“……and he was in the desert for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.” (Mark 1:13)
Satan showed all the glorious things to Jesus and asked like this. This is the third request Jesus got from Satan. ““All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me."(Mt. 4:9) Two temptations requested before are about the confidence or the doubt of "the son of God", but now the last temptation is about worldly honor and possessions. The former is likely to be rather spiritual questions, but the latter is totally worldly question.
People could be tempted more easily to the worldly than to the spiritual. It is saying that even though someone acts like to regard the spiritual thing asprecious, actually he could be shaken by the worldly thing. Here difference between the spiritual and the worldly is not decided by the standard of how much being religious or not. Ministry seems to be spiritual, but it could belong to the worldly. If youtake advantage of ministry in order to show off your honor or to make sure of your ability, ministry could be only a pattern of God superficially, and also in fact it could be such a worldly thing.
Satan said to Jesus like this. ““if you will bow down andworship me, I will give you this all." In here we could find two things. One thing is that worldly honor belongs to the authority of Satan. What Satan makes a promise to give everything could mean he can control everything according to his will. Worldly honor and authority are Satan's possessions. Of course to say that all the secular power and honor are Satan's possessions could be a little too much. If we could use the secular honor, wealth and power according to God's will, it might be evidence that those are not Satan's possessions anymore. Well, this kind of question is a little bit complicated.
Luther solved this kind of problems by the theory of two kingdoms. He said that since the heavenly order and the earthly order were so different, and the kingdom of Christ was different from the kingdom of kings, they should not interfere with each other. Luther definitely seemed to look at the magical power of the secular order. As long as the human beings keep on living with two feet in the earth, we cannot deny such a worldly order, but we don't have to take it. Because this secular order could not help bringing in immoral order, even though that secular order is trying to do good works. For example, the capital punishment it could be. It is said that the capital punishment is required to keep the order for justice, but in a sense that this system is another kind of violence, it is an evil.
The other thing we could find in Satan's saying to Jesus is the fact that you should compromise with Satan in order to possess worldly honor and power. We have to keep our relationship with Satan if we like to succeed in this world. It happens in case of managing business. If we manage our business so honestly, we might not compete with other businesses. Of course we could act rather comparatively in an honest way, but absolute ethics could not be appliedin secular world, because secular honor and power could be given by Satan.
Today my writing might have a tendency like the theory of good and evil. It is not true that I think that this world is immoral unconditionally. I just want to emphasize the reality of evil, which is so evident. The characteristic of wealth, honor, and power are so immoral, so that I cannot help thinking those are under Satan's control.
Jesus answered to Satan like this. ““Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."(Mt. 4:10) Our lives should stay in here. The answer is in the life to serve God only. That means the life only God controls. What could it be in details?
Satan showed all the glorious things to Jesus and asked like this. This is the third request Jesus got from Satan. ““All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me."(Mt. 4:9) Two temptations requested before are about the confidence or the doubt of "the son of God", but now the last temptation is about worldly honor and possessions. The former is likely to be rather spiritual questions, but the latter is totally worldly question.
People could be tempted more easily to the worldly than to the spiritual. It is saying that even though someone acts like to regard the spiritual thing asprecious, actually he could be shaken by the worldly thing. Here difference between the spiritual and the worldly is not decided by the standard of how much being religious or not. Ministry seems to be spiritual, but it could belong to the worldly. If youtake advantage of ministry in order to show off your honor or to make sure of your ability, ministry could be only a pattern of God superficially, and also in fact it could be such a worldly thing.
Satan said to Jesus like this. ““if you will bow down andworship me, I will give you this all." In here we could find two things. One thing is that worldly honor belongs to the authority of Satan. What Satan makes a promise to give everything could mean he can control everything according to his will. Worldly honor and authority are Satan's possessions. Of course to say that all the secular power and honor are Satan's possessions could be a little too much. If we could use the secular honor, wealth and power according to God's will, it might be evidence that those are not Satan's possessions anymore. Well, this kind of question is a little bit complicated.
Luther solved this kind of problems by the theory of two kingdoms. He said that since the heavenly order and the earthly order were so different, and the kingdom of Christ was different from the kingdom of kings, they should not interfere with each other. Luther definitely seemed to look at the magical power of the secular order. As long as the human beings keep on living with two feet in the earth, we cannot deny such a worldly order, but we don't have to take it. Because this secular order could not help bringing in immoral order, even though that secular order is trying to do good works. For example, the capital punishment it could be. It is said that the capital punishment is required to keep the order for justice, but in a sense that this system is another kind of violence, it is an evil.
The other thing we could find in Satan's saying to Jesus is the fact that you should compromise with Satan in order to possess worldly honor and power. We have to keep our relationship with Satan if we like to succeed in this world. It happens in case of managing business. If we manage our business so honestly, we might not compete with other businesses. Of course we could act rather comparatively in an honest way, but absolute ethics could not be appliedin secular world, because secular honor and power could be given by Satan.
Today my writing might have a tendency like the theory of good and evil. It is not true that I think that this world is immoral unconditionally. I just want to emphasize the reality of evil, which is so evident. The characteristic of wealth, honor, and power are so immoral, so that I cannot help thinking those are under Satan's control.
Jesus answered to Satan like this. ““Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."(Mt. 4:10) Our lives should stay in here. The answer is in the life to serve God only. That means the life only God controls. What could it be in details?
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