June 2
“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”’” (Matthew 4:10)
Scripture is a powerful ally in overcoming temptation. If we are aware enough to be able to identify exactly what the temptation is that faces us, and if we are familiar with the scriptures enough to know that the thing we are being tempted to do is in direct violation of God’s commandments, then we are in a position to rebuke evil directly. Better still, if we have the scriptures memorized as Jesus did when He was tested in three separate temptations by the Devil, then it is even more forceful and effective in defeating temptation.
What does the actual recitation of scripture do? Why is it such an effective weapon against temptation? Let’s explore a few possibilities:
(1) Reciting scripture in resisting temptation first requires that we truly understand the temptation that faces us, whether it be anxiety, anger, impatience, lust, greed, laziness, wasted time, foolish speech, etc. Notice that Jesus immediately identified what the root thing was that He was being tempted to do. For example, when Jesus was tempted to throw Himself down from the temple, Satan did not say, “And now I am going to tempt you to put God to the test.” Satan just said, “If you are the Son of God throw yourself down…” and then proceeded to quote scripture in an attempt to justify his ideas. Jesus was able to immediately see what the root temptation was, He could see the sin He was being tempted to commit, even though it might not have been immediately obvious to the rest of us. Jesus immediately saw what the root temptation was, and that was an essential first step to quoting the appropriate scripture to combat it. Also, when Satan tempted Jesus was tempted to turn the stones into bread, Jesus knew it was a temptation of putting food above God and His word. Jesus was fasting for a purpose, and He was led to do so by the Spirit of God. His focusing on spiritual things during that time, and to meet His own needs in His own way, not trusting the Father to provide for Him in His timing, would have short circuited and violated the purpose of His time of fasting. The bread would come soon enough. It was the time with the Father that was crucially needed then.
(2) Another reason why scripture is powerful in refuting temptation is because when we quote scripture, the issues crystallize and become very clear. We can clearly see it to be wrong and against what God says. There is no confusion or uncertainty. There is no argument. Temptation moves from the “Maybe” category to the “Clearly no” category. End of story. The issues become black and white, whether we will obey or not.
Tomorrow we will discuss additional reasons why reciting scripture is so effective in our fight against temptation.