UN/Broken - Day 8
Luke 4:1-2
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them, he was hungry.
When we are hungry, we are more susceptible to moral shortcuts. In an experiment with college students after fasting for 12 hours, the hungrier they were, the less disgusted they were by a morally problematic dilemma in a short story (Vicario et al., 2018). We could have less energy for moral reasoning when our blood sugar is low. It is probably easier to agree with whatever is going on.
Luke reports that Jesus was much more food deprived than the study participants, and we can only imagine what kind of hunger he was experiencing. There is no mention of why Jesus didn’t eat anything during that time and if he planned to go that long without food. Regardless of the reason, as we learn in Luke’s subsequent verses, Jesus did not take the easy moral shortcuts he was tempted towards, but this must have been excruciating and only because of his immense moral strength.
For the rest of us, in addition to relying on the Holy Spirit and bible study for our moral strength, it is an excellent idea to minimize our human vulnerabilities
to moral compromise, including our biochemical vulnerabilities. As the study authors conclude, if you have something you need to do at the top of your moral game, “…make sure you do it after breakfast.” (p. 35).
JOURNAL:
How might your moral choices be influenced by the health basics of appropriate nutrition, sleep, and exercise?
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them, he was hungry.
When we are hungry, we are more susceptible to moral shortcuts. In an experiment with college students after fasting for 12 hours, the hungrier they were, the less disgusted they were by a morally problematic dilemma in a short story (Vicario et al., 2018). We could have less energy for moral reasoning when our blood sugar is low. It is probably easier to agree with whatever is going on.
Luke reports that Jesus was much more food deprived than the study participants, and we can only imagine what kind of hunger he was experiencing. There is no mention of why Jesus didn’t eat anything during that time and if he planned to go that long without food. Regardless of the reason, as we learn in Luke’s subsequent verses, Jesus did not take the easy moral shortcuts he was tempted towards, but this must have been excruciating and only because of his immense moral strength.
For the rest of us, in addition to relying on the Holy Spirit and bible study for our moral strength, it is an excellent idea to minimize our human vulnerabilities
to moral compromise, including our biochemical vulnerabilities. As the study authors conclude, if you have something you need to do at the top of your moral game, “…make sure you do it after breakfast.” (p. 35).
JOURNAL:
How might your moral choices be influenced by the health basics of appropriate nutrition, sleep, and exercise?
By Dr. Kenny Boyd
Thank You for Supporting the Ministry of Crosswalk
Posted in Luke
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