On resisting temptation ... or not. Romans 7

“There was a time in my life that I built highways to temptation.  Meeting them at the door took too long.  Now I find that there are very few temptations that I am interested in pursuing.  Is that wisdom, depression, boredom or God?” a reader wrote, in response to “Meet them at the door, and don’t let them in,” my last morning briefing.  

Wow!  Now that is such an interesting personal insight, isn’t it?  Where he admits that he formerly entertained temptation, now he seems to have lost interest, and wonders aloud, ‘why?’  What has changed for him?  Perhaps the shape of his temptations or the kinds of temptations have subtly changed, and so he does not view them the same way—they aren’t the ‘bad’ things.  Or perhaps he has dulled himself, and has entered in, but is less bothered by it.  Then again, perhaps he has chosen not to willfully entertain the temptations of this life …why?

Part of the temptation of sin is the element of the ‘forbidden’.  Just like with Eve, and then Adam, there was the fascination with the forbidden thing.  The forbidden thing held some sort of allure, which was attractive.

Augustine wrote:  There was a pear tree near our vineyard, laden with fruit.  One stormy night we rascally youths set out to rob it and carry our spoils away.  We took off a huge load of pears—not to feast upon ourselves, but to throw them to the pigs, though we ate just enough to have the pleasure of forbidden fruit.  They were nice pears, but it was not the pears that my wretched soul coveted, for I had plenty better at home.  I picked them simply in order to become a thief.  The only feast I got was a feast of iniquity, and that I enjoyed to the full.  What was it that I loved in that theft?  Was it the pleasure of acting against the law, in order that I, a prisoner under the rules, might have a maimed counterfeit of freedom by doing what was forbidden, with a dim similitude of impotence?...  The desire to steal was awakened simply by the prohibition of stealing.”

One word Augustine uses to describe himself – “youth”– I doubt that he engaged in stealing pears for sport when he was an adult! 

Did Paul struggle with the ‘forbidden thing’?  I don’t know. He writes, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.  But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.  So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.”  From Romans 7 Whatever the thing with which he struggled, he had not ‘gotten the victory’ over it by the time he wrote his letter to the Romans; he referred to it twice as ‘the sin which resides in me’.

I have initiated the discussion on just what sin might have haunted Paul – and entertained the notion that it could have been anger, judgmentalism, legalism, too much wine, and perhaps guilt over his own past …  who cares?  As ‘the teacher’, I deem it a valuable discussion because it forces us to consider and reconsider what we know about Paul’s life, as supported by Scripture, particularly from his own writing.  He must have personally battled his predisposition toward upholding the law because it had been so much a part of him, so deeply ingrained in him, and he spent so much time teaching on the new law of liberty and grace vs. upholding 613 points of Jewish law! 

Oh, he is not so different than you, than me … Paul battled religiosity, though he knew Christ had set him free.  I talk with so many folks—around the world—who constantly beat down the judgmental, finger-wagging, voices from their religious pasts, be they Catholic, Baptist, or Jewish.  ‘You know what I mean?  Somewhere along the line what Jesus peddled has been lost—even on his followers.  People liked being with Jesus, and remember, Jesus made it a regular practice to hang around with the ‘less desirables’, and somehow, they liked being around him too!  Hmmm . . .

So let’s be honest with ourselves—sin is going to be present in and around us as long as earth is our home.  But, though we can’t stop the birds from flying overhead, we can stop them from making a nest in our hair!  Let's neither build highways to temptation, but rather choose to destroy those highways, and instead take the higher road--his way.

Christine

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