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Do you just … try harder? Do you just … remind yourself again and again that sin is bad, and that God hates it?

You’ll find that many Christians have a woefully inadequate understanding of how to deal with sin. You’d think that’s one of the most basic things about the Christian life that everyone would know – but surprisingly that’s not the case.

In fact most Christians you ask for advice will have very simplistic and ineffectual suggestions to make, which reflect the lack of understanding of the internal workings of the human heart. And that’s no surprise, because that’s what our age is like: brilliant at technology and manipulating the world ‘out there’ – but helpless at understanding what’s going on inside ourselves.
 
How then do we fight temptation?

Christians from a previous age understood very well the internal dynamics of the human heart, and knew how to equip themselves to stand strongly against temptation. The Puritans get a bad press, but I’ve done some study on them and in reality we have massive amounts to learn from them – in terms of their bravery in the face of opposition (many pastors lost their jobs for failing to compromise on theology), in terms of well thought out theology (they were reformed theologically) – but also in terms of understanding the ways of the human heart.

Last year I read a brilliant work by Thomas Chalmers called, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. And it’s something that I believe everyone doing ministry ought to read – whether you’re a Bible study leader, a theological student, or a pastor. It’s very short, and you can get it on the Internet (get in in PDF here), but allow me to summarise his main points.

People won’t actually turn away from a sin because you tell them that it’s pleasure will only last a short while (though that may be true). Nor will they turn away from sin because it is has bad effects on them in this world (though that may also be true). Nor do will they turn away from a sin because you tell them that it will incur them God’s displeasure and judgment in the future (though that may also be true).

That’s because their affections have been captured by that sin. They love doing it, they love what it does for them – even though they may know intellectually it’ll only last a short while. And you can see this in Christians around you: people know that a thing is wrong – but it doesn’t stop them doing it. And keeping on telling them it’s wrong doesn’t really help in the long term – because their affections are set on it!

However you can see that sometimes people do turn away from a sin. But what has happened there isn’t that they have stopped loving that sin – instead they have grown in their love for something else, which is greater. That new thing has now captured their affections. Chalmers describes how the passions of a boy, is replaced by the passions of a young man, which is then replaced by the passions of an older man:

It’s not as though the young man has mastered his love for pleasure (by being convinced of its vanity, say) – it’s just that he now has become mastered by an even greater love for money. And later on that man seems to not be driven by money – but that’s not because he’s controlled his love for money (by being convinced that it will earn him God’s displeasure). Instead he’s become mastered by an even greater love for power.

The way to deal with temptation, then, isn’t really to teach about how it is wrong, or how it will cause them harm in this life or the next. We must say these things, but that isn’t the real battle. The real battle is actually to show them the excellencies of God, who is the rightful occupier of our affections. To grow someone in their love for God – so that they will no longer be gripped by a love for pleasure, or money, or power. Chalmers says,

The way to fight temptation, then, is to see God in all his glory and grace – and for our hearts to be filled with joy and contentment in Christ, to be filled with awe and worship for God and a longing to see his face.

When we are doing that, we will find that the fight against temptation takes on a whole new character. Temptation is no longer an enormous and powerful boss-robot that we feel powerless to fight. Instead temptation becomes a small squeaky annoyance, whose puny squeaks for our attention are laughable. Just like a young man finds hop-scotch an embarrassingly childish pursuit. Or how an older man regards a younger man’s pursuit of money with bemusement.

And when this happens, I have seen people’s fight against pornography, or nagging their husband, or their desire for a boyfriend take on a whole new character. No longer are they gazing with longing at the thing they love and trying at the same time to will themselves to push it away – instead they are gazing at God in all his satisfying greatness, and they can’t imagine why people would want to chase after those other things in the first place.

In all this we have to point out that the fight is not ours alone – it is God’s Holy Spirit who alone can change our hearts. We can expose ourselves to God’s word and meditate on the glory and grace of God – but as we do so we must ask and pray and plead for a heart that loves God. Because it is only God himself who changes hearts and makes people grow in their love for him.

But this is how we fight temptation. Not just by telling ourselves it’s wrong (though sometimes we don’t know, and so we must do that). But by seeing the massive greatness of God – and praying that God would grow us in our love for him.

[ PS: be aware that Thomas Chalmers' language is a bit dated, but read it! and you'll find it transforms your understanding of ministry... ]