We Need to Know What Is Right to Keep from Doing Wrong

Note from today’s Bible reading: Matthew 3-4

When Jesus came to earth, He lived a sinless life (1 Peter 2:22; Hebrews 7:26). However, that does not mean that the devil did not try to get Him to sin.

Following His baptism, Jesus went “into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). Matthew recorded three particular temptations that the devil put before the Son of God (Matthew 4:3, 5-6, 8-9). The first seemed harmless – commanding stones to become bread – yet it would have demonstrated a lack of trust in the Father to provide. For the second, the devil quoted and misapplied Scripture to try to convince Jesus to force the Father to defend His promise. The third temptation was for Jesus to abandon His mission and avoid the cross by falling down and worshipping the devil.

Jesus overcame each of these temptations. In doing so, He showed us how we can overcome temptation today. Each time, He quoted Scripture as His reason for not doing what the devil was trying to get Him to do.

This shows us the importance of knowing the word of God. The only way we can know it like this is to read, study, and meditate upon it so that we can have it implanted in our hearts and ready to use whenever temptations come. Without this knowledge of the Scriptures, we will be vulnerable to the devil’s attacks.

So remember that we need to know what is right to keep from doing wrong. God’s word shows us the way we should go. In order to take it, we need to know what it is.