temptation and sin

Jesus Himself was tempted by Satan. Yet He did not sin! The temptation is not the sin, it is when you don't take captive the sinful thought immediately that it becomes sin. We all are going to have temptations, but God will always give us a way out of that temptation.

I don't think they are sin, you didn't put them there. It doesn't become a din until your respond. I mean you need to be careful your don't let your mind entertain the thoughts, that would be sin, but when it pops into your head you haven't had a chance to respond to it, I wouldn't beat yourself up. It might be demonic suggestion, it might be just be something within you, but as long as you don't respond by entertaining them, i wouldn't stress

Jesus said there were such a thing as sins of the heart, as you mentioned He said even looking at a woman to lust for her was committing adultery, the bible also says that if we hate our brother we are murderers:

"Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him." (1 John 3:15)

Hate does not necessarily have to manifest itself in actions, it could be only evil thoughts toward someone, or unforgiveness.

And in this verse the mind of the unregenerate is condemned as evil:

"The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;" (Romans 8:6)

And here:

"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done." (Romans 1:28)

The heart and the mind are the birth place for sin:

"'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme." (Ezekiel 38:10)

"Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." (James 1:15)

Sin conceives first of evil thoughts (schemes, as in the above verse) and then gets worse after that (to full grown actions).

Here are a few more verses:

"Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways." (Isaiah 59:7)

"Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?" (Matt. 9:4)

"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." (Matt. 15:19)

"The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." (Genesis 6:5)

Thoughts can be sinful, but only if we agree with them and want them and invite them into our lives.

Someone once said: "You can't stop birds (thoughts) from flying around your head but you can keep them from nesting in your hair!"

Blessings.

lutherangerman said:

I know two christian men and I trust them both, but they have a differing opinion about a subject that is important to me right now.

It's about when something is a sin and when something is only a thought, a temptation.

The first man said that bad and wrong thoughts are not yet sin, only an action constitutes a sin. The other man says that there can also be sinful thoughts which also constitute sin.

In my situation, it's about all kinds of things. For example, I have a girlfriend and I love her dearly, but still when I go to city I see sexy young girls and I get the stray sexual thought about them.

Jesus said that already looking at someone lustfully is adultery. But I'm not enjoying these thoughts. I find them disturbing actually and I have no problem putting them aside and returning to business. I find it hard to consider them as sin, because in my understanding if I have real sin in my life I need to get rid of it, but getting rid of such stray thoughts entirely seems impossible to me. And if I try to literally fight against these things instead of simply putting them aside as fluctuations of my brain, I only ride myself deeper into the mud.

So I am not sure what I should do. If I regard such thoughts as real sins already, I am trapped in a mental game which makes me very miserable, because I can't always help it. If I regard them as temptations then it's much better because I don't carry guilt and blame for sin but only for temptation which is something even Jesus Himself knew.

But Jesus said what He said.

Are there sins of thought or are there not? I'm confused at this point, please help!

Click to expand...

The evil thoughts are the root of sin so it is
wise to cut out the roots and stop sin from growing in your life.

James 1:15
Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin:
and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.

So who cares if the thoughts are acutal sin when we know they are sinful ..

What matters is that we have been following Christ is such a way that even
our thoughts have come into His light as He brings us to the place of
desiring a right heart and clean thoughts before Him.

You are on the right track....

Christ wants you to have His mind and to allow His thoughts to
become a part of you.

It is the only way we can break the cycle of sin by attacking
the very roots of it in our minds or hearts....

If a man cannot control his own thoughts he is like a city whose
defenses are broken down and useless and offer no protection
against the assault of the enemy.

To conquer your thoughts you need Christ's help.

You can't do it yourself.

Christ could not nail Himself to a cross and neither can you.

Only with Christ's help can the old man be put to death
along with all its lusts and evil desires....

Ask God to give you the mind of Christ....

I believe I am asking a similar question to God. "Is it a sin? and how do I stop?"
While it would be nice to say I know the answer, I have no idea...and I am sorry.
As the father said in the bible, "Lord, heal my faith"

I agree with SoldierofSoul!

Selah.

That verse on Matthew is so badly misunderstood and has heaped guilt upon far too many.

Sin is a a moral act. It requires deliberate intent, whether carried through into action, or as a possibility given opportunity. As sexual beings we will (and must) have sexual thoughts. It is only when we commit to engaging in soemthing morally wrong that we transgress.

John
NZ

I'm going to nearly repeat a post I just wrote for another question:

I believe Jesus is concerned about intent and motivation, but that the concern about thoughts is often misplaced.

This occurs most often with sexual thoughts. Many kids seem to have the impression that admiring a girl is a problem. I would argue that Jesus' concern was mostly with intent. The focus of the Sermon on the Mount seems to be on things that lead to problems in our relationships. So the question is how we think of members of the opposite sex. Do we see them as conquests, as people to dominate. Are we thinking about how to seduce them? I we are in a relationship, are we guarding against things that might tempt us to violate it?

I don't think a kid imagining what it would be like to be in bed with their favorite movie star is likely violating Jesus' command. In some cases it might. I teach junior high Sunday School. Obviously I don't discuss their sexual fantasies with them. But I'd be willng to bet a number of my kids have had that kind of sexual fantasy, but wouldn't even Ithink of treating their boy/girl friend dishonorably. I'm not worried about them.

I do understand that there are people with serious problems with porn addiction, and others for whom sexual thoughts are in fact a problem. So obviously there are limits. But I'm not convinced that imagination is in itself a problem, if they're not imaging themselves doing something abusive, and if the way they think of and their intent towards, real people is honorable.

Aside from sexual fantasies, this comes up in the case of online gaming, or even watching movies. Lots of people do things in games or watch things in movies that it would be quite wrong to do in real life. They're obviously thinking as they play the games. I do understand that it can be damaging. The risk is different for different people and different types of activity, and it depends upon how often they do it. But I don't think we can have a blanket rule that thinking of something that's wrong is wrong. That would tie people up in mental gymnastics that are self-defeating, because it's really hard not to think of something, and making a concerted attempt to attack thought may actually backfire in causing you to give more attention to the topic.

But like many Christian things, you need good judgement. While I don't think we should go after every thought, I also think we should stay away from things that are likely to lead to problems. I'd be worried about someone who plays violent games excessively. I don't see any reason to look at porn ever, but I also wouldn't want to load guilt on a teenager who looks at it because his friends are, or to see what it is. I would want to talk with them about why it's a bad idea though.

I guess I have another issue that's close to this: The whole concept of purity seems often to be misplaced, and that concept is closely associated. As I see it, Jesus is looking for fruitful servants. He refused even to allow himself to be called holy, much less us. The goal of Christianity isn't for us to get pure, but for us to be effective servants of Christ. Of course to be effective as servants, we have to be in tune with God. But you can take good things too far. All we need for evil to triumph is for all the Christians to be tied up in mental knots trying to get rid of all their sexual thoughts.