Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Tempted or Tested?

by Dave Wilkinson

James 1:2-5, Matthew 6:9-13a

July 2, 2000

Bill Gaffney always seemed to bring home a load of fish. It was uncanny. People wondered how he could be so successful. One evening a stranger asked to go fishing with Bill. They started early the next day and went across the lake to a secluded area. The stranger noticed that Bill did not have a fishing pole--just a rusty old tackle box and a net. When they got to the appointed place, Bill opened the box, pulled out a stick of dynamite, lit it, and tossed it into the water. It blew up, the fish rose to the surface, and Bill put the fish into his boat.

The stranger then revealed from his hip pocket the credentials of a game warden! Calmly, Bill once again opened his tackle box, got out another stick of dynamite, lit the fuse and handed it to the warden. Then, as the fuse burned down, he asked, "Are you going to fish or are you just going to sit there?"

That's temptation.

Now when we pray: "lead us not into temptation"--are we asking God: "Please don't stick any dynamite in my hand!?" Why would we have to ask God not to do something like that. After all, Jesus tells us that God is not sadistic. Remember how He told the people: "Which one of you, if your son asked for a fish, would give him a poisonous snake instead? If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God, who is perfect, give good gifts to His children?" Here at this table we remember how Jesus gave is own life for us. We can be sure that the one who loved us enough to die for us isn’t going to turn around and hand us a bomb.

So why do we pray this prayer?

We’ve already taken one look at this part of the Lord's Prayer. Remember that this is not a prayer for freedom from temptation but a prayer for safety in temptation. Our prayer is that when we are assailed by temptation and when evil desires are aroused, that we will have the grace and strength to resist, and that the voice of Christ through His word will sound stronger in our ears than the voice of the tempter. "I know that temptation must come, for there can be no life with free will without temptation. But when it comes, do not abandon me to it--do not deliver me helpless into its power."

This morning I want to look at this passage, this phrase a second time. This time I want to focus on a second major issue -- the profound difference between tempting us, which God does not do--and testing us which God does do.

Let me give a definition of temptation so that we understand the difference between temptation and testing. To tempt means to break a person's will by gradual, usually indirect means. It's usually gradual so that a person is lured toward a direction in which he or she makes bad decisions which then bring on the harm. Temptation is usually subtle. All of us know and experience what this looks like.

But temptation must not be confused with testing. In testing a strain is allowed or placed on you, but the strain is placed there in order to strengthen you, not to break you.

Everyone who is involved in any kind of growth experience knows what testing is all about--that it is different from temptation--even though the same Greek word, "parotil", is used for both. For example, this is the word that is used in the sixth chapter of John where he records the feeding of the 5000. Our Lord called the disciples together and said to Philip, "How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" Then John says, "this Jesus said to test him"--not to break him but to test him, to put a strain on Him; a good creative healthy strain to help Philip see how much he’s learned and where he still needs growth. Out of that question, a miracle occurs. That's not temptation. In fact, the New Testament in the book of James, assures us that God tempts no one. The same word, "parotil", used again, He tempts no one. He tests, yes. Like a great coach, like a good teacher, like a master builder, He places strain upon you. He disciplines you and me in order to help us to reach our full stride. That's not temptation. That's testing.

But, you know, very often the precise boundary between healthy testing and harmful temptation may be very hard to detect. So let me give a physical illustration that, I hope, will help us grasp the difference.

Up in Seattle is Boeing Aircraft. I read some time ago about a man who worked on the attachment of the Boeing 707 engine to the wing. This man's job focus was on the one major bolt that attached each huge engine to the wing. When the 707 was first built there was a test which the Federal Aviation Administration required. They have crack test pilots and they fly over a large open area north of Everett. They flew the 707 and placed it in a power dive right at the very edges and limits of its stress capabilities and then pulled it out of the power dive. Now at a certain point where the engine, because of its huge weight, would rip that wing off, at precisely that critical point the bolt is supposed to let go and the engine is supposed to pop off. In other words, I'd rather have the engine pop off than to have the wing fall off or rip out. Without the engine the plane can glide. That's the whole logic of the way that airplane was designed.

Well, a Boeing test pilot was the one who had to prove that it would do it. Imagine the strain and stresses that were placed in that test upon the plane, stresses beyond anything the plane would ever normally be asked to endure. But it was done to prove that the bolt would sever, that the engine would fall off, (hopefully not on some California tourist down on Interstate 5, but that it would fall off). Evidently, it did because the plane was certified for use and people fly in it and have for many years.

Now that test is very close to peril too great for the equipment to bear. But it is, nevertheless, a test. It is not a temptation. The purpose of the test is to make the plane work. The purpose is creative and positive, not negative and destructive.

However, I'm also sure the Boeing 707 in the power dive didn't think "look what a wonderful growth experience the FAA is giving me." It probably felt, I’m going to crash." And that's why I felt it was important for us to look at the difference between testing and temptation in our lives. We need to understand the difference because we won't always feel the difference when it happens. The difference is sometimes very hard to detect. But one thing is clear. The goals are opposite. Temptation is for destruction. Testing is for growth. And this means that we need to search out the goals of the tests that come to us so we will know how to respond. We need to know the difference. For we are told to resist temptation — to flee from it — but to embrace testing and rejoice in it. James 1:2-3: "Count it all joy when you experience various trials because you

Are we being tempted or tested when we fall under stress and come to a place of decision? The difference is in the goals. And God will show us the goals as we come to Him in prayer. As James writes in chapter 1 verse 5, immediately after he speaks of rejoicing in testing: "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach."

We are promised wisdom here. As we pray, God will show us the difference. So let us pray.

Note The illustration on the Boeing 707 and the definition of temptation were adapted from a sermon by Dr. Earl Palmer preached at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley.