The Role of Tempter

Luke 17:1, And he said to his disciples, "Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!"

Oh that we would listen to this! Yes, temptations abound but this shouldn’t cause us to lightly regard the role of a tempter. Of course we can play the tempter in any number of ways. However, given our American fascination with the physical body, we Christians need to be especially wary in dress. Though everyone else around us seems to “get away with” dressing seductively (women and men) and enticing the eyes of the opposite sex in an unholy way, we cannot justify doing the same and joining the ranks of tempters and temptresses.

There's no other way around it: those who cause others to sin will have to answer to God Himself for the failure of their brethren. It's hard enough for me to face the owner of some object I've borrowed and broken, even if he is a friend. How much worse will it be to face the Almighty Father of those we have wantonly led into sexual failure and face His righteous anger? And all because we thought we had to show of our bodies to get the affirmation we crave.

Oh that we would love God enough to realize His approval is all we need and that we would love each other enough to inconvenience ourselves for the sake of protecting one another (the kind of attitude Paul pled for in I Corinthians 8-10). God, open our eyes to see life is not about us but about You and those You have placed around us!