Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

Ye have many enemies, cunning and strong; many trials, too great for
your natural strength; many temptations, which no human power is able
successfully to resist; many duties to perform, which cannot be
accomplished by the strength of man; therefore you need divine strength;
ye must have might; and ye must be strengthened everywhere, and every
way fortified by that might; mightily and most effectually strengthened.
To know when to fight, and when to fly, is of great importance in the
Christian life. Some temptations must be manfully met, resisted, and thus
overcome; from others we must fly. He who stands to contend or reason,
especially in such a case as that mentioned here, is infallibly ruined.
Principiis obsta, "resist the first overtures of sin," is a good maxim. After
remedies come too late.
No man, howsoever holy, is exempted from temptation; for God
manifested in the flesh was tempted by the devil.
To be tempted even to the greatest abominations, (while a person
resists,) is not sin; for Christ was tempted to worship the devil.
The state of our bodily health and worldly circumstances may afford
our adversary many opportunities of doing us immense mischief.
We must shut our senses against dangerous objects, to avoid the
occasion of sin. There is no temptation which is from its own nature, or
favouring circumstances, irresistible. God has promised to bruise even
Satan under our feet.
The fear of being tempted may become a most dangerous snare. Men
often part with some member of the body, at the discretion of a surgeon,
that they may preserve the trunk, and die a little later; and yet they will
not deprive themselves of a look, a touch, a small pleasure, which
endanger the eternal death of the soul.