Your Temptations are Your Fault: Part I
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Matthew 26:41
When talking about sin, and in particular certain sins which the modern world insist are no sin at all, it has become popular for Christians fighting a rearguard action to say, “Well, we are not saying it is a sin to be tempted!” But, yes, we are. Or we should be. The church typically has. Indeed there are dozens of doctrines that go into, and hang on, the idea that, yes, it is a sin to be tempted. Properly understood.
Sin Nature
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Psalm 51:2-5
We all have a sin nature. We are fallen creatures, in a fallen world, part of a fallen culture. We are surrounded by sinners, and we are sinners.
The idea that there is just a temptation that pops up to tempt an innocent person just wandering around minding their own business is dramatically counterfactual.
Differing Meanings
And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?
Exodus 17:7
Now, mind you, the word ‘tempted’ has several meanings. Some ‘temptations’ literally come from God. Others do not. We do need to distinguish between temptations. However we can, in no sense, ever see any of them as being merely morally neutral. As just existing out there.
A Difficult Circumstance, A Test
They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
Luke 8:13
Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Psalm 95:8
The first meaning in Scripture of the word ‘temptation’ is ‘a difficult circumstance’. Properly understood, this always comes from God. That is, when we find ourselves in a difficult circumstance, we should not curse our luck… but realise that God is in charge of all of our circumstances.
Which is not to say that we might not have had a hand in putting ourselves in this circumstance.
The Desire for Evil
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Matthew 6:13
There is another meaning of ‘temptation’ that means ‘a desire to do an evil thing’. This never comes from God. Not that God is not sovereign, not that God does not put these evil men in our path… but this kind of temptation comes from evil men (which can include ourselves) and Satan himself.
A Confusing Choice
And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am.
Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread.
And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place:
For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.
He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.
So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water.
And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came unto the prophet that brought him back:
And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee,
But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the LORD did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
I Kings 13:14-22
God often tries our faith with a confusing choice. He tells us one thing, and then has someone come along and try to talk us out of it. This is another meaning of ‘temptation’… the testing of our faith in what God has already said with things that come along later.
Lack of rebuke/rejection
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.
Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.
Psalm 101:3-5
Ironically one of the most significant problems with saying that your temptations are not your fault, is when you say your temptations are not your fault. It is precisely when you acknowledge that your sinful temptations are your fault when you are most effective in battling these temptations.
It is an easy step from saying that your sinful temptations are not our fault to saying that your sinful temptations are not sinful. And an easy step from saying that your sinful temptations are not sinful to saying that the actions that they point you to are not sinful.
It is often the case that we surround sinful temptations with explanations. It is a small step to then use those same explanations to cover the sin itself.
And when we excuse a given sin in a particular instance it is then most inexorably follow that we excuse the sin.
Let us reverse the process. Let us suppose that we examine the Scripture and we determine that hit is wrong to do X. That God clearly condemns the doing of X.
And then we apply the principle to person Z, who did X or perhaps even does X. Perhaps the doing of X is a routine part of his life. Following our Biblical study we then say that Person A is sinning when he does X.
And then we come to person B. She has not done X. She doest not do X on a routine basis. But she freely admits that she wants to do X. That if it were not for the fact that X is illegal, or that X would meet with dramatic social disapproval, she would do X. Routinely.
Given our understanding of the sinfulness of X we need to condemn her as well. We need to condemn the fact that her stated desires are not aligned with the will of God. She is listing after something sinful and that lust is sinful.
Now let us turn to person C. Persona C does not do X. However person C finds himself faced with a desire to do X. But person C recognises that to do X would be to engage in a sin against God.
But they also realise that to continue to desire to do X would be to sin against God. They recongise that a sinful desire is itself sinful. What are they do do?
A Wrong Response to Temptations
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
James 1:13-15
And so, for example, it is common in pretty much every circle to say that a man who struggles with certain temptations should not marry. There’s a lot buried in this. But one aspect that is particularly relevant to this discussion is the highly unBiblical idea that ones’s sinful desires should limit one’s obedience.
The reasoning really does seem to go like this: “My desires are to have sex with men, therefore I cannot marry a woman.” But what utter unBiblical nonsense is this? “My desire is to sit and read on the couch all day, therefore I cannot get a job.” “My desire is to stay here safe in this foxhole, therefore I will not join in the attack.'“ “My desire is to be warm, therefore I will not go outside and shovel the snow.”
This is not to say that one does not have to evaluate one’s capability. The invalid tottering on the edge of pneumonia, perhaps he shouldn’t go out and shovel the snow. The coward should perhaps have chosen another profession.
What I am underlining here is that the man who is lazy, the man who loves comfort, the man with perverted sexual desire all have to recognise not only that acting on those desires is sinful, but that failing to act because of those desire sis also sinful.
To Be Continued…
I believe it is clear that we need to reject the idea that ‘being tempted is not our fault’. Nowhere does Scripture teach such a thing. But I am writing an entire post on how we should combat this error, discussing how we need to act before the temptation comes, during the temptation, and after the temptation, to reduce other temptations. That failing to do so is… our fault.
In the meantime, I’m looking for comments and criticisms for this post :)
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Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von
The distinctions you make are helpful and so needed. A little knowledge of how the church fathers (let alone the scriptures) understood concupiscence pretty much wrecks so many of the liberal 'arguments' for celibate SSA, etc, being put forward today. "Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being..." (Psalm 51:6a)