...Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.
And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Lie with me."
But he refused and said to his master's wife,
"Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"Joseph talks a lot about Potiphar in this exchange: "my master has no concern about anything...he has put everything...in my charge. He is not greater...than I am, nor has he kept back anything." We might expect him to end with, "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against my master?" Well, in a sense, that's exactly what he said.
Joseph knew that all sin is vertical. All sin has to do with God. As John Piper says in Future Grace, "Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied in God." So, Joseph did not answer her, "How then can I do this great wickedness after all my master's done for me?" or, "How then can I do this and jeopardize my job security?" or, "How then can I do this - what if you get pregnant?" or, "How then can I do this - what if it gets going through the grapevine?" or, "How then can I do this - what if we get caught?"
What's your reasoning like when you are tempted? Especially in the dark and private moments when no one is around and no one will know. How much does God factor into the equation? How vertical is your temptation-resisting reason?
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