Temptation is John Owen’s biblical warning to Christians for avoiding the many significant harms of temptation. It is the second of his three books dealing with sin: Mortification of Sin, Temptation, and Indwelling Sin. In Temptation, Owen presents one of the most thorough treatments of our part in sanctification (“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation,” Mat 26:41) and Christ’s part (“I will keep thee from the hour of temptation,” Rev 3:10). Owen shows successively what temptation is, what it is to “enter into temptation,” the power of temptation, marks of having fallen into temptation, the role of prayer, how we must “watch,” what it is to “keep the word of Christ’s patience,” and motives for watching against temptation.
