Where is your Loyalty?
Couple holding hands
Photo by alise storsul on Unsplash
You have heard it said that there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. I’m here to add a third certainty to life: temptation. Temptation exists everywhere because we still have sin within us. Its power has been broken by our putting our faith in Christ and having the Spirit living inside us. This means that we don’t have to sin every time temptation comes along like we did before Christ. But we aren’t away from sin’s presence yet. And if there is anything we learn about temptation is that it is persistent, usually more so than we are.
Joseph’s case turned out to be different than a lot of ours. Despite the constant temptation, Joseph, quite impressively, resisted it. One theologian thought that Joesph’s ability to rule himself was more impressive than running the country of Egypt (Matthews). How do temptations actually work? How did Joseph resist them so well? How can we learn how to resist temptations better? Do things always go better when you resist temptation? We will try to answer those questions as we look at our two points today: Temptations want your loyalty, yet only God will be loyal to you.
Temptations want your loyalty
How does temptation work?
My basic definition of loyalty is “love without leaving.” Usually, this concept is applied to relationships like a marriage. One cannot be loyal to one’s spouse if they leave for the embrace of another. If their love goes elsewhere, they aren’t loyal to their spouse. We can see this concept even in the companies we buy from. Some of them will give you a discount if you only use their services or buy their products, but only as long as you maintain an exclusive relationship with them. The key to loyalty is exclusivity.
Now, temptation works as a loyalty test question, and that question is, “Who or what do you love the most right now?”
How did Joseph resist temptation so well?
Let’s look at Joseph’s story to see what is at stake in our temptations as Christians.
Here Joseph has attracted unwanted attention from the master’s wife. She has a persistent proposition for Joseph that he steadfastly refuses. How does he do this?
Joseph begins by laying out where his loyalties truly lie. One commentator notes three steps to Joseph’s argument. He begins by pointing out that Potiphar trusts him completely. For Joseph to do this would be a betrayal of that complete trust. Second, he refuses to sin against the master, and third, he refuses to sin against God (Matthews). Joseph clearly understands the consequences of sin. It makes trust much harder to forge, it breaks relationships at the human level, and most importantly breaks the relationship at the divine level as well.
Where his loyalty, his love without leaving, is very clear in Joseph’s mind. This is why he can answer her temptation with a “How could I do this?” He is so loyal to God and Potiphar that his reason isn’t, “Well, I could end up fired or dead, and that wouldn’t be very good for me.” That would be another form of self-loyalty. Instead, he couldn’t do this because he is loyal to others and God before Himself. As Dr. Ross points out, this is something that Joseph has clearly decided beforehand. When you enter the moment of temptation, it is too late to try to decide who you will be loyal to if you haven’t already. Temptation will make the decision for you. Rather, have it clear in your mind who you are loyal to before you face temptation (628).
How can we learn to resist temptations better?
This isn’t just an intellectual decision, a weighing of pros and cons that actually makes the resistance to temptation possible. The way Joseph beat temptation is by having a greater love. John Piper recently put it this way. He said, “too many people are fighting graduate level sin with elementary level education about God.” Now, he anticipated that people would think that all you need to resist sin would be knowing more. But people with Ph.Ds in theology still commit adultery. He said that you can read theology ten hours a day for forty years and still not know God—really know Him—as the source of all good and ultimate gladness in the world. And once you have grasped a hold of that, sin’s tempting power is greatly diminished.
It is love, not logic, that moves away from sin. Logic and reason have nothing to do with sin. You’ll note that all of those reasons that Joseph laid out for her equally apply to her as well. But those reasons don’t seem to be working on her. Her loyalty is to herself, and she is dedicated. His loyalty, his love, is with Potiphar and God, and he is equally persistent.
Joseph’s and our resistance to sin is proportional to our love for God. When you love God deeply, the reply to temptation is not, “Well, that’s probably something I shouldn’t do,” it becomes a, “How on earth could I even consider that?” This is something that you can build.
You can think of it like the first time you met your spouse. You probably didn’t see them and immediately say, “Oh, I’ll never date another person!” before you even talked to them. Loyalty hasn’t had time to build up! Love takes time to develop.
This is why when temptation to sin strikes, don’t try to reason with it. By saying something like, “Well, I shouldn’t do that because I’ll feel guilty; this never works out; I’ll get caught,” you’ve already admitted that there isn’t love keeping you back. In fact, you’ve admitted that the only thing holding you back for that moment is love for yourself. And it will be love for yourself that will ultimately convince you to sin.
The only way to fight temptation to sin is to fall deeper in love with God. The more you love God, the more you will do for Him. This is why we have to spend time with Him. Note that it isn’t time just learning facts about Him. That’s a start. You probably agreed to a date with your future spouse after learning a couple facts about them, but it wasn’t until you spend time with them over dinner, on walks, and in hard seasons did you really begin to love them. That is communing with each other. When you are communing with God in His word and prayer, that is where you begin to find your love for God. Reading theology is great, but it has to swell your heart, not just your brain.
As you go about your day, ask yourself, “How is this helping me love God?” If it isn’t helping, stop. That doesn’t mean that we become monks, only reading the Bible and praying all the time. It does mean thinking more deeply about the why in your life and what God is calling you to. Colossians 3:23–24 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Do you work a job just to get a paycheck because that is what you are supposed to do, or do you work to show your customers how well a Christian works? Do you see the opportunities to present your faith at your co-op? Do everything for the Lord, and if you can’t see how what your doing grows your love for God or demonstrates your love for God, it is time to stop it. That can sound scary, but there really is joy on the other side of that decision.
Love for God is what enables Joseph to not listen to her day after day and not do anything that would even be close to crossing the line. It is also his love for God that enables him to endure what comes next.
Do things always go better when you resist temptation?
In the third section of this chapter, we see the master’s wife literally seize her moment. Joseph, true to form, does the right thing and escapes as quickly as possible. He doesn’t stop to try to talk his way out of this, but he just jumps his way out of this. He isn’t slowing down to say, “Hey, look, I don’t want to make waves at work, what is the most diplomatic way out of this? Let’s not be hasty.” No, love compels him to high tail it out of there.
Joseph has done the right thing, but it will not result in pleasant circumstances for him. The master’s wife sees that she has an opportunity to hurt him if she can’t have him. She invents this story that not only casts Joseph as the villain, but she casts her husband in the role as the enabler of that villain. In effect she says that this is ultimately Potiphar’s fault! You can only imagine how that must of played on Potiphar! The rest of the servants are talking about how disloyal he must be if he doesn’t do something. It’s another loyalty test.
Only God will be loyal to you.
Potiphar throws Joseph in prison. Now, put yourself in this situation. What is your prayer life looking like at this moment? If your love and loyalty is for yourself, you’ll have a lot of things to say to God. “Why is this bad thing happening to me? Have I not done what you wanted? I resisted temptation day after day, and this is the thanks I get? Why did I bother?”
We can often be tempted to think like this when bad things happen. But this reveals where our hearts are. Unless you are saying something like, “Oh, am I experiencing the discipline of the Lord? Where have I gone wrong? Have I sinned in some way?” That sort of question isn’t mad about the circumstances, it is worried about why God might have sent them. More often than not, though, angry reactions to God for His plan in our lives shows our love is lacking with God.
I’m not saying that just to make you feel bad if you’ve done this. I am saying this because I want to point you to the solution to your anger. The question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” assumes that if you are good, God will make your life easier. That’s how a store’s loyalty program works. That’s not how God’s loyalty works. You see, God is so faithful to you that He will work all things, even the hard things, for your ultimate good.
God is faithful to Joseph in prison. He is with him there, too. And since Joseph loves God, he just keeps serving Him right where he is. It will only be in the coming chapters that we will see God’s providence ruling over even evil acts to bring about His good plan.
We see the greatest example of this in the temptations of Christ. The devil sought to tempt Christ away from the cross by saying, “just worship me, and I will give you all the kingdoms of the earth.” Jesus simply refuses saying, in essence, loyal worship only belongs to God. Satan, unable to tempt Jesus, decided to make it hurt as much as possible by possessing Judas (Piper). The greatest injustice was committed, yet the greatest good was worked out of it. Christ’s death meant the forgiveness of billions, and the establishment of the kingdom that will have no end. What might He do with your faithfulness to Him.
So how do we apply this? Spend your time before temptation learning about God’s love for you. Let God’s love for you grow a love for Him.
Kids, I want you to know that your parents love you. And God loves you even more than that. They have provided for you everything you need, maybe not everything you want, but everything you need. Do you thank them for that? Do you say, “Mom, Dad, and God really love me.” It might not mean much to you at first, but the more you think about that, the more you will love your parents and God, too. Then, as time goes on, when you are tempted to do something you know they won’t like, you will be able to say, “I’m not going to disobey them. I love them. I don’t want to hurt them.” I’m not going to say that makes it easy. It also isn’t something that changes quickly. But the more you do that, the easier it will be.
Adults, same advice. Along with regular intake of Scripture and outflow of prayer, just sit and think of how God has been faithful to you. Take a couple minutes a day just picturing in your mind your favorite memory or two. Dwell there for a minute, and then thank God for that experience.
I’ve heard it put well that Satan is way more experienced of a tempter now than he was in the garden (Neil Stewart). You can’t afford to take him on with logic. You must take him on with love. Keep short accounts. I heard an illustration that calls us to imagine a sign that says, “This way to abandoning God.” Every sin we commit is taking a step on that path. Repentance from sin is taking a step away from that path and towards God.
Spend the time with Savior who bled and died for you. That is one of the many benefits of communion that we are about to partake in. We are not only reminded of God’s love for us and hatred of sin, but we are also, by faith, having dinner with Jesus. This is a cup of blessing, for how can you be in the spiritual presence of Christ and not benefit? Let the reality of His love for you sink in. He could have chosen someone else. But He picked you. Let the awe of that statement bring you low, and then rocket you upwards in praise of such glorious grace that would be loyal to a sinner such as I.