Imagine you’re at the zoo when you hear this announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, we’d just like you to know the lion has escaped from his enclosure. He has not eaten yet today, so please be cautious.” You’d quickly head for the exit, right?
Peter wrote, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Everyone—believer and nonbeliever—faces temptation, but not everyone handles it very well. Most people just cave to it.
We must take a good look at our hearts to find the source of the temptation. “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (James 1:13-14).
James continued in verse 15: “Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
I don’t think he was referring literally to physical death or eternal death, because he was speaking to brothers and sisters in Christ. I think he was speaking of relational death, of separation from God. The idea is that short-lived pleasure will be followed by a deeper sense of emptiness. Sin brings the death of joy, hope, and meaning—the death of abundant life that is found in God.
But you can pull back and go the other direction. God gives us an escape route. But what is it? How do we avoid becoming lion lunch? We have a resource to help us deal with temptation. As Peter wrote, God has given “us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (1 Peter 1:3).
Temptation doesn’t come from God. Because God is good, because God is perfect, what comes from Him is “every good gift and every perfect gift, [which] comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (vv. 16-18).
Our good and gracious God never changes. James was pointing out how dumb it is to fall to temptation because of how good God is. Since we have a Father who is willing to shower us with so many good things, why should any evil thing ever be allowed to attract you? When God wants to pour out every good thing in your life, why would you settle for anything less than that?
The best way to say no to temptation is to say yes to something better. As Paul said, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
When you’re tempted, look for that escape route. What do you do when Satan calls? Run. Flee temptation. Flee to the Father’s arms because he’s a good God. Be enthralled, enraptured with, and focused on the goodness of God.
God has provided a plan of escape. And the best escape is to be close to the God who loves you.
