Temptation may continue for a protracted period, but we cannot make this the grounds for yielding to it, any more than we can make the ease with which we could perform it or the difficulty of our sin being discovered a reason for giving way. Although temptation continues, God’s hatred of it does not diminish in any degree; it is always the same. He always detests it and he does not allow temptation to continue because he grows indifferent to our reaction to it, but to test us. God is not trying to break us down, but to build us up. Temptation to do evil comes from the devil and from our own lust. God tempts men only in the sense that he tests their hearts. He measures their faithfulness to him and puts their obedience under strain. But neither does he do this in order to discover what we are capable of, for he ‘understands my thought from afar off.’ God tests us to show us our own hearts, to prove to men and to Satan and to the angels that we are what we are.
Christ teaches us to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation.’ We should desire to be as far from it as we can, for we know our own weakness. We should beware of an unhealthy wish to know what sin would feel like. But if we pray as Christ has taught us, we cannot be sincere if at the same time we put ourselves in a position where we are bound to be tempted. Sometimes even legitimate things must be avoided because of the danger of sin. Joseph shows his heart is right and he avoids even the company of this woman, if it would mean being alone with her. It would have been easy for him to have justified being with her for she was his master’s wife and no doubt he had to receive certain instruction from her. But if we allow ourselves to taste sin, it is not long before we swallow it. We are stronger when we are fighting it from a distance then when we are in hand-to-hand combat. Its attractiveness becomes overpoweringly great, the nearer it gets to us. Joseph no doubt did not make his separation from this woman’s company an excuse to be bad mannered and disrespectful, but continued to treat her as his master’s wife even when she was not worthy of it. This is seen in his answer to her which is firm but in very moderate terms.