temptation
Temptation
Temptation in Scripture is the pull toward what the flesh, the world, or the devil present as good but that would draw us from God. Jesus was tempted in all points (Hebrews 4:15); he met each temptation with Scripture. The biblical pattern for resisting is neither willpower nor withdrawal but watchfulness, prayer, and — sometimes — flight (Joseph, 2 Timothy 2:22).
Further reading
- John Owen — Of Temptation (1658)
- Dallas Willard — The Spirit of the Disciplines, HarperSanFrancisco (1988)
- Jerry Bridges — Respectable Sins, NavPress (2007)