Tag Archives: temptation

Soren Kierkegaard, The Mirror of the Word, Part 5

01 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by in Kierkegaard, Kierkegaard, Psychology, Uncategorized

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In this section, Kierkegaard makes some interesting observations about resolutions — and about desire.

Finally, if we true benediction thou art to behold thyself in the mirror of the Word, thou must not straightway forget what manner of man thou art, not be the forgetful hearer (or reader) about whom the Apostle speaks, ‘He beheld his natural face in the mirror, and straightway forgot what manner of man he was.’

Kierkegaard lays emphasis upon the immediacy of the action: I have seen something of myself, I will regard that, I will do that immediately — not tomorrow. The great promise, I shall never forget is of little value. It is the not forgetting right now which is key. It is what happens “in the next hour” which matters.

He then takes this positive resolution and speaks of more damaging resolutions. The man who resolves (he choses gambling) to never gamble will almost certainly gamble. The better determination is, I will not gamble tonight. It is the immediacy which grants strength.

He refers to a hoaxing lust: one who is hoaxed by lust, and one who hoaxes lust:

Lust is strong merely in the instant, if only it gets its own way instantly, there will be no objection on its part to make promises for the whole life. But to reverse the situation so as to say, “No, only not to-day, but to-morrow and the day after, & c.” that is to hoax lust. For it if has to wait, lusts loses its lust; if it is not invited to enter the instant it announces itself,and before everyone else, if it is told that it will not be granted admittance until tomorrow, then lust understand (more quickly that the most ingratiating and wily courtier or the most artful woman understand what it signifies to meet with such a reception in the antechamber), lust understands that it is no longer the one and all, that is say, it is no longer ‘lust’. 

 

The Faerie Queene: The Temptation of Mammon

28 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by in Literature, Uncategorized

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Book II of the Faire Queene concerns the Knight Guyon, who represents the virtue of temperance. In Canto VII he comes upon an “uncouth, salvage, and uncivile wight”. Spenser describes him as follows (the strange spelling goes away when you read it out loud):

 

His iron Coat all overgrown with Rust,

Was underneath enveloped with Gold,

Whose glistring Gloss darkned with filthy Dust,

Well it appeared to have been of old

A Work of rich Entail, and curious Mold,

Woven with Anticks [fantastic figures] and wild Imagery:

And in his Lap a Mass of Coin he told,

And turned upsidown, to feed his Eye

And covetous Desire with his huge Threasury.

 

And round about him lay on every side

Great Heaps of Gold that never could be spent;

Of which, some were rude Ore, not purifide

Of Mulciber’s devouring Element;

Some others were new driven, and distent [beaten out]

Into great Ingots, and to Wedges square;

Some in round Plates withouten Monument;

But most were stamp’d, and in their Metal bare

The antique Shapes of Kings and Kesars strange and rare.

 

This strange evil beast cluttered and covered with money, is covetous Mammon, as Guyon discovers. Although freightened at first, he speaks to the beast:

 

 

What art thou Man (if Man at all thou art)

That here in Desart hast thine Habitaunce [dwelling]

And these rich Heaps of Wealth dost hide apart

From the World’s Eye, and from her right Usaunce?

The beast answers:

 

Thereat, with staring Eyes fixed ascaunce,

In great Disdain, he answered; Hardy Elf, [the Knight is referred as an elf]

That darest view my direful Countenaunce,

I reed thee rash, and heedless of thy self;

To trouble my still Seat, and Heaps of precious Pelf. [a negative word for wealth]

 

God of the World and Worldlings I me call,

Great Mammon, greatest God below the Sky,

That of my Plenty pour out unto all,

And unto none my Graces do envy:

Riches, Renown, and Principality,

Honour, Estate, and all this Worldes Good,

For which Men stink [labor] and sweat incessantly,

Fro me do flow into an ample Flood,

And in the hollow Earth have their eternal Brood. [Wealth comes from the earth]

Here comes the temptation: If you bow down and serve me, I’ll give you all this world:

 

Wherefore if me thou deign to serve and sew,

At thy Command lo all these Mountains be;

Or if to thy great Mind, or greedy View,

All these may not suffice, there shalt to thee

Ten times so much be numbred frank and free.

Mammon, said he, thy Godhead’s Vaunt is vain,

And idle Offers of thy golden Eee;

To them that covet such eye-glutting Gain,

Proffer thy Gifts, and fitter Servants entertain.

 

Guyon rejects the temptation, because mere money is not befitting a knight who seeks honor:

 

 

Me ill befits, that in der-doing Arms, [brave acts]

And Honour’s Suit my vowed Days do spend,

Unto thy bounteous Baits, and pleasing Charms,

With which weak Men thou witchest, to attend:

Regard of worldly Muck doth foully blend

And low abase the high heroick Spright,

That joys for Crowns and Kingdoms to contend;

Fair Shields, gay Steeds, bright Arms be my Delight:

Those be the Riches fit for an advent’rous Knight.

 

And here the tempter responds: Ah, I can give you what you want (you’re mistaken):

 

Vain-glorious Elfe, said he, dost not thou weet, [don’t you understand]

That Money can thy Wants at will supply?

Shields, Steeds, and Arms, and all things for thee meet

It can purvey in twinkling of an eye;

And Crowns and Kingdoms to thee multiply.

Do not I Kings create, and throw the Crown

Sometimes to him that low in Dust doth lie?

And him that reign’d, into his room thrust down,

And whom I lust, do heap with Glory and Renown?

 

Satan Baits His Hook

19 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by in Anne Bradstreet, Thomas Boston, Thomas Brooks, Thomas Manton, Uncategorized

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The Puritans seemed fond of this image:

 

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The skillful fisher hath his several baits for several fish,

but there is a hook under all;

Satan, that great angler,

hath his sundry baits for sundry tempers of men

which they all catch greedily at

But few perceive the hook till it be too late.

Anne Bradstreet, Meditation 23.

Thomas Brooks wrote, of Satan’s Devices:

Device (1). To present the bait and hide the hook; to present the golden cup, and hide the poison; to present the sweet, the pleasure, and the profit that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin, and by hiding from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow the committing of sin. By this device he took our first parents: Gen. 3:4, 5, ‘And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.’ Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods! Here is the bait, the sweet, the pleasure, the profit. Oh, but he hides the hook,—the shame, the wrath, and the loss that would certainly follow!2

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 1 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 12.

Thomas Manton, Sermon 1, The Temptation of Christ:

He persuadeth us to evil by profit, pleasure, necessity; we cannot live without it in the world. He hideth the hook, and showeth the bait only; he concealeth the hell, the horror, the eternal pains that follow sin, and only telleth you how beneficial, profitable, and delightful the sin will be to you: Prov. 9:17, 18, ‘Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.’

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 1 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1870), 266.

Thomas Boston, Sermons on the Lord’s Prayer, 6th Petition:

The bait wherewith the hook of temptation is busked. This is always some seeming good, if it were but the satisfying of a lust or a humour. In drawing or alluring temptations, the bait it some seeming good to be got. Thus was the present world to Demas, and the thirty pieces of silver to Judas. In driving temptations, the bait is some seeming good to be kept, by preventing evil, as those spoke of, Matth. 13:21 who, ‘when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by are offended.’ And it is no small advantage in temptation, to see through the bait, that it is but a bait to deceive. For so one will perceive, that it will not quit the cost, that by the bargain they will never better their condition, Matth. 16:26. ‘For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’

Thomas Boston, The Whole Works of Thomas Boston: An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion, Part 2, ed. Samuel M‘Millan, vol. 2 (Aberdeen: George and Robert King, 1848), 627–630.

Mortification of Sin, Study Guide Chapter 11b (John Owen)

01 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, John Owen, Mortification, Sanctification

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You can find the previous study guide here:

The SIXTH direction is,—

Consider what occasions, what advantages thy distemper hath taken to exert and put forth itself, and watch against them all.

Quite simply: look for the things that tempt you and avoid them.

As Jesus admonished Peter in the Garden: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Mark 14:38 (ESV)

Owen interestingly ties this command to two eschatological passages. First in Mark:

32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

Mark 13:32–37 (ESV)

Secondly in Luke

34 “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” 37 And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. 38 And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him. Luke 21:34–38 (ESV)

Jesus in Mark 13 & Luke 21 is specifically concerned with the Second Coming, we must be careful to watch for the Second Coming. Owen is specifically concerning with watching our hearts to avoid temptation. These seem to be two separate topics: How does watching my heart to avoid temptation relate to watching for the Second Coming of Christ?

Read 1 Peter 1:13-17. How does Peter’s command to “set your hope fully” relate to Jesus’ command to “watch”?

What is the connection between preparing your heart and life for Jesus’ return and avoiding sin this afternoon?

Illustration: Whenever you teach an idea always follow up with a picture; give an illustration. Illustrations help the hearer (1) apprehend the idea and (2) remember the idea.

Here Owen gives the illustration of diet and health. Some types of food may not sit well with our stomach. We note those foods and avoid them. Certain plants or animals may cause an allergic reaction — we will remain the things which hurt us and avoid them.

What sorts of foods, animals, plants or circumstances do you avoid because those circumstances make your body hurt? Have you ever made such an observation about your temptation and sin? Why are you more careful about avoiding a stomach ache than sin? What does this tell you about how seriously you consider sin?

Biblical Illustrations: Continue reading →

ODE ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE CAT DROWNED IN A TUB OF GOLDFISHES

13 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by in Literature

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By Thomas Gray

’Twas on a lofty vase’s side,
Where China’s gayest art had dyed
The azure flowers that blow;
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima, reclined,
Gazed on the lake below.

Her conscious tail her joy declared;
The fair round face, the snowy beard,
The velvet of her paws,
Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,
Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,
She saw; and purred applause.

Still had she gazed; but ’midst the tide
Two angel forms were seen to glide,
The genii of the stream;
Their scaly armour’s Tyrian hue
Through richest purple to the view
Betrayed a golden gleam.

The hapless nymph with wonder saw;
A whisker first and then a claw,
With many an ardent wish,
She stretched in vain to reach the prize.
What female heart can gold despise?
What cat’s averse to fish?

Presumptuous maid! with looks intent
Again she stretch’d, again she bent,
Nor knew the gulf between.
(Malignant Fate sat by, and smiled)
The slippery verge her feet beguiled,
She tumbled headlong in.
Eight times emerging from the flood
She mewed to every watery god,
Some speedy aid to send.
No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred;
Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard;
A Favourite has no friend!

From hence, ye beauties, undeceived,
Know, one false step is ne’er retrieved,
And be with caution bold.
Not all that tempts your wandering eyes
And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;
Nor all that glisters, gold.

If tempted … remember

26 Saturday Oct 2013

Posted by in Matthew, Providence, temptation, Thomas Manton

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That temptations come not by chance, not out of the earth, nor merely from the devil; but God ordereth them for his own glory and our good. Satan was fain to beg leave to tempt Job: Job 1:12, ‘And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand;’ there is a concession with a limitation. Till God exposeth us to trials, the devil cannot trouble us, nor touch us. . . . This cruel spirit is held in the chains of an irresistible providence, that he cannot molest any creature of God without his permission; which is a great satisfaction to the faithful: all things which concern our trial are determined and ordered by God. If we be free, let us bless God for it, and pray that he would not ‘lead us into temptation:’ if tempted, when we are in Satan’s hands, remember Satan is in God’s hand.

Thomas Manton, “The Temptation of Christ”, sermon 1 (Collected Works, vol. 1, p. 259)

Take Care, Brothers and Sisters

18 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Ezekiel, Hebrews, Preaching, temptation, Watching

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The counselor and pastor would do well to consider Ezekiel 33:30-33:

30 “As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.’31 And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain.32 And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it.33 When this comes-and come it will!-then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

In verse 33, The Lord explains why the people can hear and even show some approval for the Word of God, and yet they will not receive it in a heart transforming way: “for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain.” They demonstrate a universal covetousness: either seeking people (lust) or stuff (gain).

The NIV 84 translates it “With their mouths they express devotion, but their heart are greedy for unjust gain.” If one takes it this way, then the covetousness in view is money, not money and sex. In either understanding, it is covetousness which excludes the words of God.

The Lord himself explains the same trouble in the parable of the sower:

18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word,19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

Mark 4:18-19. They hear, there is some apparent growth, but soon it dies: the weeds have grown up about it and have choked the shoot.

What can a counselor, a teacher, a preacher do in such a situation? We are not the Holy Spirit — we cannot regenerate a heart; we cannot make the seed grow. We cannot force the heart of others to reject the deceitfulness of false desire.

But we can warn the people. We can tell them to beware “the deceitfulness of riches.” We can warn of the vanity of the creature (Ecclesiastes 1:2). We can tell them that these temptations will show beauty, but must “not desire her beauty in your heart” (Prov. 6:25). We must warn them that transgression will seek to speak “deep in [your] heart” (Psalm 36:7); yet, they must not listen.

We can seek a congregational culture in which we all confess our sins one-to-another (James 5:16). We can explain that all of us are in danger as long as we are in gunshot of temptation, and thus we must not neglect to gather together and stir up one another to love and good works, encouraging one another (Hebrews 10:24-25), always keeping a careful eye upon the fickleness of our heart and another on the beauty of Christ:

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Hebrews 3:12-15.

Temptation and Faith

10 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by in Faith, Jude, William Romaine

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It is a peculiar thing, knowing that

…without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6

For we seem to always seek to live on our own resources. As we grow in faith, we become complacent. We think we have matured. The thought comes to mind, we can stand alone. But the temtpation needs a justification: One wants to be neither a dependent nor a leach. Indeed, in human relationships, one who seeks to much from others is rightly condemned (2 Thessalonians 3:6-12).

Yet, when it comes to one’s relationship with God in Christ, such self-reliance is precisely wrong. The trouble with our excess dependencies upon other human beings is that in such relationships we seek something which need — yet comes only from God. Human beings are necessarily dependent, contingent creatures.

That God requires of us – faith – also supplies our greatest need. In our state of dependency upon God we must honor God and do ourselves good:

“They are strong in him, living upon his promised strength, and by faith receiving it. They live not upon any thing in themselves, but whatever they stand in need of, and whatever they have a promise for, that they expect shall be be given them by the power of God their Saviour. They see themselves poor helpless creatures, full of continual wants, and no means in their own power to supply them. The sense of this empties them of self-greatness and self-dependence, and the abiding sense of this keeps them humble and dependant upon Christ. Thus the Lord teaches them how to live out of themselves, and to be always receiving out of the Saviour’s fulness grace for grace. They have his infinite storehouse to repair to, in which there is treasured up for them every thing, that they can possibly want. Happy for them, their God has promised to supply all their needs out of the riches of his grace in Christ Jesus, and by faith they have an abundant supply to the praise of that God, who keepeth his promise for ever.”

William Romaine Treatise upon the life of faith.

And yet, as we grow in our dependence upon Him we think ourselves to be strong; we think we can walk alone, that we can gin up the fruit of the Spirit; we think that love, joy, peace now springs from us. But such thoughts are futile and we fail. God in his mercy may even see us fall that we know ourselves to be reeds and not oaks (as Richard Sibbes put it).

And it is exactly upon this point that temptation falls. Temptation must draw us off from faith — for in faith we have strength: not our own, but the strength of Christ:

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, Jude 25.

Such power resides in Christ that we can never fail in his power. The power of grace that begins the Christian life continues the Christian life:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

Romaine explains it thus:

“He that is able to keep believers from falling, will keep them until they receive the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls. Thus the life which Christ begins by his grace, he continues by his strength; and every act of this spiritual life is from him. The will, the power is his : for he doeth all, and in all. These young men were so well assured of this, that they lived upon Christ for strength, and they received it; they were strong in him. Their faith viewed him in his exalted state with all power in heaven and earth, and engaged as their covenant head to use it for them, to make them and to keep them alive to God.”

And thus temptation must first land on faith. It must come as a whittling knife, and then it comes in boldness:

“When the enemy sees them thus strong in the Lord through faith, it stirs up his devilish malice, and makes him burn with envious rage. He leaves no temptation untried to draw them from Christ. He is well skilled in cunning wiles and sly devices for this purpose. He does not begin with tempting them to open sin; that would at once discover his wicked design: but he artfully tries to sap the foundation, and to weaken their faith. If he can get them from their dependance upon Christ, he carries his point; and too, too often he succeeds”

What then must be the defense? Faith — for only faith can succeed:

“Oh beware, reader, of every thing suspect it, let its appearance be ever so fair and good, which in the least tends to weaken thy fast hold of Christ. Cleave to him with full purpose. When the thought arises, Whether thou art in Christ, because of such failings, thou wilt know from what quarter it comes, and wilt immediately resist it. So that the temptation will make thee stand faster: it will drive thee closer to Christ, make thy dependance stronger on his blood and righteousness; put thee upon making more use of him, as thy intercessor and advocate with the Father, and help thee to live more out of thyself by faith upon him. Thus Christ becomes precious, thou art more humbled. The snare is broken, and thou art delivered.”

“Treatise upon the life of faith.” What strange alchemy of Christ: to be humble is to be a tower; to be dependent is to be strong without bound.