“Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’””
The devil is basically saying he can quote scripture too. He attempts to get Jesus to act independently from His Father to presumptuously put Himself in a place where God would have to intervene to save Him. Jesus doesn’t try to debate with the devil about his misquoting the scripture and taking it out of context. He simply responds the way He did previously. It is written! You see…
You can live victorious over temptation by choosing not to place yourself in presumptuously compromising situations.
There was a period in my life while I was in undergrad where I would occasionally go to strip clubs. I praise God that He delivered me from that and gave me a beautiful wife. But you are not going to see me going in a strip club trying to pass out evangelistic literature for witnessing. It would be like a former alcoholic trying to start a ministry to reach alcoholics by hanging out in bars. I’m not going to put myself in a compromising situation, presuming that because I’m doing it for God I won’t fall. This is were a lot of us need wisdom and discernment.
And by the way, not everyone that’s in our lives and quoting scripture is of God. Especially if they are encouraging you to act independently from God, contrary to His word or even do something good, but apart from Him, in your own strength. Morris Venden says in his book 95 Thesis on Righteousness by Faith...
““All the temptations that the devil came up with to turn Jesus from His mission had one common denominator. Everyone was designed to get Jesus to stop depending upon His Father’s power and use the power with which He was born…He was tempted to do right things, but to do them in His own power and we are tempted with the same thing.””
How often do we attempt to do things in our own strength. Even good things for God. Or how often do we put ourselves in compromising situations presuming on the grace of God. Sometimes you may have been tempted to do something wrong and then ask for forgiveness later. You can fearlessly stand in the face of these temptations by refusing to separate from dependence on Christ and His word.
Now the devil shows his cards in his final temptation in verse 8…
Who is CJ?
Speaker & Author