Mere Cognition

We are constantly surrounded by various forms of temptation that pick and nag at us. It can take the form of the inescapably obvious, stealthily insidious, or anywhere in between. What do we mean by temptation, though? One of the sometimes frustrating things about the English language is its sheer number of synonyms and vague definitions. Therefore, we must do a little bit of a study of terms to understand what we mean.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines temptation (n.) as,

The act of tempting or the state of being tempted, especially to evil.

This apparent circular definition requires us to dig further, down to the verb to tempt - to entice to do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain; to induce to do something; to try presumptuously. The adjective form, tempting, is defined as having an appeal.

Looking at some of the synonyms, we see words like enticement, allurement, seduce, lure, and beguile. We can see the connotations when we look at some of the definitions of other terms - "arousing strong attraction or interest"; "having strongly attractive or enticing quality"; "to lead by deception". Obviously, the verb to tempt and the noun temptation are clearly meant to have a negative connotation by modern renderings.

The word temptation goes back though English and Anglo-French to Latin roots in words similar to temptatio, translated as "enticement to sin." Temptatio roots itself in the verb temptare, "to try" as in, "to try out" or "to attack", though the latter is more forceful and less accurate a translation. It seems that even as we go back towards the genesis of the word, we're still brought back to the concept of being enticed by sin.

Sin and Submission

At its core, sin can be very simply considered as disobedience and lack of submission to God's way due to unbelief. We can follow this along the logical route to recognize that it is from a desire to go our own way in life because we think, "I know best, therefore I don't need some God character", even if it's not a conscious consideration. Through the sin of Adam in the garden of Eden, we continue to have desires to live our lives with lack of submission to the Lord. Especially given the contemporary culture that western society lives in, this can be easily overlooked due to self-sufficiency being so heavily ingrained in the worldview of the zeitgeist.

When we do not have our lives aligned properly within the hierarchy of authority of a Christian worldview, challenges to the manifestation of this rudderless autonomy often come out as two core emotions: anger and shame. While God is not the one doing the tempting, He does permit temptation to happen, for purposes that aren't always clear to us. Our hearts on this side of Glory will always desire sinful things to some extend, and the machinations of the enemy will always seek to lure you into these desires by tempting you with things that you want, deep down in your heart.

Innate Reactivity to Baggage

Anger and shame are the ways that we most often react to our desires being challenged. These don't necessarily have to manifest due to sinful reasons; for example, I often get from "very irritated" to "downright vicious" whenever I am accused of (or implied) something I have not done. While the impulse to correct is not necessarily a bad thing, getting angry over it is a sinful action borne of an intense emotional response of indignation. It took me a very long time of introspective analysis to determine that this comes from an ingrained feeling of shame instilled in me in childhood. It's simple enough to understand but complex enough to be far too long to delve into here.

We all have these types of baggage that we carry around, whether we realize it or not. Sometimes, we are smart or wise enough to recognize certain items in the baggage and we are able to address them, resolve the issues, and place that item in the waste bin where it belongs. Other times, we carry deep-rooted items buried in the baggage and end up carrying them all our lives. Christians must realize that the exhortation for fellowship with believers, fervent study in the word, and trusting in the teaching and promises of God all help us to recognize our need for a savior. Even when we're down in a hole and feeling smaller than an ant, God is with us, even if we do not realize it.

To Whom We Must Lean On

God allows things in our lives, for seasons both short and long, as a reminder of who we are and who He is. These seasons of temptation, trial, and suffering all work to remind us how much we need Him. In John 16 when Jesus is comforting the disciples, he reminds us that,

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

Whenever you are feeling weak or depressed, that is often the most obvious sign that we need to seek the Lord most fervently. One way to do this may be looking at it from a different angle: instead of wallowing in self-pity or giving in to that strong sinful desire, instead look at this as a teaching moment; an opportunity to turn to and trust Him as He instructs you through experience and trial. This way, you accomplish multiple things. The temptation teaches you that you are not, in fact, God; that you must rely on God's strength, especially when your own is insufficient; thereby giving you an opportunity to display His might and power through your trials and your weaknesses. In fact, our reactions to temptation are almost never our own; we eventually will give in given enough persistence. Instead, it's God's strength that we must rely on to help push us through.

In God's economy, everything seems upside down and backwards. I've come to call this phenomenon "the inverting principle of truth". The first shall be last, the last shall be first. The strongest, in worldly terms, shall end up weaker than even the weakest. The meek (that willfully submit to the Lord) shall inherit the earth, not those that strive to subjugate all under their will. From the worldly perspective, everything seems backwards. However, it can be evidenced even in the fact that some unbelievers wish to try to better this world through serving others and philanthropy. The core principles are there within our nature as we are image bearers, yet the wages of sin from the fall mar these attempts without trust in the Lord.

George Orwell, in the novel 1984, had his dystopian government embrace this slogan:

War is peace.

Freedom is slavery.

Ignorance is strength.

When looking at this from a Biblical lens, we can begin to easily see the perversion of this inversion principle in practice. When we put ourselves above God, we can do nothing but craft a crude mockery of the Lord's will and purpose. We must turn away from this and forever remind ourselves that our strength is not our own.

Within the Proverbs, we can find many points of instruction, reproof, exhortation, and application. In Proverbs 6, Solomon addresses the sluggard - one who lives in careless idleness and does little.

6 Go to the ant, O sluggard;
    consider her ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief,
    officer, or ruler,
8 she prepares her bread in summer
    and gathers her food in harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
    When will you arise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
    and want like an armed man.

Once again, I go to Matthew Henry for commentary:

By way of instruction, v6-8. He sends him to school, for sluggards must be schooled. He is to take him to school himself, for, if the scholar will take no pains, the master must take the more; the sluggard is not willing to come to school to him (dreaming scholars will never love wakeful teachers) and therefore he has found him out another school, as low as he can desire. Observe,

1. The master he is sent to school to: Go to the ant, to the bee, so the Septuagint. Man is taught more than the beasts of the earth, and made wiser that the fowls of heaven, and yet is so degenerated that he may learn wisdom from the meanest insects and be shamed by them. When we observe the wonderful sagacities of the inferior creatures we must not only give glory to the God of nature, who has made them thus strangely, but receive instruction to ourselves; by spiritualizing common things, we may make the things of God both easy and ready to us, and converse with them daily.

2. The application of mind that is required in order to learn of this master: Consider her ways. The sluggard is so because he does not consider; nor shall we ever learn to any purpose, either by the word or the works of God, unless we set ourselves to consider. Particularly, if we would imitate others in that which is good, we must consider their ways, diligently observe what they do, that we may do likewise.

3. The lesson that is to be learned. In general, learn wisdom, consider, and be wise; that is the thing we are to aim at in all our learning, not only to be knowing, but to be wise. In particular, learn to provide meat in summer; that is, (1.) We must prepare for hereafter, and not mind the present time only, not eat up all, and lay up nothing, but in gathering time treasure up for a spending time. Thus provident we must be in our worldly affairs, not with an anxious care, but with a prudent foresight; lay in for winter, for straits and wants that may happen, and for old age; much more in the affairs of our souls. We must provide meat and food, that which is substantial and will stand us in stead, and which we shall most need. In the enjoyment of the means of grace provide for the want of them, in life for death, in time for eternity; in the state of probation and preparation we must provide for the state of retribution. (2.) We must take pains, and labour in our business, yea, though we labour under inconveniences. Even in summer, when the weather is hot, the ant is busy in gathering food and laying it up, and does not indulge her ease, nor take her pleasure, as the grasshopper, that sings and sports in the summer and then perishes in the winter. The ants help one another; if one have a grain of corn too big for her to carry home, her neighbours will come in to her assistance. (3.) We must improve opportunities, we must gather when it is to be had, as the ant does in summer and harvest, in the proper time. It is our wisdom to improve the season while that favours us, because that may be done then which cannot be done at all, or not so well done, at another time. Walk while you have the light.

4. The advantages which we have of learning this lesson above what the ant has, which will aggravate our slothfulness and neglect if we idle away our time. She has no guides, overseers, and rulers, but does it of herself, following the instinct of nature; the more shame for us who do not in like manner follow the dictates of our own reason and conscience, though besides them we have parents, masters, ministers, magistrates, to put us in mind of our duty, to check us for the neglect of it, to quicken us to it, to direct us in it, and to call us to an account about it. The greater helps we have for working out our salvation the more inexcusable shall we be if we neglect it.

The Bible contains a multitude of warnings on adultery and other forms of sexual immorality. There is good reason for this; even secular sociological and psychological once acknowledged and understood the far reaching damage that can be caused by such acts, both mental and physical. Those that perform these acts are often attempting to fill a void in themselves that they do not quite understand; thus they attempt to do so through poorly-thought and unwise carnal means.

1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
    incline your ear to my understanding,
2 that you may keep discretion,
    and your lips may guard knowledge.
3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,
    and her speech is smoother than oil,
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
    sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
    her steps follow the path to Sheol;
6 she does not ponder the path of life;
    her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7 And now, O sons, listen to me,
    and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her,
    and do not go near the door of her house...

In the book of Matthew, Jesus further expanded the definition of adultery past the physical and into the mental, making it clear that this is not only an issue of misplaced desire, but an issue of the heart:

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 
28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent 
      has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

-- Matthew 5:27-28

I've had conversations with people about this. While I freely admit that I am not immune to adultery in the heart (I believe every last man on earth, with the possible exception of eunuchs, could not truthfully say that they are), I do have some specific guardrails against physical adultery that at least help in ensuring that I have an extra edge of protection against it. Some seem to think that by that, I mean that I don't have to worry about it. By no means is this true.

My parents divorced in my early teens - I caught my father unmistakably in adultery with someone I think he met while on TDY as a DoD civil servant. Apparently someone underestimated my proficiency with computers at even a young age and I accidentally stumbled upon the evidence. This discovery practically devastated me during the hormonal upheaval of puberty - I went so far as to joining the football team with the soul purpose of simply crushing opponents (guess who ended up on the defensive line). This was also the time where I effectively became an atheist.

This single act stuck with me. I vowed to never, ever, do that sort of thing to anyone under the pain of death, and I took it that seriously. While I don't go so far as "to the death" today, I do still keep vigilant watch for it. I have a couple of examples that make this abundantly clear.

One that I am not proud of but nonetheless admit to and own, happened in my early 20's when I was dating a girl. We were at a friend's apartment for a get together. Everyone was consuming alcohol and I had my usual more-than-fair-share. At some point, I ended up upstairs, I think it was to use one of the restrooms. I ended up talking with people and eventually everyone dispersed except this one girl, who attempted to "woo" me, for lack of a better term. I remember gently rebuffing it until she started physically touching me, whereupon I grabbed her, dragged her downstairs to the host, and told him something like, "if she comes within ten feet of me the rest of the night I will show her how serious I am about not cheating." I'm not proud of that sort of conduct, but it did get the point across quickly, decisively, and without further incident.

The other one happened in my mid-20s, within a group of hockey friends. There was a husband and wife pair that were good friends - we all spent a lot of time together at hockey games (both pro and amateur as the husband and I were beer league players), get togethers, and other random functions. Needless to say there was a lot of interaction between all the members of that group, bound by the love of hockey. The wife of this pair also happened to be my age and did marching band / winter guard in high school, so we'd often talk about that. Come to find out, we both had actually performed at some of the same competitions in Georgia. So naturally, we found a common band thing to nerd out on. The relationship was strictly platonic, neither of us flirted with the other, and we were never around each other without the husband also being there or nearby. Eventually, at some point, the two of them separated and divorced. Playing in a hockey game with each other at a later point (on the same team, too!), he confided in me that he actually thought she was cheating on him with me. We had a heart to heart over some beers and I explained to him why that would never, ever, happen, especially since they were married. After that, he confided that this wasn't the reason for the split, though he did wonder about it for a long while.

The above won't necessarily convince anyone that I have an extra guardrails around physical adultery, though I hope it does evidence that I don't just simply think I'm immune to it because of my adolescent experiences. On the contrary, it heightens my awareness, sharpens my perception, and reminds me to never let my guard down. I am not certain I've ever recounted the two stories above to more than a couple of people, so it is sort of cathartic to simply recount them in a public forum for anyone to stumble upon. I'm trying to become more open, judiciously. I've been an introvert with innate suspicion of others' motives my whole life but I think it's time to relax that a bit while still staying frosty.

May God have mercy on all of us for our past transgressions as we look to Him and His promises realized through Christ. Be blessed.