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"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though
some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of
Christ's sufferings: that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with
exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye . . . . . let none of
you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief . . . . ." (I Pet. 4: 12-15).
This passage is so eloquent in the distinction which it makes between temptation as a
test and temptation to sin that we add no word of our own, except to say that the "trial"
here, which is called "fiery" and is a partaking of Christ's "sufferings" (not at all being
led away by evil things), is the translation of the Greek word peirasmos.
The only other reference is that of II Pet. 2: 9,
"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly our of temptations."
The context of this statement speaks of the deliverance of "just Lot", who escaped the
overthrow of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, which overthrow was an ensample of
the fate that awaits the ungodly.
It is clear by this examination that the epistles of the circumcision use the word
"temptation" consistently, and always in the sense of trial; not in the sense of enticement
to sin.
Before we can come to a scriptural conclusion, we shall have to consider the teaching
of the apostle Paul in his other epistles, the Acts, the Gospels and the Book of The
Revelation. What we have already seen, however, is truth, and must ever be in mind
when we stress the words of Heb. 4: 15, "tempted in all points like as we are".
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So far, our studies in the epistles to the Hebrews and by James and Peter reveal the
fact that the character of "temptation" as there found is the testing and proving of the
believer on his way to perfection, not temptation to sin, whether by Satan or self.
We now turn to the remaining epistles of Paul to see how far this presentation of the
truth obtains there, and what other phases are brought forward. Adopting what we
believe to be the chronological order of the epistles, we commence with Galatians. There
are two references, one concerning Paul himself and the other spiritual believers.
"And my temptation (peirasmos) which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected"
(Gal. 4: 14).
In verse 13 the Apostle speaks of the "infirmity of the flesh" in connection with his
preaching. A literal rendering of the verse suggests that the Apostle had preached the
gospel while he was passing "through a period of sickness or infirmity", and that in spite