Unfortunately, this is not a blog with all the answers. I don’t have the “Seven Steps to Defeat Any Temptation.” Sorry to disappoint. When it comes to temptation, I doubt there are any “one size fits all” solutions. If so, two thousand years of church history has failed to uncover them.
Rather than tell you how to beat temptation next time it rears its ugly head, I want to point you to the wisdom of Proverbs. The seventh chapter tells a story that illustrates the nature of temptation and gives some wise advice on what to do about it.
The Seduction
When we think of Proverbs, we often think of the pithy turns of phrase that fill most of the book. For example, Proverbs 16:18: “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.”
But the first nine chapters of Proverbs are actually more narrative. They tell a story, depicting a father giving advice to a coming-of-age son. The son is instructed again and again to pursue wisdom, personified in chapter nine as a woman inviting all into her home for a banquet:
Wisdom has built her house; she has carved out seven pillars. She has prepared her meat; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. Proverbs 9:1-2
But in chapter seven, the father warns his son that others will vie for his attention. He does so by telling a story.
At the window of my house
I looked through my lattice.
I saw among the inexperienced,
I noticed among the youths,
a young man lacking sense.
Crossing the street near her corner,
he strolled down the road to her house
at twilight, in the evening,
in the dark of the night. Proverbs 7:6-9
The father looks out through his window and sees a young man out on the streets. What is the young man doing out at night? Where is he going?
A woman came to meet him
dressed like a prostitute,
having a hidden agenda…
Now in the street, now in the squares,
she lurks at every corner. Proverbs 7:10,12
The young man meets a woman “dressed like a prostitute.” She is portrayed like a predator on the hunt. And the young man is just the kind of vulnerable prey she’s looking for.
Over the next four verses, she begins to entice him, engaging each of his five senses. She grabs and kisses him (touch), speaks seductively to him (hearing), describes the richly colored linen on her bed (sight) and the fragrances of her perfumed bedroom (smell). And she’s recently made fellowship offerings, which means she has delicious food to share as well (taste).
The reader gets the sense that she’s luring him in. As each sense is engaged, his guard goes down just a little bit. Finally, she bags her prey with this clincher:
My husband isn’t home;
he went on a long journey.
He took a bag of silver with him
and will come home at the time of the full moon. Proverbs 7:19-20
“My husband is gone,” she says. “So no one will ever know.” It’s not until the young man is assured that he can get away with it that he finally gives in.
He follows her impulsively
like an ox going to the slaughter…
like a bird darting into a snare—
he doesn’t know it will cost him his life. Proverbs 7:22-23
Don’t Go That Way
Does this story resonate? Perhaps it’s the sight of the merchandise at Target that’s calling to you as you stroll down one aisle after another. Or the secrecy of your bedroom where you can be assured that you’re alone. In those moments the temptation becomes overwhelming as our senses are engaged. We begin to justify our actions and we quickly calculate that we can probably get away with it. Eventually, giving in feels easier than resisting. And we’re lured in like a bird darting into a snare.
After relating this short story to his son, the wise father of Proverbs offers some advice. He doesn’t say, “when you find yourself in that moment of temptation, start praying like crazy” or “call your friend and ask for help” (though I’m certain those are good ideas!). Instead, he says this:
Don’t let your heart turn aside to her ways;
don’t stray onto her paths. Proverbs 7:25
The father recognizes that the young man’s first mistake was being outside alone at night, walking near the prostitute’s house. While the young man could have walked away at any moment of his interaction with the woman, he never should have “strayed onto her paths.” Whether or not the young man technically sinned until he went to bed with her, wisdom says that he never should have been nearby in the first place.
Sin is a Downstream Problem
Sin is more complex than we may give it credit for. We tend to think of sin as the result of one bad decision. But often sin is the result of a dozen, or a hundred, or a thousand bad decisions. If sin is a downstream problem, then we need an upstream solution. If sin is an 11 PM problem, then perhaps we need a 5 PM solution.
That’s the lesson of this story. Often, the best way to beat temptation is to avoid it. Wisdom, the other woman in the story, is knowing our weaknesses and avoiding them. Make a better decision upstream, and you’re less likely to fail downstream. If you don’t need to go down that aisle at Target, avoid it. If being alone in your bedroom with your phone is a temptation, don’t take it in there with you. Know your vulnerabilities, and try to avoid situations where you’re more likely to fail.
I realize this sounds simplistic, and I don’t want to be naive. We can’t always avoid temptation and avoidance isn’t a cure for the heart. The goal of Christian discipleship is transformation into Christlikeness, not just “avoiding sin.”
But even if Proverbs doesn’t offer a cure for our sin-prone hearts, it does offer practical everyday wisdom. For the same reason we shouldn’t take our recovering alcoholic friend to the bar on Friday night, we also shouldn’t stray into the paths of temptation in our own lives.
Let’s acknowledge our vulnerabilities and avoid starting down the wrong path. Because it’s a lot harder to get off the wrong path than it is to avoid it altogether.
