Wright: the meaning of temptation

Saturday, March 8, 2014
    Commemoration of Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, Priest, Poet, 1929
Meditation:
    Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
    —Luke 4:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian discipline of fighting temptation is not about self-hatred, or rejecting parts of our God-given humanity. It is about celebrating God’s gift of full humanity and, like someone learning a musical instrument, discovering how to tune it and play it to its best possibility. At the heart of our resistance to temptation is love and loyalty to the God who has already called us his beloved children in Christ, and who holds out before us the calling to follow him in the path which leads to the true glory. In that glory lies the true happiness, the true fulfilment, which neither world, nor flesh, nor devil can begin to imitate.
    ... N. T. Wright (b. 1948), Luke for Everyone, Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p. 44-45 (see the book)
    See also Luke 4:1-13; Matt. 6:13; 26:41; Mark 14:38; Luke 11:4; 22:40,46; 1 Cor. 10:13; 1 Pet. 4:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Am I enjoying the fruits of obedience? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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