On Temptation

1. The Nature of Temptation

“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” (Matt 26:41).

These words of our Savior are repeated with very little variation in three Gospel accounts. Matthew and Mark record them as written above, while Luke reports them this way: “Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” His whole warning therefore seems to have been, “Arise, watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.”

Solomon tells us of some who “lie down on the top of a mast in the midst of the sea” (Prov 23:34). These are people overcome by a false sense of safety at the very mouth of destruction. If ever poor souls lay down on the top of a mast in the midst of the sea, these disciples with our Savior in the garden did so. A little distance from them, their Master was “offering up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears” (Heb 5:7). He was then taking into his hand and beginning to taste the cup filled with the curse and wrath due to their sins (Heb 2:9; Gal 3:13; 2 Cor 5:21). On the other side, only a little farther away, the Jews were armed for his destruction and theirs.

Our Savior had told them shortly before that he would be betrayed that night and handed over to be killed. They saw that he was “sorrowful, and very heavy” (Matt 26:37). Indeed, he plainly told them that his “soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matt 26:38). He therefore pleaded with them to stay and watch with him, now that he was dying, and dying for them. In these circumstances, when he left them for only a short time, they fell fast asleep, like people who had lost all love for him and all concern for themselves!

Even the best of saints, when left to themselves, will soon prove to be less than human, to be nothing. All our own strength is weakness, and all our wisdom is folly. Peter was among them. Only a little earlier, with great self-confidence, he had declared that even if everyone else forsook Christ, he never would. Our Savior therefore challenged him particularly: “He saith unto Peter, Could you not watch with me one hour?” (Matt 26:40). It was as though he had said, “Peter, are you the one who just boasted of your determination never to forsake me? Are you likely to keep that resolve when you cannot watch with me for one hour? Is this how you die for me, by lying dead in a false sense of safety while I am dying for you?”

It would indeed be astonishing to consider that Peter made so great a promise and immediately became so careless and negligent about keeping it. But we find the root of the same treachery living and working in our own hearts. We see its fruit every day, as the noblest commitments to obedience quickly end in deplorable neglect (Rom 7:18).

In this condition, our Savior warned them about their state, their weakness, and their danger. He stirred them to prevent the ruin that stood at their door, saying, “Arise, watch and pray.”

I will not dwell on the particular danger our Savior had in mind when he gave this warning to those then present with him. He undoubtedly had in view the great temptation that was coming upon them through the offense of the cross. Instead, I will consider his words as a general direction to all Christ’s disciples as they follow him through every generation.

There are three things in these words:

1. The evil we are warned against: temptation.

2. The means by which it prevails: our entering into it.

3. The way to prevent it: watch and pray.

I do not intend to give a comprehensive treatment of temptations, but only to address their danger in general and the means of preventing that danger. Still, so that we may understand what we are asserting and speaking about, I will first explain some matters concerning the general nature of temptation.

1. The Nature of Temptation

First, in their general sense, tempting and temptation are morally neutral. The word means to try, to experiment, to test, or to pierce a vessel so that we may know what liquid it contains. This is why God is sometimes said to tempt. We are also commanded, as our duty, to tempt, test, or search ourselves to discover what is in us, and to pray that God would do the same. Temptation is therefore like a knife, which may cut either a person’s meat or that person’s throat. It may be food or poison, exercise or destruction.

Second, temptation in its particular sense, when it involves something evil, can be understood actively, as it leads to evil, or passively, as it contains evil and suffering. Thus temptation can mean affliction (Jas 1:2). In that sense, we are to “count it all joy when we fall into temptation.” In the other sense, we are to take care that we “enter not into it.”

Again, when understood actively, temptation may describe the tempter’s intention to bring about its particular end, namely, a leading into evil. In this sense it is said that “God tempts no man” (Jas 1:13): he does not intend sin as sin. Alternatively, it may describe temptation’s general nature and purpose, which is testing. In this sense, “God tempted Abraham” (Gen 22:1). He also tests or tempts through false prophets (Deut 13:3).

When God tempts anyone, we must therefore consider two things: 1. His purpose in doing it; 2. The means by which he does it.

1. God’s Purposes in Testing

His general purposes are two:

(1) To Show a Person What Is Within.

God does this to show a person what is in that person, whether grace or corruption. I am not now speaking of the place this testing may have, or the part it may play, in hardening someone as an act of judgment. Grace and corruption lie deep in the heart. People often deceive themselves when searching for either one. When we give the soul an outlet to test what grace is there, corruption comes out. When we search for corruption, grace appears. The soul is thus kept in uncertainty; our tests fail.

God comes with a measuring instrument that reaches the bottom. He sends his instruments of testing into the depths and innermost parts of the soul. He lets a person see what is within and what kind of metal that person is made of. Thus he tempted Abraham to show him his faith. Abraham did not know what faith he had, meaning what power and vigor his faith possessed, until God drew it out through that great trial and temptation (Gen 22:1-2). When God said that he knew it, he made Abraham know it.

In the same way, he tested Hezekiah to expose his pride. God left him so that he could see what was in his heart (2 Chr 32:31). Hezekiah did not know that his heart was so proud and so ready to exalt itself until God tested him. God then let his filth flow out and poured it out before his face. I will not discuss how such discoveries lead the saints to thankfulness, humility, and the storing up of experience.

(2) To Reveal Himself to People.

God also does this to reveal himself to people in the following ways:

Aspect 1. Grace That Prevents Sin.

A person comes to see that God alone keeps us from all sin. Until we are tempted, we think we live by our own strength. Though everyone else does this or that, we will not. When the trial comes, our standing or falling quickly shows us where our preservation comes from. This was the case with Abimelech: “I withheld thee” (Gen 20:6).

Aspect 2. Grace That Renews.

God chose to let Paul’s temptation continue so that he might reveal himself to Paul in the sufficiency of his renewing grace (2 Cor 12:9). We do not know the power and strength God exercises on our behalf, or how sufficient his grace is, until this becomes clear as we compare the temptation with our own weakness.

An antidote’s effectiveness is discovered when poison has been taken, and illness reveals the value of medicine. We will never know how much strength there is in grace unless we know how much strength there is in temptation. We must be tested so that we may become conscious of being preserved. God has many other good and gracious purposes that he accomplishes for his saints through his trials and temptations. I will not dwell on them now.

2. How God Tests People

Here are some of the ways God carries out this searching, testing, or tempting:

(1) By Calling Them to Great Duties.

He calls people to great duties for which they cannot imagine they have any strength, and indeed have none. Thus he tempted Abraham by calling him to the duty of sacrificing his son. This seemed absurd to reason, was bitter to natural affection, and grieved him in every respect. Many people do not know what is in them, or rather what is available for them, until they are called to something that seems utterly beyond their strength, and is indeed beyond it.

The duties God ordinarily requires of us are not measured by the strength we have in ourselves, but by the help and relief stored up for us in Christ. We must undertake the greatest acts of obedience with the settled conviction that we lack the ability to perform the least. This is the law of grace. Yet when an extraordinary duty is required, this is a secret not often recognized. Within the yoke of Christ, such a duty is a trial, a temptation.

(2) By Calling Them to Great Sufferings.

How many have unexpectedly found strength to die at the stake or endure torture for Christ! Yet their call to do so was a trial. Peter tells us that this is one way we are brought into testing temptations (1 Pet 1:6-7). Our temptations arise from the “fiery trial,” yet their purpose is simply to test our faith.

(3) By Arranging Circumstances That Provide Opportunities for Sin.

Through his providential ordering of events, God allows opportunities for sin to be presented to people. This is the case mentioned in Deuteronomy 13:3, and countless other examples could be added.

Temptation That Leads to Sin

The temptations intended here, however, are not properly God’s temptations, considered as coming from him and serving his purpose. I will therefore set these aside from our present discussion. What I mean is temptation in its particular sense, as an active influence toward sinning, directed by evil toward evil.

In this sense, temptation may come from Satan alone, from the world, from other people in the world, or from ourselves. It may also come jointly from all or some of these in their various combinations.

(1) Satan Sometimes Tempts Alone.

Satan sometimes tempts by himself, without taking advantage of the world, its things or people, or ourselves. He does this when he injects evil and blasphemous thoughts about God into the hearts of the saints. This is his own work alone, without any advantage from the world or our own hearts. Human nature contributes nothing to it, nor does anything in the world or any person in the world, for no one can conceive of a God and conceive evil of him.

Here Satan is alone in the sin, and he will be alone in the punishment. These fiery darts are prepared in the forge of his own malice. With all their venom and poison, they will be turned into his own heart forever.

(2) Satan Sometimes Uses the World.

Sometimes he uses the world, joining forces against us without any help from within us. Thus he tempted our Savior by “showing him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them” (Matt 4:8). The variety of help he finds in the world, in people and things, is beyond description. So are the countless instruments and weapons of every kind that he takes from it at every season. I cannot dwell on them here.

(3) Satan Sometimes Also Receives Help from Us.

Sometimes he also draws on help from ourselves. Our situation differs from Christ’s when Satan came to tempt him. Christ declares that Satan “had nothing in him” (John 14:30). It is otherwise with us. For accomplishing most of his purposes, Satan has a dependable ally within our own hearts (Jas 1:14-15).

This is how he tempted Judas. He was at work himself, putting it into Judas’s heart to betray Christ: “he entered into him” for that purpose (Luke 22:3). He also set the world to work, using its things by arranging for Judas to receive “thirty pieces of silver”: “They covenanted to give him money” (Luke 22:5). He used the people of the world too, namely the priests and the Pharisees. And he called in the help of Judas’s own corruption: Judas was covetous, “a thief, and had the bag.”

I could also show how the world and our own corruptions work separately, and how they work together with Satan and one another, in this business of temptation. But the principles, ways, and means of temptations, along with their kinds, degrees, effectiveness, and causes, are indescribably extensive and varied. Their circumstances arise from providence, people’s natures, and their spiritual and natural conditions. These circumstances, and the particular cases arising from them, are so countless and impossible to contain within any limits or arrangement that trying to give an account of them would be an endless undertaking. I will be content to describe the general nature of what we must watch against. This will prepare the way for my intended purpose.

Temptation, then, in general, is anything, any state, way, or condition, that for any reason has the power or influence to entice a person’s mind and heart away from the obedience God requires and into any sin, to any degree whatsoever.

In particular, something is a temptation to a person if it causes or provides an occasion for that person to sin or depart from duty in any respect. It may do this by bringing evil into the heart, by drawing out the evil already there, or by otherwise diverting the person from communion with God. It may also divert that person from the constant, consistent, comprehensive obedience required, both in what is done and in how it is done.

To clarify this description, I will make only one observation. Although temptation seems to have a more active meaning, and thus to denote only the power of enticement to sin itself, Scripture commonly uses the term for the subject matter of the temptation, or the thing by which we are tempted. This is one basis for the description I have given.

Whatever it may be, if anything within or outside us gives it an advantage in hindering duty, provoking sin, or providing any occasion for sin, it is a temptation and must be regarded as such. It may be business, employment, a way of life, companions, affections, natural disposition, a corrupt intention, relationships, pleasures, a name, reputation, esteem, abilities, talents or excellences of body or mind, position, rank, or skill. Insofar as these advance or provide an occasion for the purposes already mentioned, they are all just as truly temptations as Satan’s most violent enticements or the world’s attractions. The soul that does not recognize this stands at the brink of ruin. This will become clearer as we proceed.

2. Entering into Temptation

2. What It Means to Enter into Temptation

Having explained what temptation is, I come, second, to explain what it means to enter into temptation.

1. It Is Not Merely Being Tempted. We cannot be so free from temptation that we are never tempted at all. As long as Satan retains his power and malice, and as long as the world and sinful desire exist, we will be tempted. “Christ,” someone says, “was made like to us, that he might be tempted; and we are tempted that we may be made like to Christ.”

Temptation in its general sense includes our entire warfare. Our Savior calls the time of his ministry the time of his “temptations” (Luke 22:28). We have no promise that we will never be tempted. Nor should we pray for complete freedom from temptations, since we have no promise that such a prayer will be heard. The direction given for our prayers is, “Lead us not into temptation” (Matt 6:13). It is “entering into temptation” that we must pray against. We may be tempted without entering into temptation. Therefore:

2. It Involves More Than the Ordinary Work of Temptation. This expression means more than the ordinary work of Satan and our own sinful desires, which will certainly tempt us every day. Entering into temptation involves something exceptional, beyond the saints’ everyday experience. It is something that happens to them in a particular way, when, for one reason or another, they are drawn toward sin through enticement or intimidation.

3. It Is Not Being Conquered by Temptation. Entering into temptation does not mean being conquered by it, giving way under it, committing the sin or evil toward which it tempts us, or neglecting the duties it opposes. Someone may “enter into temptation” without yielding to it. God can provide a way of escape. Once someone is caught in it, God can break the snare, crush Satan, and make the soul more than a conqueror, even though it has entered into temptation. Christ entered into it but was not defeated by it in the slightest. Rather:

4. It Means Falling into Temptation and Becoming Entangled. As the apostle expresses it, it is “to fall into temptation” (1 Tim 6:9). It is like falling into a pit or a deep place containing traps and snares that entangle a person. The person is not immediately killed or destroyed, but is caught and held, unable to see how to get free.

The same idea is expressed again: “No temptation hath taken you” (1 Cor 10:13). This means being caught by a temptation and entangled in it, held in its cords without finding a way to escape at present. Thus Peter says, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations” (2 Pet 2:9). They are entangled in them, and God knows how to deliver them.

When we allow a temptation to enter us, we “enter into temptation.” While it knocks at the door, we are free. But when a temptation comes inside and negotiates with the heart, reasons with the mind, and entices and allures the affections, we “enter into temptation.” This is true whether it continues for a long or a short time, and whether it happens so subtly that we do not perceive it or the soul notices what is happening.

Entering into temptation, then, requires the following:

(1) Unusually Active Temptation. Through some advantage or occasion, Satan becomes more urgent than usual in his efforts to draw us into sin. He may use intimidation or enticement, persecution or deception, acting himself or through others. Alternatively, some sinful desire or corruption becomes more agitated than usual within us. Satan stirs it up and takes advantage of things outside us that provoke it, as in prosperity, or terrify it, as in trouble. Entering into temptation requires a special activity of the tempter and the inward sources of temptation.

(2) The Heart’s Entanglement. The heart becomes so entangled that it must dispute and argue in its own defense, yet cannot completely expel the poison and leaven that have been introduced. If it relaxes its watch even slightly, it is caught by surprise in an entanglement that is not easily avoided. The soul may cry out, pray, and cry out again without being delivered. Paul “besought the Lord” three times to remove his temptation, but did not obtain what he asked. The entanglement continues. This usually happens in one of two seasons:

1. When Satan Gains a Particular Advantage. With God’s permission, and for purposes best known to God himself, Satan gains some particular advantage against the soul. This happened to Peter: Satan sought to sift him and succeeded.

2. When Sinful Desires Meet Especially Provocative Objects. A person’s sinful desires and corruptions encounter especially provocative objects and occasions through the person’s circumstances and condition in life. This happened to David. We will discuss both cases later.

In this situation, a person has entered into temptation. This is called the “hour of temptation” (Rev 3:10), the season when it reaches its height. Understanding this will shed further light on our present question about what it means to “enter into temptation.” When the hour of temptation comes upon us, we have entered into it.

Every great and pressing temptation has its hour, a season when it reaches its height and is most vigorous, active, effective, and powerful. It may take a long time to develop. It may press us for a long time, with greater or lesser force. But it has a dangerous hour when other circumstances, outward or inward, such as those already mentioned, come together. That is when people generally enter into it.

For this reason, the very temptation that has little or no power over someone at one time can sweep that person away at another. Earlier, the person could despise it, scorn its suggestions, and resist it easily. Now other circumstances and events have given it new strength and effectiveness, or the person has become weakened and exhausted. Its hour has come. The person has entered into it, and it prevails.

David probably faced temptations to adultery or murder in his younger days, as he did in the case of Nabal. But the hour of temptation had not come. The temptation had not gathered its advantages, so he escaped until later.

Those exposed to temptations should expect this, and who is not exposed to them? Temptations will have a season when their appeals become more urgent, their reasoning more plausible, their pretexts more impressive, and their hopes of recovery more convincing. Opportunities will become broader and more open, and the doors into evil will look more beautiful than ever before. Blessed is the person prepared for such a season. Without that preparation, there is no escape. This, as I said, is the first condition required for entering into temptation. If matters stop at this first condition, before the heart becomes entangled, we are safe.

Before moving on to other particulars, since I have now begun this subject, I will explain two things in general: 1, how or by what means a temptation commonly reaches its hour; and 2, how we can know when a temptation has reached its high noon and is in its hour.

1. How a Temptation Reaches Its Hour

It does so in several ways:

(1) Through Persistent Appeals. By making repeated appeals and causing the mind to dwell frequently on the evil it urges, temptation produces thoughts that minimize that evil. If this process is taking place, the temptation is approaching its hour.

When it first began pressing the soul, perhaps the soul was appalled by the ugliness of its aim and cried, “Am I a dog?” If this revulsion is not strengthened daily, but the soul becomes familiar with the evil by dwelling on it, no longer recoiling as before and instead inclining to ask, “Is it not a little one?” then temptation is approaching its high noon. Sinful desire has enticed and entangled the soul and is ready to “conceive” (Jas 1:15).

We will discuss this more fully later, when we ask how to know whether we have entered into temptation. Our present inquiry concerns the hour and power of temptation itself.

(2) Through Its Success with Others. Temptation approaches its hour when it has prevailed over others and the soul is not filled with aversion and abhorrence toward them and their ways, or with pity and prayer for their deliverance. This gives the temptation an advantage and raises it toward its height.

When a temptation attacks someone while it has already taken possession of many others and prevailed over them, it gains so many substantial advantages that it is certainly approaching its hour. Its success with others helps give it its hour against us. The falling away of Hymenaeus and Philetus is said to “overthrow the faith of some” (2 Tim 2:17-18).

(3) Through Combining with Other Considerations. Temptation strengthens itself by combining with many considerations that may not be entirely evil. This happened when the Galatians were tempted to depart from the purity of the gospel. Freedom from persecution, and unity and agreement with the Jews, were urged upon them. Things good in themselves were offered as arguments and gave life to the temptation itself.

But I will not now dwell on the various advantages by which a temptation strengthens and magnifies itself, making itself powerful and effective. Nor will I discuss here everything that contributes to this: circumstances, opportunities, plausible arguments and pretexts, supposed necessities for doing something that cannot be done without giving in to the temptation, and the like. I must address some of these later.

2. How to Recognize a Temptation’s Hour

We can recognize it in the following ways:

(1) Its Restless Urgency and Arguing. When a temptation is in its hour, it is restless. This is the time of battle, and it gives the soul no rest. Satan sees his advantage, considers his combined forces, and knows that he must prevail now or lose all hope of success forever.

Here are opportunities and advantages. Here are plausible arguments and pretexts. Earlier arguments have already gained some ground. Here are excuses that minimize the evil, and hopes of pardon through efforts made afterward. Everything is ready. If he can accomplish nothing now, he must abandon his undertaking as defeated. Thus, when he had everything ready against Christ, he made it the “hour of darkness.”

When a temptation reveals “a thousand arts of doing harm,” pressing from within through imaginations and reasoning, and from without through appeals, advantages, and opportunities, the soul should know that its hour has come. The glory of God, together with the soul’s own welfare, depends on how it behaves in this trial, as we will see in the particular cases that follow.

(2) Its Combination of Intimidation and Enticement. These two make up the whole force of temptation. When intimidation and enticement are brought together, temptation is in its hour.

Both were present in David’s case concerning the murder of Uriah. There was fear of Uriah’s revenge against his wife and possibly against David himself, and at least fear that David’s sin would become public. There was also the enticement of his present enjoyment of the woman he desired.

People are sometimes drawn into sin by their love for it and kept in it by fear of what will follow from it. But whenever these two meet, with something enticing us, something frightening us, and the reasoning between them ready to entangle us, the hour of temptation has arrived.

This, then, is what it means to “enter into temptation,” and this is its “hour.” We will say more about it as our discussion proceeds.

3. The Means of Prevention

Our Savior prescribes two means of prevention: 1. “Watch”; 2. “Pray.”

1. Watch. The first is a general expression. It must by no means be limited to its literal meaning of staying awake rather than sleeping. To watch is to be on our guard, to take heed, and to consider every way and means by which an enemy might approach us. This is how the apostle uses it (1 Cor 16:13).

To “watch” in this matter is to “stand fast in the faith” as good soldiers and to “quit ourselves like men.” It means to “take heed,” or to look after ourselves, as our Savior often expresses the same duty. We find it also in Revelation 3:2.

This word urges comprehensive care and diligence upon us. Through every way and means prescribed by God, we must exercise that care over our hearts and conduct, Satan’s bait and methods, and the occasions and advantages for sin in the world, so that we do not become entangled.

2. Pray. I need not discuss the second direction, prayer. The duty and what it involves are known to all. I will only add that these two encompass the entire effort of faith to preserve the soul from temptation.