day no. 12,860: temptation yielded to is lust deified‏

Just another morning with my pal Oswald.

 

Temptation is a suggested short cut to the realization of the highest at which I aim – not towards what I understand as evil, but towards what I understand as good. Temptation is something that completely baffles me for a while, I do not know whether the thing is right or wrong. Temptation yielded to is lust deified, and is a proof that it was timidity that prevented the sin before.

We are not tempted to do what we think is bad.
We are tempted to do what we think is best for us.

We are tempted to side with Satan and choose fruit from forbidden trees because we distrust the counsel of the Sovereign.

We want what is best for us.

Without any command necessary, we seek our best.

When we sin, we are seeking what we think is best.

That is the heaviest tragedy of sin: we think short cuts are better than sanctification.

Another tragedy of sin is that we often sidestep sin, not because we agree with God, but because we are worried what God would do to us if we did what we really wanted to do.

We are too timid to act upon our deepest desires (or at least some of them).

So some our victories are to a certain degree owed not to our character, but to our cowardice.

James 1:13-15

¹³ No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone.¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires.¹⁵ Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.