The First Temptation (Selfish Desire)

And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ”

Matthew 4:2‭-‬4 NASB1995

The devil tempted Jesus with bread (food) because he knew Jesus had a desire for it at the time. After not eating for 40 days & nights, our Lord was hungry. And the tempter tempted Him with food. Telling Jesus Christ to turn stones into bread. As a man, he was tempted. Where did the temptation come from? From his desire (James 1:14).

Jesus did not give in to this. He delayed gratification. He knew not falling for this temptation will mean he not carrying out His purpose. His answer to the tempter was this, "man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."

Man shall not live by satisfying his fleeting desires alone but man can surely live solely on the Word of God. On His way to Samaria together with the 12, our Lord sent the disciples to go buy food in the nearby town. He encountered a Samaritan woman and proved Himself to be the Christ.

His disciples got back to give Jesus food and his response was this "I have food that you know not of." (John 4:32). "What food?" One may ask - the Word of God. That was our Lord's daily bread. He needed spiritual food. From His conversations we see He spent more time in God's Word and it was good enough.

Study His word. Abide in Him. And He will abide in you. Abide in His Word. Obey His word.

The tempter will come seeking to devour and corrupt our very souls with the things that entice us, with the desires at a very moment, and if we give in to that, we have failed. He uses a thing we long for to drag us away. Our desires give birth to sinful actions, and when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. For that is the wages of sin, but it does not start as a bad thing, but mostly as a thing, we desire.

This is not to say all we desire is sin, but it surely can be. Eating is not a sin, but to Jesus at that moment, it was a sin.

Let us abide in the Word. Christ tells us to ABIDE in Him and He shall abide in us. For a branch cannot bear fruits by itself. We cannot do the Christian thing all alone. It is impossible. We need Christ! We NEED CHRIST.

Be subject unto God, resist the devil and he will flee. (James 4:7)

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