December 20, 2024 -- Galatians 6:1-3 -- Temptations and victory in Jesus

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Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Galatians 6:1-3
 
In the last two studies focussed trials and tests. Today it is on temptations and the victory that is yours through Christ. Temptations are different from trials (which are common to all people) and tests (which are administered by God for the refining of faithfulness) because these are Satan’s devices designed to lure you away from God.
 
Notice how contagious temptations are. You are cautioned, your desire to help someone who has been caught, or overtaken, or captured by a sin, can be the exact point where you become tempted. Distracted by the sin the other struggles against, you yourself can become tempted to sin. Here is an example of this. Police do a drug bust and find lots of drugs and money. The work of police is to enforce the laws of the land and to bring criminals to justice, where, if the system is functioning well, those caught in sin are rehabilitated. However, a police officer in the pursuit of duty might be tempted by the wads of cash and take some. What was purposeful and proper work becoming a place of great temptation and becoming in the sin being fought against.
 
You who are in Christ Jesus are already God’s beloved sons and daughters. The Devil, unable to mount an assault against heaven, will then seek to hurt and wound God’s image-bearers. He will strike out at the Christians he can reach as his way of getting at God. The Bible describes you as the “apple of God’s eye” (Psalm 17:8). You are precious to God, as precious as eyes which humans instinctively and reflexively guard. The only way for temptations to overtake you is to go, eyes wide open, after them. Reflexively stepping back if the person you seek to help is refusing to repent and turn to God.
 
The passage gives several warnings.

  • First, there is a warning against pride. While helping others, if you think you are impervious to the same temptations, you will find yourself to be sadly mistaken and will perhaps wind up falling to the same temptations.

  • Second, the law of Christ is given not to spoil your fun or make life burdensome. The law of God is the pathway of a fruitful life, one filled with holy adventure and fullness of life lived according to the purpose of God. Temptations from Satan are like those in Eden, where the Devil makes you question the goodness of God and His commandments.

  • Third, the restoration of the fallen one must be carried out in a spirit of gentleness. Earlier, in Galatians 5, Paul wrote about the fruit of the Spirit. Gentleness is a character trait of the Holy Spirit, given to men and women who are led by the Spirit and fight spiritual battles in prayer and as the Word directs.

  • Fourth, do not isolate yourself. When you are tempted and struggling against sin, go and find fellow Christians and admit your temptations, your moral failures and your sin so that you can be restored. This is an allusion to “whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire” Proverbs 18:1; the more you isolate yourself, the more you will be propelled into the grip of temptation.

Finally, dear brothers and sisters, know it is the purpose of God to lead His children in sanctification—that is, into increasing holiness by the work of the Spirit. Jesus’s work at the cross is the only act of supererogation (not only fulling the whole requirements of the law but actually superseding it so as to make the grace and blessings of God available to others). When you need His forgiveness and blessing, in the strength of the Spirit fight against your own sinfulness and cry out to Jesus. He will reconcile the remorseful to the Father. He will lead you deeper into the blessedness of being a beloved son or daughter of God. Sin loses its appeal in His presence. In His presence there is fullness of joy.
 
Jesus, guard me by Your Spirit so that I will be faithful in my obedient walk with You. When I am confronted with fellow Christians who have become entangled in sin, keep me humble and by Your Spirit equip me to be a holy, well-protected ambassador of Jesus to bring the one entangled in sin to your throne of grace and mercy. Father in heaven, thank You that in Your presence is fullness of joy. The Devil would refute that and tempt me to self-pity and isolation. Dear Father in heaven, break through the hissing whispers of the enemy so that I will hear Your voice in Scripture and know it is You Who call Your beloved children to faithfulness and fullness of life that is rich with adventure and blessing through Jesus. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/A5Ka5YlK6wc?si=IEGMzAnNgshVM6sL Joy, Joy —David Phelps
 
 

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