Different Fruit; Same Temptation – Sunday Thought For The Day

In his timeless allegorical book: The Pilgrim’s Progress From This World To That Which Is To Come, John Bunyan writes: “[53] …Now there are three things in this man’s counsel, that thou must utterly abhor. 1. His turning thee out of the way. 2. His labouring to render the cross odious to thee. 3. His setting thy feet in that way that leadeth unto the administration of death.  Let’s consider Bunyan’s points.

It is truly tragic that so many who claim to be Christians and perhaps even more who are Christians, are possessed by the world and all that’s associated with it.  In the Garden of Eden, the serpent, i.e., Satan, deceived Eve by enticing her to lust after the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden.  Satan used Eve to lead Adam to consciously disobey God, which resulted in the downfall and death of mankind.

Satan is still using the same tactics today.  The only difference being that the fruit is those things in the world.  Well spoke Albert Barnes in his commentary on Luke 22:3 (KJV): “We may learn, also, that when Satan tempts people, he commonly does it by exciting and raising to the highest pitch their native passions.  He does not make them act contrary to their nature, but leads them, to act out their proper disposition.”

Jesus, Himself references Satan as “the prince of this world” and the Apostle Paul referenced Satan as “the god of this world.”  Paul so designated him as such, not because the devil has any divine attributes, but because he actually has the homage of the people of this world as their god, as the being who is really worshipped or who has the affections of their hearts in the same way as it is given to idols.

The world and everything in it is corrupted and tainted by sin, which ultimately leads persons to destruction.  This is the objective of the enemy of our souls.  Yet, many in Christendom have had their minds blinded to this truth.  Their minds are blinded to the point that they not only resist the truth when it’s presented, but they seek to kill the truth teller.

In Ephesians 2:2 (KJV), the Apostle Paul references Satan as “the prince of the power of the air” and in Ephesians 6:12 (KJV) Paul refers to Satan and his emissaries in the context of the world as: “…principalities, and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places.”

As Bunyan states in the first thing we’re to abhor: the enemy of our souls “turns us out of the way.”  The “Way and the Truth” is Jesus Christ.  When we’re led away from Him all that remains for us are the second and third things, i.e., death and destruction.  Jesus warned: “the thief, [i.e., Satan] cometh not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”

Ego, if the world is Satan’s domain how can it not be the place we should not indulge in?  If it was bad for us before we were saved, how can it become a good place for us after we’re saved?  We’re to be threats to the world, because we’re to stand for the “Truth.”  But, many churches, Christendom and ever growing numbers of Christians are embracing the world.

The most heinous part of this behavioral apostasy is the people are being led there by the shepherds, i.e., the Pastors, who are supposed to be leading them into the “Truth.”

READ:

1 John 2:15-17 KJV
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.