Who can remember what happened in Chapter 4 of Matthew’s Gospel? I’ll give you a hint: That action concludes with Jesus pronouncing, “Be gone, Satan!” (Matthew 4:10). After being tempted in the desert, where the Devil twice asks, “If you are the Son of God …”

Last week Peter declared that Jesus was, in fact, the Christ, and the Son of God. And this week, Jesus admonishes Peter: “Get behind Me, Satan.”  But the punch line this week carries the full weight of the issue: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

This naturally invites a question: are we conditioned to see the world as human beings do, or as God does?  What is our lens?

The world spends billions of dollars on advertising each year, looking to sway our purchases, and to direct our actions, often toward things that are unnecessary, dangerous, or immoral. Yes, billions! One finance study estimates that for this year, between $500 and $511 billion will be spent in the U.S. alone on advertising, trying to convince you that you need to spend your hard-earned dollars on their products.

That is “… thinking as humans do…”

When we think as God does, we develop a clearer understanding of what and how we invest ourselves in each moment. What amount we spend is less important than who we spend our time with each day, and how we spend that time. Are we modeling the Gospel values that we each know, and which we try but often fail to follow, or are we convinced by the advertising about who we should be? Do you let the values of the world that are often broken direct your actions, or will you strive each day to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd? The decision is not new in our time, nor even in Jesus’ time; Joshua declared when faced with challenges around 1270 BC: “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” But the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods” (Joshua 24: 15-16).

So the question of whom we serve has been disputed for thousands of years: 3,300 years ago for Joshua; 2,000 years ago for Peter. And now, today for you and me. 

Let’s not simply say “Yes” to Jesus while in church, but with every moment of our lives. Let us return His gift of Free Will into the service of God, and choose, every day, to serve the values of the Gospel and not the false attractions of this world.