How Jesus Responded To Temptation

Perhaps one of the first teachings that Jesus gave was by example:

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led in the Spirit in the wilderness
during forty days, being tempted of the devil. And he did eat nothing in those days: and when they were completed, he hungered.
And the devil said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it become bread.
And Jesus answered unto him, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone.
And he led him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall all be thine.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
And he led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to guard thee:
and, On their hands they shall bear thee up, Lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone.
And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God.
And when the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him for a season.
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and a fame went out concerning him through all the region round about. [Luke 4:1-14]

In verse one we see that Jesus was led of the spirit in this ordeal. We also know that this happened immediately after the spirit descended upon him and the father spoke at his baptism. He was led of the spirit to fast for 40 days. As the verse says he was very hungry.

Jesus was tempted with food to break the fast because he was obviously very hungry, with power and glory to be over all the kingdom’s which were now in the devil’s power, and with acting out in pride by jumping out foolishly and commanding angels to catch him.

In each case Jesus quoted from the word of God. In response to the temptation to change of the stones to bread, he quoted from Deuteronomy 8:3:

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by everything that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live. [Deut 8:3]

In response to the temptation to worship the devil in order to receive all the power of the kingdoms with all of their glory he quoted Deuteronomy 6:3:

Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God; and him shalt thou serve, and shalt swear by his name. [Deut 6:13]

In response to the temptation to jump from the pinnacle of the Temple, Jesus quoted Deut 6:16

You shall not tempt Jehovah your God [Deut 6:16 NKJV]

Seeing as Jesus’ first response was that man that needed to live by every word that came out of the mouth of God, he taught this by living by every word that came out of the mouth of God in these three temptations.

There are numerous hypotheses about what the temptations mean. Some say that these temptations were ways that he could show he was the Messiah in manifesting his power to feed the hungry, rule kingdoms, and display a great miraculous power. Certainly those are things that we might be tempted with. The book of Hebrews says that Jesus was tempted in all ways, yet was without sin.

There are certainly a lot of points that could be made about these particular temptations. For example, just because someone is a believer should they take risks quoting the verse that says that God has numbered the hairs on their head? That looks a lot like the third temptation above where Jesus says we’re not to try the Lord. Or how about “understandable” sins like stealing food? The first temptation and response would lead us to follow the track that we should believe that God will provide.

But, in fact, the details and meanings of the temptations are not explained. What is explained is Jesus’ response. Jesus responded to temptation by saying and doing the word of God.

That is the lesson to us.

Original Christianity

This web is a look at primitive, original Christianity, how it developed over time into innumerable denominations and divisions and how original Christianity compares to current practices. It is a resource for looking systematically at the beliefs and practices in the original Christian church, numerous movements and churches since, the modern Christian church, with discussion about how all these changes happened and especially focusing on how well each of these compares to scripture.

Why?

"Jesus Christ is Lord" is the common belief of billions of Christians. But there are tens of thousands of denominations. While ancient denominations like the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox claim to be the original and consequently "true" church, innumerable churches and denominations have started citing error in these ancient bastions and/or the leading of the spirit to reform the church and restore the church.

There are numerous disputed issues. Cessation doctrine (prophecy and the gifts of the spirit ended with the apostles), infant baptism, the inerrancy of Scripture, the form of Church government, the role of women in the church, and currently, the acceptance of homosexuality are just some of the many disputed doctrines that cause the Christian body to be so divided.

The Reformation movement performed an invaluable service. But instead of simply reforming the church or simply working to create one more correct alternative church the Reformation movement worked to increase the number of disputes over scripture and consequently the number of splits has increased exponentially.

The problem with looking at all the denominations is that it can become confusing to just compare this church or denomination to that one. The complexity of looking at all the theological implications can become overwhelming. For many busy people that means just making the best, less than fully educated decision they can, and staying with the church of their heritage or finding a church where they feel they can grow. Just finding the information can be an overwhelming task. Putting it into some understandable framework is an even more complicated task.

This web site, rather than trying to just compare all the current positions on the differences goes back to the beginning (primitive, original Christianity) and evaluates Christianity starting at that point. This includes looking at the gospel accounts, but also includes looking at early church documents as well as other ancient documents, both secular and religious. (There is also a section on Philosophy because its profound impact on Christian theological development.) The articles have numerous references to works both in print and online.

Next the web site looks at the developments in Christianity from original Christianity forward to see how the church developed over time comparing each development with what we know about original Christianity. The goals are:

To trace the development of the church from start to now to see how the church at large wound up with all these competing churches/denominations today, and

To equip people with the knowledge of original Christianity to enable people to make an informed decision on what is the true faith and practice of the church Jesus Christ started.

For an overview of the articles by category, go to the Table of Contents Page.

This is a work in progress. My prayer is that sharing my journey is helpful to you and that together we can grow in the faith that Jesus Christ made available some two thousand years ago.

Also Please Pardon our Dust. There are hundreds of posts and some of them still have typos. If you find typos You can contact Mark at [email protected]. Please be so kind as to mention the name of the post as well as to copy and paste the section with errors. Thank you and God Bless You.

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