Temptations and Thermostats

This past Saturday we talked about temptation at Open House.  Steve Peralta emailed me an article that is worth reading regarding temptation (it’s down below).  The article speaks of how our minds are “thermostats” and we “set the temperature” to fit our own needs.  The assumption is that apart from God’s truth there is no way to know if we are being tempted or not.  While I agree that God’s truth does give us a way of measuring the overall truth, the author is supposing that all areas of life with God are black and white.  I don’t think they are.  We live in a lot of gray; that even the Scripture doesn’t give us clear guidance on…so is temptation relative or absolute–do we set our own “thermostats?”  It depends.  I think there is enough room within the “climate of God” for us to have differing “temperatures” that could be temptation to us personally, but not temptation at all to another person–and all the while, both of us can remain within God’s will.

You see, temptation can be both relative and absolute.  On Saturday the issue of drinking came up…is drinking a sin–is it a temptation if we want a drink?  I think this falls into the realm of God’s massive “climate.”  It can be both a temptation and not one at all.  The Scripture no where discourages drinking in and of itself, but strongly discourages drunkenness.  Can we really say that drinking is a sin?  Jesus was accused of being a drunkard and facilitated people drinking.  If drinking is a sin, Jesus is a sinner.  But that doesn’t let the person who wants to drink to get drunk off the hook – drunkenness is clearly a sin.  We are told to not be drunk with wine, but filled with the Spirit.  It doesn’t let the non-drinker off the hook either.  What are the motivations for not drinking?  Is it a temptation to find God’s favor by not drinking? A legalistic religious form of tradition? It could be.  Or it could be a wise decision based on alcoholism in the family, or just a desire not to drink.

This is the reason why we must learn to live a life “filled with the Spirit” as Jesus did.  It is in the gray areas that we learn to trust in God “to lead us into all truth.” Sometimes our opinions might be different than that of others, but remember, it’s possible that we can have two very different ideas–even about temptation- and still both be right.

Mike Steele