Today’s focus is the 6th
petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Lead us
not into temptation.” … Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go
to the house of the Lord.’ Now that our feet are standing within your
gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten
our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to
you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
All of us know that Jesus
himself was tempted by the devil, and rebuked him with a word of Scripture each
time. In his catechism Luther differentiates tests from God from temptations
from Satan. Tests can draw you closer to God; temptations can draw you away
from God. For example, sickness or disappointment can test us – as they did the
prophets and the apostles, but they can bring us closer to God.
When have I been brought
closer to God? Was it because I needed a miracle or food? Was I asked, like
Abraham, to make a sacrifice? Luther mentions several other passages where
Christians can turn to see how tests lead us to a deeper relationship with God.
James 1:2-3 reads, “Count it all joy, my
brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing
of your faith produces steadfastness.” And when the Canaanite woman begs
Jesus to help her, she demonstrates great faith, and immediately her daughter
is healed.[i]
Do I deal with tests like
the Canaanite woman? Do I, like her, turn to the Lord? Do I turn to Scripture
for an answer?
Luther then writes about
those 3 enemies who lure us from God – Satan, the world and our sinful selves –
and how Scripture alerts us. “Watch and pray that you may not
enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark
14:38). And from James, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by
God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But
each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:13-14). These spiritual enemies mislead us into false belief,
despair and other sins.
Citing First Peter, Luther
reminds us to be alert and resist the devil. Quoting Galatians 5:17, he recalls
that even in the first century of the Church, false teaching was rampant. “The sinful nature desires what is contrary
to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.” Yet,
we must never despair.
Today, many false teachings
are present in our popular culture. Books like The Shack and the Left Behind
series tempt Christians into believing false teaching. Incorporating this into
one’s personal beliefs is syncretism. Syncretism is when you mix other beliefs
into what we believe.[ii]
The Shack was a popular book that promoted strange ideas about the 3 Persons of
the Trinity. The Left Behind series stemmed from the preaching of a 19th
century Anglican priest turned travelling evangelical preacher named John
Darby. Prior
to Darby there is no indication that any Christian church embraced the rapture
doctrine. Rather, up until then Christians believed that Jesus would come again
visibly at some undisclosed time to judge—once and for all—the living and the
dead. This is what is affirmed in the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds.[iii]
My point is that while we
may be enjoying the latest spiritual reading material, if we are not careful,
false teachings can creep into our belief system. So, when we petition God to
lead us not into temptation, we need to keep in mind that our enemies attempt
to subtly plant the seeds of false teaching. Sometimes, this is accomplished by
Satan; sometimes by the world (popular entertainment); and sometimes by our
sinful selves because we tell ourselves that we would never take that stuff
seriously and then we start to wonder. That’s when doubt begins to take root.
So, test what you’re reading or watching against Scripture, and pray to our
Father in heaven to give you strength to resist and overcome these 3
temptations – Satan, world, sinful self (#230).
In his Large Catechism, Luther reminds us that we can be lured into the
deadly vices of unchastity, laziness, gluttony, drunkenness, greed, deceit and
acts of fraud and deception against our neighbor. When we associate with people
who regularly engage in those practices, we easily slip into the mire of sin
because we look at our friends and say, “They’re not so bad.” It’s this
thinking when the sinful self becomes the Trojan horse of our lives.
We are always going to face temptations or what Luther calls attacks. That
is why Luther, in his Large Catechism, closes this section with these words: To
experience attack is different from consenting to it. We must all experience
it. … Strong Christians are tempted by
the devil. But no one can be harmed by merely experiencing an attack, as long
as it is contrary to our will and we would prefer to be rid of it. … But to
consent to it is to give free rein and neither to resist it nor to pray for
help against it. Accordingly, we must be armed and expect every day to be under
continuous attack. … Even if at present I am chaste, patient, kind and firm in
faith, the devil is likely to send an arrow into my heart that I can scarcely
endure, for he is an enemy who never lets up or becomes weary”(107-109). Hence,
we need to pray often to our Father to lead us not into temptation, and as we
pray, may
the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7). Amen.
[i]
Matthew 15:21-28.
[ii]
See Christian Dogmatics, Volume 3, 417-429, Francis Pieper, Concordia
Publishing House, St. Louis, 1953.
[iii]
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him. A
Lutheran Response to the “Left Behind” Series.
http://www.lcms.org/page.aspx?pid=683.
The LCMS website lists numerous other beliefs that have crept into Christianity
today.
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