Three Levels of Temptation

Starting a fresh study on the book of Matthew. Here is the first post from Chapter 4.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. 2 For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. 3 During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,

‘People do 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, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, 6 and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,

‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’” 7 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”

8 Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.” 10 “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

11 Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

Level 1: Convenience

Level 2: Challenge

Level 3: Character

Through this post, I will draw a trajectory of Christian Life, and how with every progress and promotion in Christian Life, there is a specified Temptation to make one fall from Grace. Let us begin.

Level 1: Convenience

This is the first level of temptation. It usually enters the life of Christians in their early stage. This is the stage where one is hungry and seeking God. This is when, there is a fire in the heart of a believer to do great exploits for the kingdom of heaven. At this point, I want to mention the importance of this post. It is so imperative to understand the strategic warfare that takes place the moment one believes in the name of Jesus and begins to live a transformed life. It is during this hungry for God phase, where we spend a lot of time in a closed room, or in isolation. The devil seeks this as a perfect opportunity, to come in the moments of loneliness and instill the thoughts of a "convenient lifestyle" within us.

It would have been convenient for Jesus to turn the "stones" into "bread". How often do we mutter prayers of convenience. How often do want the "stones" in our lives to be changed into "bread". I must bring to your notice, if a believer gives in to a lifestyle of convenience early on, the path to becoming transformed into the image of Christ becomes difficult and in many cases impossible. Now some of us do not like to use the terminology of "impossibility", as God is sovereign and can change any one at any point of time. But such people ignore the scripture where time an again we see how sin can be blinding, and there no time left to repent or gain sight. Zephaniah 1:17 takes this a notch higher I will bring distress on men, So that they will walk like the blind, Because they have sinned against the Lord" ever wondered what it means when God himself puts a veil before the eyes of sinners? Just some food for thought. Honestly, the time is limited, and there is nothing left to dissent, either we believe that sin can have a fatal blinding effect, or we continue to cajole our consciousness. This I speak of experience.

Level 2 : Challenge

This occurs at a more mature stage in the believers life. When a believer transforms from being meek to bold, they are faced with the temptation of challenging God's goodness.

Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,

‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’” Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”

When God takes us to greater heights, when we cross Level 1, and achieve a place and position to influence, this is when the devil finds it appropriate to use his scheme to destroy us. The "highest point" represents mighty exploits done in the kingdom, things we dreamt off, prayers we prayed and received answer to. As humans, we begin to slowly relate our identity with the great exploits we did and our achievements. Slowly, the past where we began our journey from, the humility with which we first approached Jesus, begins to take a back seat. At this point, the devil instigates us to take bad decisions (which harms ourselves or others in the process) with the false use of scriptures. Time and again we convince ourselves that our abhorrent deeds are right, and inspired by scripture. Even as some of us read this, we are already using our human analysis and scriptural knowledge to either accept or reject the thesis. While this is a natural trait, it mostly affects people in this second stage of temptation. These people possess the holy spirit and thus have a choice to either listen to his soft voice or to listen to their strong self voice. Well, Jesus here listens to the soft voice of the holy spirit and understands the context of the scripture in its rightful manner.

In these last days, when there will be a drought of scripturally sound generation, I hope this post reminds you, to keep yourself humble and listen to the soft voice of holy spirit. Reject the blaring sound of feel good gospel, and embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the one where these temptations are real and so is the warfare.

Level 3 - Character

This is the last stage of the journey, here is where the do or die situation arise, here is where the devil gets most nervous. If he can destroy the character of the believer he wins, if the believer stays rooted and filled with the character of Jesus, he is saved. This terms " I am saved" is what threatens devil the most. So what does he do? He tried to attack the character of a believer.

Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.” “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

This is the last phase, this phase doesn't come according to your age. It comes at the highest point in the graph of your life. "a very high mountain" is the place inn our life, where we can see such glory, because of this elevated spiritual position, we get a top-down view of the magnitude of influence and power that we have due to this privileged spiritual position we have in Christ. It is from this top-down view that the devil tried to steal our character and corrupt us. We see it happen all the time, we see influential spiritual leaders who started their race well fall from Grace. Ever wondered why? And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. (Mat 24:10). A huge part of modern day church has reached the level 3 phase of temptation. This is the phase where "many will fall" from character, as they will misuse the elevated position for personal gain. We see it happen all around us. Now, what should we do? Well the only way to escape this level 3 temptation is to worship your lord and God, fix your eyes on his beauty and worship him, continue and simple continue to worship, let the object of your worship be Christ and Christ alone. It is here where Level 4 begins, not of temptation, but of heaven warring on your behalf-......................

Stay Blessed.