As Christians we love Jesus because of who he is and what he’s done for us in the gospel, and then out of that love we seek to obey him (John 14:15). We have a gospel-centered, love-fueled obedience.
Part of this love-fueled obedience includes striving to love others like Jesus loved (John 13:34). Part of it is pursuing God’s will in various avenues as we live life (Colossians 1:9-10). But also, part of this love-fueled obedience includes resisting temptation. We cannot be obedient unless we resist desires that lead us away from Christ.
God saves and loves us as we are, but not so we may stay as we are. He saves us so that we might be holy (Ephesians 1:4).
Like our Lord in the wilderness, then, we resist urges that try to lure us away from our God. We resist temptation because we love him more than fleshly desires. He’s our superior joy. This leads us to deny sin (Matthew 5:30), put to death the deeds of our body (Romans 8:13), and discard our old self (Colossians 3:5-9). And we do this all so we may experience greater communion with God—for our good and his glory (1 Timothy 6:9; Philippians 1:11).
How We Usually Describe Resisting Temptation: A Fight
Now, let’s be honest: resisting temptation like this is a fight.
From what I can tell this is the main way we today talk about resisting temptation (and rightly so, for it’s biblical). We understand we’re in a war, and if we don’t fight we’ll give in. As I’ve heard John Piper say, there’s no staying at the same place of growth in the Christian life; either we’re swimming upstream or we’re drifting downstream. Our pursuit of love and holiness, especially resisting temptation, is a battle.
This is why Peter pleads with us, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). A war is waging against our souls. We take heart in the war that in every temptation God has provided a way for us soldiers to overcome (1 Corinthians 10:13), and we rest assured that we’re on the winning side because of Christ’s sure victory (Romans 6:12-13). But even so, it’s still a fight, a long war with battles upon battles to soldier “’til he returns or calls us home.”
Let’s keep acknowledging that resisting temptation is a fight.
Another Way to Describe Resisting Temptation: Suffering
But there is another helpful way to describe resisting temptation: as suffering. This struck me recently while reading the word, and it’s proved helpful.
Everybody knows all too well that we live in a broken world. Suffering is real, painful, and inevitable. We encounter it daily in sickness, pain, relational issues, weakness, and much more. We long for the day when our God will wipe it clean from the earth (Revelation 21:4).
But do we consider resisting temptation as suffering?
When tempted to sin, do we think we’re suffering?
We should. The Bible does. Jesus resisted temptation, and the Bible says that while doing so he “suffered.” Listen carefully to the first half of this verse from Hebrews:
“For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18)
Jesus “suffered.” We all agree to that. In fact, this same word “suffer” here is the one used in the Gospels to describe Jesus’s death on the cross (see Matthew 16:21; Luke 17:25). The good news of the gospel is that Jesus suffered for us to reconcile us to God (1 Peter 3:18).
But notice, according to the verse above, when also did Jesus suffer? “He suffered when tempted.”
This sheds light on what it means to resist temptation. As Jesus was fighting off Satan’s allurements in the wilderness and as he resisted temptation throughout his sinless life, he wasn’t only fighting temptation (though he was!), he was also suffering.
A New Category to Help Us in Temptation
So it is for us. And taking up this biblical idea of describing resisting temptation as “suffering” might prove surprisingly beneficial as we pursue holiness.
We usually think of resisting temptation as a fight to not do things God doesn’t want us to do. At our best, we talk about it as a battle we fight because we love God more than the world has to offer. We strike back and say, “No. Jesus is better.” This fight-for-a-superior-joy is a wonderful way to resist temptation. We’re used to this category to explain what it might to fight temptation.
Something is added though when we also place resisting temptation in the realm of suffering. We then have two helpful Bible categories to fuel resisting temptation.
- The first category is recognizing resisting temptation is a fight. We must stand strong, battle against temptation, and stick together in the fight.
- The other category is recognizing resisting temptation is suffering. We see suffering as part of this fallen world. We’re called to it as we follow Christ’s example. God molds us with suffering. And we’re able to bear it and trust God through it for our good and his glory.
If we get more used to recognizing resisting temptation as suffering, when we’re tempted to sin we won’t only have the fight rationale in our arsenal: “No! This is a fight I must fight.” As we also are able to see resisting ill desires as suffering, in the midst of temptation we’ll say to ourselves, “Right now, resisting this desire in me to sin—this desire to lust, or be angry, or say that sly word, or to promote myself—is suffering. God help me bear faithfully through this suffering and to not give in.”
To be clear: The goal in adding this category of suffering is not to evoke a victim attitude. Rather, it helps us see that resisting temptation is admittedly painful. It’s not easy. It’s a part of this fallen world and brokenness which we must respond to and bear.
Seeing it this way allows us to be honest about how tough tempation is. Temptation is no ethereal religious idea but is suffering that meets us at various times, ways, and degrees. As with sickness, weakness, and sorrow, resisting temptation it’s painful—it’s suffering.
Jesus Can Help Us Bear It
Jesus knew this: “He himself suffered when tempted.” But we do well to not forget the second half of the verse: “[this is why] he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). Amazingly, our God experienced suffering first hand, and he knows being tempted is suffering, and that’s why he can help us in it.
May we, then, not only fight against temptation, but also see our resisting temptation as suffering. And then may we turn to Jesus as the one who’s been there and can help us bear it.
