The Father of Lies

Before I was a Christian, I don’t know that I actually thought of temptation as temptation. I probably thought of it more like an opportunity. If something looked fun, I thought, “Why not go for it?” I would give this or that thing a try.

So, when I became a Christian, other believers warned me, “Greg, watch out! The devil is going to tempt you.”

“The devil? What do you mean, ‘the devil’?”

“Satan is going to tempt you,” they said.

“But how will I know when I’m being tempted?”

“You’ll know.”

I was in high school at the time, and there was a very pretty girl in one of my classes. I noticed her, but she had never noticed me. She sat toward the front of the class, and one day after class, she came walking up to me.

“Hi,” she said. “What’s your name?”

I was so stunned that I momentarily forgot my name. She was standing there talking to me, and I had no idea why.

“You know, you’re cute,” she went on to say. “And you know what? My parents are gone for the weekend. Would you like to come and stay at my house?”

And suddenly I realized what was happening. There it was, a temptation from the devil that the other Christians had warned me about. How did I know? Because stuff like that never happened to me. Trust me. It just didn’t.

So, I told her no, even though it wasn’t that easy to do.

I learned something that day: Temptation comes in attractive packages. Satan makes bad things look good. He makes wicked things look appealing and makes deadly things look like they’ll be the best experience you’ve ever had.

He’s a liar. And he’ll do whatever he needs to do to pull you down.