‘Fall into temptation and a snare.’ They fall. This is what will happen to us. If in this year we begin to set our minds and our sights on earthly pleasure, earthly satisfaction, earthly clothing, abundance of this, that and the other for its own sake, if our spiritual priorities go wrong, this is what will happen to us. First of all, we will fall. The word is very significant. We will make an instant descent. That is what it means. We will not merely decline little by little in spiritual life. We will fall very quickly. What is in mind is this: a person is walking along and then the person falls. What happens when you fall is quite obvious. You stop walking. You are no longer walking along; you're floundering; you're on the ground.
Actually, this person falls into ‘a snare’; they cannot get up, cannot walk again easily. So the illustration is this: in the Christian life, I'm going forward. I am under the blessing of God, able to direct my steps. I am able to make certain decisions, able to avoid temptation and sin and choose which direction I walk in in life. It is easy to walk. I am proceeding along in the Christian life easily, happily, in a calm, relaxed manner. But the next thing I know, I cannot walk at all. In other words, I lose my spiritual activity. I cannot pray easily. I cannot exercise faith easily. I cannot function as a Christian easily. If I walk, I can turn to the left; I can turn to the right. When I'm in a heap on the ground, I'm unable to do that. If somebody comes running for me or something like that, I can't get out of the way. While I am on my feet, I am nimble, but not once I fall. I fall into a heap spiritually, and the temptation engulfs me. So let's be warned: it leads to an almost immediate fall.
It is a fall, first of all, into temptation. Obviously the very desire for material things was a temptation in the first place, but let's trace the steps here. The temptation comes, ‘Oh, if only I could have bigger, better. I want to go window shopping. I want to embellish my home with all sorts of things. I want to have this and have that and enjoy things.’ Or maybe it comes in a different form to another person: ‘I want to be flattered. I want to be admired. I want to make a good impression and be thought well of. So I am going to fix my sights, not only on degrees, but higher degrees and higher degrees. I don't care about spiritual service and worship. I'm going to get those things and then people will know I'm clever and they'll have to admire me and appreciate me.’ It might come in a form like that. That is a temptation from the devil. We have a choice. What are we going to do? With the help of God we have got to divert our thinking, fight against that temptation, switch our desires to pleasing the Lord and serving him. If we fail to do that, and say, ‘I rather like these temptations. They rather appeal to me, these thoughts. I will daydream along these lines. I will think of great things for myself’, then we move to the next stage. As soon as we begin to cradle the temptation and relish it, we fall. Then comes stronger temptation. So it begins with a temptation from the devil; we nurture it; we nourish it; we entertain it, and we fall into a whole rump of temptations. So the apostle adds this word, temptation and a snare.
The kind of snare that is in mind would most probably be the animal cage trap of those times. A cage and the animal got into it and baited in and sprung the trap and the lid fell and the animal couldn't get out and threw itself against the walls for a while. The experts say that the caged animal would be subdued surprisingly quickly and would accept its captivity and die down. Maybe the apostle has that in mind. There may be a few pangs of conscience, but this thing gets such a hold of us, that we accept it. You could see each wall of the animal cage as representing a different line of reasoning. ‘Is it not reasonable that I should have this? Is it not reasonable that I should be able to achieve that or attain something else?’ And you turn to another wall of the cage, ‘and is it not desirable? Will it not make my life better and happier?’ Another wall of the cage: ‘Indeed, is it not necessary? How can I be expected to go on through life without these things?’ Another wall of the cage is very subtle: ‘Anyway, won't it make me spiritually more useful?’ We are in the cage; we are trapped.
‘Into many foolish and hurtful lusts’, and the ‘many’ is very important, because what happens is that a whole train of temptations come with them. This temptation never comes alone. This is the principle which is being taught here. If it starts with money and possessions, then it goes on. Soon you are tempted to surrender worship and service, perhaps not all of it, because you are going to fool yourself that you're still a Christian, walking in the fear of the Lord. But to get these things, you may have to sacrifice attendance at the prayer meeting. Then you'll sacrifice that your Sunday school class. Then you can't cope anymore with perhaps an evening service, and then you haven't really time for daily Bible readings. The devil will keep you thinking you're still walking as an earnest Christian, and yet you have sacrificed half your spiritual duties and performances for the sake of achieving or getting whatever this is. Many sins also come with it. You lie to justify yourself and you become very sensitive if any earnest Christian soul, even in the kindliest spirit, should get alongside you to try to show you what you are doing. You become angry and hostile to that person. You hate that person and you'll speak against that person because that person's challenged your sin. Bitterness then comes in because you are blocked from what you want. You become more selfish as a person. Only you count in your marriage. What's your marriage for? What's your husband for? Your wife for? To help you and to make you happy. Number one becomes preeminent. This is what the apostle is warning us of. It all starts with the desire for more.
‘Which drown men in destruction and perdition.’ In the last part of this verse he is not talking about believers, but unbelievers. ‘Which drown men’, that is, worldly men, unbelievers, the human race in general. ‘Which drown people in destruction’, physical destruction, ‘and perdition’, everlasting loss. Do you want to have as your life's policy the kind of craving after material things, which is the very force that destroys the unregenerate worldling and sends him to hell? That is the force of the argument here.
Those who are rich: there are rules for them. Those who God has brought through to high achievement – they didn't set their sights on it and struggle and strive after it, but God so equipped them, he gave them such an able mind, he gave them such abilities that it almost seemed to come naturally and easily to them. They were clearly called for achievement in some particular area. They didn't treat it as a god and strive after it, it just came to them. Such people have to live simply themselves. They have got to maintain simplicity. They have got to maintain Christian humility, and to maintain great stewardship. They've got to maintain a servant spirit, and to keep spiritual priorities in their lives. That is their duty before God. If God has called them to riches and to high achievement, he will give them grace and strength, not to be owned by them, but to own them and steward them and disperse them.