Resist Temptation by Choosing the Path of True Love

Temptation and true love — Introduction

The struggle against temptation can be hard. We often are tempted to do something wrong, and we face an inner conflict: We want to do it, but we also don’t want to do it.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Romans 7:15)

One of the best ways to avoid sinning with other people is to truly love them. If you love someone, you will not do anything to hurt him or her. Clearly, the most harmful thing you can do to someone is to tempt him or her to sin and thus push this person away from God.

Sin is the expression of selfishness or self-will. True love is the alternative to selfishness. If you truly love people, you will not commit sin with them or tempt them to commit sin. This Bible study will show you how to resist temptation—by choosing the path of love.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. (Philippians 1:9-10)

What is true love?

True love wants the best for the other person. To better understand this, study 1 Corinthians 13:1-8. True love is not just an emotion, but rather it is an attitude. It is wanting the best for the other person.

True love is a decision that results in loving actions. When you truly love others, your actions will be pure and blameless.

True love is different from love based on hormones or emotions. True love turns people toward God, not toward sin and away from God. True love genuinely wants the best for others. It is not focused on pleasing yourself or being ruled by your emotions.

Beware of counterfeit love

If you want to sin with someone because you think you are in love, you don’t love this person as much as you think. Don’t let your emotions, hormones, daydreams, desires, or selfishness masquerade as love.

For example, if you think you love someone who is married to someone else and are tempted to have an affair, or if you want that person to divorce so you can marry, you do not truly love him or her. If you really loved the other person, you wouldn’t encourage him or her to sin.

Along the same lines, if you are engaged and feel like being sexually intimate, demonstrate your love by waiting until you are married before becoming sexually intimate.

Related: Bible study on counterfeit freedom

When tempted, choose to truly love the other person

Take the path of love any time you are tempted to sin with someone. Whether your temptation is to have sex, divorce your spouse to be with someone else, gossip, gamble, take drugs, get drunk, tell dirty jokes, spend money foolishly, or anything else, choose to overcome it because you truly love someone and want to be the best friend you can be. Choose true love. Don’t let yourself be controlled by your feelings or desires.

If you are tempted to sin with a Christian:

Ask God to help you see him or her as your brother or sister. If you are tempted to sin sexually, look at him or her as a precious brother or sister in Christ, not a sex object.

Treat … older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. (1 Timothy 5:1-2)

If you are tempted to sin with a non-Christian:

Ask God to help you look at non-Christians as people who need to know Jesus, people who need to be saved, instead of sinning with them and driving them further from God. Pray for their salvation.

Personal application

Pray for God to help you have true love and a genuine concern for others. Ask him to help you overcome any temptation to sin with others by truly loving them.

Related: More Bible studies on defeating temptation