Also called: tempted, enticed, the tempter, testing, lead us not into temptation, the pull to sin
This subject covers the pull toward sin, where Scripture says it comes from, and the way of escape promised with it. Turning back after giving in belongs to Repentance. The enemy who brings it belongs to The enemy.
What Temptation covers, and where it stops
This subject covers the pull toward sin, where Scripture says it comes from, and the way of escape promised with it. Turning back after giving in belongs to Repentance. The enemy who brings it belongs to The enemy.
On this page, 6 sections
The one drawing
Across the canon
Old Testament
New Testament
The other 58 books of the canon carry none.
12 passages
Where Scripture speaks
The passages this subject stands on, in canon order.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.Test me, O LORD, and try me; examine my heart and mind.Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’“Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it.Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Temptation in Scripture, in full
Temptation is the pull toward something wrong, dressed up to look good. It touches everyone: kings, prophets, ordinary people, and even Jesus himself. To understand it, Scripture starts in a garden.
The first temptation came from a serpent, and it followed a pattern that repeats ever since. The tempter cast doubt on what God had said, twisted it slightly, and made the forbidden fruit look desirable: good for food, pleasing to the eye, and able to make a person wise (Genesis 3:6). Eve looked at the fruit instead of looking to God. That single shift, trusting her own eyes over God's word, is the heart of every temptation that has followed.
Temptation itself is not sin. It only becomes sin when a person gives in to it. James explains that a person is tempted when drawn away by their own desire and enticed by it (James 1:14). The pull is not the failure. The yielding is.
Scripture never blames God for temptation. James states plainly that God does not tempt anyone (James 1:13). Instead, temptation comes from three directions: the pressure of the world, the desires of the flesh, and the direct attacks of the enemy. At times God allows a test that reveals what is already in a person's heart, the way he tested Israel in the wilderness to see what was there (Deuteronomy 8:2). But a test that reveals character is a different thing from a temptation that pulls toward sin.
The clearest picture of victory over temptation is Jesus himself. Right after his baptism, the Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1). For forty days he was hungry, alone, and pressed from the same angles that trip up everyone: the appetite of the body, the desire for power, and the temptation to test God instead of trust him. Each time, Jesus answered from Scripture rather than arguing on the devil's terms. When he had finished, the tempter left him.
This matters for every believer, because it means Jesus knows exactly what temptation feels like. Hebrews says he was tempted in every way a person can be tempted, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15), and because of that, he is able to help those who are being tempted (Hebrews 2:18). He is not a distant judge looking down at human weakness. He is a High Priest who has stood in the same fire.
Paul gives one of the most comforting promises in Scripture about temptation: no test comes that is beyond what a person can endure, and with every temptation God provides a way of escape, so that a person is able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13). Temptation can be strong, but it is never inescapable. There is always a door out, even when it is hard to see in the moment.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray that God would not lead them into temptation but deliver them from evil (Matthew 6:13), and in the garden of Gethsemane he told them to watch and pray so that they would not enter into temptation (Matthew 26:41). Prayer and watchfulness go together. Temptation is not defeated by willpower alone but by staying close to God and honest about weakness.
James closes the subject with simple, strong counsel: submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee (James 4:7). The pull toward sin is real, but so is the way of escape, and it was walked first by Jesus, in the wilderness, for everyone who would follow him out of it.
5 voices
What teachers have said
They that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare of the devil, and into foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
John Chrysostom · Homily on Matthew 74
Written before 407.
Many do not bear it but are conquered by temptation. What God gives us is not the certainty that we shall bear it but the possibility that we may be made able to bear it.
Origen of Alexandria · On First Principles 3.2.3
Written before 253.
Then the devil left him: and behold, angels came and ministered to him. Temptation precedes victory. Angels minister, to demonstrate the dignity of the victor.
Jerome · Commentary on Matthew
Written before 420.
But as Satan transfigures himself into an Angel of light, and spreads a snare for the faithful, even from the divine Scriptures, so now he uses its texts, not to instruct but to receive.
Ambrose of Milan · Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Written before 397.
Why is this written if we are now so endowed that by the strength of our free will we are able to overcome all temptations merely by bearing them?
Augustine of Hippo · Letter 179, to Bishop John
Written before 430.
The words underneath
Each card is one Hebrew or Greek word behind temptation. It gives the sense, the count across the canon, and the number in Strong's 1890 concordance.
peirasmos: temptation/testing: testing
Greek · G3986Strong's entry: a putting to proof (by experiment (of good), experience (of evil), solicitation, discipline or provocation); by implication, adversity
peirasmós — trial or temptation, the test that can strengthen or ensnare
21 times in the New Testament · peirasmos, in full →
peirazo: to test/tempt: try
Greek · G3985Strong's entry: to test (objectively), i.e. endeavor, scrutinize, entice, discipline
God proves, the enemy ensnares
37 times in the New Testament · peirazo, in full →
nasah: to test
Hebrew · H5254Strong's entry: to test; by implication, to attempt
nâçâh — to test, as God tested Abraham and Israel in the wilderness
36 times in the Old Testament · nasah, in full →
bachan: to test
Hebrew · H974Strong's entry: to test (especially metals); generally and figuratively, to investigate
bâchan — to test as metal in fire, proving what is genuine
29 times in the Old Testament · bachan, in full →
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