Jesus had human nature in him from the woman—his mother.
The task was to transform it. This is quite obvious in the second temptation, where
Christ is offered all power over the visible world. The devil is represented as leading Christ to
a "high place" and showing him all the kingdoms of the world in a point of time:
"He led him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall be thine."(Luke iv, 5−7).
This is temptation as to
earthly power and the
deep vanity that lies in everyone.
It is again directed to the self−love. It includes
love of the world and its possessions. The devil will give Christ the world.
Love of power (authority) and
love of possessions represent two sides of self−love. Here the human level in Christ is represented as being subject to the most tremendous temptation conceivable in regard to worldly gain and possessive power. The temptation is described in such a way as to bring this out clearly: the whole world is presented to Jesus
"in a point of time"—that is,
simultaneously.
Jesus is made to answer:
"It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve." That is,
not the world and its possessions. The answer is from the same ground of understanding as that given in the first temptation. There is something apart from the world and the love of possessing it. There is something else that Man must possess. This higher level, both possible to Man and already in a man, is the direction in which his desire for power and glory must turn.
But even although a man knows and is quite certain about this direction, he can still be tempted—and even more so. Otherwise Christ would not have been tempted in this way.
His human side was still open to this temptation. It is not only the
overwhelming effect of the senses and any immediate appeal to
self−interest and
vanity that has to be thought of here but perhaps the far subtler ideas of
being able, by worldly means and outer power and authority, to help mankind by becoming a king on earth.
We know that the disciples thought Jesus was going to be an earthly king possessing the whole world and give them earthly rewards. They thought from the lower level about higher things. They could not at first see what Jesus was talking about—namely,
the reaching of a higher or inner level which has nothing to do with the lower or outer level of life. We must remember here that the path that Christ had to follow led to
apparent failure in outer life, and
outer powerlessness—and to a death reserved only for the worst criminals.
He had only a few ultimate followers. It looked as if everything had been useless. Certainly we cannot expect to understand this unless we grasp the whole idea of
two levels. But we shall speak more of this later on, and only say here that
temptation in the real sense is about these two levels and relates to the passage from one to the other. If Jesus had been born perfect, he would have been beyond all temptation. He would not have represented
the New Man or
the Way to it. He called himself
the Way:
"I am the Way”, for this reason.
PART TWO
THERE are different ways in which we can be tempted and different ways in which we can yield to temptation. Let us speak of temptation in general. All temptation (if it is real) implies a struggle between two things in a man, each of which aims at getting control. This struggle has two forms.
It is always either between what is true and what is false, or between what is good and what is bad. The whole inner drama of Man's life and the result of it all, in terms of his inner development, lie in this inner struggle about
what is the Truth and what is a lie, and what is good and what is bad. And actually it is about these things that everyone is always thinking and wondering in the privacy of his mind and heart.
The mind is for thinking what is true and the heart for perceiving what is good.
Let us take first
temptation in regard to Truth. This takes place in the intellectual life of a person. Everyone holds to certain things he regards as true.
Knowledge itself is not Truth, for we know many things but do not regard all of them as necessarily true, or we are indifferent to them. But out of all the things we know, some we hold to be true. This is our personal Truth, and it belongs to our personal, intellectual life, for
knowledge and Truth are of the mind.
Now the intellectual life of a man is nothing but what he believes to be true and when this is assailed in any way, he feels anxiety. The more he values what he believes to be true the more anxiety will he feel when doubt enters his mind. This is a mild state of temptation, in which a man must think about what he believes and values as Truth and from it fight with his doubts. You must understand that
no one can be tempted about what he does not value. It is only in connection with what he values that he can be tempted.
The meaning of temptation is to strengthen all that a man values as Truth.
Throughout the
Gospels the idea that a man must struggle and fight in himself is apparent. The Gospels are about the inner development and evolution of a man. This demands inner struggle—that is,
temptation is necessary. But people are sometimes offended at the idea that they must fight for Truth, and must go through temptations in regard to it. But it is necessary to fight for knowledge as much as to fight with oneself.
Now let us take temptation in regard to Good. This is not
intellectual but
emotional. It belongs to
the side that a man wills, not what he thinks. The basis of what a man wills is what he feels is good.
Everyone wills and acts from what he feels is good, and all that a man wills belongs to his voluntary life. Nothing else makes the voluntary life of a man but that which he has impressed upon himself as being good.
If all that a man holds as Good were taken away from him, his voluntary life would cease, just as if all that a man believes to be Truth were taken away from him, his intellectual life would cease.
Now in the Gospels
all Truth has to do with knowledge of the teaching given by Christ, and all Good has to do with the love of God and the love of one's neighbour. Now
whatever a man loves he regards as good, and what he regards as good he wills and acts from. If he only loves himself then he is a man to whom Good means only
his own good, and anything that does not apply to his own good he will regard as
bad. The development of the will is through the development of
the love, and the development of
the love is at the expense of
the self−love.
Now since
a man can only be tempted intellectually through what he values as Truth, he can only be
tempted in regard to his will and deeds through what he loves. And since all temptation in a real sense is about the
Truth of the Word—that is,
the teaching of the Gospels—and the Good of the Word, temptation as to Good
(as distinct from Truth) only begins when a man begins to pass beyond the level of
self−love into what is called
charity or
love of neighbour through a sense of
the existence of God as the source of love.
Temptations as to Truth necessarily begin long before temptations as to Good, but if there is no sort of natural charity in a man, his temptations as to Truth will be less easy to pass through. Truth must enter and grow in a man first before he can change the direction of his will—that is, before his feeling of what is good can change.
When he begins to feel the feeling of new Good entering him the two feelings will alternate. Later he will feel a struggle between the new Good and what he formerly felt as good. But by this time he should be able to hold on to
Truth, however he fails in regard to
Good.
The man is really
between two levels, lower and upper, and
all real temptation only begins when this is the case, for
the lower level attracts him and he has to find a path between them.
Actually he lifts himself up a little and falls back like a drunken man trying to get off the floor. :armflap: :yddd:
But if temptation as to Good really begins, whatever it results in, at any time, he must never let failure or apparent failure war against the Truth on to which he is holding. If he does, he will lose some sense of Truth with each failure.
Whatever he is or does, he must hold to the Truth he has received and keep it alive in him.