CHRISTIANITY 101: DEALING WITH TEMPTATION, PT2: MENTAL HABITS

 In the previous blog on temptation, I mentioned six main points: 1) Our “battle” is with spiritual forces of evil.  2) Our “battlefield” is the mind.  3) Temptation, which occurs in the mind, is not sin.  4) Temptation must be stopped in the mind before it leads to sin.  (Our thoughts do not define us; our responses define us.)  5) Our temptations are not unique and are not beyond dealing with.  6) Jesus has experienced our temptations and can help us through them.  I want to expand upon point #4 by taking a close look at Romans 12:2:

Do not permit yourself to be conformed to this present age, but be allow yourself to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God– what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. (Rom 12:2)

Technical, but important, notes:

·       The two verbs for “conform” and “transform” are imperatives (commands) in the middle/passive voice.  The significant point is that we are recipients of external forces that act upon us, but we have roles to play, both negative (not to be conformed) and positive (to be transformed).

·       “Age” here is often translated as “world,” but what is significant is a negative nuance.  The present “age” is under the dominion of sin and death as opposed to being of the Kingdom of God’s Spirit and life.

·       One verb, dokimazo, is here translated by two, “test and approve,” because the sense is that one assays something for what is genuine or not in order to choose the genuine.

·       “Mind” is a term I should have clarified in my last post.  In Greek, mind (nous related words) is more than a faculty of reason.  It includes apprehension and comprehension with volitional commitment.

Commentary

Living in this “age” puts us in the position of being conformed to that which is not of God’s will.  As mentioned in the last post, there is a dimension which is adversarial to God.  We are to resist being shaped in that negative direction.  The area of conflict is the “mind” where temptations arise in the form of our thoughts and desires.  In our culture, I sometimes hear people conclude that they are what they think: “God made me, this is what I desire, so this must be who I am.”  No, the “mind” is the testing/assaying ground in which thoughts and desires are to be assessed as of God or not.  We are to submit our minds to God so that they increasingly become transformed in the likeness of Jesus’ mind.  We are to create mental habits that tests our desires, discerns what is God’s pleasing and perfect will, and rejects what is not.  This involves mental discipline: “we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ” (2Cor 10:5b).  It also calls for spiritual disciplines of prayer, study, and fellowship that increase our sensitivity to God’s Presence.  It is not easy.  However, anything that aligns us with the will of God brings its own reward of peace.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.” (Phi 4:8 NET)

Jesus, my thought life is not easy to control, but I want it brought under your reign.  I want to think and desire that which is pleasing to you.  Transform me.  Amen.

CHRISTIANITY 101: DEALING WITH TEMPTATION*

I have never experienced a church that explicitly taught believers how to deal with temptation, particularly as new Christians.  It involves spiritual “warfare” in a “battle” for the mind.
Six main points
1) Our “battle” is with spiritual forces of evil.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. (Eph. 6:12)

(Too often spiritual dimensions in life are ignored or overblown.  A healthy starting point is this analogy: As an infection is to a cut, so is spiritual evil to our normal pathologies.  There is a real dimension that is adversarial to God.)

2) Our “battlefield” is the mind.  (The key point is in bold.)

For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards, ⁴ for the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds. We tear down arguments ⁵ and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ. (2 Cor. 10:3)

3) Temptation is not sin.  Jesus was tempted.  (The main noun and verb for “temptation” carries the idea that it tests a person and exposes their character in the Light of their response.)

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matt. 4:1)

4) Temptation must be stopped in the mind before it leads to sin.  Our thoughts do not define us; our responses us.

But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. ¹⁵ Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death. (James 1:14)

5) Our temptations are not unique and are not beyond dealing with.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Cor. 10:13)

6) Jesus has experienced our temptations and can help us through them.

For since he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2:18)

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  (Hebrews 4:15-16)

Summary and Application
Temptuous thoughts are normal, but they should be rejected as foreign to who we are as people of God.  Some people let such thoughts define them: “Since I feel X, I must be X.”  Others let temptations linger until they give birth to sin.  Temptations must be instantly identified as foreign to the Presence of God and one should call on God's help to reject them.
Although I often fail with various spiritual temptations, still I will be personal about a habit I seek to develop.  When I see a woman and begin to have a lustful thought, I attempt to stop it by saying a blessing for that woman and asking Jesus in His mercy to lead me to “escape” it and to cleanse my mind.  More personally (too personally?) I vividly recall an experience, on another issue, when one image after another was coming into my mind.  At first, it frightened me.  Then, I inwardly said, "Satan (= adversary), you can put any image in my mind you want, but I do not have to accept them.  Come Holy Spirit!"  My body literally shook and the images were gone.
Lord Jesus, you know how frail I am.  However, I want my mind, my thought-life, to be pleasing to you.  Lead me through every temptation and cleanse the thoughts of my heart.  Amen.
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*I posted on this topic more fully on July 10, 2024, "Temptation, the Mind, and Spiritual Warfare," but in a recent conversation I was encouraged to post on it again.  Shorter is sometimes better.

 

HAPPINESS AND HEALTH: A MEANINGFUL LIFE

 “We are God’s handiwork, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works which God has prepared in order that we might journey through life doing them” (Eph 2:10).

I heard an academic lecture yesterday under the topic of happiness and health on the role religion plays in mental health.¹  To my dismay, none of the reasons given for why “being religious” supports mental health were the first two that came to my mind.

The first key factor is having a meaningful/purposeful life.  Studies show that this factor makes a major contribution to mental health.²  Having a sense of purpose creates an outward, teleological movement for life.  This happens when one seeks God.  Seeking and submitting to God involves living in the image of God, working for order in the midst of chaos, serving the created world and its inhabitants, living rightly before God (righteously).²  To the contrary, THE temptation of wanting to “be like God/gods” (Gen 3:5) achieves the opposite result.  The nature of humans to yield to the sin of self-rule is insulating and stultifying.  It feeds the inward focus of depression.  Setting aside that non-religious people may claim to have a foundation for a meaningful life – at the least the presenter should have noted that many religious beliefs and philosophies offer a purpose for life, even it is just living for ancestral honor, caring for one’s community, or finding a wise Dao (path) for living.

The second factor that came to mind, might be one the presenter did not know: having the Presence of God in one’s life through the Holy Spirit.  The Presence of God does not remove the chaos of life.  Christian theology is about participation: we are in Christ and Christ is in us.  Jesus holds our hands as we go through life’s chaos.  God’s presence helps with mental health.  I can testify to that.

Lord, we all were created with a purpose, to live in relationship with You.  May those who have missed life’s purpose find you.  May those who have our life and breath in You serve others in such a way that they are drawn to Jesus.  Help me to walk today in Your purposes.  Amen.
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1) Mental health involves many factors, including medical ones that I am not addressing here but which are real and call for medication and counseling.
2) For example, see: https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/purpose-in-life-less-stress-better-mental-health.
3) I am drawing on material from earlier posts on “Misreadings of Genesis 1-3” and the nature of sin and temptation.

CHRISTIAN RIGHTS?

In my current culture, many people calling themselves “Evangelical Christians” are grasping for power and exaltation in the form of political control through secular, civil authorities.  They demand that the civil authorities protect “their rights.”  On the civil side, it sometimes appears they want to elevate themselves over the constitutional rights of those with different beliefs.  On the biblical side, there is no manifesto of Christian “rights.”  (Such behavior, of course, is the opposite of the nature of the Kingdom of God.)

Jesus’ response to civil authorities was, as Philip explains to the Ethiopian, to be “led like a sheep to the slaughter…in humiliation he was deprived of justice” (Act 8:31-34, quoting Isa 53:7-8).  Jesus refused to rely on his own access to divine power to protect his rights: “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Mat 26:53 NIV).

This same Jesus proclaims that “blessed” (makarios¹) people are “the poor in spirit… those who mourn… the meek (praus²)… those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… the merciful… the pure in heart… the peacemakers… and the persecuted” (Matt 5:1-12).  Such people are the opposite of the worldly powerful and exalted.

Jesus describes the Beatitude people further as “salt” and “light” (Matt 5:13-16).  Both salt and light work their wonders of preserving and illuminating without force, without taking control, but by being who they are called to be.  Salt and light serve for the good of others.  When Jesus’ people act as salt and light, they produce “good deeds” that result in people praising God (vs 16).

Lord Jesus, I give any “rights” that I think I might have to you.  Help motivate me to serve people by being salt and light to them.  Amen.
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1.  I have a hypothesis that I sometime want to explore about makarios.  The Greek is a translation of the Hebrew ʾshry, both of which are translated as either “blessed” or “happy.”  But the Hebrew term seems to come from the word ʾshr which can have the sense of “going straight,” is used frequently in wisdom sayings, and where the verb form is found in Pro 9:6 is about going in the way of understanding.  My hypothesis is that both the Hebrew and Greek have the sense of “going in the right (godly) way.”
2.  Important to this point is the term for “meek” (praus) in Matt 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”  Too many Christian Internet sites want to claim, without citing support, that that “meek” is a quality of a strong, mighty, warhorse that is under control.  (See the discussion debunking this notion by Marg Mowczko, “The Greek Word 'Praus' and Meek Warhorses” at https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1176/pg1176-images.html)  The sense if the term is “gentle/mild.”  Moreover, Jesus appears to be quoting Psalm 37:11, “But the meek (Hebrew ʽnw) will inherit the land” (NIV).  The Hebrew equivalent for Greek praus-related words are words that come from the Hebrew root ‘nh, the action of bowing down.  The noun form in Ps 37:11 carries the notion of being humble.  A related noun ‘ny in Zech 9:9 describes the Messiah: "... See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly (‘ny) and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" (NIV).  If, as it seems likely, Greek praus is being used for Hebrew ‘nw by Jewish NT authors, then the idea of meekness describes someone who is humble/lowly before God and others.  As with the rest of the Beatitude qualities, it is contrary to exalting oneself over others.

BEING WHO I WAS CREATED TO BE: LIGHT

I know that I have written on this topic before.  I am repeating myself because I am the one who needs frequent reminders.  Being God's Light is a theme that has come in up in recent meditations by Richard Rohr.¹  Today’s statement that penetrated to my heart was,

And if we think of our homes as the place where our light shines, we are more likely to be patient with the children or with those whose minds have reverted to childhood; we are more likely to find that light within ourselves as we go through the day.²

My first thought turned to friends who are dealing with spouses with dementia.  I admire their model of faithfulness to Jesus that is revealed in their faithfulness to their spouses.  Their witness challenges me – I have a healthy wife – to be salt and light in all my contexts: wife and extended family down to my wonderful grand-children, friends, colleagues, and simply those whom I encounter in daily activities.  (I don’t know which context is harder for me: the company of closest family or passing strangers?)

The Christmas season is about how Light came into the world and how that Light remains and is meant to shine in and through those who call on Jesus (John 1:1-9).  When someone is trapped in darkness, they will – unless considerably hardened of heart – be drawn to light.  Light penetrates the chaos of darkness.  Light encourages people to move forward.  Light shows people where to step.  Light promises a better life.  God’s Light is Life.

The question, then, that I face daily is: Does my life offer this Light to others?

Lord, keep me close to you so that your Light might shine in and through me.  I do not want to contribute to the darkness in this world.  I want to be part of the Light.  Amen.
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1.  Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations (on line).
2.  https://cac.org/daily-meditations/being-a-light-for-others/

MISREADING IN GENESIS 1-3 POSTSCRIPT: READING SCRIPTURE (ADAM AND EVE)(1)

 Main Point
Although for good comprehension of the Bible, one needs to recognize that it contains different types of literature (e.g. law, letters, psalms, narratives) that each have to be read differently according to their communicative purposes and unique literary features (e.g. Paul’s letters have the parts of a typical Greek letter), for application Scripture should be read primarily for how it provides us wisdom that leads to salvation and how it prepares us to do God’s good works (2 Tim 3:15-17).

Issue: Historicity of Adam and Eve
Having taught biblical studies for over 30 years, I understand how speaking about the narratives of Adam and Eve raises concerns.  Without much forethought, people tend to think simplistically that fact equals true and fiction equals false.  However, the instructive value of narrative communication cannot be reduced that simply.  In our own culture as in the ancient Near East, we actually have different types of narrative (e.g. scholarly history, popular history, dramatized history, historicized fiction, realistic fiction, parables, tall tales, legends, fairy tells, fables). All of these types are useful for instruction.  This is because narratives create an inner world of characters, actions, and consequences that can portray true-to-life experiences.  Although we rightly speak of learning from history (the first types in the above list), we actually use the latter types for more direct wisdom teaching about life.  That is to say, even the fiction of fables can be true to life and teach us how to live wisely.  It should not surprise us, then, that the Bible also has different types of narratives.  As noted in the post "Background,"² some of the biblical composers of the first few chapters of Genesis have adopted and adaptively rewritten ancient narratives that were already present in the cultural environment of the Hebrews/Israelites.

The narratives about Adam and Eve are explanatory narratives.  To understand what that means about their historicity we have to understand the purpose of these narratives.  The biblical composers, with inspired insight, projected back into the past theologically and biologically (so to speak) to explain what “must have happened” to account for the origin of the universal human condition regarding temptation and sin, disobedience and the resultant encroachment of chaos.³  One might say, then, that these narratives do make a historical claim that something like this must have happened.  However, their main intention is not to provide a modern historical or scientific account of the birth of sin.  These narratives teach universal truths in order to provides us wisdom that leads to salvation.

The text in Hebrew more clearly demonstrates this blend of historicity with universality.  First, the personal names of the two characters are generic.  The noun adam is a wordplay on the Hebrew word adamah ("ground") from which humanity’s substance comes.  Depending on the context, adam can mean "man,” “human,” or “humankind” generically (e.g Gen 2:5); or it can be used as a proper name, “Adam.”  The name "Eve" (chavah) is a wordplay on the verb meaning “to live, to breath, to give life,” as explained in Gen 3:20.  This usage of generic terms would be like hearing a story in which the world's first parents name their two children "Son" and "Daughter."  Second, although some English translations are misleading, in all of Chapters 2-3, “adam” as a proper name is rarely used (possibly Gen 2:20b, 3:17,21).  Instead, the noun adam occurs with a particle of definiteness (ha-adam) that never occurs with a proper name and means something like “the man,” or “the human.”  Moreover, “the man” is not clearly called Adam until Gen 4:25.  As a result, the original Hebrew-speaking audience would have understood the universal implications of these narratives of Adam and Eve.  These texts explain the human condition in regard to temptation, sin, and its consequences.

Lord, help me to receive your Word such a way that it makes me wise unto salvation and prepares me to a better servant of your will.  Amen.
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1. Preceding this post was a short series “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3.”  I meant for the last post to close the series, but thought that a follow-up about reading Scripture could be helpful.
2. See, Nov. 22, 2024, “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: Background.”
3. See, Dec. 10, 2024, “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: Why Humans Die” and Dec. 16, 2024, “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: ‘Original Sin’ and the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”

MISREADINGS IN GENESIS 1-3: “ORIGINAL SIN” AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL(1)

Sin and Death
Death, the consequence of sin, is the encroachment of chaos in to God’s intended order.  In my last post, I noted that the “Fall” is not a biblical term; and, unless qualified (see "Moral Evil" below), it is not a biblical concept.  Rather, the so-called “Fall” story, the narrative of Genesis 3, is about the loss of the opportunity of immortality,² (although there is more to learn from this narrative).  Adam and Eve had access to immortality through the Tree of Life, but they lost that access when they ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 
     The first point to observe is that death, mortality, belongs to the realm of chaos.  In the second post in this short series, I explored how the first creation story (Gen 1:1-2:3) starts with initial physical chaos, elements that are contra life.³  God’s creative activity by the Spirit is to breathe order into the midst of that chaos, bringing it under God’s reign, so that life may be produced and sustained.  Working to the opposite effect, Adam’s and Eve’s sin places them under the reign of death; that is, chaos encroached into God’s intended order.  Chaos/death is the consequence of sin.

Moral Evil
Second, it should be noted that just as the first creation account begins with unexplained surd evil (physical chaos), similarly, Genesis 3 opens with unexplained moral evil/chaos in the figure of a serpent.  The serpent is an ancient Near Eastern symbol of chaos.  Temptation is about listening to the allure of the false promises (of chaos) rather than submitting to God and the creational order.  Such temptation, then, has always been present as a part of human experience, with the result that Paul can say, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).  In a qualified sense, then, we can speak of Genesis 3 as a fall story; it narrates how humans fall short of God’s intended order.

Original Sin
Third, Augustine’s popularized notion of Adam’s seed becoming corrupted and “original sin” being passed down seminally misses the point of Genesis 3.⁴  As long as the man and woman walked in harmony with their Creator, order was maintained.  However, they succumbed to temptation.  The temptation of original sin is clearly stated by the chaos figure of the serpent: “You (plural) will become like God."⁵ The temptation is to usurp God’s role and to reverse the creational order by elevating oneself to divine status; that is living by self-rule rather than under the divine rule of one’s Creator.  All “sin” (singular) originates from the desire of self-rule.

The Knowledge of Good and Evil
Fourth, the phrase "the knowledge of good and evil” refers to concept that is over debated. Its meaning here should be clear enough.  The idiom “to know good and evil” (yd’ tov wr’) in used in the case of a child coming of age and being recognized as a moral agent; that is, as an adult (see Deut 1:39).  [Traditionally in Judaism this is by the age of 13 for a male.]  Therefore, some scholars have postulated – wrongly – that Adam’s and Eve’s sin was a good thing that brought them into maturity!  However, in the context of the serpent-chaos figure tempting them to “become like God," the conclusion must be drawn that Adam and Eve wanted self-accountability rather than accountability to God. The idiom may be parallel to a child moving from parent-accountability to self-accountability; but, in our text it does not signify maturity.  When Adam and Eve eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they are rebelling against God and the creational order.  Again, the narrative portrait displays that sin is about self-rule, running one’s own life.⁶

Consequences of Sin: Chaos and Death, A Reversal of Creation
The consequences of Adam’s and Eve’s rebellious disobedience (Gen 3:7-24) is that order and harmony are lost.  Chaos encroaches into their relationship with God (8-13) into their relationship with the natural world – fruit-bearing is laborious (16-19) – and into their relationship with each other (16).⁷  That is, sin results in reversing the creational order, an important motif that is found in the OT prophets.⁸ Moreover, due to their rebellious state of "becoming like God" in terms of asserting self-accountability, God bans them from the Tree of Life and they have to face their mortality (3:22-24).  Humans come under the reign of sin and death that Paul writes of in Romans 5.

Summary
Genesis 3 portrays the nature of sin and the condition of humanity. We readily succumb to temptation, to the false promises of self-rule rather than accepting the creational order of walking with God under God's rule. That is sin. Such sin yields to the encroachment of chaos and reverses the creational order. It brings discord into all of our relationships, with God, with others, and even with our natural environment. It brings us under the reign of death.

Lord, you know how often I try to rule my own life. It is folly. It has only brought me disorder, discontentment, and despair. Help me to continually seek your face, your will, you pleasure, your gracious rule in my life. Amen.
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1. This is the last of a short series of posts on Genesis 1-3.  For the introduction, see Nov. 22, 2024, “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: Background.”
2. Dec. 10, 2024, “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: Why Humans Die.”
3. Nov. 22, 2024, “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: Order in the Midst of Chaos.”
4. A form of Augustine’s theology is often read into Romans 5:12-19.  I invite the reader to read that text afresh AFTER reading the following discussion.
5. The term here, elohim, can legitimately mean “gods/divine beings” or “God.”  Since the narrative starting at 2:4 has not to this point explicitly mentioned other heavenly beings, and Adam and Eve know but one God, I would translate it as “God.”
6. Perhaps for another “devotional,” one could bring in the biblical notions of discernment and the “heart.”  Separated from God, not only do humans lack sufficient knowledge to discern good from evil (2Sam 19:35) without hearts that seek God, they will not volitionally choose good over evil.  Moreover, as their hearts become hardened, they become increasingly addicted to sin.
7. See post of “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: The Role of Woman.”
8. Recognizing this motif of the prophets is also key to understanding Paul's train of thought in Romans 1:18-32.