Naughty but nice was the advert in the slogan that ran on a series of adverts run through to the 1980s. The idea that eating cream cakes being somehow foreign to me, and also it would seem to me to be foreign to the advertisers too. If you think that cream is naughty you wouldn’t try to sell it, would you?

… into temptation

The Lord’s Prayer — Part 15

But that is exactly what temptation is about: “Make these stones into bread,” said Satan to Jesus … What could possibly be sinful about bread? It is not murder after all, is it?

That’s what temptation does, it shows you something that is good, and it distracts you from what you are supposed to be doing. Which is why it takes me so long to write these blogs. When I check on something online it is easy to follow the other links. Do not, just do not Google Naughty but nice. Not giving in to temptation is not easy.

CS Lewis said:

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.

I mentioned Jesus being tempted, and as usual, the other New Testament writers have a take on why things were done. The writer to the Hebrews put it this way, “For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” ) Heb 2:18.

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