I think in learning about so many people in the Bible, and how they’ve been restored, it’s pretty easy to become disillusioned with it all. We create this fantasy that once we come to Christ, and fully confess, then suddenly we’ll sin no more.
I mean isn’t that what you’ve been telling us?
Remember 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” Even Jesus said, ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’
So what are you talking about?
And I hear that, honestly, I do. But the reality is, if you’re human and alive, you’re on the list.
The list?
Think of it like a hitlist, and you’re one of the targets.
Okay but who’s after us?
It’s simple. Temptation.
I think of temptation almost like a kid with paint. It starts off with the kid using the paint as expected, just trying to create a picture, maybe even for their parents. Initially there’s good intentions. But life happens, and guess what, they get paint on their hands. It’s normal, it’s happened to all of us. But remember this is a kid. So, what do they do? They realise this is a problem, so of course they’ve got to get the paint off their hands before anyone sees…
They wipe it off on their jumper. Now the jumper’s stained too. But the jumper was never made with the purpose of cleaning paint. So, the kid still has paint on their hands. But they need to get it off. Next their trousers. Doesn’t work. Scarf? Nope.
As they’re searching for ways to offset this temptation, or should I say, wipe off this paint, it’s starting to dry. Now the paints spread, and it won’t come off. Them being a kid is important though. A lot of us would think to simply go wash our hands, a method designed to remove the paint. But when we try combat our issues with things that aren’t the intended solution, we end up simply spreading the paint.
Temptation usually starts off in a small way too. It’s just one small area. And if we’re immature in our faith, we try to rub it off and it spreads. We can choose to ignore it, but then it’ll just dry and stay forever.
When this process goes beyond a certain point, temptation can become an addiction. See you hear addiction and your mind wanders to drugs, alcohol, tobacco or the multitude of sexual addictions. But honestly, a lot of addictions aren’t so obvious.
You ever met someone with a ridiculous amount of pride? Maybe they’re just addicted to that feeling. Anger issues? Maybe they are high on rage.
That’s not even acknowledging what some of us do with our minds.
But addiction is on like the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Not all of us are addicted!
That is true. But temptation is a fact of life for all of us, Christians as much as unbelievers.
A nonbeliever may roll over in the fact of temptation and excuse it by saying, “I just can’t help it” or “I can’t firm it”. But that doesn’t have to be our story.
1 Corinthians 10:13 says,
13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
I know it, you know it, the word knows it. Temptation is an ever-present reality, but it isn’t something we cannot deal with.
We always talk about transparency in the church. How we need to be open and uncritical. But I understand, it’s easier said than done. Not everyone wants to speak so frankly about their struggles with temptation and sin. But there was someone who understood that even if they didn’t want to, they needed to!
I mean he wrote more books of the New Testament than anyone else, so it’s more likely that we would be able to find a teaching of his on this subject.
Who?
Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles.
We might look to Paul as a man of righteousness. A World-Class believer. He’d be playing in the All-Star game every season. But despite this, Paul was also a Super Bowl-calibre sinner before he came to Christ. I mean he said it himself in 1 Corinthians 15:9, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” In 1 Timothy 1:15 he even went as far as to say he was the worst of all sinners. You see the title yeah, “the least of all the Lord’s people,” yeah that was him too.
Paul had a maybe overcritical but realistic view of himself.
We learn a lot of people who struggle with sin, then come to Christ and are “delivered” from it. We also read of people who were with Christ, fell to sin, left the ministry and then came back.
But what about the ones like you and me? The ones who are currently seeking God while still carrying those passions of the world.
Like Jonathan said, not the Jonathan from the Bible, I’m talking about McReynolds,
“Lord I’m split in two
Part of me loves the world
And the other loves You
So what do I do
I wanna be saved
But I gotta stay cool too.”
Paul was like us, a follower of Christ who continued to struggle with sin.
So how does he deal with it?
My Sunday Skl 