In verse 10 the Lord Jesus said, “Go, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.” Satan in Greek means adversary. He is not only God’s enemy outside God’s kingdom, but also the adversary within God’s kingdom, rebelling against God. The new King rebuked the Devil’s presentation and defeated him by standing on the ground of man to worship and serve God only. To worship or to serve anything other than God for gain is always the Devil’s temptation to secure worship. The Lord seemed to be saying to Satan, “Satan, as a man, I, Jesus, worship God and serve Him only. You are God’s enemy, and I will never worship you. I don’t care for the glory of the world or for the kingdoms of the world. Satan, get away from Me!”
If we consider our experience, we shall see that all temptations are included in these three aspects: the temptation in the matter of our living, the temptation of religious miracles, and the temptation in the realm of worldly glory. All day long we are tempted in the aspects of our living, religion, and worldly position. But the Lord Jesus overcame every aspect of the enemy’s temptation. He could say, “My living is secondary. I don’t care for religious power. And worldly glory has nothing to do with Me. I know only God’s word and God Himself. I care only to serve God.” Therefore, as the One who passed the test, the Lord Jesus was qualified to be the King of the kingdom of the heavens.
Verse 11 says, “Then the Devil leaves Him; and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.” The Devil’s temptation of the first man, Adam, was a success; his temptation of the second man, Christ, was an absolute failure. This indicates that he will have no place in the new King’s kingdom of the heavens. After the Lord Jesus defeated Satan, angels came and ministered to the tempted King as a suffering man (cf. Luke 22:43).
Not only the King but also all the kingdom people must overcome the matters of their daily living, religious power, and worldly glory. If we cannot overcome these three temptations, we are outside the kingdom. If we would be the kingdom people, these three things must be under our feet. If we kill these three temptations, saying, “I don’t care for my living, for religious power, or for worldly position,” Satan will not be able to do anything to us.
We should not be concerned about our daily living. Consider the example of the Apostle Paul. Paul said, “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to be in want” (Phil. 4:12). Paul seemed to be saying, “It does not matter to me whether I have poverty or abundance. I can live in either scarcity or plenty. The matter of my daily living does not worry me.”
Furthermore, instead of caring for religious power, we should be weak, just as Jesus Christ was weak when He was arrested and crucified. If He had not been weak, who could have arrested Him and put Him on the cross? When He was arrested, tried, and crucified, He made no display of His power. He refused to exhibit any religious power. Instead, He was weak to the uttermost. Paul said that Christ “was crucified out of weakness”; he also said, “We are weak in Him” (2 Cor. 13:4). Many devilish people challenged Paul, saying, “If you are the true apostle of Christ, you must do something to prove it.” But when Paul was in prison, the Lord did not do anything miraculous for him.
Paul’s situation was the same as that of John the Baptist, who also had been imprisoned. After a certain period of imprisonment, John sent his disciples to challenge the Lord, saying, “Are You the coming One, or should we expect someone else?” (11:3). John seemed to be saying, “If You are the coming One, why don’t You do something for me? Don’t You know that I, Your forerunner and recommender, am in prison? Are you not powerful? Are You not Christ the almighty? If so, do something for me.” In His answer, the Lord said, “Blessed is he who shall not be stumbled in Me” (11:6). The Lord seemed to be saying, “Yes, I can do anything, but I don’t want to do anything for you. Although you are My recommender, My forerunner, I don’t care to do anything for you. I would rather that you would be beheaded. John, will you be stumbled by Me?” Brother Nee’s experience is an up-to-date illustration of this. He was in prison from 1952 until he died in 1972. During those twenty years, the Lord did not do anything for him in a miraculous way.
How we need to overcome these three kinds of temptation: the temptation of our living, the temptation of so-called religious power, and the temptation of vain glory. If we conquer these things, we are truly the kingdom people following our heavenly King. Hallelujah, our heavenly King overcame the tempter and defeated him in these three temptations!