Temptation or CHOICE

Is temptation always a bad thing?

That is the question I’ve been pondering after our church’s weekly Bible study Wednesday night. Traditionally, I (like many others) have always been taught to believe temptation is a “bad” thing and if one yield’s to it then sooner or later there will be negative consequences (or punishment). Even Jesus taught His disciples to pray that the Heavenly Father would “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil.” Most of my life I accepted this premise and did my best to “be good” and resist temptations.

Lately, however, as I look back on more than a half century of life, I’m rethinking the subject of temptation. So far what I’ve come up with is maybe temptation isn’t such a bad thing after all.

Case in point: After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Whoa.

If temptation is so bad, why did the Son of God allow Himself to be tempted? Each time satan offered Jesus a temptation, Jesus chose to resist the offer based upon a passage of scripture. His choice nullified the temptation.

Maybe that’s what God wants you and me to do as well. We’re all tempted daily in one way or another. Whenever and however our temptations arise, we are given choices. Without temptations, we would have no choices to make. What would be the enjoyment of living without choice?

Here’s another point: being tempted and having to make choices builds character – for better or for worse. Again, how would any of us ever fully become all that we can be if we didn’t have temptations that reveal and solidify our character? For example, if Simon Peter had never been faced with the temptation to deny that he knew Jesus, then he never would have denied Him, known his own human weakness or discovered the power of forgiveness and restoration after Jesus was raised from the dead.

My final point: life is meant to be fully lived. Fully living means being given choices. Without temptation, there would be no choices and we wouldn’t fully be alive.

So let’s face our temptations as Jesus did; with the assurance that we can and will grow from the experience of having made our choices.

And growth can never be a bad thing.