This is season 9 in Flavel’s book on Keeping the Heart. This season is about times of temptation, where inward thoughts find their way in us and beckon us to do evil. Temptations can come suddenly or can seem to hardly leave the back of one’s mind. Yet, whatever the temptation to do evil, it is the Christian’s duty to dispel its arguments and fill them in with the truth of God’s Word. As with every other instance of keeping the heart, God supplies what is necessary to resist and overcome all temptation. Here is Flavel on season 9:
The ninth season wherein the greatest diligence and skill are necessary to keep the heart, is the hour of temptation, when Satan besets the Christian’s heart, and takes the unwary by surprise. To keep the heart at such times, is not less a mercy than a duty. Few Christians are so skillful in detecting the fallacies, and repelling the arguments by which the adversary incites them to sin, as to come off safe and whole in those encounters. Many eminent saints have smarted severely for their want of watchfulness and diligence at such times. How then may a Christian keep his heart from yielding to temptation? There are several principal ways in which the adversary insinuates temptation, and urges compliance.
Keeping the heart in times of temptation means becoming very familiar with the lies you repeat to yourself, so that you can demolish them with the truth. A Christian can prepare for temptation by searching God’s Word for answers and building a case against them, showing that their true end is godlessness and that such temptation only leads to destruction. These arguments often come before the temptation becomes strong and can be dealt with on that level. By contrast, giving into demonic arguments is you acting as God and judge, trying to subvert His ways. So, know your enemy, and meet him in battle prepared. Here is Flavel’s first help, where he gives us an example of one of these lies and their refutation:
1. Satan suggests that here is pleasure to be enjoyed; the temptation is presented with a smiling aspect and an enticing voice: ‘What, are you so dull and phlegmatic as not to feel the powerful charms of pleasure? Who can withhold himself from such delights?’ Reader, you may be rescued from the danger of such temptations by repelling the proposal of pleasure. It is urged that the commission of sin will afford you pleasure. Suppose this were true, will the accusing and condemning rebukes of conscience and the flames of hell be pleasant too? Is there pleasure in the scourges of conscience? If so, why did Peter weep so bitterly? why did David cry out of broken bones? You hear what is said of the pleasure of sin, and have you not read what David said of the effects of it? “Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore; there is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin,” &c. If you yield to temptation, you must feel such inward distress on account of it, or the miseries of hell. But why should the pretended pleasure of sin allure you, when you know that unspeakably more real pleasure will arise from the mortification than can arise from the commission of sin. Will you prefer the gratification of some unhallowed passion, with the deadly poison which it will leave behind, to that sacred pleasure which arises from fearing and obeying God, complying with the dictates of conscience, and maintaining inward peace? Can sin afford any such delight as he feels who, by resisting temptation, has manifested the sincerity of his heart, and obtained evidence that he fears God, loves holiness, and hates sin?
Flavel confronts the temptation to carnal and temporal pleasure with many strong truths. Say that we are tempted by some worldly pleasure. (1) What can this sort of pleasure lead to? Indeed, if we show ourselves to habitually give in to this pleasure without a fight (or with hardly any resistance), we may be witnessing within ourselves a lack of saving grace. Perhaps we have yet to receive God’s provision of a new heart and the Holy Spirit! If so, continuing to give into this temptation can yield only hellfire: for that is the end of all who remain jumping headlong into temptation. A mark that you are a Christian is that you meet temptation with resistance, and that this resistance increases as you grow in faith. For the saved, any worldly pleasure felt in temptation is, right after committing the sin, painful and sorrowful to the soul. This sorrow can often last for days (or weeks). Are a few minutes of destructive pleasure worth such sorrow and debasement? They are not, and can only lead to misery, prolonged for as long as they are given into. (2) True and lasting satisfaction and happiness comes in doing away with temptations. Temptation is a counterfeit to satisfaction found only in God. It is the lie that you need something more than Christ. What kind of lie is this except for the worst kind? At its root, giving into temptation is choosing to desire another god over Yahveh. It should not come as a surprise that keeping to the Real is infinitely better and more satisfying than the flawed supposition that a cheap and ailing placebo or an inert and diseased substitute can ever replace Him.
2. The secrecy with which you may commit sin is made use of to induce compliance with temptation. The tempter insinuates that this indulgence will never disgrace you among men, for no one will know it. But recollect yourself. Does not God behold you? Is not the divine presence every where? What if you might hide your sin from the eyes of the world, you cannot hide it from God. No darkness nor shadow of death can screen you from his inspection. Beside, have you no reverence for yourself? Can you do that by yourself which you dare not have others observe? Is not your conscience as a thousand witnesses? Even a heathen could say, “When thou art tempted to commit sin, fear thyself without any other witness.”
Flavel brings up another lie: No one will know of your evil except for you. Yet, this is not true. (1) The Bible testifies that God is all-seeing, all-knowing, and ever-present. Whether you choose to give in to temptation or not, God is watching your every thought, your every action, and monitoring the state of your heart. He sees when it lusts after other things and He sees the terrible imaginings of your heart. It is an open book, exposed nakedly before Him. How can you carry out the desires of your flesh knowing that He is literally right beside you—even within you—knowing perfectly your every thought, motive, and action? It is as though you invite Him to partake in this evil with you. What does He think of these things? These things are a terrible stench to Him, reprehensible, detestable, and abominable. Your Lord, to Whom you confess singular allegiance, sees all. (2) Have you any jealousy for God in yourself? Turning from Him is the hatred of self. How else can we love our neighbor as ourselves if we do not love ourselves? No, this self-love is not the carnal sort that we have in common with unbelievers. This self-love is also not the kind that is self-seeking (as in hedonism), but is rather demonstrated in keeping the heart on God. For first God enables us to love Him with all heart, soul, and strength, then we come to love our neighbor from growing in the very same way that we learned to love Him. That is, our love for neighbor results directly from our love for God. We come to love our neighbor through obeying God’s commands from the heart. So it is with self-love. Having any sense at all (godly wisdom, the fear of the Lord) will drive us to reject sin as self-destructive. Thus it is that giving into temptation is an act of self-hatred and debasement.
3. The prospect of worldly advantage often enforces temptation. It is suggested, ‘Why should you be so nice and scrupulous? Give yourself a little liberty, and you may better your condition: now is your time.’ This is a dangerous temptation, and must be promptly resisted. Yielding to such a temptation will do your soul more injury than any temporal acquisition can possibly do you good. And what would it profit you, if you should gain the whole world and lose your own soul? What can be compared with the value of your spiritual interests? or what can at all compensate for the smallest injury of them?
The Corinthian church had the very same temptations. There was much worldly advantage to partaking in food sacrificed to idols, including monetary and social advantage. People in business are also likely aware of the temptation to bend the rules to earn more. Yet, seeking after personal liberty over the love of God and neighbor shows a heart that is not set on Him. This too, the Corinthian church was given towards. Rather, the heart after God does not ask, What kind of liberty or advantage can I have? but How can I live so that Christ may be glorified and my neighbor truly loved? Do not destroy yourself with such temptations, but pursue life and loyal, loving obedience. Any advantage you may think you have by yielding to temptation is destroyed when you realize that any and all true advantage is found only in Christ and in obedience to His commands.
Next time we will be looking at three more helps for the season of temptation.