Matthew 5:37 "But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes ' or 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil.
John 17:15 "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
2 Peter 2:9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgement,
Although we generally recite the prayer ‘…and deliver us from evil’, the consensus of most scholars is that Jesus is clearly identifying the very real presence and purposeful intent of the evil One. Personally, I believe this as well. Although, on one level most Christian still accept the idea of an Evil One, we tend to pragmatically respond as if evil is more of a faceless force. Intellectually we seem to resist this concept of a conscious, intentional and personal incarnation of evil. Christian Science, started by Mary Baker Eddy at the turn of the last century, describes evil as unreal; only good is real, therefore sin is when we do not operate according to our ‘True’ selves. Many other groups have sought to explain away the reality of a conscious evil being. Others have attempted to equate Jesus and Satan in a more Eastern religious approach – as sons of the god caught in struggle of good and evil - one becomes the personification of good (Jesus) and the other evil (Lucifer). This places both Jesus and Satan on the same ‘created’ by God level. The result is more the man/god ideas of Greek mythology. While Lucifer was created, as we are created, Jesus is everlasting God. Lucifer’s separation from God is as wide as our own. It is what drives the obsession of ‘he who would be god’. Though he has access to God’s presence (Job 1) he has a broken relationship. Ours, on the other hand, is repairable.
Consider the entrance of the original sin introduced by the evil One. He slithers into the good, the pure, the holy and by a ‘promise’ - temptation brings Darkness and Death into what was Light and Life. Up to this point he had no part in the relationship equation between humanity and God. But Lucifer wanted in. The distortion is often not obvious and in fact, that is what makes it so dangerous. Lucifer was seeking to affect the rotation of the universe (more on this in next blog). Had Eve clearly seen the resulting impact of her simple decision that day, there is no question she would not have hesitated to flee the other way to ‘escape’ the temptation. Had she seen the darkness and death that indwelt that forbidden fruit, the poison would not have been ingested and passed on to her mate.
If we could see the full implications of a quick, self indulgent and gratifying decision not only in ourselves but also on all those around, I sure it would give us both pause, and the ability to reject the attending Darkness and Death. Sadly however, many times, we like Eve listen to the enticing and slippery words of the evil One.
Here is the incepted and attractive underlying message “You can have your cake, and eat it too”. Think about it for a minute. What was the first temptation? It was not ‘turn your back on God” or “I have something better follow me”. It was taking something that God Himself had made and Lucifer twisted “You can have it both ways”. Look at the temptations of Jesus. Was this not the essential core of those temptations: “you don’t have to deny yourself, you can have what you want and more – you can have both – your cake and eat it too”. On the surface, Lucifer’s temptations were not a rejection of God, but an acceptance of him as a legitimate authority – a god.
That I think is the source of many of our own temptations. I would venture that the vast majority reading this blog are not struggling with the desire to be honouring and pleasing children of God. However, we are constantly faced with the self-denial that it takes for this to happen. Remember the pattern that Jesus calls us to each day in our prayers. Every moment we are called to: “His will done on earth as it is in heaven” - to share our bread in such a way that we keep only our daily need; to seek full forgiveness and repentance of all our sin and to fully and completely forgive those who have created debt with us.
The evil One’s messaging has not changed nor have his tactics. Every day we are faced with self-serving and personally gratifying decisions. Every day he comes to us and seeks to be included as a god. These temptations come to us wearing disguises of ‘good’ with the underlying silky message of ‘you can have your cake and eat it too” You don’t have to deny yourself – God doesn’t mean for you not to have thing that your heart so badly wants. Our weakness lies in our attempts to justify our actions by saying – “God will understand”, “it’s only a little thing and it looks so good” – or, “it’s just too hard”.
What is that forbidden fruit that evil One is holding out to us? “Come on, one little bite, it is not going to hurt”. Don’t deny yourself this little indulgence of ________ (insert your issue here). God doesn’t take it that seriously. What we don’t see is the poison of darkness and death injected into what seems at first as ‘good’. That is why it must be a part of our constant prayers - why we must develop wisdom, discernment, discipline, obedience, all of which are unattainable without self-denial. We cannot have our cake and eat it too – we cannot live both in the Light and Darkness (read 1 John 1).
God is calling us to live according to His truth, His law, His kingdom - to only have one God. He calls us to a radically different pathway of living than that of the world. I think more than we’d like to admit, many of us are yet standing at the cross roads of these two paths. We have stepped toward the narrow and difficult path of self denial, of picking up His cross – but we have not yet managed to fully pull our foot out of the mud of the broad and wide way. The serpent’s voice is still ringing in our ear, ‘come, taste and see, this beautiful fruit won’t kill you – immediately’.
Anyway, I was just thinking.
Neil
John 17:15 "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
2 Peter 2:9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgement,
Although we generally recite the prayer ‘…and deliver us from evil’, the consensus of most scholars is that Jesus is clearly identifying the very real presence and purposeful intent of the evil One. Personally, I believe this as well. Although, on one level most Christian still accept the idea of an Evil One, we tend to pragmatically respond as if evil is more of a faceless force. Intellectually we seem to resist this concept of a conscious, intentional and personal incarnation of evil. Christian Science, started by Mary Baker Eddy at the turn of the last century, describes evil as unreal; only good is real, therefore sin is when we do not operate according to our ‘True’ selves. Many other groups have sought to explain away the reality of a conscious evil being. Others have attempted to equate Jesus and Satan in a more Eastern religious approach – as sons of the god caught in struggle of good and evil - one becomes the personification of good (Jesus) and the other evil (Lucifer). This places both Jesus and Satan on the same ‘created’ by God level. The result is more the man/god ideas of Greek mythology. While Lucifer was created, as we are created, Jesus is everlasting God. Lucifer’s separation from God is as wide as our own. It is what drives the obsession of ‘he who would be god’. Though he has access to God’s presence (Job 1) he has a broken relationship. Ours, on the other hand, is repairable.
Consider the entrance of the original sin introduced by the evil One. He slithers into the good, the pure, the holy and by a ‘promise’ - temptation brings Darkness and Death into what was Light and Life. Up to this point he had no part in the relationship equation between humanity and God. But Lucifer wanted in. The distortion is often not obvious and in fact, that is what makes it so dangerous. Lucifer was seeking to affect the rotation of the universe (more on this in next blog). Had Eve clearly seen the resulting impact of her simple decision that day, there is no question she would not have hesitated to flee the other way to ‘escape’ the temptation. Had she seen the darkness and death that indwelt that forbidden fruit, the poison would not have been ingested and passed on to her mate.
If we could see the full implications of a quick, self indulgent and gratifying decision not only in ourselves but also on all those around, I sure it would give us both pause, and the ability to reject the attending Darkness and Death. Sadly however, many times, we like Eve listen to the enticing and slippery words of the evil One.
Here is the incepted and attractive underlying message “You can have your cake, and eat it too”. Think about it for a minute. What was the first temptation? It was not ‘turn your back on God” or “I have something better follow me”. It was taking something that God Himself had made and Lucifer twisted “You can have it both ways”. Look at the temptations of Jesus. Was this not the essential core of those temptations: “you don’t have to deny yourself, you can have what you want and more – you can have both – your cake and eat it too”. On the surface, Lucifer’s temptations were not a rejection of God, but an acceptance of him as a legitimate authority – a god.
That I think is the source of many of our own temptations. I would venture that the vast majority reading this blog are not struggling with the desire to be honouring and pleasing children of God. However, we are constantly faced with the self-denial that it takes for this to happen. Remember the pattern that Jesus calls us to each day in our prayers. Every moment we are called to: “His will done on earth as it is in heaven” - to share our bread in such a way that we keep only our daily need; to seek full forgiveness and repentance of all our sin and to fully and completely forgive those who have created debt with us.
The evil One’s messaging has not changed nor have his tactics. Every day we are faced with self-serving and personally gratifying decisions. Every day he comes to us and seeks to be included as a god. These temptations come to us wearing disguises of ‘good’ with the underlying silky message of ‘you can have your cake and eat it too” You don’t have to deny yourself – God doesn’t mean for you not to have thing that your heart so badly wants. Our weakness lies in our attempts to justify our actions by saying – “God will understand”, “it’s only a little thing and it looks so good” – or, “it’s just too hard”.
What is that forbidden fruit that evil One is holding out to us? “Come on, one little bite, it is not going to hurt”. Don’t deny yourself this little indulgence of ________ (insert your issue here). God doesn’t take it that seriously. What we don’t see is the poison of darkness and death injected into what seems at first as ‘good’. That is why it must be a part of our constant prayers - why we must develop wisdom, discernment, discipline, obedience, all of which are unattainable without self-denial. We cannot have our cake and eat it too – we cannot live both in the Light and Darkness (read 1 John 1).
God is calling us to live according to His truth, His law, His kingdom - to only have one God. He calls us to a radically different pathway of living than that of the world. I think more than we’d like to admit, many of us are yet standing at the cross roads of these two paths. We have stepped toward the narrow and difficult path of self denial, of picking up His cross – but we have not yet managed to fully pull our foot out of the mud of the broad and wide way. The serpent’s voice is still ringing in our ear, ‘come, taste and see, this beautiful fruit won’t kill you – immediately’.
Anyway, I was just thinking.
Neil
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