lives, something we reflect on and pursue and revisit. 

And then one day we act on it. We lose our tempers, we tell a lie, we gossip maliciously about someone, or we act on sexual desire and go beyond what God has prescribed, or we take what does not belong to us. We allow jealousy envy or hatred to drive what we do. When we act and follow through on an evil desire then we sin. Sin leads to death; death in the spiritual life, death in our souls, and death in our bodies. 

Now it’s absolutely imperative to understand that temptation is not sin. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that when Jesus lived on earth he was ‘tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin. And, ‘because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he can help those who are tempted’ Hebrews 2:18. 

We’ll study what sin is, but as we start this plan let’s think about how temptation works in our own lives. Think about an area of your life where you know you are vulnerable to temptation. What are the things that cause you to be tempted? Think about how you first feel when temptation comes. Are there other areas in your life where you know you are vulnerable to doing what Jesus doesn’t want? 

The good news is that in Christ there is a way to overcome temptation. 

Scripture: Galatians 5

Understanding Sin 

‘Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires’ Galatians 5:24 

Yesterday, we saw how temptation develops in stages. 

First, there is a desire – our sinful natures desire something that God doesn’t want us to do – something that would damage another person. Then the desire is nurtured and cultivated. And then there’s a point where we act on the desire, we say or do something, (or we don’t do something we know God does want us to do). And then, either slowly or quickly, we begin to get the results of what we have done. This process can happen almost instantly in a second, or, it can develop over months. 

But what exactly is sin? There are two places in the Bible where sin is defined; 

Romans 3:23 states; ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ 

1 John 3:4 – ‘Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact sin is lawlessness’ 

Sin is ‘breaking (God’s) law’, with the result that we ‘fall short of the glory of God’. Jesus himself described this process of temptation and sin using a different perspective in Mark 7:20-23, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.’ 

The New Testament shows us that there are different types, categories, and groupings of sin. Paul groups sin into three different types of behaviour; Sexual immorality, Idolatry, and Hatred. He expounds these three groups in Galatians 5:19-21, and Romans 1:18-32, (also 1 Corinthians). John explains sin in another helpful perspective in his first letter; ‘the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life’ in 1 John 2:15-16, and ‘idolatry’ in 1 John 5:21. 

To sin means to break God’s law, to transgress the boundary of his permitted will, and to do what he has told us not to do. Sin is what happens when we give in to and pursue the desires deep in our sinful natures. If we desire something God does not want us to do then we are being tempted. Temptation in itself is not a sin. Jesus himself was tempted just as we are. But if we give in to the temptation then we sin; (we might give in and say something unkind and aggressive to someone we are angry with). 

Next, we’ll look at how discipleship addresses the different stages of this process in which desire leads to temptation which then leads to sin, and how we can learn to reduce our vulnerability to giving into temptation. 

But today you might like to consider the three areas Paul mentions: Idolatry, Sexual immorality, and Hatred, and try and identify if and how you experience temptation in each area. 

‘So I say live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature’ Galatians 5:16.

Scripture: John 8

Free At Last!

‘Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed’ John 8:34-36. 

If we are tempted ‘when we are dragged away by our own evil desires’, and, if we sin when we give in to temptation and do things our heavenly Father has told us not to do because sin damages us, other people, and our fellowship with him, then learning how to overcome temptation is an essential part of our discipleship as apprentices in the kingdom of God. 

And this is the gloriously wonderful truth, that through loving Jesus and seeking the kingdom and learning the dynamic life of his Spirit we can learn how to reject the desires of our sinful natures that lead to sin. 

Does that mean we can be perfect? Yes and No. 

Yes, because Jesus ends his interpretation of the Ten Commandments in the Sermon on the Mount by saying; ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect’, Matthew 5:48. Paul states that Christ died so, ‘that we should no longer be slaves to sin’ Romans 6:6. And then Paul wonderfully summarises that Christ died to sin ‘so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit’, Romans 8:4. 

No, because we are on a journey towards that goal which will be fulfilled when we meet him; ‘we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is’ 1 John 3:2. 

Discipleship involves learning and discovering how we can turn from temptation and reject it because Christ and the kingdom and the life of the Spirit are so much greater and better. Who would choose to drink a glass of dishwater when Christ has the most superb chilled wine for you in the fridge? 

Next, we’ll look at how normal believers just like you and me can learn to turn away from and overcome the temptations of our sinful natures. 

Scripture: Romans 8

The Power in Us

Romans 6 is one of Scripture’s great chapters – a recommended chapter to memorize, (I would recommend the NIV or NRSV translations). Romans 6 describes how we come out from under the control of sin: We are no longer in slavery to sin – we have been freed from its control. We are ‘dead’ to sin and alive to God in Christ. 

Paul writes ‘Offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master for you are not under the law, (Torah), but under grace 

… (and) now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God the benefit you get leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 

It’s like this. Before we believed in Jesus we lived under the demands of the Torah (Mosaic) law, but because we couldn’t keep it we were guilty of sinning, and as slaves of sin, we were in the prison of sin. 

But now, through believing in Christ who died for all the sins of humankind, the charge against us has been canceled, all our sins have been forgiven, the door of our prison cell is open, and we are completely free to walk away from the prison and lifestyle of sin. Sin no longer has a right (authority) to control us. Even though the temptation to sin can still be powerful, there is another power in us, the presence of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Jesus himself. 

The Holy Spirit pours the love of Christ into our hearts with two astonishing results. First, we long with all our hearts to serve and live and obey and please Jesus, and second, even in those moments when we turn back from Christ to satisfy the desires of our sinful natures, and we rush back into the prison cell and sin all over again, we immediately find that Jesus has taken away the pleasure of sin, there is only a deep sense of regret and sorrow that we have failed him. 

So the first step to overcoming temptation is to know what God has done for you, get your perspective right, and regularly ‘present yourself to God as one who has been brought from death to life, and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 14

‘Make no provision for the sinful nature …’ 

A mother told her son not to swim in the lake on his way back from school. The next morning she saw her son taking his swimming trunks to school. “What are you doing?”, she asked, “I told you not to swim in the lake”. The boy replied; “I’m taking them in case I’m tempted to swim”. 

Paul tells us; ‘make no provision for the flesh (the sinful nature)’. One of the most straightforward and effective ways for you and me to overcome temptation is not to make any provision for the sinful nature. Don’t be deceived, if you want the life of the kingdom there is NO place for a porn app on your smartphone! The two cannot coexist together. If you choose the one, you cannot have the other. 

A leading gangster came forward at a Billy Graham rally and prayed a prayer of commitment to Jesus Christ. But six months later he was still committing robberies. When people challenged his behavior he replied; You have Christian mechanics, and Christian bus drivers, I’m a Christian gangster! They told him that you cannot be a gangster if you’re following Christ. But he wouldn’t change and from then on he stopped following Christ. 

How do we overcome temptation? 

Avoid situations where we know we shall be tempted, and by ‘making no provision for the sinful nature’. 

Examples: If I avoid situations where people gossip, there’s less chance that I will gossip and slander and speak ill of others. If I avoid pornography by not watching sex films, there is less chance that I will lust at and denigrate and look down on people of the opposite sex. If I avoid people who are angry and aggressive there is less chance that I will be caught up in aggression, violence, and hatred. If I try to work hard and earn my own living there will be less temptation to cheat on my tax form, or on work expenses. 

I want to end by making the same point through a different type of story: When I lived in Sheffield a leading judge told me about a Christian man he knew who would walk his alcoholic friend home after work every day just to help the man not to buy a drink and get drunk. This man helped his friend in this way faithfully for years and his kindness became so well known that when he died his funeral was attended by over a thousand people. 

Jesus said ‘You cannot serve God and mammon’. 

Paul said; ‘make no provision for the flesh’, and, ‘In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults’ 1 Corinthians 14:20 

Q: Do you have a situation where you are often tempted to sin? Are there simple steps you can take to ‘make no provision for the sinful nature’ and limit the temptation?

Scripture: Ephesians 3

We do what we love

We’ve come to the central, leading way to overcome temptation; you and I can overcome temptation by loving something else more than the temptation. 

‘Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death’, James 1:14-15. 

Day by day each one of us does what we love. 

Since temptation is the desire to do something God does not want, we overcome temptation by loving God more than the temptation. 

We learn to love Jesus more than the desire to do what our Father has told us not to do, (because by following through on the desire we will damage ourselves, other people, and our fellowship with God). This is exactly what the Holy Spirit does in us and for us; ‘God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us’, Romans 5:5. 

So it is not surprising that this is EXACTLY what Paul prays for in his leading prayer for the worldwide church; ‘I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that … you being rooted and established in love may have power … to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God’ Ephesians 3:16-19. 

Everything changes when we experience the love of Christ that the Spirit pours into our hearts. The desire to satisfy the desires of our sinful nature can be overcome when we learn to love Christ more than the temptation. 

So, if I see someone who I find difficult and am tempted to think evil towards them, I remember that loving Jesus is greater and better than hating and wishing bad things for the person, and so I pray and keep on praying blessings on them. I deny the desire to hate, and I choose the harder way of love because I love Jesus Christ and I know that his way of the kingdom is always better. As I practice this Holy Habit of blessing others and not wishing destruction on them my thought patterns begin to change and just like we unconsciously change gear when driving, you and I begin to live more lovingly. 

Discipleship involves learning how to apply and practice this process in every area where we are tempted. 

It will take time, but it is absolutely possible for you and I to learn these ways of the kingdom because, ‘greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world’, 1 John 4:4. 

This is why; ‘Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires’, Galatians 5:24. 

Why choose the dishwater when Christ is offering you pure clear clean water? 

Today, why not choose one area in your life where you know you are vulnerable to temptation and practice the opposite kingdom lifestyle of Holy Habits? 

My dear friends by the power of the Spirit the love of Christ sets us free from the habits and patterns of sin and death. 

Scripture: Romans 12

Different thinking leads to different living 

‘Be transformed by the renewal of your mind’, Romans 12:2 

Just as all that our hearts love flows out in our behaviour and lifestyle, so the way we live is the natural outworking of the way we think. Change what the heart loves, and their behaviour will change; change what a person thinks and their behaviour will change. 

For example; increasing disillusionment with a political leader may cause a person to switch their support and vote for someone else. 

We all welcome the opportunity to be trained so we learn skills to enable us to live and work more effectively and skillfully. Academic education leads to greater life opportunities. As our minds and thinking develop and the way we live changes. 

‘The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out’, Proverbs 20:5 

This is why all who love Jesus will invest in learning how to engage in scripture because it is through listening to all our Father has ‘breathed out’ that we understand the context and the contours and the dynamic of the life of the Spirit in the kingdom. 

If we do not know the map, we cannot know the way. 

‘Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”’; John 8:31-32 

So as disciples of Jesus, we shall make progress in overcoming temptation as we seek to engage deeply in the words of God. 

How can we overcome temptation? 

1. By understanding what temptation is, and what sin is, and understanding that temptation is not sin. 
2. By ‘making no provision for the sinful nature’ – by taking steps to eliminate the possibility of sinning, (by not taking your swimmers in case you are tempted to swim in the lake). 
3. By seeking the outpouring of the love of Christ into your heart by the Holy Spirit; Ephesians 3:16-19. 
4. By engaging with scripture, we know and understand the glorious life of the kingdom so we can learn what it is and how to live the kingdom life. 

Scripture: 1 Timothy 4

Good habits, not bad habits 

‘Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come’; 1 Timothy 4:7-8 

Discipleship is the believer’s response to the invitation to enter and participate and enjoy the communal life of the God who is three in one. All discipleship involves ‘grace’ and ‘effort’. ‘Grace’ is the help God gives us, and ‘effort’ is our response to the grace/help God gives us. 

‘Effort’ alone leads to the Pelagian heresy that progress in discipleship is up to us, while conversely, imagining that God will do everything for us, without us, leads to apathy. 

Just as God’s grace comes to us through Christ’s atoning work, through the word of God, and his Holy Spirit within us, so God calls us to respond by seeking him, living with him, learning his ways, and obeying him. 

We each need to learn how to take steps to be godly. Perhaps by establishing a habit of beginning our times of prayer with thanksgiving. 

Or, listening to a worship song. 

Or, reading one psalm each morning and ‘taking it with us’ through the day. 

Or, choosing one person to pray for throughout each day, 

Or, by practicing saying things that encourage and bless others. 

Such little patterns of living not only underpin our days, but they shape our souls, and through them, we learn godliness, … ‘for physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come’. We are strengthened to turn away from temptation. 

So, how do we overcome temptation? 

1. By understanding what temptation is, and what sin is, and understanding that temptation is not sin. 
2. By ‘making no provision for the sinful nature’ – by taking steps to eliminate the possibility of sinning, (by not taking your bathers in case you are tempted to swim in the lake). 
3. By seeking the outpouring of the love of Christ into your heart by the Holy Spirit; Ephesians 3:16-19. 
4. By engaging with scripture, so we know and understand the powerful and glorious life of the kingdom so we can learn what it is and how to live the kingdom life. 
5. And by taking steps to learn and build habits of godliness into our lives. 

Scripture: Matthew 26

Fight with Prayer 

‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’; Matthew 26:41 

‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one’; Matthew 6:13. 

In this plan, we are studying how as apprentices of Jesus we can learn how to overcome temptation. It starts with understanding what temptation is and understanding the difference between the temptation to follow and satisfy the desires of our sinful natures, and the actual fulfillment of those desires – which is sin. 

We can begin to learn to overcome temptation by removing from our lives the means of satisfying the desires of the sinful nature – by ‘making no provision for the flesh’. (If you don’t have drugs in the house, it’s more difficult to take and abuse drugs.) 

But far more positively, (and much more powerfully), we overcome temptation by loving Jesus more than the temptation. Why choose to drink dishwater when Jesus offers the pure water of life through his gift of the kingdom in the Spirit? We learn to overcome temptation through knowing what our heavenly Father says about us, and by establishing godly habits, rhythms, and practices in our lives. 

All these are true, and each is powerful and effective, but still, there will occasionally come times when you and I will face moments of severe temptation. Jesus not only told us to pray; ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one’, but in Gethsemane, he instructed his closest apostles; ‘Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’. 

They didn’t! They fell badly! They ran away. Peter lashed out and cut someone’s ear off! It was carnage! He hadn’t prayed, he wasn’t prepared and all through the night he kept denying that he even knew Jesus! 

There will be times when you and I have to fight temptation with every ounce of energy we have in prayer – just like Jesus fought the temptation to slip away into the night with three ‘hours’ of intense focused prayer. His sweat was like drops of blood! 

But the great truth is that just as Jesus prepared himself in prayer, we also can be prepared through prayer and overcome the temptation when it comes. 

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

Scripture: 1 Peter 2

But, what if we do fall? 

‘My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world’, 1 John 2:1-2 

While it is true that in Christ Jesus, ‘He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world’, and that, ‘sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under law, but under grace’, and that, ‘the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit’, and the kingdom has come and we have been bought and ransomed for God by the death of Christ, nevertheless we are still free agents and we can still choose to follow the desires of the sinful nature; [1 John 4:4 – Romans 6:14 – Romans 5:5]. 

And sometimes we do! 

So what should we do when that happens, and we choose to follow through on the desires of the sinful nature, and as a direct result we ‘sin and fall short of the glory of God’, and we spoil and tarnish our fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. 

This is what we should do. 

1. Say sorry to Jesus straight away. Do it quickly. ‘If we confess our sins God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness’, 1 John 1:9. 

2. Don’t wallow in your failure! One of the devil’s leading strategies against Christians is to blame them and tell them they are hopeless after they’ve fallen and sinned. He accuses you – he tells you that you are a failure. He makes you feel useless. He tries to make you depressed. He lies and tells you you’ll always be a failure. He tells you to give up. 

Don’t believe him! Hold fast to what your heavenly Father says about you! 

‘We are God’s children now’ 1 John 3:2 

‘You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, … now you are the people of God, …now you have received mercy’, 1 Peter 2:9-10 

3. Rejoice that Christ’s atoning victory is so very great that ‘there is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus’, Romans 8:1 and, ‘Who will bring any charge against those who God has chosen. It is God who justifies, who then is the one who condemns? No one! Romans 8:33-34. 

4. If your sin involved hurting others, apologize and repair the situation and the relationship as soon as possible. In Ephesians 4:26 Paul tells us to sort it out before bedtime! 

5. Stand up and walk with Christ. He’s forgiven you – receive his forgiveness! Ask for his help and think if there’s anything you can do so you don’t fall into that temptation again. 

Scriptures: Psalms 142, Psalms 143

Helpful Steps

‘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 also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens …’, Galatians 6:1-2 

‘Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed’, James 5:18 

Sometimes people can become captured by behaviour to the point of addiction. 

Probably the most well-known process for helping those caught in addictive behaviour is the Twelve Step program used by Alcoholics Anonymous. This process originated in a Christian context and was then adapted for use in non-Christian settings. Its widespread use across the world is evidence of its effectiveness. 

These are the twelve steps: 

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable. 
2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 
3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 
7. We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 
8. We made a list of all the persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. 
9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when doing so would injure them or others. 
10. We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 
11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and practice these principles in all our affairs. 

The Christian foundation for this program is immediately clear; we have already studied many of these steps in this series this month. 

Two psalms are understood to be prayers for addicts. 

Psalm 142 is seven verses long and could be understood as a prayer by someone who is not familiar with spiritual things. 

Whereas Psalm 143, which is almost twice as long, is much more specific and relationally based and is understood by some to be the prayer of someone who loves God but is addicted in some way. 

Scripture: Romans 8

What About ‘Besetting Sins’?’ 

‘But if by the Spirit you put to death the desires of the sinful nature, you will live …’ Romans 8:13 

As we come to the end of our study about how you and I can overcome temptation we should look finally at the contrasting teaching of Pharisaism. 

Occasionally we meet people, especially religious people, who take the view that we can be motivated to change by being punished or through intentional suffering. 

When the teachers of the law and the Pharisees wanted to kill the woman caught in adultery, Jesus responded by not condemning her and simply telling her to leave her life of sin, John 8:1-11. 

Jesus was strongly critical of the Pharisees; ‘you tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on people’s shoulders’. In direct contrast he invited everyone; ‘Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light – Matthew 23:4 and 11:28-30. 

No human beings are changed and become more holy and Christlike by receiving severe beatings, by obeying hard religious laws, or by harsh fasting, frugality, or deprivation. Harsh discipline does NOT make us more loving, or more kind. 

Our hearts are NOT filled with love for Christ through having others inflict pain on us. The outcome over time from such an approach is likely to be the very opposite. People become hard and calloused. 

We change as over time we learn to love Christ more than the desires of the sinful nature, as we learn how to pray ‘thy will be done’ and ‘lead us not into temptation’, as we learn how to practice godliness, and as we learn how not to make provision for the sinful nature. 

We are changed by the word of God: ‘be transformed by the renewal of our minds’ Romans 12:2 

We are changed by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit; ‘But if by the Spirit you put to death the desires of the sinful nature, you will live for those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God’ Romans 8:13-14.