As Christians, we are called by God to resist temptation (2 Tim. 2:22). One Biblical strategy for doing so is first to use God’s word to recognize sin and then to use God’s word to resist it.
The Bible does not shy away from the existence of sin and temptation. In fact, God’s word lists some of the most heinous sins known to man, idolatry, robbery, adultery, murder, lust, greed, and hatred to name a few (Ex. 20:2-22). The Bible never sugarcoats sin. It never describes sin in a gratuitous way. Instead, the Bible compares the holiness of God to the thoughts and actions of man, which reveals we all fall woefully short of His standards, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23 ESV)
Once a sinner has repented of his sin and trusted in the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross, he is to commit his or her life to Christ and live as a saint, a person who has been “set apart” from the world (2 Tim. 2:21, Rom. 10:9-10). This does not mean temptation will end, in fact, living for Christ means there is a constant battle to think and act in a way that is pleasing to God.
This is why every believer needs to know God’s expectation for resisting temptation. 2 Timothy 2:22 says, “So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” God’s strategy for living a holy life is straight forward. First you have to recognize what youthful passions are. These are not desires that can only be experienced in your youth. The desires of lust and licentiousness may be more prominent at younger ages, but they can be very real temptations at later stages of life as well.
Once sin has been recognized it must be rejected. The apostle Paul uses the Greek word “Feúgo,” in 2 Tim. 2:22, which means “to avoid, shun or flee from something.” A great illustration of this is when Joseph fled from Potiphar’s wife in order to resist her temptation (Genesis 39).
The next step in holy living is to pursue “righteousness, faith, love and peace.” This can be most clearly done by reading God’s word. This is the storehouse of all that is good and right. Jesus was referring to the word of God when he prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17) Christians can grow in godliness by meditating on God’s word throughout the day. This will transform the way they think because their thoughts will line up with the way God wants them to think.
The last step in resisting temptation is to “pursue…those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” This step is often overlooked because our lives are so busy and we think we can handle sin on our own. We must realize that this is a command from the Lord. We are to surround ourselves with believers who are also wholeheartedly pursuing God. Proverbs 4:12 says, “And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” This is true spiritually. Two or three brothers in Christ will be able to resist the temptations of the world more strongly than if they each try to live for God on their own.
One of the reasons why Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness was so difficult was because he had to face it alone. And yet even though he was alone, he was able to resist each of the temptations by using God’s word with a surgeon’s razor-sharp precision (Luke 4:1-12). Next week I’ll take a closer look at how Jesus used God’s word to flee from evil.
