How does temptation fit into God’s plans for my life?

Questions: How does temptation fit into God’s plans for my life?

Response:

James chapter one talks about being faithful to God in the midst of difficult circumstances.  Verses 2-8 say “count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience (endurance, perseverance).”  Verses 12-18 say “blessed is the man who endures temptation: for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life”. 

What of these words “trials” and “temptations”?  In the Greek, the same word, peirasmos, is used.  Its meaning is determined by the context.  In positive contexts it is translated “trials” or “tests”.  These are circumstances in which a believer has the opportunity to demonstrate faithfulness.  A school child takes tests.  These tests are not given by the teacher to trip up the student, to lead him astray or to harm him; they are given to examine the student’s knowledge and help him see where he is lacking in order that he might know where to improve. 

In negative contexts peirasmos is translated “temptations”. A trial might be a believing woman navigating a work relationship with a man she finds attractive but who is an unbeliever.  A temptation may also be present in which her desire for a romantic relationship morphs into a desire to grasp such satisfaction apart from God’s design.  For instance, the trial is having to work with a desirable but unsuitable man, whereas a temptation might be the desire to text said man, under the guise of dealing with work issues, but in reality, to gain some attention that she should not be seeking.

James clarifies that temptations do not come from God, they come from ourselves.  Trials are external – they are situations we find ourselves in, situations that may make staying faithful to God difficult.  Temptations are internal – they are our own desires for satisfaction apart from God’s goodness.  James 1:14,15 says “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  Then, when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”  Temptation has to do with the quality of our desires.  A desire for a romantic relationship is good and God-given.  A desire for a romantic relationship outside the bonds of faith or sexual chastity is temptation leading to sin.

God gives trials or tests in order to mature us and he invites us to ask for wisdom if we are uncertain about what faithfulness should look like in a given situation but he does not tempt us.  Temptations come from within and show us where our desires need to be reshaped and so we ought to pay attention to them.  If I am tempted to pursue an unsuitable man I need to examine why.  Perhaps I have become convinced that I have a need that God can’t or won’t fill, that God is holding out on me etc. etc.  I need to address that desire and take it to God and to his word for repentance and reshaping.  Consistency in reshaping my desires through the application of biblical truths and communion with God will lead to diminished temptations and greater success in navigating trials.  Humility and vigilance is key.

Jesus' take on Mary and Martha: What gives? I feel like I'm a Mary but God's given me a Martha role.

Question:

How do I reconcile Jesus take on Mary and Martha when I feel like I'm a Mary but God's given me (sometimes I feel like I've been trapped in) the job description of Martha?

Response:

“Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

It’s important to understand what Jesus meant when He addressed Martha.  We may take this passage to mean that the mundane work of serving is less than the “spiritual” work of listening to Jesus.  I can imagine that busy mothers roll their eyes at this passage – “well, if I just sat and read my Bible all day, this house would fall apart.”  Or perhaps, “I would like to study the word and worship and have deep spiritual conversations but someone has to do the laundry.”  We may be left with a resentful thought toward Jesus for His naivete about what it takes to run a household or toward our role as mother and homemaker for taking us from what we’d rather be doing.

But take heart!  Jesus meant no such things by this encounter.  Mary did not spend all her time listening to Jesus – her job description would have been to cook and clean and care for the home and those in it just like any other woman in those days.  We must not take the incident of Jesus’ visit to their home as what was normal.  It was a one-time situation that Jesus used to illustrate an important principle.

We each have spheres in which we find ourselves, having certain tasks and responsibilities and we are called to fulfil them “as to the Lord.”  We were created to work as per God’s mandate to mankind in Genesis: “fill the earth and subdue it” and though many tasks are tedious and thankless they nevertheless have the dignity of playing a role in fulfilling our mandate from God and we bring Him pleasure when we do them.

Jesus was on earth for a short time and fulfilled His ministry in a time even shorter which required certain responsibilities to be temporarily altered.  For example, Jesus was questioned by the disciples of John the Baptist who wondered why they fasted while Jesus’ disciples did not.  Jesus responded that His disciples’ behaviour was appropriate because He, the bridegroom, was only with them for a short time and so it was right for them to rejoice while He was still there.  The time was coming when He would be taken away – that was the time for mourning and fasting, not before.

Likewise, with Mary and Martha.  Both fulfilled their household duties in Jesus’ absence.  But when He came, for short while to teach, Mary correctly understood the tremendous opportunity that had presented itself and acted accordingly by suspending her work in order to listen.  Doing otherwise would have been akin to saying “Thank-you Mr. Mandela, for your kind invitation to dinner but you see, Saturday is laundry night and therefore I must decline.”

Martha failed to recognize the opportunity of learning directly from Jesus, instead being “worried and troubled about many things” to the point of wishing Mary to lose out on her limited time opportunity as well, for which Jesus gently rebuked her.  I daresay that if Martha had also stopped serving in order to listen and the disciples complained to Jesus about it, he would have said that same thing to them.  He was not bothered by Martha's serving per se, just with her inappropriate devotion to it.

I believe this passage is about priorities.  Fulfilling the responsibilities of our sphere is right and good and a part of our mandate from God.  But if a limited time opportunity of great importance presents itself shall we become “distracted with much serving”?  Will the house fall down if dinner is late?