Ignorance Is Anything But Bliss.
Did you catch that? I didn’t at first. In the middle of his mini-lesson on dealing with temptation, James reveals something to us about God: “God cannot be tempted by evil”. How is this possible? I mean sure, He’s perfect and won’t give in to sin… but to not even be tempted? What is His secret?! I think it’s simple: He has X-ray vision. Now before you think I’ve been watching too many superhero movies hear me out. God sees sin for sin and does not attempt to sugarcoat it. When Jesus was led into the desert to be tempted He immediately saw right through each of the devil’s schemes and addressed the underlying issue (Mat 4). I think this is a survival skill we must learn if we expect to be effective in our stand against the devil and useful for the Kingdom. Whether the sin has been committed or simply contemplated, correct identification is the first step in addressing it. When sin is stripped of the lies Satan surrounds it with to make it more appealing, it loses its seductive power.
I think it is equally important to note that Jesus calls out his tempter by name (Mat 4). When we know our enemy we stand a much better chance at defeating him (2 Cor 2:11). Satan is the author of deception and it must thrill him to see us so ignorant of his hand in our struggles. It is so easy to get caught up in the blame game, pointing fingers in every direction. They provoked me. They shouldn’t have said that, worn that, done that. Even God’s not off limits. He put me in that situation. He made me this way. Sound familiar? Unfortunately it does to me. Turns out this ineffective strategy has been around from the very beginning. Adam, stand up guy that he is, manages to blame both Eve and God in the same breath (Gen 3), and the human race hasn’t changed much since. There is no evil in God so He cannot be the source of our temptation. While He may challenge us to build up our faith, the source of temptation wants us to fail morally and pull us away from God.
It’s hardly beneficial to turn on our most powerful ally, whose desire is to strengthen and defend us (Eph 6:12-17). And the very first defense God recommends? Truth. Ignorance is anything but bliss. Be encouraged, Christ knows how to defend us properly because He has personally triumphed over temptation. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.” (Heb 4:15)
Awesome! What a great way to start the day. Thank you!
i love this… “When sin is stripped of the lies Satan surrounds it with to make it more appealing, it loses its seductive power.”
these are really, really good thoughts, Rachel. hope you and chris are doing well.
Blackaby wrote some similar thoughts for today:
http://www.blackaby.org/devarchive.asp
When we know our enemy we stand a much better chance at defeating him (2 Cor 2:11)…needed to hear that today…thanks Rachel!
Your thought about finger pointing was great especially how we can finger point at God.He is so Merciful to us even in our ignorance. Thanks for teaching me this day.
Great thoughts, Rachel. Thank you.