You say How can I ask God to take away the thought of wanting to be rich? I have struggled financially all of my life and I have gotten to the point where I pray for winnings in the lottery. I don’t like thinking like this, so can you suggest a verse or prayer? Probably [...]
Answers about temptation
Yes. When someone becomes a Christian they still face difficulties and temptations like they did before they were a Christian. James, who was writing to Christians, makes it plain that they were still going to face temptations: Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be [...]
Wrong behaviour needs to be avoided. Gal 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, (20) idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, (21) envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will [...]
It is possible that the first temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness was the temptation to turn stones into bread: both Matthew and Luke have this as the first mentioned temptation in their narratives (see Mat. 4:3 and Luke 4:3). However, the order of the second and third temptations in Matthew and Luke is reversed, [...]
All our temptations come from the natural instinct of independent biological organisms to self-optimize; that is, to improve their standard of living, to reproduce, and to take steps to survive (Genesis 3:6, Romans 7:23, James 1:14). Angels are not biological organisms (in the sense that they are not made of fallible biological material like we [...]
The record of Amnon raping his sister is in 2 Sam. 13:1-22. Basically, Amnon falls in love with Tamar, and his desire grows until he concocts a plan to try to have sex with her. Tamar is a better person than Amnon, and she resists the seduction, so Amnon adds more sin to his list [...]
Proverbs 5:3-4 says: {3} For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, {4} but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. This is warning us that an adulterer or an adulteress is pleasing to listen to (their words are pleasing to [...]
This question is based on Proverbs 5 from the JPS translation: Proverbs 5:3-5 (JPS) For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on the nether-world; [...]
It is extremely remarkable, and demonstrates the enormous strength of character Jesus had. No doubt it would have been a help that he was the Son of God and that he was in close communication with his Father. But the power that he was given as the consequence of his sonship would have greatly magnified [...]
The devil is an allegory, the personification of temptation. The following details support the suggestion that the ‘temptation’ in the wilderness in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 is an allegory probably told to the disciples by Jesus himself, not a literal event with a literal tempter figure (angelic or human) following Jesus. Some of the [...]
