to walk, to make one's way…

1 Corinthians 10:12-13

¹²  So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

¹³  No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

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A close friend and I were having a conversation about temptation and how it’s possible to be tempted even after we think that the temptation itself has passed.

One comparison we made relates to childhood.  Every child had some activity they would spend a whole day in the summer doing.  Mine was swimming and his was roller-skating, and then when you went to bed that night you felt like you were still in the water or still skating, etc.

I can even remember sometimes enjoying a video game too much and after hours of play having images of the game locked in my head.  Sometimes, you might even dream about the activity.

Maybe for you it’s some other activity.  But the point that we came to asking how much that same type of effect can be going on even subconsciously with a temptation or something we perceive as a little white lie or sin.

What if I am okay, for instance, with looking at other women, or entertain thoughts in my head when I look?  Or what if I constantly am willing to get loud and demanding with my children, and my thoughts at those points are always about how disrespectful and disobedient they are?  Is it possible that if I joke with a close friend about how dumb or lazy or whatever he is on a shared job site over and over again that it may some day lead to harm?  Will it lead me to believe that he is dumb or him to believe that I really think that, even though we always would tell anyone that it’s all in jest?

Maybe there is an opening we make with some of these seemingly not so dangerous habits.  If I constantly tease my wife about her being bad at X and then go to bed that night, what is the equivalent to dreaming about swimming or feeling like your legs are still pushing roller-skates?

I know some would say, ‘I’m not going to cheat on my wife because I notice and look at other women.”  “Or my friends and I at work joke all the time and no one gets their feelings hurt”, but my response would be “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”