The Temptation of Jesus

Luke 4:1-13

Everyone feels temptations at various times.  It is a human condition. We read in I John 2:16 that temptations come from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Temptation itself is not a sin.  It is only a sin to give in to that temptation, something we’ve all done too many times. There is someone who was tempted, but who never gave in to sin, the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:15).  Today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke tells of Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the wilderness. Let’s see what we can learn from this account.

Shortly after His baptism, Jesus was lead by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where He was seriously tempted by Satan (vs. 1-2).  For Jesus to be truly human, He had to face temptations. Jesus also had to be tempted in order to undo Adam’s fall. Adam gave in to temptation in the Garden of Eden and passed sin on to the whole human race. Jesus resisted temptation and Satan in the wilderness, and His victory brought salvation.  Sometimes God leads us into the wilderness or into situations that are difficult. If we trust and obey Him, as Jesus did, asking Him to strengthen us for the testing, we will see victory.

Jesus had been fasting for forty days, and naturally was hungry. That was the first temptation that Satan used against Him (vs. 2-3). When Satan said “if you are the Son of God”, he knew that Jesus was God’s Son.  He wanted to get Jesus to go against God’s plan, and to use His divine power to satisfy His own fleshly needs and desires. Satan was trying to get Jesus to immediately solve discomfort at the expense of God’s long range goals, and comfort at the sacrifice of discipline.

Satan tried to lure Jesus with the promise of giving Him all the kingdoms of the earth if He would bow down to him (vs. 5-7).  Satan is the ruler of this world right now (John 12:31), and the god of this age (II Corinthians 4:4). Right now the world is in his power (I John 5:19).  Jesus did not give in. He knew that if He waited, all this would be His anyway. We next read that Satan tried to get Jesus to use His divine power by jumping off the pinnacle of the Temple (vs. 9-11).

Jesus responded to each of Satan’s temptations with Scripture, in each of these cases with quotes from the Book of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 8:3; 6:13-14; and 6:16).  We should never use our own strength to battle Satan. Instead, use God’s Word. God’s Word, the Bible, is the only offensive weapon in the Christian’s armor (Ephesians 6:17) .  To use this sword, the Word of God, we must first know it. Then we have to have faith in the Scriptures, and must also obey it. Christians need to read the Bible daily and apply it to our lives to have victory over Satan’s temptations.

Sometimes we find that people will use the Bible for their own crooked purposes.  Satan did this in his temptations against Jesus (vs. 10-11). He totally twisted the meaning of these verses from Psalm 91:11-12, which he used to counter Jesus’ replies to temptation.  We are to trust God, not test Him. By careful study and application of the Bible we can recognize when people are misapplying Scriptures, and avoid that mistake ourselves. Satan will twist Scripture, so learn God’s Word well.

Satan looks for opportune times to tempt us (vs. 13), often when we feel weakest or most discouraged.  He will tempt us when we are vulnerable, hungry, sick or tired. Satan tells us God can’t be trusted, or to do things our own way.  These were the types of temptations he threw towards Jesus. To fend off Satan’s attacks we need to walk daily with God, pray, study the Bible, and stay strong in the faith.

Satan does not tempt us with his many lures because he loves us and wants us to have a better life.  He does this because he hates us, and wants to trap and control us. He strikes at our weakest moments, so we need to always be on our guard against his attacks by using God’s Word.