Tag: temptation

  • James – Count It All Joy -2

    James – Count It All Joy -2

    Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials…

    James 1:2 RSV

    πειρασμός Trials & Temptations

    Messengers from Jerusalem arrive with a letter from the leader of the church. (Can’t wait to hear their good news.) So what is the first thing James has to say to all of us? Consider all of the various trials and temptations you have all experienced as a cause for joy.

    Christ was crucified and risen just a dozen years ago, then James became head of the church in Jerusalem. Peter and the Apostles work with us as a family of our Lord, sending the Gospel to all of us whenever they can.

    Background to the Persecution of Christians

    map of Roman Empire - Augustus organization of Legions
    1st c. Roman Cities

    To Rome, Herod was “King of the Jews,” and when they hung the sign over our crucified Lord they all thought that was the end of it. But after witness of His resurrection our troubles multiplied not only in Judea, but in every city with a synagogue from Coptos to Corinth.

    Romans may arrest, imprison or enslave us. And zealous Jews loyal to Herod follow us to synagogues in every port, persecuting our Elders at any opportunity. We can hardly make a living in any city for fear of our lives.

    Yet for the sake of Christ we worship God our Father with familiar songs and praises.

    Psalm 55:
    4 My heart shudders within me;
    terrors of death sweep over me.
    5 Fear and trembling grip me;
    horror has overwhelmed me...

    12 Now it is not an enemy who insults me—
    otherwise I could bear it;
    it is not a foe who rises up against me—
    otherwise I could hide from him.
    13 But it is you, a man who is my peer,
    my companion and good friend!
    14 We used to have close fellowship;
    we walked with the crowd into the house of God...

    19 God, the one enthroned from long ago,
    will hear and will humiliate them Selah
    because they do not change
    and do not fear God.

    Who Gets the Letters to the Early Church?

    Now those who had been scattered as a result of the persecution that started because of Stephen made their way as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.

    Acts 11:19 CSB

    Acts 11:20 But there were some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.

    Jews fled Jerusalem and Judea to cities up the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. These followers of Jesus and many new Jewish followers of the Apostles had heard first-hand witnesses to the resurrection. And now they even go to preach to the gentiles – Greeks and Romans. It is a new diaspora of Christ-followers to cities where Jews have already settled.

    Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary

    The commentator, Douglas Moo, describes their circumstances:

    Forced to live away from their home church, these scattered parishioners required exhortation and advice on issues they were facing. What is more natural than that their spiritual guide send them a pastoral letter?

    Perhaps some of these faithful followers of Jesus had even heard the powerful preaching of Stephen as he had been stoned to death.

    Trials and Maturity

    In Jerusalem they stoned and beheaded our beloved brother, James the Greater, son of Zebedee. It’s encouraging that James writes to us to have joy. No doubt all in Jerusalem endure more trials.

    Ἰάκωβος θεοῦ καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δοῦλος ταῖς δώδεκα φυλαῖς ταῖς ἐν τῇ διασπορᾷ χαίρειν

    James 1:1

    James, bond-servant of Theos and the Lord Jesus,” he greets us. God knows his faithfulness to the Apostles and Elders of The Way.

    “To the twelve tribes of the diaspora abroad.”

    Yes, we are the true Israel driven into every part of the world, but now in the victory of our risen Messiah we finally have joy and mercy, grace and peace, and the love of God in our Lord Jesus.

    James writes to us (and his messengers who will go into all the other cities):

    Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

    James 1:2-4 CSB

    We know trials… temptations to live like the Greeks or the Romans, even like the hateful Herodians and hypocrites of the Temple who pursue us.

    Thank God for James and our brothers in Jerusalem, who send encouragement and help to us, so we might survive these trying times. Rome must have been part of God’s plan plan of completion for us. Christ is redeeming this remnant.

    Our Lord has sent us all fleeing into the all the world, and for this James encourages us to count it all joy.

    Joy

    Shout for joy, you heavens!
    Earth, rejoice!
    Mountains break into joyful shouts!
    For the LORD has comforted his people,
    and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
    - Isaiah 49:13

    James writes to us:

    Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation, but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field.

    James 1:9-10 CSB

    Our humble circumstances as followers of Jesus brings our hearts low. For we struggle greatly in our daily lives. We can barely provide for our wives and our children. And what will happen to them if our witness for Christ would cost our life here?

    Yes, we are with our Lord, forever; but what will happen to our loved ones? James calls on us to be as humble as Jesus, to have joy for our salvation won. We will hold his proverb from this letter near to our hearts:

    Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

    James 1:12 CSB

    Spurgeon on James

    Excerpt from CSB Introduction to James

    When blessed by God, our trials ripen us. Believers who have endured a great deal of affliction exhibit a great deal of mellowness that you never see in other people. It cannot be mistaken or imitated…

    Do you count it all joy?

    The 19th century preacher points out how different these believers with faith ripened in the burning sun appear as a fruit with unmistakable sweetness.

    Are you, beloved brother, dear sister – suffering in any way for your sweetness in Christ?

    Do trials by those around you refine your witness or delineate your humility?

    Would anyone recognize Jesus by looking at you?

    James has a few firm suggestions to solidify our faith and bring joy to our witness. Consider all of these things.

    To be continued...

  • Disaster From Disobedience, A Savior From Before Eden – 5

    Temptation: “Did God really say…?”

    Genesis 3:

    The Temptation and the Fall
    3 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

    Here it begins, original sin.

    I might have easily named this series, ‘Temptation Before Disobedience,’ yet we shall not fall into this pit. Rather than taking the more traveled path of placing blame on the already-fallen Satan, we shall examine the progression of our own disobedience to God.

    Genesis 2:17 .. but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

    One point of my previous post, knowledge of good and evil comes to man with overwhelming responsibility, as well as consequence for sin. Returning to Genesis 3 and Satan’s temptation for man’s disobedient fall:

    “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” – Genesis 3:5 

    So yes, we know of good and evil independently of obedience to God. Yet are we like God?

    In so many ways this frail, fallen flesh created in God’s imagine no longer reflects the Lord’s righteousness. Each reflection of our sin clouds the clarity of the Lord’s gleaming glory.

    And the Lord said of creation, “It is good;” yet in so many ways since man’s temptation to judge good and evil, it is not so good.

    Before we proceed past original sin, let’s briefly consider the relationship between Adam and Eve with the Lord prior to their temptation.

    God in the Garden Paradise

    No one has ever seen God. – John 1:18

    Image yourself as Adam if you are a man, or as Eve if you are a woman, walking in paradise with the Living God. (You have not yet sinned.) 

    Can you describe your personal relationship with the One who has created you and walks with you in Eden? What is the Lord like? 

    He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. – John 1:2-3

    In this paradise of Eden, the Person of the Lord seems to nurture a newborn existence in a vast and wonderful place. 

    Colossians 1:

    15 He is the image of the invisible God,
    the firstborn over all creation.
    16 For everything was created by Him,
    in heaven and on earth,
    the visible and the invisible…

    17 He is before all things,
    and by Him all things hold together.

    John 1:1

    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

    How would Adam or Eve described God before the fall?

    The Creator walks with us! He IS the image of the invisible God in whose image we are also created. The Lord is not an angel (though some later descriptions call Him ‘The Angel of the Lord’). God is a loving Person, a Father if you will, to both of us.

    But then… we both sinned…

    7 “Then the eyes of both of them were opened,” Moses records. It’s not that they were literally blind, but by their new-found knowledge they now saw, heard and realized things they never needed to know.

    Eyes Opened to our Sin

    We heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and we hid  from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. We were naked. Although we had always been naked, something told us that no one else should see us that way, so we clothed ourselves with leaves.

    We heard the familiar voice of the Lord:

    “Where are you?”

    We had never hidden from Him. Adam called out from behind the trees for both of us:

    10 And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

    “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

    Of course… we had.

    And somehow we knew that it was wrong. Never before had we ever considered that anything we had done had been either right or wrong. We just did it and lived with great joy in paradise.

    Well, you know the rest. Excuses, punishment for our disobedience… 

    We then began our schooling in the differences between blessing and curse. But now it was too late, for we could not go back to the Paradise where we had lived in overflowing joy with the Lord God.

    When the Lord had blessed us He had commanded, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.” Now beyond Eden these words to fill the earth, and subdue it seem burdensome rather than a blessing. And the Lord has said that we now have only a lifetime to begin that which once seemed timeless.

    The Lord says that we now have eyes to see and ears to hear what is good and what is evil. Be careful to do all that is good and shun what is evil He has said. 

    How long, O Lord, until you will return us to your glory? More than a lifetime? 

    And what must it be like to first return to the dust…


    To be continued…

     

     

     

  • A Temporary Throne – 14

    A Temporary Throne – 14

    CHAPTER 14

    Paradise? Eden? (Even before ‘adam?)

    Genesis 2:8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

     

    “Should the LORD plant the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?” I asked myself.

    I had never thought of the connection of my sins to this (really) or of any alternative.

    What if man never knew sin?

    (Of course God and I knew what Adam and Eve would do IF the LORD planted this tree.)

    What would I advise?

    Should the LORD GOD set this one tree in the midst of the garden – a tree to be used by the tempter, that serpent whose name is Satan?

    What IF the LORD did not give Satan this chance at original sin?

    “LORD,” I asked, “If you withhold temptation of man to know good and evil would it not be better for Your Kingdom on earth?

    Yet as I asked the LORD my foolish question, I knew the answer:

    THEN THE MAN IS NOT FREE TO LOVE ME.

    THE MAN WOULD SERVE ME BECAUSE HE MUST.

    I understood God’s dilemma: One tree; then One Command.

    Obedience to God’s Command is love given freely to God. Disobedience to God’s One Command would be putting our own will ahead the loving ALL-KNOWING will of God.

    I nodded, and THE LORD commanded the tree to grow. The tempting fruit of knowledge blossomed from its branches before my knowing eyes.

    To be continued…

    A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,

    © Copyright 2013, All Rights Reserved by the author.