You Shall Not Tempt the Lord Your God

You Shall Not Tempt the Lord Your God

In 1 John 2:12-17 we read that John writes to those who fear God—both to those who are older and younger—and exhorts them not to love the world, neither the things that are in the world! “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; for all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

When a person reads this and still uses his eyes to look at or his ears to listen to the pride of life, then he is tempting God. Someone who loves the world cannot expect God to preserve him or give him revelation in God’s Word when he takes up the Bible to receive light in the Word of God. That is tempting God. It is a kind of comfort to them that they also read God’s Word, and some people even boast of having read through the whole Bible several times.

In Isaiah 33:14-24 we read that he who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, he who despises the gain of oppression, who gestures with his hands refusing bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil, he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; bread will be given him; his water will be sure. His eyes will see the King in His beauty; they will see the land that is very far off.

Then you can read further about the glory that awaits those who do not tempt God. Then you truly live before God; otherwise it is only hypocrisy. We read in Galatians 6:7-8, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”