As a reminder, meetings on The Book of Hebrews: An 1888 Message Journey, will be held at Cave Springs Home in Pegram, Tennessee (near Nashville), this coming Sabbath, April 24. For information or to arrange for meals, please contact Craig or Joyce Barnes: Phone: (615) 646-6962 or E-mail: cjmb@comcast.net. Audio CDs will be available after the meetings.
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The apostle Paul stands out as totally consecrated to God, a rare character who could dare to tell people to "follow" him as he followed the Lord (1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Thess. 3:7). The Lord honored him highly, so that in vision he "was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" (2 Cor. 12:3-7, KJV).
But he was not a monk alone in a monastery; he was in the thick of life everywhere. As the Bible tells us that Jesus was "in all points tempted like as we are" (Heb. 4:15, "yet without sin"), so Paul confides in us, confessing that he has been heavily tempted like everybody else. He is not some "goody-goody man" who doesn't know what alluring sexual temptation is! He was a healthy man, a "whole man" as susceptible as anyone else.
In Romans, he confesses that he had never understood what the real definition of "sin" is until he discovered what it's like to be tempted by a woman who was not, and could never be, his! He says, "I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." (The original says, "thy neighbour's wife" [Rom. 7:7; Ex. 20:17]). Paul, like every healthy man in the world, had to wrestle with the lure of lust.
But again, temptation is not to be equated with sin; the sin comes only in yielding to the temptation. The battle in Paul's heart was severe: "I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do" (vss. 14, 15). He kept seeing someone in his dreams that he knew he should not see. He learned that sexual temptation is alluring! It's "sin that dwelleth in me," he said (vs. 17). "The evil that I would not, that I do" (vs. 19). But Paul discovered in his next chapter the glorious secret of victory over this kind of temptation. We'll look at it tomorrow.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 12, 2005
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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