What does it mean to be “tempted”? There is a lot of confusion about this among Christians. Is temptation itself a sin? Most Christians quickly affirm it is not, and for obvious reasons, because Christ was tempted by the devil in Matthew 4:1-11.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
In all of these temptations Jesus did not sin at all (thanks be to God) and therefore continued to be able to be our sinless Savior who could make atonement for our sins on the cross. As Paul affirms in Hebrews 4:15,1
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
So, acknowledging that temptation is not a sin in itself, it remains to determine what temptation is.
I argue that temptation ought to be defined as “the opportunity to do something desirable, but wherein the execution of that action would be immoral (sinful).” In other words temptations play upon the desires a person already has. If someone has no desire for a given action then there is no real temptation offered.
For example, the opportunity to beat my wife is not a temptation for me. Am I stronger than my wife and physically capable of the action? Yes. Do I have the opportunity to beat my wife? Well, I am around her all the time and even in private so, yes I have the opportunity. Even so, there is no temptation for me to beat my wife. Why? Because I Love her and I have no desire to harm her. Temptation involves desire.
Contrariwise, a man may have the opportunity to have a sexual relationship with a woman to whom he is not married. His God given natural sex drive and attraction to the opposite sex makes this a desirable encounter, but the conditions under which the opportunity comes make it immoral (sinful) to pursue. The temptation is a real one here whereas in the first scenario it was not. Temptation involves desire.
Consider Jesus’ three temptations as support for my claim that real temptations involve desire.
Jesus is tempted to turn stones into bread to satisfy his real desire to eat.
Jesus is tempted to gain assurance of the Father’s loving care for him (which is surely a real desire).
Jesus is tempted to immediately acquire all authority on earth (which rightfully belongs to him and he would desire).
In each case Jesus has a real desire and the various temptations play upon his desires. This is why it is legitimate to say that Jesus was really tempted because he was offered things he actually desired (and those desires were not sinful). To have acted upon those desires at that time and under those circumstances, however, would have been sinful. Jesus obviously ate food later but he did not do so in a way that would have dishonored his Father’s provision. The angels came and ministered to him (v.11) after the temptation which would have assured Jesus of the Father’s love for him. In the resurrection Jesus is given “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Mt. 28:18) so he takes up what is rightly his to have but at the proper time and in the proper way.
So again, I say, “temptation is the opportunity to do something desirable, but wherein the execution of that action would be immoral (sinful).” Jesus was really tempted because he really desired. Being tempted, in and of itself, is not necessarily sinful then, but the giving in is always sinful.
Note that it is the wrongful conditions that make something a temptation rather than a legitimate option. A person making love to their spouse on their wedding night is not giving into a temptation. It is holy and blessed. Doing this the night before the wedding? Well that would be the other thing, wouldn’t it?
Now, all of this being said, some desires are sinful desires. Some temptations only exist because a person has disordered affections that are sinful in the first place. For instance, the man who is really tempted to beat his wife, even if he refrains from doing so, is still in sin. Why? Because no one with a righteous disposition is tempted to beat his wife. His affections are disordered, his desires are contrary to the good. So some temptations are only possible for people because of an engrained disposition towards sin. In this case, a man who is tempted to beat his wife probably has a sinful disposition of anger, of jealousy, of needing to feel like he is in control, etc. It is only because of other sins that he is able to be tempted in this way.
Now, to be sure, the act of beating one’s wife is more egregious than the desire to do so. It is not as though we can make no distinctions between the desire and the action, but both are immoral. Jesus’ desire to eat bread after a forty day fast was not immoral, the means offered was immoral. The difference is hopefully clear at this point.
Same sex attraction is another case in point of an immoral desire. The attraction itself comes from sin. Someone will say, “But you cannot help who you are attracted to!” This seems debatable to me but, for the sake of argument, let’s say this is true. In a fallen and broken world, wherein the whole of creation is under effects of sin, should it be surprising to us that we have some innate desires that are sinful? Some people may be more disposed to anger or same sex attraction, does that somehow make it not sinful? We all have sinful desires, I know I do, but we ought not to make excuses for our disordered affections. They are wrong. We ought to applaud those who fight against their sinful desires (this is called being a Christian) because it’s hard and we need encouragement. We ought not to pretend like desires cannot be sinful just because they are deeply ingrained in us.
There is a world of difference between the desire to protect your wife and the desire to beat her. I am thankful for a man not acting on his impulse to beat his wife, but his job is far from done. He has a sinful disposition that needs to be worked on. There is a world of difference between a man being sexually attracted to a woman and a man being sexually attracted to a man. One can be sanctified by marriage, the other cannot. Heterosexual attraction is not inherently sinful, same-sex attraction is. Same sex attraction is actually a sinful affection. It’s not an unforgivable sin, but it is a sin. The desire is not as egregious as the action, but the desire is not thereby acquitted altogether.
Under many conditions it is possible to be really tempted and yet not sin. But some kinds of temptations are only possible because sin is already at play in our hearts. In such cases all we can do is throw ourselves upon God for mercy, in Christ, and know that Jesus died for those sinful desires too and he is faithful and just to cleanse us and forgive us of all unrighteousness.
Won’t our resurrected state be wonderful? Who will deliver me from this body of death!? Jesus. Jesus will deliver us. Trust in him.
Yeah, that’s right, I said “Paul”. What you gonna do ‘bout it?