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Now let's jump in. When I'm going through trials in life, I know God wants me to make the right decision. Here's the question. Why is he leading me down a path of temptation? Navigating that and more coming up right now on the Freedom Today Show.
Yeah. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis.
Welcome to the Clearview Today Show for another great discussion with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. If you're listening for the very first time today, Dr. Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr.
Shah, how are things? Great. Amen. I love to hear it. You know, we've been engaged in this discussion on James for a while now, and it's been so helpful to us.
I know to our listeners, because we've heard from a lot of you that it's been helpful in your understanding of how to navigate trials. You know, and we've talked about how when you encounter a trial, it leads necessarily to a decision. That's right. But one thing that we haven't yet talked about, Dr. Shah, is that when you encounter a trial, it also leads necessarily to temptation.
You know, we're going to dive into this more, but the word that is used for trials. is exactly the word Temptation. Same exact word. Perasmos. Wow.
It's just the context. Yeah. It's just what is said around that word that it goes now from trials into temptation.
So. Yeah, trials can be trials, and you can go through it, learn a lot of lessons. Don't want to go back and go through them again. But temptation is when you've taken that That path. That fork in the road, and you chose the path that is the broad way, the way that leads to destruction, the way that is the easy comfort, the easy, the way that.
Satisfies our senses. you know, pleases us. Comforts us. And instead of going to God and choosing the hard way and saying, God, As tough as this is, I know that. You have me here for a reason.
There's something you're doing in my life, there's something you're doing in the life of people around me. That's the way we should go. But if we choose the other way, now parasmos becomes temptation.
So it's so interesting to me that they're the same word. Is it in the sense that like the James's audience would have understood that word parasmos? They would have understood it to mean different things in different contexts, or it means the same for them. We just have the words trial and temptation. No, I think they knew.
They knew that a context was what changed it. And in English, we have a lot of different words because English has been impacted by so many different languages over the years that we put a different word there. And that's fine. We need that. For our understanding, we need that.
But for theirs. It was just that turn of the phrase. Just a context shift that told them that now we're talking about something not good. And we're going to see that in today's, as you read this, how. How it is like it's a birthing process.
It goes from conception to pregnancy to delivery. And this is not a good delivery. This is something bad which leads to death.
So we know it's temptation, not just a trial. Yeah, it's really funny because I think a lot of times when you think about temptation, you think about this really private affair, right? You think about this individual, this adult who's struggling with this dark urge that he's got versus the way of righteousness. And it's this very private internal thing. But it was really funny because when I had kids, and tell me if you guys had this too, you can see temptation play out in real time, very publicly, on a two-year-old, on a three-year-old.
100%. 100%. You just put that cookie in front of them in their field of view after they're before they're done eating. You can see the wheels start turning. Like, oh, I really want that cookie.
I've got two. I've got a five-year-old and a three-year-old. And we've got an eight-month-old at the house too. But the older two, they know that we cannot play with Play-Doh anywhere but at the kitchen counter. That's the only place we're allowed.
To play with it, and we also know that mommy is way more strict on that rule than daddy is.
So, yesterday I saw them. She, I mean, she had the play-doh that was on the kitchen counter, they were playing with it. She goes away to start cleaning. It was not three minutes before I could see Holdens, especially like have the play-doh and like look back. Not the check.
He like he checked, checked where mommy was, and then he looked at the living room carpet where he wanted to go. And I looked back again to see where mommy was. And Gavin was just sitting there watching him. Like, he wasn't saying it, but he was like, Well, you got to do it because whatever you do, I'm going to do too. Yeah.
And holding just. Got the play-doh, climbed on down, walked right over. Gavin, sure enough, took the play-doh, went to the lobby, followed him. I was like, hey, man. What y'all doing?
I I I I I got Play-Doh. I said, put the Play-Doh down. Go on, sit on the steps. It was so funny. Right now, you're on timeout.
That's right. But it's so funny to see that temptation play out in real time in a very public way because you don't see that in an adult's life. That's right. And so, same thing is happening over here. As I mentioned in the opening, the word in the Greek is perosmos.
Perosmos can be a noun or it can be a verb.
So let's take an English example. In English, if I were to say to you that the farm was used to produce produce. Yeah, I know exactly what you're saying. Right. In both instances.
So the first produce is kind of like to grow. The second produce is the crop. Right. Right. Same thing is happening over here.
Place it is a noun, the other place it's a verb. And so that's what's happening here.
So first James uses the noun form of parasmos to mean trials, but then he uses the verb form to mean temptation. Gotcha. And it's just that simple. Is it the same kind of relationship as produce and produce, like a trial? Almost produces or begets temptation.
Yeah. In a sense, you can say that. It's the manufacturing of the product, and the other is the product. Yeah, yeah.
So, you know, talking about the kids and the examples, you know, how easy all of us go through that moment of decision. Are we going to allow this trial to grow us, to mature us, to make us more like Christ, to allow him to do his work in us and through us in the lives of people around us? Or are we going to succumb to temptation, to be checked, and walk into the living room with the play-doh and sit on the carpet and get it all messy? And then now we're going to be in trouble. We're going to cry.
We're going to push. And this is life. Evening is spoiled. But. That's what I wanted to do.
Yeah, I love that example too, because John, you were watching the whole time, right? Oh, yeah. You saw this whole thing. I saw the whole thing play out. Don't we do the same thing with God?
We check to see if anybody's looking to see if we're going to get away with this. God's watching us the whole time. My Heavenly Father is right there.
Well, that's the thing. They knew it wasn't like they didn't know I was in the room, they knew I was there. And I think, in the same way, when we sin, like we know in the back of our minds that God is there, but it's like, ah. He's not right here, right now.
So I feel like I can get away with this. You know, in every trial, there is that germ of temptation. If allowed to grow in the wrong direction, it will lead to sin and destruction.
So, every trial, every single one of those trials, physical problems, there is a germ of temptation there. You could rather. Trust God, pray for the healing, wait on the healing, go through the pain and struggle, and come out. Or you can say, you know, because I'm going through all this, I deserve. Whatever.
I deserve to indulge in the flesh. I deserve to take advantage of the situation. I deserve to cut corners. I deserve to do something with somebody because I need some relief and I deserve this. People do that all the time.
Christians do that all the time. And it's so sad because instead of allowing God to work in you and through you, you're succumbing to temptation. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think a lot of times about like the way that Christians, they're very quick to share the things that encourage them, the things that bless them.
But we keep the things that tempt us, especially that tempt us specifically, very close to the chest. Because the more people know about that, the harder it's going to be for me to get away with it. Yeah. You know what I mean? The harder it's going to be for me to actually engage in it and keep it on the down low.
Yeah. I feel like we sort of trick ourselves into the thinking that we have to appear like we are never tempted by sin or other people. And, you know, we don't have to necessarily share the nitty-gritty of everything that we're tempted by with Joe Schmo on the street, but we should be honest and say that, you know, we are tempted by sin. Otherwise, sin wouldn't be effective. And that's why James is talking about it because people struggle with sin.
Even 2,000 years ago, in first century, the millennium. Mm-hmm. First church, the early church, they were struggling with temptation.
So, this is nothing new. And even in the Old Testament, people struggle with temptation, going all the way back to the very first people, Adam and Eve, struggled with temptation. It was a trial. Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And they rejected God's Command and eight.
So I'm glad you brought up the Adam and Eve thing because there may be someone who's listening to this right now who's saying, If I'm already going through a trial, if I'm already having a hard time, why would God tempt me and make it even harder if He wants me to overcome?
Well, He's not tempting you, right? It says that right here: Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when He has been approved, He will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
So, God rather you get the crown of life and And show and demonstrate that you love him in the process. God is not sitting there waiting to tempt you. In fact, in the very next verse, verse 13, if somebody wants to read that for us. It says Let no one say Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. Yeah, I mean, right there.
Yeah. Don't we say that, though? I mean, don't people say that? Like, God's tempting me. God's tempting me with this.
God's really testing me with this. I think not only do we say it, I think a lot of us believe it. Yeah. I think a lot of us believe that since God is the one, he's the author of all things, then he must be, he's in complete control. He could just remove it.
He could remove the entire temptation he's got the power to. Since he won't, he must be the one tempting me. Right. How do we think about verse 13 and Jesus being tempted in the wilderness? I mean, that was Satan who came to tempt him, not God.
Right? Satan took that as an opportunity to come and sort of enlist him and say, Look, I know why you're here, you're here to save the world. I don't think Satan understood the gravity of why Jesus came and the exact means by which our salvation would be won. He didn't know that something about he's going to die or something. I don't know.
I don't quite understand that. Because these are things that angels. Strive to look into, right? The Bible talks about that. They don't understand that, but they want to.
He cannot understand that. He knows the overarching picture.
Something's going to happen. The Son of God is coming. He's going to sacrifice something himself, maybe. There's going to be a bruise that is happening. But other than that, he didn't understand.
So he was coming to say, hey, look, I can save you the trouble. Since I have been given this authority, and he wasn't lying about that because he has been given the authority as the chief angel, I have the authority to turn this over to you. All you have to do is bow. Yeah. It's not even like a little head nod.
It's more of a just submit to my. Offer. And then you don't have to go through this, or you can still get what you came for. just through another means. And of course Jesus rejected him.
You know, three three different offers were made. To to eat? To gain power, gain the kingdoms, and then to. Put on athiatrics.
so that he could impress the world. And all three of them Jesus rejected. Right, right. He understood the Jesus understood the solution. And maybe this is something that we're kind of jumping a little bit ahead, but he understood the solution to temptation.
He understood it's not just about willpower. No, no, no, I can't do this. I'm afraid of the consequences. But he actually used God's word to see him. That's right.
The problem with many of us is when temptation happens and we succumb to it, or we are in the process of succumbing to it, we try, we. blame someone. We look for someone to blame For our Mistakes for our missteps. for our wrong choices?
Somebody needs to pay for this. Adam did that in the Garden of Eden. This woman that you gave me.
Now, his job was to be there as a protector. Eve gave the fruit to her husband with her. That's Sad because she was deceived. Paul later explains to us, which I think was the interpretation throughout history, that she was deceived. He ate it knowingly.
So she was deceived. She didn't quite understand the ramification of what was taking place. She was only enamored by the offer. You can be like God, you can be spiritual, you can be godly, you can have your eyes open to the things that are unseen. And She was deceived.
Mm-hmm. Because there was no such thing. What came in was not enlightenment, what came in was sin and destruction and death.
So Adam, on the other hand, Was very aware of what was happening. Right. And he. He eats it. I mean, I can't even imagine.
what was going through his head. As he's eating that fruit. Because He knows what he's doing is wrong. Right. Did you not understand the consequences that were going to follow?
Maybe? Yeah. But it does follow that roadmap that you've been laying out where we have a trial, right? And the trial ultimately leads to a decision.
So I imagine it like a fork in the road. And maybe you can kind of clarify this in the illustration, but the temptation is what happens when you make that wrong decision. Or maybe that's the temptation is the decision that you shouldn't make. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Is the temptation the turning down the wrong way? Yeah, I would say so. Temptation is not sin. I want to clarify that. to be tempted is not sin.
Falling for it Now becomes a sin. Right. You know, I think it was Luther who used to say, uh having the the birds hover over your head is not The problem. Letting them make a nest in your hair is a problem. That's a good illustration.
I like it.
So, yeah, temptation will come. Even Jesus was tempted, but giving in to it is the problem. But here. Blaming, as somebody said, to err is human, to blame it on the divine is more human. Wow.
Wow. That is pretty good. Oh man, that's hard-hitting. You know, we have this like twisted, warped sense of justice where if people just understood that this isn't my fault, and I don't know if we want people to understand it or if we want to convince ourselves, but we are very, very quick to start justifying everything. Because I can tell you that when someone else falls for like lust or when someone else is tempted to steal, like they're sinners.
But when it's me, like my circumstances are different. And if I can just explain to you why this way or why I'm going through this, then it would all just make sense. And we might even acknowledge that it's wrong. Like, yes, I sinned. Yes, I messed up.
But here, let me tell you why. Here's why. They caused this.
Somebody caused this. Yeah, they caught it. I wouldn't have done that if it wasn't for so-and-so. You know, Will Rogers. I don't know if y'all have read much by Will Rogers.
I have. I mean, he was before my time, but he was this. Kind of um Old American icon. He was sort of a Native American, but he was, you know, he was American. And and he he he he used to Just stand there and do a show.
He had a rope and he would just stand there and and Kind of rope this and like a cowboy and talk. And he said there are two eras in human history, the passing of the buffalo and the passing of the buck. What's the difference between the two? I mean, passing of the buffalo is, you know, the buffalo passed away. They died.
Passing of the buck is, it's not my fault. It's not my fault. Oh, wow. He's a play on war.
Okay. Yeah, yeah.
So not a real buck. Like a deer. Is that what you were thinking? Yeah. Well, I was just thinking, like, if we're, I was thinking passing a buffalo to someone else, like being a turn of phrase or something.
I understand now. I got it. But I mean, I seriously think that, like, if you go online today, I'm unfortunately, I'm getting a lot better, but unfortunately, I am chronically online. And I see a lot of like internet debate. I see a lot of like discussions, like podcast bros, people sitting down.
And it seems like whenever anyone talks politics, whenever anyone talks culture, society, the core is finding out whose fault this is. Yeah, who's to blame? Who caused this? And very seldom do I ever see, you know, how do we get out of this? How do we return to form?
It's almost always focused on, you know, let's not worry about. That right now. First, let's establish whose fault this is. And that can sometimes turn into a three, four-hour podcast. Absolutely.
It's so crazy that people spend so much time. It's just the blame game. It is.
Well Thank goodness James tells us the whole process of how this works. It's a process.
So if you go back here in James chapter 1, verse 14, it's like a life cycle of sin. It said, but each one is tempted when he, you can say she, is drawn away by his or her own desires and enticed.
So People don't just wake up one day and say, I'm going to sin today. Right? I think today would be a good day to be disobedient.
Something comes along and entices them, uses the own desires that they have within them and entices them with them. I think that's a good point, too, that it's their own desires. It's not some extraneous force, some outside force working on them. It's desires that are from within that push them toward this temptation. Yeah, like if I'm not interested in this one thing, but I am interested in that thing over there, like the enemy is going to find out what I'm interested in and entice me with that.
Yeah, it's first is the attraction.
So here, our own desires. Are the culprits there? Means as coming from within. He says, It's not just Satan out there. It's not just the world out there.
It begins here.
Something inside of me is broken.
Something inside of me is evil.
Something finds the sweetest, cutest little baby that is there. Inside, and it's because of the sin nature. Yeah. And Just because we don't always act on those things does not mean that it's not there. It's real, it's terrible, it's ugly, it's demonic, it's hellish, it's there.
So. Because of Jesus Christ in our lives, as He is dwelling inside of us, that old nature is kept in, is held to a position of death. If Jesus is not in us. Or if He is in us, but He is not ruling our lives, then that old sin nature, even though it's a dead body, is propped up. That old smelly dead body is propped up and now it is Contaminating the rest of you.
Okay. So that's how we need to think about this. Yeah. Yeah. I think it makes a lot of sense.
That makes our sin, which is what it should be, it makes our sin disgusting. It makes our sin repulsive, which is how we ought to think about it. But too often we're content to snuggle up to that dead body. What is that passage where Jesus Jesus says that, right? Where it's like, it's not what you, it's not what goes in, it's not what, like, it's not what a person eats that goes in you, it's like what comes out.
Yeah, where is it? The Pharisees used to. Observe what was known as the table fellowship, where they believe that. As sincere Jewish people, we should not just go to the temple. in order to keep all the laws and the rituals.
that we can do it Right here at home. And so. the observed table fellowship where Everything had to be kosher, everything had to be just right, properly tithed and properly purified and everything. And then we eat them. And it's not just what we're eating, it's the people we're eating with.
Because all of that was sort of part of this, what goes inside. is defiling the person.
So let's make sure the wrong things are not going inside. Let's make sure that the wrong people are not around us when we're consuming food. Jesus turned that upside down. Oh, right side up. And in Mark chapter 7, it's also found in Matthew 15.
But in Mark chapter 7, verse 20, Jesus said, What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within out of the heart of men Proceed evil thoughts. Adulteries fornication fornications, murders, Thefts. Covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness. An evil eye.
Blasphemy Pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and defile a man. Wow. What if I'm listening to this and I'm saying, and I'm hearing it, and I say, okay, I think I struggle with one or two of those. I think I'm okay on some of these, but there's a few that I know glaringly those are me. Yeah, I mean, there's more: anger, gossip, self-pity.
Bad habits, control issues, complacency, laziness, all of this, indifference. Could be added to this list. Yeah. And if you can't find yourself in that list, you're on that list because you're lying. Yeah.
You're already there. If you don't see yourself on that list, yes, you do. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think about that, like the understanding of your weakness, how many Christians there are out there who really don't understand where they're weak, where they're vulnerable.
And I remember one time you told me, Dr. Shah, that the wisest people on earth know their weaknesses because that's where they choose to guard them. Right. That's where they choose to build those fortifications. And that has always stuck with me: understanding where am I weak?
Where am I prone to temptation? Where am I prone to give in?
So, what do we do when we've pinpointed where we struggle on this list, where we are typically tempted? What is our action step? What should we do? I mean, for one, you need to guard. Against those places.
If you're tempted with alcohol, don't put yourself in a situation where you may be tempted to drink. Don't, I mean, you know, I'm not an expert on alcohol. I preached messages on that, and people have really appreciated that. And they've come to me and said, you know, thank you for that message. And I'm.
Grateful because God laid on my heart I wasn't going to do that. Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't mind saying it because He told me it was completely fine to do that, but my brother-in-law turned down drink for the rest of his life because you're amazing. I've had people who are up in age came to me and said, Look, you know, my wife and I are not going to do this anymore because after your message, we. Came across this article on health and wellness on how drinking does this to your brain and to your mental capacity.
And I was like, I didn't even mention that, but yeah, you're right.
So don't put yourself in those situations. If you are tempted to get angry, don't get in situations where you are watching videos and rewatching on constant fighting and punching and just these shock art and shock videos and shock reels. Stay away from them because they're not. helpful. you know, making connection with that part of you which is not just unhealthy, but it is sinful and devilish it is because the does the the The vast majority of things that gain popularity on the internet are designed to make you angry.
There's no emotion that spreads fast, and there have been studies on this. There's no emotion that spreads faster online than anger. Yeah, yeah.
It is the number one predictor of online success. Yeah. Or lust. If lust is your problem, you know, pornography has been your problem, don't get into situations where you are mindlessly scrolling. You go to the bathroom, don't take your phone with you.
Right. Yeah. You know, don't do that. You're like, man, I'm tired. It's been a long day.
I'm just going to take some time and just scroll. Don't do that because just doing that will sort of bring those images back, and you will see a video or something will flash there, and your mind will say, Let me go back and look at it. Or what was that? Oh, let me check this out. This is stupid.
This is dumb. You can call it all kinds of names, but the fact that you're going back to it and revisiting it is itself putting yourself right in. In the bullseye of Satan's temptation. Yeah, so when temptation strikes, take action. Destroy yourself.
Protect yourself against it. Dr. Shah, someone's listening to this right now and they're saying, Listen, I want to hear more. I don't want to wait till tomorrow's episode. What can I do right now to start on this path of denying temptation?
Well, we're going to come to that. You know, how temptation begins with that enticement. I would say Reject Those moments where you are back in the same place where you used to be, say, no. Pray if you find yourself in a bad situation where you're about to take that step to do that thing. Pray and ask God to help.
You don't have to have a long prayer. Simply saying, God, help. That's all you got to do. Help. Yeah.
And the Holy Spirit will send someone or something that will help you come out of that situation. That's right. Amen. That's right. So helpful.
I pray that you guys were listening at home and that you were, you know, taking to heart what Dr. Shah shared with us to guard yourself, to take action, not to just be passively tempted and just kind of shrug your shoulders at it, but to take action on what's happening in your life and to actively choose to be obedient to God. Amen. Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow, same time, same station. We're going to dig further into this topic here on the Clearview Today show.
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