The Six T's in Living Life - Part 3

The Six T's in Living Life    Part 3

Navigating Life from

Trials to Triumph and Testimony

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I encourage you to read Part 1 and 2 before Part 3

Click Here for Part 1,       Click Here for Part 2

Knowing if you are in a test or a temptation.

Finding Joy in our Trials

Was Jesus really tempted?

Abraham Tested  Genesis 22:1-3

1Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied.2Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."3Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

I did not give high school a good effort.  Easily earning A's and B's in math and science helped my 83 overall average for the four years.  You can imagine my grades in English, history, and other humanity courses where I should have studied.   

When I started college I came to a change of attitude about study so I could stay.  By the third semester I was making all A's and B's because I studied!- Hard!  The library was my best study buddy from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm.  The Trial of college, the hard difficult work, the impossible odds of staying in college, and the achievement of excellent grades taught me the Joy of the Trial in passing Tests.  As I struggled through college, even in my last year, I would get discouraged during the semester, but remind myself of the results of hard work and the joy it would bring!  In that, I even found joy learning to side step professors’ discouragement they would sometimes put on us.  In the end, I more than passed the Tests of the semester.

Caring About Your Trials

In our trials, we truly should care to know the difference between a test and a temptation and be especially aware that any trial begins with a test and can easily slide into a temptation.  It is about preparation and attitude prior to the trial.  Based on an individual, a trial may be a test for one person and a temptation for the other.  As you will see below, a test is a very positive trial. But when we are in a trial, a test can become a temptation easily leading to sin, and in sin, life can become deadly.

I was raised to tell the truth and be honest in all that I do.  The Joy I found in the Trials and Testing of college is that I can truthfully say that I never fell into the temptation of cheating.  I was tested but I can never remember being Tempted to cheat and succumb to temptation for better grades.  Now, with that said, imagine trying to say the last two sentences with just one word for 'test', 'tempted', and 'temptation'.  Such is the way in the ancient Biblical manuscripts.  One word is used for the verbs and associated nouns of 'to test' and 'to tempt'.

Understanding Biblical ‘testing’ / ‘temptation’,

New insights to Jesus being tested or tempted

In the Bible, from Genesis 22 when Abraham was tested about using his son Isaac as a sacrifice, to Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, and in James, Chapter 1, writing about being tested, the same basic Greek and Hebrew equivalent verb is used.  That word is 'peirasmos', pronounced 'pi-rad'-zo'.   The challenge in understanding 'Testing' and 'Temptation' in the ancient Greek, is that peirasmos can be used to convey tempting and to mean testing.   Based on how the Greek verb is used and in the context of the writing determines what the verb's meaning is in that context.

The translation of peirasmos resulting in "tempt/tempted/temptation" of the Greek  word is done in the following manner.  If the trial is where a person is being (1)- maliciously or craftily enticed/seduced to sin, or (2)- to be made to fall or become hurt, or (3)- to be made weaker physically or mentally, or (4) to be pulled from God's purpose, then in these cases, the verb tempt and the noun temptation are used in the translation. 

Contrarily, a person is in a trial in a positive manner if the person's trial is (1)- judgment for fitness for a specific job, or (2)- tried to be strengthen, or to be made stronger (physically, mentally, or spiritually, or (4)  being evaluated or refined for pureness,  wisdom,  and/or correctness, or (5)  an attempt or endeavor to achieve a worthy goal, then, the 'peirasmos' is translated as testing.

How ‘peirasmos’ applies to us,

One person’s test is another person’s temptation

A simple example of how a trial can be a test or a temptation depending on the individual. A teacher announces an evaluation of knowledge commonly known as a test.  For all of us in school, tests were/are a trial!  One student studies and comes prepared, but another student of similar intelligence does not.  The prepared student comes to the test with a more positive attitude about what the outcome will be.  With being prepared and careful test taking, the student completes the test with no need to look around for answers.  But, the unprepared student begins the test becoming immediately challenged and starts looking elsewhere for answers.  In the "looking" the trial of being tested becomes a temptation to cheat.  Upon finding an answer from another person’s paper, the temptation continues with more cheating.

Few evaluations in school result in death, but if in temptation a person continues to cheat, the result can be getting caught.  In being caught enough, expulsion from school can occur.  It is not death, but life, if the situation is desiring money, one has many choices.  Some of those choices are temptations and in executing those temptations the result can be death, such as robbing a store and being shot by the owner of the store.

So, a test can be a positive trial with just a test or it can result in temptation, temptation leading to death.

Eliminating Temptation

We should want to eliminate temptation from our lives.  It begins by depending on God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  We have to prepare ourselves for trials so that the trial is only a positive test resulting in some level of success.

When we depend on God, we build up a trust in God in moving from one trial to the next, and one level of trial to a higher level of trial as we prove ourselves of worth .  As long as we are depending on Trusting God then we have a Firewall to Temptation.

In Part 4, the testing of Abraham will be discussed, and the temptation of  Jesus will be compared to Abraham in Part 5.  During these discussions we must keep in mind the temptations of Jesus and wonder to what extent, "Was Jesus really tempted?"  The answer just might cause you to keep your life's focus on a greater Trust in God!  After all, He was the Perfect Leader and He did set the Perfect Example for us to follow.

Something to Think About

Can we fall into temptation without succumbing to temptation, meaning can we in the trial slip over to being tempted and return to just being tested?  How can we plan and seek to avoid temptation?  These are great questions to answer before serious trials come to our lives.

Thanks Be To God

© lonnie coggins

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