TEMPTATION AND INTERPERSONALISM

TEMPTATION AND INTERPERSONALISM

Virgil Warren, PhD

            Temptation tries to get us to exchange the welfare of everyone for the welfare of self. In so doing, it attempts to call us from an interpersonal to an individualistic frame of reference. Temptation tries to get us to exchange the intangible (personal) for the tangible (material) framework. It tries to get us to exchange the eternal for the temporary and the immediate for the delayed.

            We can counteract these temptations through interpersonal means by fellowship with good people and by recognizing our responsibility to help them. We can consolidate our problems by doing everything as to the Lord. That way we deal with them collectively under one solution and through a personal one. We can remember who we are and whom we represent. We also trust God not to allow us to be tempted above what we can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13). The interpersonal spiritual exercises, regularly practiced, strengthen us ahead of time for confronting problems when they appear.

                                                                                                                                      christir.org