So, How Serious Is It Anyways?
I suspect that is one of the more frequent questions that doctors have to face—“how serious is it?” I know that as a friend, that is often one of the first questions I ask when I hear of a bad diagnosis. Since I don’t automatically know all the right technical and medical terms, when someone passes on to me the results of a diagnostic test, I usually need to ask, “How badly are you hurt? How serious is the illness?” Of course, the implications of our questions are that the more serious it is, the more serious we need to treat it, the more in prayer we will be, the more attention the illness will get, the more significant the treatment.
Knowing how serious something is helps us know how seriously to treat it.
This past week we began a new sermon series here at Hebron focusing on the myriad of biblical texts that speak to that most common of human experiences—temptation. While most of us can easily identify with the familiarity of being enticed to sin, it is not always clear how seriously we should take it. For instance, much of the temptation we face seems at first sight to be fairly benign. The little white lie isn’t all that damaging. The momentary loss of temper can easily be fixed. Sharing just a bit of innocent gossip isn’t all that bad. Luckily (we might think), we are rarely, if ever, tempted by those “serious” things—to actually physically harm someone or to denounce our faith in Jesus or to steal something of value. Or, if we are tempted toward those things, we (rarely) actually act on them, so it’s ok… right?
Now, clearly, the earthly ramifications of some sins are much worse than others. True enough. But, does that mean that some temptations can be treated lightly? How earnestly should we be facing our temptations? How serious is it to be tempted, anyways? Is it really that big of a deal?
As always, the measure of any issue is what God Himself thinks of it. The question of the seriousness of temptation is not to be answered by us, but by our Lord. When we see things through this lens, we immediately realize that a cavalier approach to temptation simply doesn’t stand up to the testimony of Scripture. How serious was the temptation that Jesus underwent in the wilderness (Matthew 4)? Remember the challenges placed before Him? Satan tempted Jesus to feed Himself with bread from a stone, to gain the whole world by bowing down to Satan, to show His deity off to all the people by jumping from the top of the temple. Now, the temptation to worship Satan, sure, that’s a big one. But, how serious was the temptation to turn a stone into bread? For Jesus, that would have been easy, and, frankly, not a big deal, right? Jesus’ response seems to indicate otherwise—He took Satan’s temptations seriously and dealt with them appropriately.
The Bible never allows us to treat temptation like it is no big deal. Every time temptation is mentioned, the believer is warned how very significant it is. Our Great Physician tells us how seriously we should respond to the lure of sin—we are to “resist”, to “flee”, to “struggle”, to “battle”. And, why is temptation such a dangerous thing? Always, and forever, because temptation can lead us to sin, which damages our relationship with our God.
The ongoing struggle against temptation is serious business; and, thankfully, God has prepared us well for the battle—He has given us His Spirit, for as always, the battle belongs to the Lord (1 Samuel 17:47)!
As you prepare for worship this week, read Romans 8:1-17 focusing on verses 12-13.
1. Who does Paul envision us to be “debtors” to? And, why are we debtors?
2. What is Paul warning against here? What does it mean to
be a debtor, “to live according to the flesh”?
3. What does it mean to live “according to the flesh”? Why
would anyone do that? How do you know if you are doing that?
4. Since we all die, what does it mean that “those who live
according to the flesh will die”? Isn’t that all of us? Or, does “die” mean
something different here?
5. What does it mean to do something “by the Spirit”? Notice
the capital letter there—it is the Holy Spirit that is being spoken about.
6. What happens when something is “put to death”? How do you
kill something like “the misdeeds of the body”?
7. How seriously does Paul take the whole struggle against
sin? How do you know he is serious here?
