Resisting Hypothetical Temptation

I'd like to do a little thought experiment.  I'll apply it to my job; you apply it to yours.

Suppose there was a drug we could take that would make us better at our jobs.  In my case, it would make me a better speaker and a better writer.  It would give me greater vision for the future and greater understanding of God's will for my life and the life of the church.  It would help me better deal with conflicts within the church.  It would give me more energy to visit people and help me find the right thing to say when I did.  You can think of the ways it would make you better at your job.

Now, this drug does have side effects.  However, we're not sure what all of them are yet.  Besides, many of those side effects won't affect us for many years, if they ever do.

Would you take it?

Before you answer, think about all the benefits there would be from being better at our jobs.  In my case, there are many.  From a spiritual standpoint, I would be better able to serve the Lord and bring more people to Christ.  From a personal standpoint, I would have the satisfaction of knowing that I was really good at my job, of having the churches of which I'm the pastor grow, and of feeling that I am doing what God wants me to do.  From a material standpoint, I might be able to make more money and have more opportunities within the conference.  Again, you can think of the benefits it would give you in your job.

The benefits we get from being good at our jobs is not insubstantial.  I assume all pastors would like to be better able to serve the Lord and bring people to Christ.  It is extremely satisfying to see your church grow and to feel you played a part in that growth.  I have no particular desire to have more opportunities within the conference—I'm very happy with where I am and what I'm doing—and I really have no complaints about my salary.  On the other hand, though, if I was to be offered a raise, I don't suppose I'd turn it down—I have bills to pay just like everyone else.  And again, you can apply these things to your situation.

So I ask you again, would you take it?  I'm not so sure I wouldn't.

The reason I started thinking about this, as you may have guessed, is the case of Alex Rodriguez.  For those of you who don't follow sports, Alex Rodriguez is a star baseball player.  He is also accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs which are against the rules of major league baseball.  For this, he has been suspended from playing baseball for the rest of this year and all of next, although he is appealing his suspension and continues to play while the appeal is pending.

Now, I am not defending breaking the rules.  When we purposely and deliberately break the rules, which is what Alex Rodriguez is accused of doing, we need to be ready to accept the consequences of doing so.

        The thing is, though, that lots of people, including some national sportswriters and sports broadcasters, are treating Alex Rodriguez as if he was the worst person on the planet.  Why?  He didn't kill anyone, as pro football player Aaron Hernandez is accused of doing.  He didn't even injure anyone.  All he did, if he did it, is take a drug that would make him better at his job and therefore help his team when more games.

That doesn't make it right, of course.  But the point is that it's really easy to criticize someone else for giving in to a temptation that we don't expect to be tempted by ourselves.  It's easy to say, “If I won the lottery I'd never spend the money on frivolous material things, I'd give it to the poor”, because most of us don't expect to actually win the lottery.  It's easy to say, “If I was in Congress I'd never compromise my principles” because most of us don't expect to actually be in Congress.  And it's easy to say, “If I was a professional athlete I'd never use performance-enhancing drugs” because most of us will never be professional athletes.  That's why I asked you to relate this to something that most of us might actually be tempted to do.

The reason Jesus told us to pray to not be led into temptation is that temptation is hard for us to resist.  All of fail to resist it at various times.  That doesn't make it right, but it does mean we should not be so quick to judge others when they fail to resist.  We're probably better off to deal with our own struggles with temptation, and leave judgment up to God.