In this week's lessons, as we prepare for Christmas, I want to look at one of the greatest of the Christmas carols—not the carol itself, of course, since it is only a human composition, but at the text from which it is drawn. “Joy to the World,” by Isaac Watts, is one of my favorite carols, and it would probably be among the most favored carols on any list that might be drawn up by English-speaking Christians. 

The second step for those who wish to overcome their anger is to correct the injustice, for there's always injustice on both sides in any normal disputes. Jesus said, "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift" (Matt. 5:23-24). 

Now obviously, such a definition of murder—extending to unjustified anger and to expressions of contempt—searches to the depth of our beings, and to the things that we say when we are angry. There's a difference between righteous anger and unrighteous anger. Jesus Himself spoke in righteous anger against the hypocritical stand taken by the so-called leaders of His day. 

Now that brings us to the big question, the one for which we’ve reviewed this history of Christ's temptation. How did the Lord Jesus Christ come out on top of them? How did He resist them and overcome? The answer to this is contrary to what most people think, for they think that He did it by drawing on His divine nature. They believe that He had more power to resist temptation than we do.

The second main source of temptations is the world. Now what is the world? Clearly the Bible is not talking about the physical earth when it speaks of the world's temptations. It's talking rather about a system of values that are not divine values, and about a way of life that is not God's way of life—a lifestyle, if you will. The Oxford English Dictionary hits upon this sense of the word when it defines the world as "worldly affairs, the aggregate of things earthly." In this area we must place temptations to become president of the company or of the women's auxiliary at the expense of others who also want the top position. We must include most of the sins of pride—pride in our ancestry, our wealth, our superior taste in art, music, or drama. We must include all desires to put down other people.