Temptation of Way, Truth, & Life

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
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The Temptation of Jesus

Every time, Satan tries to make him hope shift, and (every time) Jesus responds with focused hope.

And it feels related to the sign seeking found in other parts of the gospels.

  1. Challenge: Do things my way, and you can miraculously have the whole world your way.

Answer: The Word is the way.

  1. Challenge: Risk death to see a sign.

Answer: The Word is the truth.

  1. Challenge: Perform a sign to live.

Answer: The Word is the life.

Pretty sure neither Matthew 4 nor Luke 4 got the order right.

Silly Satan. “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

And Bart Ehrman thought it was weird the temptation was missing from John (see 14:5-9).

“When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.”
— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“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. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”
— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Way (blue)

Truth (yellow)

Life (red)

Work in progress:
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Mr Lewis seems to be talking the truth in this regard.

I’d add that our conscience is the source of our freedom.
Freedom means the ability to say no to bullshit.

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and say yes to good fruit

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We’ll need a context of course.

Say no to what bullshit?

And if others don’t believe in turn it is bullshit, are they wrong?

Wrong enough to, say, burn in Hell for all eternity?

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After Peter thrice denied (in agony) he knew Jesus during the trials before Jesus was crucified, which Jesus told him beforehand Peter would do as a result of Satan’s sifting (Peter claimed that, even if all his brothers fall away, he would stand firm), though Jesus prayed Peter’s faith would not fail and that he would strengthen his brothers after turning back, after Jesus’ resurrection and by the Sea of Galiliee, Jesus thrice asked Peter “Do you love me more than these (your brothers)?” as many times as Peter denied him. Peter answered thrice (in agony) that Jesus knew. And Jesus thrice commanded Peter, the rock built from agony: Feed my lambs. Take care of my sheep. Feed my sheep

Yellow. Blue. Red.

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Bullshit as in, lies and harmful information.
Exploitive tricks.
Dumb ideas.

Believe it or not, truth exists.

That is not part of the discussion here.

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