SOURCES OF TEMPTATION
‘Lead us not into temptation.’
Temptation and sin are utterly distinct things, which must on no account be confused. What are the sources of temptation? We should do wrong to narrow down our idea of temptation to incitement to evil, coming from an evil quarter. There are more sources than one, and the first we are apt to overlook; it is—
I. God Almighty Himself.—In more than one place God reveals Himself as tempting man—Abraham, David, Joseph, and Daniel. Temptations which come from God are no easy things which any one can bear; all that is ordinarily said about temptation applies to them (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-9). See men and women around us snapping under the sharp discipline of God. Yet, could they but have seen it, with the trial, coming out of it, there was the way of escape. But the most characteristic source of temptation is—
II. The devil.—It belongs to the jugglery of the accusing angel to try and confuse in our minds attack and defeat, temptation and sin. Next observe some of the regions in which Satan’s temptations come upon us.
(a) The appetite. This is the point where Satan is riding roughshod over the lives of thousands of human beings. Think of the terrible condition of our streets, the coarse animalism of our villages. Is this what men and women are meant to be? On any showing grace is stronger than nature, reason than instinct, and man is higher than a brute.
(b) The inner principle of life. He tampers with the policy, the aim, the motive of life, by means of a view from a ‘high mountain.’ It is a dangerous atmosphere to which Satan tempts us to commit ourselves. He is asking us to part with our eternal inheritance at the price of the gratification of a few years; to sell our birthright for a mess of pottage.
(c) The region of the spirit. It is a very subtle temptation to dictate to God how He ought to treat us. Thus men would be Christians without the sacraments, without the Church, without a revelation.
III. The temptation which comes from within.—At baptism, original sin was washed away, but there still remains ‘poor human nature’ as we call it. When this fails beneath the assault, where is the means of escape?
IV. God always faithful.—A way of escape through the temptation. There exists in all who have not quenched or driven it out, a reserve of baptismal grace. Confirmation was no mere taking upon ourselves of our baptismal vows, as is sometimes said, with strange ignorance of real meaning. Confirmation was an access of strength coming to us through the Holy Spirit. Welcomed into the soul, it stays, a store of strength, a spiritual reserve in time of need. It is not in vain that we have so often approached the altar, so often prayed, received absolution, heard the Word of God. In our spiritual gifts we shall always find a reserve of strength, so that even the memory of past grace is a way of escape. God will not promise that the trial will be taken clean away; He promises us, however, powers of endurance and ways of escape.
Canon Newbolt.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE CONFLICT WITH EVIL
How far are we endeavouring to keep our lives in accordance with the spirit of such a petition? You desire to keep your soul unstained by evil ways. If, then, you remember that to secure such a stainless and unpolluted life you have not only to fight with some external enemy now and then, but against dark and insidious powers of evil which seem to start up around you and in the very citadel of your heart unawares, and that except through a constant sense of God’s presence in your life you cannot hope to keep free from their influence, this feeling should give reality and earnestness to our daily prayer to be delivered from the evil.
I. An outpost of a great army.—And, indeed, this feeling that our life is set in the midst of many and great dangers is one of the first requisites for its moral safety. It stands beside us with its warning, whenever a temptation to some sin besets us, reminding us that, no matter how pleasant or attractive the temptation may seem to be, or how trifling the sin that it suggests, it is, in fact, an outpost of a great army, whose name is legion.
II. The open door.—It must be acknowledged, I think, that most sins which lay their hold upon us and master us, or struggle long and hard for the mastery, make their first entrance into the soul so easily, because they find it swept and garnished for their reception, and its doors wide open. Has it never happened that, when some wrong or sinful act or thought or speech was first presented to you, you knew it to be sin, but you felt no repulsion. Your soul was not garrisoned and defended by any strong sense of the hatefulness and deadly influence of all sin as such, and at last your adversary the Devil, having rejoiced to see his wiles thus gathering round you, saw you slip or plunge into the sin, and go one great step nearer to becoming his bondslave. Yet all the while you were praying to God every day—‘Lead us not into temptation.’
III. Our attitude towards sin.—Vitally important is our general attitude towards every form of sin and its allurements. On this attitude it very often depends whether your life is to be comparatively free from pitfalls, or whether it is to be beset with dangers at every turning. If by your attitude and behaviour you cause it to be felt that sin is hateful to you, and that you are sincere when you pray that God may keep you from all evil, a great many of the temptations that would otherwise make your life difficult and dangerous will shrink away abashed; or if the tempter ventures to assail you, he will do it half-heartedly when he sees that you repel him with a whole-hearted repugnance. It is this attitude, even more than individual acts, which fixes the tone of a society. It is this feeling of the mysterious vitality of sin, and the subtle kinship of one form of sin with other forms, and its destructiveness when it seizes on a life or poisons an atmosphere, that helps us more than anything else to feel the force and the intensity of the Saviour’s prayer for us: ‘I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from evil.’
—Bishop Percival.
Illustration
‘The Greek has one word for “trial” and “temptation.” The idea is the same. It is exploration. It is the idea of piercing or penetrating the outer shell, or husk, of a man to discover what is within him. You know how ambiguous is the character of a human being while he simply goes his way, does his business, mixes in society, and makes his little mark upon a street, a town, or a congregation. You do not know him—does he know himself?—as he is in God’s sight, as he is for eternity. At last something occurs. He is placed in circumstances which must be dealt with. Many have been “explored” by an opportunity of advancing themselves by means not perfectly upright—by some possible secret venture with another’s credit or another’s property; by an opportunity of screening that which, if known, would be fatal; of covering up some fraud; of disguising some guilt of which they dare not confront the exposure and the ruin.’