whatSINitforme?

The Temptation of Jesus

Luke 4:3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God,and him only shall you serve.’”
9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,to guard you,’11 and “‘On their hands they will bear you up,lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” 12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

What is your perception of sin? Is it acting a certain way,doing certain things or having a certain purpose in what you are doing? Could our perceptions be only half right? Well God is in the process of using His word to change my understanding of many things and sin is one of them. Let's look at the three temptations of Jesus to sin.

#1) Jesus is hungry after a forty day fast. The sinful temptation: Command that this stone become bread and you will be satisfied by food.
#2) The Devil tries to create an appetite of self empowerment. The sinful temptation: Worship the devil and you will have power (even though it is limited power granted temporarily to the devil by God)
#3) The Devil says Jesus throw yourself off the temple and see if God will save you. The sinful temptation: doubt God's care and put it to the test.

Jesus powered by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God is able to resist these temptations which of course is great news for us! Of the three temptations, #2 definitely is dark. Devil worship is flat out evil and that is apparent. I would like to ponder the more "camouflaged" Temptations #1 and #3 a bit with you. Have making bread from stones and jumping into danger ever topped your "gross sins to avoid" list? What strikes me the most about these scriptures is that sin is not defined by the action but rather the purpose of the action. What do I mean? Didn't Jesus create bread when He fed the 4,000 and 5,000. Didn't He as part of the Trinity create manna in the desert for the Israelites daily? So the action of miracle bread making is not a sin, only a miracle. We must conclude then that it would have been sin in the temptation because the action was stimulated by something other than God.

I don't know about you, but I have spent more time in my life trying to define a safe list of actions that are not sinful instead of simply allowing the will of God to express itself through me. Doesn't it seem easier to try and control our actions instead of giving God control of our Hearts?

God has spoken and defined many things specifically as sin, yet there is no exhaustive list of every possible sinful action. Some of our actions then are defined as either righteous or sin based on our Heart's intentions that drive them. So what would have been wrong with Jesus's bread making, power grabbing and temple jumping?

It would have been sin because it would have been an attempt to leverage the things and majesty of God to achieve a non Holy purpose that was outside of His will. It would have been an attempt to use resources designed for God's glory on things other than His Kingdom. I don't know about you but that hits close to home for me. I know I have committed many, many sins that looked "good" to everyone else, but were really "deals" I had tried to cut with God to serve my wants and needs. Yes, I battle the ugly gross sins we all are aware of too, but the desire to play God with God's grace and love might be the worst thing I do......

So let's all realize that any thing we do based solely on a selfish "whatSINitforme" attitude will glorify us, not God.

More importantly, are we willing to ask the right question of "what is in it for God" with every thing? I pray that we allow Him to change our hearts so that He may receive the Glory He is due.