Sexual sin: Mankind's greatest weakness

Have you ever looked closely at the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness (see Luke 4:1-13)? Satan came to Him when He had been fasting for 40 days and He was desperately hungry, and he tempted Him to turn stones into bread. He also tempted Him to become a Satan-worshipper, and to commit suicide.

Jesus resisted each temptation by quoting the Scriptures, and that ended the temptation for a time. So there’s a good clue for us when it comes to dealing with the enemy and the temptation to sin. Ephesians 6:17 tells us that part of our armor is the “Sword of the Spirit” which is the Word of God. Don’t leave the sword in its sheath. Bind it to your hand. Always be ready for an attack, and don’t hesitate to quote it out loud.

We are also told of Jesus: “For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus was tempted in the same ways we are tempted. So it wouldn’t be unbiblical to say that He was tempted to commit sexual sin, but He never did — not even in thought. Why then don’t we see Satan tempting Jesus to lust, when He was in the desert?

Sexual sin is clearly our greatest weakness. It has toppled kings, politicians, priests, and pastors. Men have given up their children, their wives, their careers, their reputations, and their even their hope of Heaven, for sexual pleasures. So why didn’t Satan give Jesus a vision of a bathing Bathsheba or a lusty Potiphar’s wife?

Perhaps it was because sexual sin is blatant. It’s not even subtle. It doesn’t come as a seeming legitimate satisfying of intense hunger with bread, or simply paying homage to the legitimate god of this world, or a sincere belief that a kind God will catch you if you throw yourself off a cliff.

Sexual sin is flagrant and stupid. It’s insane. It’s the senseless moth flying directly into the devouring flame, when it already sees dead and smoldering moths at its base. Our brains are bigger than the brain of a moth. They have an excuse for stupidity. We don’t.