These three are the outstanding sins of America. Dan Crawford came out
of Africa into civilization just about the time the “newer” forms
of dancing were having their first popularity. He made the startling
statement that he had seen all of these unspeakably vile dances in
pagan Africa. In America, he said, they were only in a new setting.
Essentially they were the same, and _they were for the same purpose_.
What we call the gross sin of the African flourishes in every civilized
land.
Those who read a business man’s article, published several years ago in
_The Sunday School Times_, on “The Sin That We Are Afraid to Mention,”
will not soon forget his arraignment of the awful sin of covetousness,
“which is idolatry.” And it was _in the Christian church_ that this
layman found the black sin that Christians keep quiet about. What then
shall be said of covetousness in the business world?
There is finally that climax of all sins of America, and of man, the
sin of pride, most subtle and most pervading of all, the sin that will
culminate in man’s final defiance of God. Saddest of all, it is this
sin which appears at its ugliest when it takes the form of spiritual
pride in the life of one who is zealous to serve God and to be wholly
yielded to him.
In a message that S. D. Gordon gave on temptation he remarked that
there are three chief avenues by which Satan reaches men. He stated
the three in these brief words: “Sex,” “Money,” “I.” It is exactly
the classification that God makes in his Word. If, by his grace, we
get victory at these three points, then indeed are we free from the
dominion of sin.
So much for the _sin_ that results when man falls before one or another
of these temptations. But what of the temptations themselves? How do
they affect a Christian who is trusting Christ for victory? What is the
practical bearing on the common temptations that meet us in everyday
life? Then there is the final, most important question, what is the
way to prevent these desires from conceiving and bringing forth sin?
Why Not Freedom from Temptation?
A _Sunday School Times_ reader has written of his experience. “It is
not a temptation for me to take a glass of beer; there is nothing in me
that requires or desires it; but sometimes it might be and has been a
strong temptation to get impatient, which I have yielded to at times.
Why should one be any more a temptation than the other, provided I am
in victory over all sin?”
Careful distinction must be made between temptation itself and the form
that the temptation may take. The appeal to a man’s natural desires
may change its form, but always, in every part of his nature, he will
be tempted while he is in this mortal body. The desire for beer which
leads to intemperance and sin is an appeal to a natural appetite. Sin
is moral, and does not reside in the physical appetites, which are
merely the channels for the temptation and sin. A man who has been
in bondage to drink may through the power of Christ completely lose
that desire and have no further temptation to that particular form of
appetite. But the temptation to intemperance remains. For the natural
appetites remain. While the appetite may give up this taste or that,
and thus be dead to certain _forms_ of temptation, the Christian is
always liable to the temptation to go contrary to the will of God, in
satisfying these natural appetites of the body: hunger, the sacred
sex desire, and all the natural impulses of the body that may seek
expression in lawful ways.
The _Times_ reader compares his freedom from the temptation to drink
with the appeal that is made to him to get impatient. But strictly
speaking, one is never tempted to be impatient. No one desires to be
impatient, and Satan could not use any incentive to such a temptation.
Yet we sometimes speak of these temptations to irritability, jealousy,
loss of temper, as though there were some secret springs in our nature
labeled “Impatience,” “Irritability,” and like qualities, and that
the temptation consisted in Satan touching these springs and causing
the sin. A business man does not lose his temper for the sake of the
pleasure it gives him. It may be an intense desire to have justice that
has led to his outbreak against some one who has dealt unfairly. The
temptation has come along the line of some natural desire. So with the
housekeeper who is irritated with her maid over some bit of stupidity,
or the young girl who is “blue” and moody because her plans for the
day’s enjoyment have been upset.