Puncture Wounds
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able; but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13
Temptation – Want a guaranteed way to lose a war? Don’t gather any intelligence about the enemy! Amazingly, Christians seem to think that the way to win against sin is to pretend it doesn’t have any teeth. Today we spend our time being educated about grace instead of sin. We would rather hear sermons about God’s wonderful love than we would about the insidiousness of rebellion. We act as though education about the enemy will somehow pollute our minds. Consequently, we are unprotected and unprepared. How will that help us stand when the enemy attacks? No more! Let’s do some intelligence work and know who this enemy is.
Temptation is the Greek peirasmos. It comes from a root word (peira) that means, “to puncture or perforate for the purpose of testing quality.” Temptation is not the bloody gash of sin. It is the pinpoint of attack. You are tempted when your desire is pricked. But notice that the purpose of temptation is not to come at you with a battle axe. Temptation is the point of testing. It is that moment when you are given the option to do otherwise. It is a puncture wound.
Why are puncture wounds so dangerous? Because they close up as soon as the instrument of attack is removed, but they leave behind, deeply embedded, the toxic material that will infect. You need a tetanus shot after a puncture wound to combat the potential infection. Why do we tend to ignore a puncture wound? Because it doesn’t bleed much and doesn’t look terrible. Its hideous strength is injected and forgotten – until the infection erupts.
Once I received a puncture wound from the barb of a palm in south Florida. It hurt for a moment and appeared to be nothing more than a tiny dot. But two days later my knee was the size of a football. All the bad stuff was on the inside, put there by the end of the needle. That’s how sin works. It punctures our outer resistance with a tiny barb – a little enticement easily ignored at the moment. But it plants an infection that grows on the inside until one day the results erupt. Plant just a little anger – reap hatred. Plant a little desire – reap lust. Plant a little disrespect – reap arrogance. Plant a little dissatisfaction – reap coveting.
Paul tells us that God is quite familiar with all the puncture wounds of the enemy – and He will provide the right antibiotic to combat the infection – every time. All of us are wounded in the most common ways. Those of us who realize the gravity of a tiny wound will run to God as soon as we step on the nail. Others will ignore puncture – to their own peril. Our job is not to wear steel-plated shoes. It is to beat a path to the door of the Doctor whenever we feel the smallest barb. Delay means death. Go now!
