THEN JESUS WAS led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
7Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ”
11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Original Meaning
AFTER HIS BAPTISM Jesus enters his ministry as the Spirit-anointed and Father-confirmed messianic deliverer. But his beginning as deliverer is as incongruous as was his appearance for baptism. Instead of initiating a public reformation, he goes to the desert to fast! But this will be more than a place of spiritual retreat. The desert is the place of the first showdown between competing kingdoms and their rulers, between two figures who lay claim to the hearts and souls of men and women. Rather than retreat, Jesus now advances the kingdom of God.
The Setting of the Temptations (4:1–2)
JESUS’ MINISTRY BEGINS in the desert, probably once again referring to the highlands of the Judean desert west of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. This is likely the same desert in which John the Baptist appeared (3:1). But unlike John, Jesus will not first preach. He will fast. Throughout his public ministry Jesus will often get away to lonely places by himself to prepare for a particularly significant event (e.g., 14:13, 23). Here his entire ministry stretches out in front of him, so he spends solitary time in the desert to prepare himself spiritually for the events to come, just as Israel had at one time lived in the desert before beginning her task in the Promised Land.
This seems to be the point of this concentrated time of fasting. Fasting was often used as a means for focusing one’s attention in prayer (see comments on 9:14–15) through disciplining oneself. Jesus was readying himself for his public ministry through this extensive time of communion with his Father, who had just confirmed their relationship in the baptism.
But there is more to the story than spiritual preparation. Matthew tells us that Jesus goes into the desert for the expressed purpose of being tempted by the devil. A battle is brewing while Jesus is fasting. Matthew gives key insights in these first two verses.
(1) Jesus is Spirit-led. The Spirit came on him at his baptism (3:13–17), and now the Spirit leads him to the desert. Increasingly Matthew shows us that the Spirit is no impersonal force. He is the personal agent who will be intimately involved in guiding Jesus every step of the way in his earthly life. Jesus has come to accomplish the will of the Father who sent him (26:39, 42), and it is the Spirit who guides him as he accomplishes the Father’s will. That is, Jesus is in the desert not only to commune with the Father but also to engage the enemy. That same Spirit will give power to Jesus in order to withstand Satan’s temptations.
(2) The devil is the real adversary. Entering for the first time on the scene of Matthew’s story is the one who already has been behind efforts to circumvent the arrival of Jesus Messiah. Although Herod was the first human adversary of Jesus, the real enemy is now revealed as “the devil,” or, as he is called later, Satan (4:10; 12:26; 16:23). The Greek term diabolos (“accuser”) occurs here preceded by the definite article to indicate Jesus is uniquely tempted by “the devil” (cf. also 4:5, 8, 11; 13:39; 25:41). This is not a symbol for depravity or an emblem of the propensity toward corruption. Rather, as Clinton Arnold states, “the devil is an intelligent, powerful spirit-being that is thoroughly evil and is directly involved in perpetrating evil in the lives of individuals as well as on a much larger scale. He is not an abstraction, either as a personification of the inner corrupt self or in the sense of a symbolic representation of organized evil.”1
As the real enemy of God (13:39), the devil leads a host of other powerful spiritual beings that assist him in trying to thwart God’s purposes. Paul calls him “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Eph. 2:2). So the battle line traced in the sands of the Judean desert is really a battle line in the sands of all time, because the outcome will have implications for all of humanity. This is the first skirmish, as the ruler of the kingdom of the air undertakes to halt the advance of the kingdom of God.
The picture we see here is consistent with the picture we see of Satan’s strategy elsewhere.2 The enemy will not make a frontal attack. Instead, he will try to sidetrack Jesus through a variety of temptations.
The word “tempted” is the verb peirazo, which can mean either “I tempt” or “I test.”3 A “temptation” is an enticement to get a person to go contrary to God’s will, as Satan will try to do to Jesus. A “test” tries to get a person to prove himself or herself faithful to God’s will, with the good intention that the person passes the test. Scripture is clear that God never tempts anyone to do evil (James 1:13), but God does use circumstances to test a person’s character or resolve with the intended purpose of promoting good ends (e.g., Heb. 11:17).
In a sense, temptation and testing are flip sides of the same coin. Satan intends to get Jesus to go contrary to the Father’s will, but in the middle of those circumstances, the Father uses Satan’s evil intention to a good purpose of strengthening Jesus for his messianic role. In other words, Satan does not act independently of God. Note how Satan tried to get Job to curse God and go contrary to God’s will, but God was in control of the situation, so that when Job turned to God, he was strengthened. In the case of Joseph, his brothers intended harm by selling him into slavery to Egypt, but God used those same circumstances for good (Gen. 50:20). Temptation must be seen in the context of testing, because God is in control of both the tempter and the circumstances, and he will never allow a person to be tempted beyond what he or she is able to endure (1 Cor. 10:13).
This is why some refer to Jesus’ temptations as the testing of God’s Son.4 The Father does not send the Son for evil but for good. A temptation in the hands of Satan becomes a test in the hands of God.5 The temptation is real, but the good outcome is assured as the Son yields to the leading and the power of the Spirit in accomplishing the Father’s will. As Jesus is led away by the Spirit into the desert, Satan will try to get the Son to go contrary to the Father’s will, but that very temptation is used by the Father to establish the Son in the Father’s will.6
Jesus’ confrontation with the devil at the outset of his public ministry is not coincidental. As Matthew paints his historical narrative of these events, he indicates three significant purposes that are accomplished through Jesus’ victorious clash with the evil one.7
(1) The victorious encounter surpasses the experience of Adam. Jesus as the Son of God will fulfill what Adam, the first “son” of God in the creation, failed to accomplish.8 The first Adam failed in the best conditions, Jesus as the last Adam succeeds in the worst. Death was the result of Adam’s sin, but Jesus’ suffering and temptation will enable him to make atonement for his people and bring life. Jesus will be tempted on other occasions, and he demonstrates his qualifications to bear the sin of others by resisting sin himself (Heb. 2:17–18).
(2) The victorious encounter surpasses the experience of Moses and Israel. Matthew’s prior allusions to Israel’s history should lead us to correspond Jesus’ experience of forty days of fasting in the desert to Israel’s forty years of testing in the desert (Deut. 8:2–3).9 Both in type and in direct fulfillment, Jesus’ early life has paralleled the history of Israel. This point will be made all the stronger when we see that each of Jesus’ replies to the tempter comes from Deuteronomy, Moses’ final narration to the Israelites. But most important, harking back to Israel’s experience emphasizes Jesus’ victory. Jesus Messiah fulfills the nation of Israel’s experience. Although Israel had the endowment of the Spirit given to them (cf. Num. 11:17, 25, 26, 29; 14:24; 24:2, 18), Jesus will be fully obedient to the Spirit’s leading where the nation was not. The temptations reenact Israel’s history, but victoriously.
(3) The victorious encounter confirms Jesus’ identity and mission as the unique Son of God. There are larger issues at stake than simply recording Jesus’ spiritual temptations. The allusions to the fall of Adam and the wanderings of Israel in the desert cry out for God’s new beginning. The darkness of the chaos of sin looms over humanity, and Jesus is called upon as the unique Son of God to rectify the previous failures. But the beginning of the end of darkness must come out of the weakness of the Incarnation, because the obedient Son becomes the prototype of victory over temptation for all who follow him (Heb. 4:14–16). So, after forty days and nights of fasting, when he is most vulnerable, the tempter comes to him. Satan tries to foil God’s plan for humanity’s redemption by disqualifying Jesus as a sinless Savior and obedient Son.10
First Temptation: Turn Stones into Bread (4:3–4)
THREE TIMES SATAN approaches Jesus, and three times Jesus thwarts those temptations. We can observe a pattern that is displayed regularly in Jesus’ ministry. This pattern is also important for our own resistance to temptation.11
The nature of the temptations is expressed in the tempter’s first words: “If you are the Son of God. . . .” This key phrase, repeated in the second temptation (4:6) and assumed in the third (4:9), reflects the tempter’s overall intent to manipulate Jesus: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”12 The voice from heaven recently confirmed the identity and the relationship to Jesus as “my Son, whom I love” (3:17). Satan does not doubt Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, nor is he trying to get Jesus to doubt it; rather, he is trying to get Jesus to misuse his prerogatives as the Son of God. He is subtly playing off Jesus’ identity, almost even flattering him, to trick him into going contrary to the Father’s will for the Son. “If you are the Son of God, why should you stay hungry? Just turn those stones into bread, which you are capable of doing, and feed yourself,” the tempter seems to be implying.
Jesus has it within his powers to perform such a miracle, because later he miraculously multiplies loaves and fishes to feed five thousand and four thousand people. But it is not God’s will for him to acquire food miraculously here. Jesus has come to live a truly human life, one that goes through the normal means of acquiring food. For Jesus to have turned the stones into bread would lead Jesus outside of the Father’s will for the Son’s incarnational experience.
Temptations are one of the enemy’s ways of trying to get a person to go contrary to God’s specific will. Therefore, a temptation is not always trying to get a person to do something that is inherently sinful. It is not inherently wrong to turn stones into bread. But the Father’s will for the Son at this time is to fast, not to eat. Therefore, turning stones into bread will lead Jesus astray. The question really is, What is the Father’s will for the Son?
Jesus responds to Satan by quoting a passage from Deuteronomy. This demonstrates the link between Jesus’ temptations and Israel’s experience in the desert. In Deuteronomy 8:2 Moses reminded the people of Israel that God had led them those forty years in the desert to humble and to test them. One of the tests was through hunger and God’s miraculous provision of manna. The purpose of that test was to teach them that “man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deut. 8:3).
That very lesson Jesus now quotes in his response to Satan’s temptation. Israel should have taken God at his Word that he would care for them, even when they were in an area that had no apparent means of feeding so many. If it was God’s will for them to be there, they needed to trust him when he said that he would take care of them. In like manner, since it is the Father’s will for Jesus to be in the desert as a human who relies not on his own abilities to create food but on his Father to supply it, he cannot go contrary to the Father’s will for this specific situation and for his entire incarnational experience. Jesus will trust what the Father has revealed to be his will.
The first temptation undertakes to get at the core of Jesus’ personal trust in the Father’s leading. Even though the present circumstances—he is hungry and hurting after forty days of fasting—seem to contradict the voice declaring his status as the Son of God whom the Father truly loves, Jesus maintains that the essence of life is trusting God’s Word. He does not need to turn stones into bread in order to confirm his identity or to supply his needs. The Father has declared him the Son, the Spirit has led him into the desert, and he will not go contrary to the Father’s will. Although there is no apparent circumstantial support in his present circumstances that he is the Son, the Spirit led him there and he must take the Father at his word that he will take care of Jesus even if his body is crying out for food.
Second Temptation: Jump off the Temple (4:5–7)
IF THE FIRST temptation attacks the personal life of the Son in relationship to the Father’s will, the second temptation13 is an attack on the Son’s national responsibility. The devil takes Jesus to Jerusalem, the holy city, and sets him on the highest point of the temple. This “highest point” probably refers to the southeast corner of the temple area, which loomed some 450 feet high over the Kidron Valley, or to a high gate of the temple. Satan approaches Jesus again with the words, “If you are the Son of God,” but this time he quotes from Psalm 91:11–12, where the psalmist asserts God’s protecting care for the faithful in Israel. The devil urges Jesus to throw himself down from that high place so that his loving Father will send angels to rescue him (Matt. 4:6).
Jesus has the ability to do what the devil tempts him to do. Later in Matthew, just prior to his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus states that if he wanted, he could call on his Father to rescue him by sending more than twelve legions of angels (26:53). So the devil’s quotation is a blatant misuse of Scripture to try to manipulate Jesus. The original Old Testament context does not imply that God will send protecting care for every harmful situation. Jesus sees through the devil’s Scripture-twisting to the sinister motivation behind it, by replying from Deuteronomy: “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’ ” (4:7; cf. Deut. 6:13).14
Satan is trying to get Jesus to test his Father in two ways (see comments on peirazo at 4:1–2, the root verb used here). (1) By intentionally putting himself in harm’s way, Jesus would be inappropriately testing his Father’s love, trying to manipulate him to send a rescuing force of angels (cf. Gideon’s fleece in Judg. 6:36–40). True faith asks no such demands. (2) If Jesus were to cast himself off the high place of the temple and the angels rescued him, think of the reaction of the people! Such a spectacular display would gain Jesus a messianic following, but not by the Father’s pathway—obediently proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and suffering whatever consequences may come.
Jesus is being challenged to confirm the relationship he has to the Father. Does the Father really love him? Prove it by sending help. Does the Father really know the best way to gain a national following? Watch the reaction a jump will produce. But Jesus does not need to get the Father to prove to him that they have this Father-Son relationship. The Father declared the relationship at the baptism; the Son needs no further confirmation. This is the essence of biblical faith: taking God at his Word and being obedient to it without needing other confirmation.
Third Temptation: Worship Satan (4:8–10)
NOT ONLY DO the temptations have personal and national elements, but now the devil reveals a universal dimension as well. He takes Jesus to a high mountain,15 shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor (4:8), and then makes an astounding offer: “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
What a cruel enticement! Those kingdoms are the very reason Jesus has laid aside his own glory. His ultimate purpose is to gather the nations into the kingdom of God (cf. 25:31–34). But before he sits on his royal throne, he must hang on the cross. So the devil offers a shortcut. Jesus can bypass the ignominy of this human travail and the suffering of the cross. But taking the shortcut requires an immense condition: He must give up the will of his Father in heaven to worship the devil on earth. The Father’s will for Jesus’ life is the cross (see 16:21–27; 26:36–46), but Satan tries to sidetrack him from that mission by getting him to take a shortcut to gain the kingdom that will someday be his the hard way.
So Jesus emphatically declares, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ” In this response Jesus exerts his rightful authority over Satan by issuing his first command (cf. 16:23)16 and quotes for the third time the book of Deuteronomy (Deut. 6:13). As powerful as Satan may be, and as frail as Jesus must be because of the extended fasting and the intensity of the temptations, Jesus vanquishes him with a word.
There are three important points here. (1) In Luke’s parallel account, Satan emphasizes that he has been given authority over the kingdoms of the world, and he can give it to whomever he wishes (Luke 4:5–6). Satan does have significant influence over the people and powers of this world (2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:1–2; Rev. 13:1–2), but his influence is limited. His offer to Jesus indicates his own “diabolical self-delusion.”17 The time of his demise is at hand, but he fights on, thinking that he can sidetrack the very one who comes to curtail his power (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11).
(2) Temptations involve the twisting of reality, so the antidote comes from the truth of Scripture. Jesus does not get involved in a spiritual arm-wrestling match, pitting his power as Son of God against Satan’s power. Instead, he uses the truth of Scripture to guide his understanding of reality.
(3) The Father alone is worthy of worship. Satan’s demand for Jesus to worship him indicates his overall objective and is indeed the essence of sin. Sin desires to cast off God’s will and have one’s own way, to make oneself out to be the god of one’s own life. Satan desires to supplant God. The pictures of the king of Tyre (Ezek. 28:2, 11–19) and the king of Babylon (Isa. 14:12–14) epitomize this obsession and have often been understood as pointing beyond those earthly diabolical rulers to Satan himself. Worship of God is the tangible demonstration that a person has given over the rule of one’s life to God’s will, not one’s own. This also has implications for understanding Jesus’ own identity as the divine Son of God, because he has received, and will continue to receive, worship.18
Outcome of the Temptations (4:11)
MATTHEW’S FINAL COMMENT on the temptation narrative gives a comforting conclusion, but it also gives insight to the bigger picture behind Jesus’ conflict with Satan. (1) The immediate outcome of Jesus’ rebuke of Satan was, “Then the devil left him.” Although this is only the first of the many attacks Jesus will experience throughout his ministry, it establishes the precedent for his, and all, spiritual warfare. Jesus must stay fixed on the Father’s will, no matter what the circumstances or whatever temptations may come. Resisting the devil’s onslaught through standing firm on the truth of God will cause Satan to flee (cf. James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9).
(2) Matthew adds a comforting, if not touching, comment: “and angels came and attended him.” That is, angels attend to Jesus’ physical needs after his long period of fasting. But more important, this comment indicates the cosmic significance of the scene that has just been played. The Son has begun the invasion of Satan’s domain. We read in Hebrews 1:6: “When God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship him.’ ” It’s as though angels have been watching this initial skirmish from heaven and now give due homage to the Son. This has been a momentous initial victory in the cosmic battle, and it will result ultimately in the conquest of all evil and the establishment of God’s reign throughout the universe. All of heaven knows the significance, and the angels serve the Son, who now advances the kingdom.
Bridging Contexts
“WHAT DID JESUS do, and could he do, only because he was God?” Take a couple of minutes to think deeply about that question. You may think about his walking on the water. That certainly seems like something only God could do. But then we remember that Peter got out of the boat and also walked on the water for a while. He wasn’t God, yet he walked on water.
Jesus’ raised people from the dead, such as Lazarus. But other people in Scripture also raised persons from the dead, such as when Elijah raised the widow’s son (1 Kings 17:17–24) or Peter raised Tabitha (Acts 9:36–42). Neither Elijah nor Peter was divine.
You may think of Jesus’ performing various other miracles, like multiplying the fishes and loaves to feed the five thousand, or healing the crippled, or predicting future events. But other people in the Bible also performed similar deeds, such as Elisha’s causing the widow’s oil to multiply (2 Kings 4:1–7), Peter’s commanding the crippled beggar to walk (Acts 3:1–10), or Nathan’s predicting the Messiah to come through the line of David (2 Sam. 7:8–17).
You may rightly then think of Jesus’ forgiving sin as an indication of his deity (Mark 2:6–12) or his atoning work on the cross. These certainly could be done only because he was God. Yet in general, when we think of all that Jesus did in his earthly ministry, only a few things were accomplished that are not paralleled by other human biblical figures.
I am not trying in any way to minimize the deity of Jesus. I became a Christian because I was absolutely convinced that Jesus was God incarnate, come to earth to die for the sins of the world and to rise in attestation of that fact. I am willing to die for that truth. Scripture is absolute in declaring that Jesus is the divine Son of God, the second person of the Trinitarian Godhead.
But many of us are what I call “functional Gnostics.” We so emphasize Jesus’ deity that we almost negate his humanity. The world today tends to deny the deity of Jesus and acknowledge only his humanity. As a result, we defend Jesus’ deity vigorously and become suspicious of anyone who talks too much about his humanity.
The New Testament is not uneasy about either Jesus’ deity or his humanity. It declares emphatically both natures (e.g., Rom. 1:3–4). Matthew readily emphasizes both Jesus’ divine conception and his human lineage. In the baptismal scene, Matthew has clearly emphasized Jesus’ divine nature as the beloved Son of God. But he just as clearly emphasizes that Jesus was Spirit-led into the temptation and was a human combatant in his victory over Satan.
The Spirit-anointed messianic mission. Jesus did what he did in his earthly ministry not primarily because he was operating in his powers as God, but because he was operating as the Spirit-anointed Messiah. Jesus came to live a fully human life, just like you and me, which meant voluntarily limiting himself to his human attributes. He performed miracles, healed people, even raised people from the dead, because he drew on the power of the Spirit. Notice Peter’s recounting of Jesus’ activities in his sermon at Pentecost: “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know” (Acts 2:22). God performed the miracles, wonders, and signs through Jesus.
Moreover, Jesus lived a godly, pure life because he relied on the power of the Spirit. In a later message Peter said:
You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. (Acts 10:38–39)
In other words, Jesus fulfilled the messianic promises as the Spirit-anointed human descendant of David. His redemptive mission included living a fully human life that overcame all temptation in the power of the Spirit so that he could offer an unblemished human life on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. True, that sacrifice could only be sufficient because the humanness of Jesus’ sacrifice was sustained by his divine nature, as the God-man endured the cross. But while retaining full deity, he limited himself to full human experience.
Try to imagine Jesus as a baby, lying in a manger in Bethlehem. He looks up into the sky and thinks, “What a wonderful world I have created. I remember when my heavenly Father and I discussed creating this world. How beautiful it is!” As he lies there he thinks further, “I’m hungry and I’m wet. I’d sure like for Mother Mary to change me. But poor Mom. She’s had a rough time of it. That donkey ride from Nazareth was tough. So I think that I’ll just let her sleep through the night. I’ll wait until the morning to eat and be changed. Or, better yet, I’ll just get up and get a bottle and change myself.”
Does that sound reasonable? Of course not! Jesus experienced full humanity. He thought the thoughts of a normal baby and had the same reactions as a normal baby. He cried when he was hungry and wet. He slept when he was full and dry. He was dependent on his human mother and father. Although Jesus was fully God, he became fully human with all of the typical human experiences.
Therefore, while Jesus was fully God with all of the attributes of deity, he limited their use so that he could fulfill the promises of God’s sending a very human messianic deliverer from the line of David. He lived the same kind of life that you and I live, but he did so perfectly because he was perfectly obedient to the will of the Father in the power of the Spirit. The beginning of Jesus’ public ministry was marked by the Spirit’s coming on him at his baptism (3:13–17), and it was the Spirit who led Jesus immediately to be tempted (4:1). It is that same Spirit to whom Jesus turned in his humanity to receive power to withstand Satan’s temptations.
The supreme example of the Spirit-led life. We are in deep theological waters here, but it is important for us to grasp this.19 It is important not only so that we understand the truth of Jesus’ experience in his life and ministry, but important practically for us as well, because Jesus is the example of perfect humanity lived perfectly in the power of the Spirit.
That same Spirit is available to us. While we will not attain his perfection in this life (e.g., Phil. 3:12), we look to him for an example of the kind of life lived in the Spirit that is available to us. That same Spirit is now transforming us into his image. As the apostle Paul says, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
Jesus came to show us how to live human life the way God intended it to be lived. In his human nature he lived a victorious life because he lived perfectly in the power of the Spirit. Some of us may not perform extraordinary miracles, unless that is God’s will for our lives, but we can all live victoriously through the Spirit by following Jesus’ example in all areas of life.20
The supreme example of how to overcome temptations. Thus, although Jesus’ temptations are unique to his mission as the messianic inaugurator of the kingdom, his temptations are also common to human experience and give us an example of what we can do in our own spiritual warfare. In his deity Jesus could not be tempted (James 1:13), but in his humanity he was tempted at all points like we are, yet without sin (Heb. 2:18; 4:15–16).21 The temptations were directed to his human nature, and he experienced the maximum level of temptation that the demonic world could throw at him. The Garden of Gethsemane scene clearly indicates that temptation was a real, agonizing experience (see Luke 22:44). His will, fully focused on accomplishing that of his heavenly Father, directed him to resist the temptation.
The apostle Paul also narrates a powerful promise that allows us to take seriously Jesus’ example: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor. 10:13). God promises that no temptation can defeat us, for if we consistently and consciously turn to him in every temptation and rely on the Spirit’s enabling resources, we can be victorious. The temptation is real, but we don’t have to give in to it. Will we fail at times? Yes, unfortunately, until we leave this life. But the more we learn to stay focused on God’s promised resources, the more we will grow in our ability to resist the temptations that come and then stand with the help of the Spirit.
One young college student of mine had never really grasped the truth of this verse until one day in class. Her eyes popped wide open and she said out loud to the class, “If I really believed that verse, my life will never be the same. I don’t have to give in!” She went on from there to really believe it and practice it, and she has become a dynamically victorious Christian woman in the power of the Spirit.
That is where Jesus’ example comes in. His will was so mighty in its determination to do good that no matter how powerful the temptation addressed to his human experience, it could not defeat him. As our will is fixed with determination to do the Father’s will for our lives, we can learn from Jesus’ example as he carried out the Father’s will for his life. We will not attain the same perfection that Jesus lived since we still live in the fallenness of this world, but the restoration process has begun through the redemptive work of Jesus, in whose steps we now follow (1 Peter 2:21).
Contemporary Significance
ALL OF US have a variety of temptations that can sidetrack us. What is the source of your most distressing temptation? A difficult temptation for one person may not even faze another person. For example, I’ve never liked eating sweets, so waving a box of chocolates in front of me won’t get my attention. For some people, chocolate is a severe temptation. But put me in a well-stocked bookstore and I’ll have to restrain myself from buying all those wonderful reference books! For some people, they would never even consider buying some of the “nerd” books that I am always tempted to think that I “need”!
If you were to quiz your friends and colleagues about the source of their most severe temptations, you might be surprised to find an intriguing phenomenon. Their temptations are not usually bad things. A temptation is not usually something inherently “evil” but rather a good thing used for wrong purposes. Chocolate is not inherently evil. Books are not inherently evil. Chocolate eaten to an extreme can produce all kinds of problems, including tooth decay, weight problems, and poor nutrition. Books can be put to bad purposes, such as pornography or heretical teaching. Books can captivate a person in such a way that he or she escapes from responsible living in the real world. In the context of Jesus, we noted that eating bread is a necessity for life, but creating bread by yielding to Satan’s suggestion would indeed have been a sin for him.
The very nature of a temptation is that it can be subtly construed to be a good thing, not a bad thing, by perverting a good thing to a bad use. The sexual relationship between men and women is God-ordained, but for a restricted range of relationships. The temptation to have a sexual relationship outside of marriage turns a good thing to a bad use.
Therefore, one of the most important considerations when addressing temptation is to understand the proper purpose for anything we face. Said in another way, what does God want for us in a situation? A right understanding of the way in which our bodies are created will give us a clear understanding of how much chocolate we eat, or what kind of sexual relationship to have, or whether or not we talk about a person behind her back, or anything else we encounter. When we face any kind of temptation, if we use 1 Corinthians 10:13 as a guideline in the way suggested above, we can learn how to draw on all of God’s resources to be victorious. Being tempted is not a sin. Succumbing to the temptation is when it becomes sin (cf. James 1:13–15). Temptations in the hands of Satan become a test in the hands of God. God will use them as a test and strengthening of our character.
Jesus’ example for Christian leadership. Henri Nouwen’s compelling little book In the Name of Jesus uses Jesus’ temptations as a case in point for Christian leaders.22 A variety of temptations confront Christian leaders when they engage in ministry. We think immediately of moral or ethical temptations, because most of us have cringed as we heard the media expose sinful behavior by Christian leaders. But Nouwen focuses our attention elsewhere, on temptations that many of us may think are good things: (1) the temptation to be relevant—to do things, show things, prove things, build things that demonstrate the ability to make a difference in people’s lives; (2) the temptation to be spectacular—to do something that will win great applause and popularity; (3) the temptation to be powerful—to use political, economic, spiritual, and even military might as instruments for establishing the kingdom of heaven on earth.23
These reflections on Christian leadership came after Nouwen left behind twenty years of teaching pastoral psychology and theology at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard in order to be a live-in minister at a community for the mentally handicapped. He had found that for much of his life he looked at being relevant, popular, and powerful as ingredients of an effective ministry, but it was in looking at Jesus’ example that he found the key elements for resisting temptation and becoming a truly Christlike leader: prayer as a way of life, vulnerability to others in shared ministry, and trust in God’s leadership for us and our people. He concludes by saying, “I leave you with the image of the leader with outstretched hands, who chooses a life of downward mobility. It is the image of the praying leader, the vulnerable leader, and the trusting leader.”24
Some of Nouwen’s points may stretch the Matthean context, but they hit home nonetheless, for these temptations readily surface as we attempt to influence people for Christ. To be relevant, popular, and powerful are not bad per se, but a desire for them can corrupt ministry. Looking at Jesus’ pattern, we will find a better example for our own leadership.
Jesus’ example for daily temptations and spiritual warfare. Not only do Jesus’ temptations bear relevance for developing Christlike leadership, they also are important examples for our personal daily victory over temptations and the spiritual warfare we will encounter in our own experience. These temptations of Jesus are unique to his entrance into his messianic ministry, but they have long been noted to have a rough parallel to the temptations of Eve in the Garden of Eden and the temptations from the world that John warns the church to resist.
Temptation | Matthew 4:1–11 | Genesis 3:1–7 | 1 John 2:15–16 |
Physical relevance | Turning stones to bread | The fruit of the tree was good for food | Cravings of sinful man |
Confirm God’s love and will | Rescued from a temple fall by angels | You will not die, but it is pleasing to the eye | Lust of the eyes |
Pride and power | Have all the kingdoms of the world | You will be like God | Boasting of what we have and do |
Jesus succeeded under similar temptations where Adam and Eve failed, and the way he succeeded becomes the example for the way we can succeed under similar types of temptations. This is the powerful truth that has sustained Christians all through the ages under every type of temptation imaginable. We can summarize Jesus’ example like this: Resist the devil in the power of the Spirit through the guidance of the Word to accomplish the will of God.
(1) Resist the devil. The first principle we see at work in Jesus is that he resisted the devil. Two people who knew Jesus better than anyone else and who saw up-front many of his spiritual confrontations give the same advice. James, the brother of Jesus, writes, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). The apostle Peter, who will succumb to the temptation to save his skin by denying Jesus, writes, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:8–9). This is powerful advice for every Christian. When temptation arrives, the beginning of the victory comes in saying “No!” We have been called to put on the full armor of God and to take our stand against the devil’s schemes (Eph. 6:10–18).25
(2) In the power of the Spirit of God. But we cannot resist the devil in our own strength; our power must come from the Holy Spirit. Jesus was guided and empowered by the Spirit in his temptations. He was never alone in his struggle, even at the most difficult moments. The Spirit was there as his guide and his resource for power. Two tricks of the devil are important to note. (a) He wants us to think that in our temptation God has abandoned us. But Paul emphasizes in his treatise on life in the Spirit in Romans 8 that all those who belong to Christ have the Spirit (Rom. 8:9–11), and the Spirit is there with us even in our darkest moments. (b) Satan wants us to think that we can handle temptation on our own, in our own resources. In true spiritual warfare, we must rely on the Spirit to guide us through the thickest parts of the skirmish (cf. Eph. 6:10–18). As we claim the same power that Jesus drew upon through the Spirit, we are able to resist the devil, who will flee from us (James 4:7).
(3) Through the guidance of the Word of God. If temptation is essentially getting us to go contrary to God’s will for us, then knowing that will is what keeps us on track. The Bible has been given to show us the truth of life in contrast to the lie of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Compare the Word of Jesus to the words of the world, and we will understand both how to confront the lie and how to follow the Father’s will (cf. John 8:31–32). Satan twists the context of Scripture for the purposes of temptation, but in his temptations, Jesus exemplifies for us the right use of Scripture.
(4) To accomplish the will of God the Father. By knowing God’s Word we will be able to discern his will for us. The ultimate goal in life is to hear at the end, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (25:21, 23). How do we know what we should do? We must understand God’s purposes for our life—purposes in the little details as well as in the larger decisions of life. This is stated elsewhere in Matthew: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness”; “he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”; and “love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (6:33; 16:24; 22:37).
The psalmist’s instruction is helpful here: “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4). Delighting in God, or loving God, may be the most important guideline for all of the decisions of our lives, big and small, because if we truly love God, we will not do anything contrary to his Word and will for us. At the same time, when we delight in our walk with God, we are freed up to pursue our own desires and dreams.
Thus, when the temptation comes, we should ask regarding any contemplated action, “Is this what God wants for me? Can I do this and truly love God and delight in him?” Jesus is our ultimate example of the One whose most basic sustenance was carrying out the Father’s will. “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34). When we have that aspiration before us, we will indeed be able to resist the devil in the power of the Spirit through the guidance of the Word to accomplish the will of God.