Jesus’ refusal was curt: “Beat it, Satan!” He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.” (Matthew 4:10 MSG)
Satan will try anything to divert me from worshipping God in favor of Satan. That is always the question. We want to rationalize our decisions more in shades of gray than the stark reality that we are deciding who we really worship. Each time I divide my heart to serve something other than God, I am choosing the devil’s path.
Jesus makes it clear who he worships. The words “only” and “absolute” leave no room for considering alternatives. The battle is lost when I start with, “Well, it’s not that bad,” “I probably shouldn’t say this,” or “Just this once….” These rationalizations are just the same as Satan’s temptations to Christ.
The question isn’t “What should I do?” but “Who do I worship?” If I’m absolutely clear on who I worship I will always do the right thing. But if I start trying to decide what to do without first declaring my allegiance the door is wide open for Satan to step in. And when the devil gains a foothold he’s not ignorant enough to waste the effort. Notice he uses Scripture to tempt Jesus to lose his vision of his purpose on earth–the same as ours–to glorify God.
How can I be prepared to fend off the fiery darts of Satan? If Jesus took 40 days of prayer and fasting to prepare for the tests, I’m not going to be ready in 5 minutes. I must devote myself to prayer and Scripture so that just like Jesus I can respond with the Truth. Shame on me if Satan knows God’s Word so much better than I do that I fall for falsehoods.
Deep Questions 