Only God’s word can shield us from Satan’s temptations

THERE is a great demand for our attention in this world we live in. We are being propositioned from every side whether it is to change our household insurance or our cellphone contracts, or for our time.

I presume companies are entitled to offer us better value for money or improved services. I suppose this is how a free market economy works.

We are also consistently being propositioned for our souls. This is unseen as it happens in the spiritual realm. We belong to God and Satan is constantly trying to wrestle us from the hand of God.

The manifestations of this battle are in our moral conduct. Society has shifted gradually to a morality that is sometimes devoid of the precepts and virtues of the Kingdom of God as revealed in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5.

We are called to be people portraying the character of Jesus Christ, our light. This requires us to subscribe to a moral code of which the essence is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This shift from a biblical moral code can be attributed to the temptations from the forces of darkness.

The Bible relates to this in the narrative of the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3 verse 1-7. Humanity succumbs to the tempter Satan and suffers the consequences.

However, there is another narrative of temptation in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 4 verses 1-11. In this narrative Jesus is tempted by Satan but responds with the word of God. It is this very word of God that holds the key to overcome the temptations of evil. It is this word that needs to return to its rightful place in our lives.

The apathy regarding this spiritual discipline of engaging the word of God is creating a sense of hopelessness in lives of people.

The word of God gives hope through faith in Jesus Christ because it provides two fundamental spiritual gifts, that of repentance and forgiveness.

Temptation leads to sin, but there is no need to despair as Jesus forgives when we truly repent. Psalm 32:5 (NIV) reveals how we need to repent and how forgiveness is received: “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

Revd Canon Relton Hewitt Groepe is an assistant priest in the parish of St Hugh, Newton Park, and part of a five-member team that co-ordinates the transformation process in the Anglican diocese of Port Elizabeth.