1 Corinthians 10: 1-13 (links validated 2/25/25a)

In The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis recounts a conversation about temptation between Screwtape, the senior devil, and Wormwood, the junior devil who’s also Screwtape’s nephew. Screwtape says: “’You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy [God]. “It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their accumulative effect is to edge the man away from the light and toward the Nothing. Murder is not better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

always good insights!

In his commentary on his own delightful poem, “Stones into Bread,” in his book, The Word in the Wilderness, Malcolm Guite writes about our temptation to corrupt what’s good. He creatively links all three of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness to not only each other, but also to Jesus’ followers. In regard to temptation that our “own bodily appetites and needs” generate, Guite writes, “We are tempted to serve first our own creature comforts, to tend to our obsessions and addictions before we have even considered the needs of others. Then we move on to the deeper temptations to feed not just the body but its driving ego, with its lust for power, the need to dominate the world. “We may have overcome the first temptation only because we are captivated and driven by the second. We diet, and discipline our flesh in gyms and health clubs, we submit our appetites to the dictates of personal trainers and three-month fitness plans, but only because we hope thereby to sharpen our image so as to shine and succeed in the world.”

In her article, “A Long Obedience,” (The Christian Century: January 7, 2015) Katherine Willis Pershey writes about a “way out” of temptation that God gave her: “It is strange to think of a particular person as the person with whom I did not have an affair … And yet there is one man I cannot help but think of as the man with whom I did not cheat on Benjamin. “We had no improper physical contact, no inappropriately intimate conversations. I don’t even know if the attraction was mutual. There was, however, temptation. I felt desire… When I realized that I had feelings for this man, I was shocked. I dearly love my husband, to whom I have been married—mostly happily, and decidedly faithfully—for more than a decade...

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("I recall a young man who was killed outside a bar in 1976. Neil was the brother of a friend of mine. He was out with his girl friend for a quiet evening. He was minding his own business when he got assaulted. People, talking about the incident, were heard to say things like: 'Well, if he hadn't gone to the bar he wouldn't have been killed.'..." and another illustration)