Walking with the Wise #42: Tempting Temptation

“For at the window of my house

I have looked out through my lattice,

and I have seen among the simple,

I have perceived among the youths,

a young man lacking sense,

passing along the street near her corner,

taking the road to her house

in the twilight, in the evening,

at the time of night and darkness.”
—Proverbs 7:6-9

We all experience temptation. As long as we live on this earth we will experience temptation. It begins when we are young and it continues throughout the course of life until we die or Jesus returns. It is one thing, however, to be tempted; it is quite another thing to tempt temptation. What do I mean by tempt temptation? Allow me to explain.

Every person who is a descendent of Adam experiences temptation. Temptation does not come from God, however. The Bible is clear that temptation comes from our fleshly fallen desires we were born with. Remember, we are all products of the Fall and because we are fallen our desires are fallen as well. This means that our desires before the Fall were good, but because they passed through the Fall they became tainted and corrupt. As James wrote,

“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 1:13-15.

While we all experience temptation, we don’t have to give in to temptation. Before we were saved, we didn’t have a choice whether we could sin or not. While we could say “no” to sin at times, overall we did not have the power to stop doing it entirely. But because of Jesus’ death on the cross, and His giving to us His Spirit, we now have the ability to say “no!” to sin and “yes!” to righteousness.

Most believers I know understand the importance of resisting sin. However, the difficulty comes when believers willingly place themselves repeatedly in temptation’s way. In other words, they are tempting temptation.

Consider for a moment the young man in today’s proverb. He is a young man who lacks sense (v. 7), who passes by the street corner of the adulterous woman. The wording for “lacking sense” literally means that he hasn’t developed the ability to judge with discernment. He isn’t simply just walking around either. He is going by her corner, and then down her street at night. He is walking directly into temptation rather than avoiding it. He went to her under the stealth of night, giving himself over to his sinful desires. Paul reminds us that we are to be children of the day and not of darkness:

“For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.  So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.  For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation”—1 Thessalonians 5:5-8.

We must have nothing to do with fleshly pursuits! How many of us lived as children of the night and not children of the day? How many of us have tempted temptation? How many of us have played with sin, consistently drawing nearer to it, not realizing that eventually it would take hold of us and inflict its deadly poison? We are like soldiers in war who consistently run to boundaries of the enemy’s camp, not considering that eventually we could be captured and punished!

We must follow the wisdom of Solomon: “Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house”—Proverbs 5:8. We must make every effort to flee from sexual immorality, living as children of light, men and women who have been transformed by God’s boundless grace!

Jesus paid the price for you! Not so that you would continue in sin, but that you might flee from it! He gives you His life by dying your death! Live as men and women who are free because Jesus paid the price for your sin! By faith you have been crucified with Christ and now Christ lives in you (cf. Galatians 2:20)! Live in the victorious life He has made available for you! Amen.