Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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 inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" (2 Cor. 12:3-7).
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, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15, King James Version), so Paul confides in us, confessing that he has been heavily tempted like everybody else. He is not some self-righteous man who doesn't know what sexual temptation is! He was 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 would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, You shall not covet" (Rom. 7:7). (The original says, "your neighbor's wife," Ex. 20:17.)
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 what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do" (Rom. 7: 14, 15). He kept seeing someone in his dreams that he knew he should not see. It's "sin that dwells in me," he said (vs. 17). "The evil that I will not to do, that I practice" (vs. 19).
But read chapter 8--Paul discovers the glorious secret of victory over this kind of temptation. The "secret"? "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death" (vs. 2).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 12, 2005.
Copyright © 2017 by "Dial Daily Bread."
