How can we resist temptation to make the wrong choice?
Temptation is something that every one of us have had to deal with in life. It might be a temptation to do something wrong or just a temptation to do something we might think would be good for us. However, in every case, temptation always gets us thinking about making a choice and it creates a desire to carry out that choice. The question is, how can we be sure we make the right choice and how can we resist the temptation to make the wrong choice?
What does the Bible teach Jesus did to resist temptation?
When it comes to temptation, most Christians know that Jesus was confronted with temptation by the devil in the wilderness. However, what we see just before Jesus’ encounter in the wilderness is something many Christians experience before their encounter with temptation by the devil. In Jesus’ case, He was just publicly baptized by John the Baptist. We will see how this might be something to consider later, but for now let’s look at the events leading up to His temptation.
The public acknowledgement of Jesus just before His temptation
John the Baptist was preaching a message of repentance, or the changing of one’s mind about sinful behaviors, in anticipation of the imminent coming of the kingdom of heaven. He preached this message about the coming kingdom and people came from Jerusalem, all of Judea, and the region around Jordan to hear him and be baptized in the Jordan River (Matthew 3:1-6).
However, before long, groups of religious leaders came to hear him preach. John confronted them about their need for repentance and the fruits, or works, that should come from that change of mind. He followed by telling them of how the coming kingdom would cut down those that bear bad fruit and how he was baptizing those repenting with water in anticipation of One that is coming to baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. He added that there would also be a purge of those producing bad fruit and a gathering together of those producing good fruit (Matthew 3:7-12).
It was then that Jesus came to be baptized by John. After John’s initial hesitancy to do it, upon the insistence of Jesus and knowing that He was the Messiah, John baptized Him. At that moment, the Holy Spirit, descended upon Jesus and God the Father spoke from Heaven, declaring that Jesus was His beloved Son. in whom He was well pleased (Matthew 3:13-17). It was immediately after this very big public acknowledgement that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” (Matthew 4:1).
The encounter between Jesus and the devil in the wilderness
The temptation to satisfy a fleshly desire
The first thing we see is Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. So, in a six week period, Jesus experienced His public baptism and was very hungry from the weeks of fasting as we see in Matthew 4:2: “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.” We can be sure that Jesus was now experiencing a time of great physical and emotional stress. It is then that the devil, Satan, made his move to tempt Jesus to sin:
Matthew 4:3–4. “And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
We see right away Satan tempted Jesus by focusing on a desire to satisfy a fleshly need with food to eat. Satan backed up this temptation to convince Jesus that if He really was the Son of God all He had to do to satisfy this desire was to perform a miracle and turn the stones into bread.
Jesus immediately answered this temptation from Satan to satisfy a fleshly desire by quoting Scripture, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3). With these words, Jesus was saying that food was not the only thing that a man needed to live physically, but more importantly, the Word of God is needed to live forever.
The temptation to satisfy a prideful desire
Satan then performed a miracle by taking Jesus to the top of the Temple roof in Jerusalem and made his move to tempt Jesus to sin again:
Matthew 4:5–7. “Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
We see this time Satan tempted Jesus by focusing on a desire to satisfy a prideful need with public recognition. Satan backed up this temptation to convince Jesus by quoting Scripture (Psalms 91:11-12). He added that if He really was the Son of God all He had to do to prove it was to jump off the top of the Temple and command the angels to catch Him.
Jesus immediately answered this temptation from Satan to satisfy a prideful desire by also quoting Scripture, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 6:16). With these words, Jesus confronted Satan’s use of Scripture to justify sin by quoting another Scripture that says you do not tempt God to do something to save you from the consequences of prideful sin.
The temptation to satisfy desires to have things you see
Satan then performed an even greater miracle by taking Jesus to the top of an exceedingly high mountain and made his third move to tempt Jesus to sin:
Matthew 4:8–10. “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
We see this time Satan tempted Jesus by focusing on a desire to satisfy a desire to possess things He sees. Satan backed up this temptation by showing Jesus all kingdoms of the world. He added that He would give Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world to have if Jesus fell down and worshipped him.
Once again, Jesus immediately answered this temptation from Satan to satisfy a desire to have things by ordering Satan to get away from Him. He then quoted Scripture, “for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Deuteronomy 6:13). With these words, Jesus confronted Satan’s use of Scripture to justify sin by quoting another Scripture that says to worship God only.
Recovering from the temptations of the devil
We see from these three temptations that in each case, Jesus did not fall for Satan’s temptations. Jesus did not try to debate with Satan. He did not try to negotiate with Satan for a different offer. He did not even show any weakness in the fight. Instead, in each temptation, Jesus only quoted Scripture and let the power of God’s Word defend Him.
In the end, despite the miracles. Despite the appeals to satisfy Jesus’ flesh, Jesus’ ego, and Jesus’ lack of possessions, Jesus ended the encounter by ordering Satan to leave. We can see a pattern here in that the Word of God was more powerful than the Word of the devil and weaknesses of humanity.
When it was done, after Jesus defeated Satan, the devil left Him and angels came to minister, or serve, Him:
Matthew 4:11. “Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”
What can we do to resist temptation?
We can see from Jesus’ encounter with Satan, He was targeted for attack three different ways. These three ways were via the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride. It is important that we recognize that these three ways are not of God the Father, but are of the world. But, we also see that Jesus quoted Scripture to resist the Devil.
With these things in mind, we can see how sin first entered the world by ignoring what God said and not quoting Scripture. We see this in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and their temptation to sin from Satan as follows:
Genesis 3:1–7. “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”
It started with Adam and Eve in the Garden, soon Satan approached Eve and started having a discussion with her as follows:
Genesis 3:1–5. “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
Given that Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, we can presume that Eve had no idea that anyone or anything would hurt her. Satan leveraged her trust to deceive her. Of particular note is that she knew she could not eat from the tree. She must have been told by Adam that God did not want them eating from that tree, before Eve was even created. We see what God said to Adam in Genesis 2:15-17 as follows:
Genesis 2:15–17. “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
So, it is clear that Adam must have told Eve after she was created that they could not eat from the tree. However, we see that God never said anything about touching it, so there was some confusion about what was really said when Eve said:
Genesis 3:3. “God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”
So, we see then that somehow Eve was not exactly clear on what God said. We can assume that God did not intend for them to touch it, but it points out a very important thing to keep in mind when it comes to temptation. We need to stay away from people that seek to tempt us:
Romans 16:17–18. “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. 18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”
Moving on, we see that just like Satan tempted Jesus three different ways, he tempted Eve three different ways as follows:
Genesis 6:6. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
- Lust of the flesh: “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food…”
- Lust of the eyes: “and that it was pleasant to the eyes…”
- Pride of life: “and a tree to be desired to make one wise…”
We see these three and their effect on the downfall of the world as follows:
1 John 2:15–17. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
Sadly, despite Eve being deceived, Adam was not. Eve decided to eat the fruit, but Adam did not stop her. He knew better and instead allowed her to overrule his authority and what God said. Furthermore, he did not refuse to eat it and ate too, which had worldwide consequences. We know this is what happened as we saw in Genesis 3:6-7 and 1 Timothy 2:12-14:
Genesis 3:6-7. “…she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”
1 Timothy 2:12–14. “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”
What other things can we do to better resist temptation.
- We must know that we have the power of God to overcome Satan. This begins with assuring that we have trusted Christ as our Savior. If you are not sure, check out our “Got Jesus“ presentation of the Gospel of Salvation. If you are saved, you have the power of God the Holy Spirit living in you that not only saves you form death but empowers you with strength and wisdom to live victoriously
- We should take care to note situations when we have high visibility before others as Jesus had when He was baptized. We can be sure Satan took the opportunity to not only cause Jesus’ downfall, but he wanted to do it in a way that would later be visible to all the public
- We should also take time each week to rest up and fellowship with other believers so that we are physically, emotionally, and Spiritually strong to resist evil
- We should routinely study and memorize Scripture so that we too, like Jesus, can show God’s approval of what we are doing:
2 Timothy 2:15-16. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.”
- We should look at other people in the Bible and study how they successfully overcame the devil
- We should also not get angry when others tempt us, but instead continue to try to serve them out of a love for God and our neighbor so that they see the love of God and hopefully learn to love Him:
Romans 12:19-21. “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Final thoughts
We can see that Satan had three common ways of tempting us to sin. He used these ways against Jesus, but Satan failed because Jesus used the power of Scripture to resist temptation. He used these three ways against Eve and Adam, and they failed because they did not use the power and Wisdom as God commanded them.
When it comes down to “What does the Bible teach Jesus did to resist temptation?” He gave us the power, the Wisdom, and the motivation of His love to resist temptation and live for God. May God bless us as we step out in faith to live for Him.
