When individuals engage in wrongdoing, or sin, they tend to blame themselves. This produces the hurtful emotion of guilt. Wrong thinking, speaking, and acting should indeed be regretted, repented of, and forsaken. But proper regret includes no personal condemnation.

One of the foundation stones in scientific Christianity is the truth that the individual, as in reality the spiritual offspring of God, good, is never destroyed, but that sin—thoughts and acts opposed to good, omnipotent God—is expiated only as destroyed. This view of sin is so important that it finds expression in one of the religious tenets given by Mrs. Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, and subscribed to by all Christian Scientists: "We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts." ^{Science and Health, p. 497.}

In order to occur, sin must have an act of committal, and that's where temptation comes in. To withstand temptation one needs to understand that the modes of sin, which seem to be proliferating, are less important than the basic impulse to sin. Although it often takes repeated effort to overcome a sin, if we're turning to God for forgiveness (healing) of the same sin over and over again with no apparent progress, something may be wrong in our approach. Could it be that we have understood the nothingness of the specific evil through realizing the allness of divine Mind but have left unhandled the mortal belief of temptation itself?

Mortal mind, a false consciousness claiming activity apart from God—from infinite God—is mythical. As God, good, is the only Mind, sin or evil possesses no intelligence, and the nonintelligent has no capacity to attract. Lacking substance, mortal mind ever seeks to satisfy itself. But that's impossible; the insatiable unreal can never have satisfaction. As we deny any scrap of validity to this utterly false mind, temptation will lessen in our lives. "When tempted to sin," writes Mrs. Eddy, "we should know that evil proceedeth not from God, good, but is a false belief of the personal senses; and if we deny the claims of these senses and recognize man as governed by God, Spirit, not by material laws, the temptation will disappear." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 198.}

Make no mistake: everyone in his heart has some spark of desire to be free of wrong, of commandment-breaking, of sin and its temptations. But for us to recognize this desire may call for an awakening; and then the escape from sin may seem too difficult. Are we succumbing to the easily besetting temptation to believe that it's necessary for even the best of mortals to sin once in a while? Then we need to strongly deny that we are mortal at all. In reality we are this very second the daughters and sons of the immaculate Soul of the universe, God. We have no intrinsic impulse to sin, because our Father is also our Mind. Not a supermortal, God is omniscient Spirit, Life, characterized by purity and vitality, wisdom and harmony. His children—remember, that's us moment by moment—are spiritual ideas, the perfect embodiment of all divine Love's qualities and of those alone. Each of us is whole, intelligently satisfied, abundantly supplied—each a cherished spiritual witness to God's eternal power. Mind and its reflection, man, constitute universal completeness.

At times temptation implies a threat. It seems to say: "God will not help you. Worship me or suffer." There are many instances in the Bible that show how a courageous resistance to temptation can produce total protection. Despite a public decree proclaiming death by burning for those who failed to worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar had erected, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could not be swerved from steadfast reliance on God's justice. Their example is one of high moral, not animal, courage. To a great extent, these three must have realized that trust in divine righteousness affords the highest safety mankind can achieve.

Mortal mind would blur the distinction between a proffered temptation and its acceptance in thought. These three individuals were clear in the knowledge that their love for and obedience to God had not brought them to a point of suffering. If they had not been, if they had accepted the punishment as part of God's will, it is doubtful whether they would have been able to subsequently prove that man, being spiritual, cannot be touched by the consuming flames of the carnal mind. ^{See Dan. 3 .}

Negative emotions that come to us for validation—lust, greed, envy, fear—may seem a fiery furnace. But abiding in our Father's eternal love, we can destroy these false mental states, denying them expression in the form of wrongdoing or illness. Mrs. Eddy declares: "Christian Scientists cannot watch too sedulously, or bar their doors too closely, or pray to God too fervently, for deliverance from the claims of evil. Thus doing, Scientists will silence evil suggestions, uncover their methods, and stop their hidden influence upon the lives of mortals. Rest assured that God in His wisdom will test all mankind on all questions; and then, if found faithful, He will deliver us from temptation and show us the powerlessness of evil,—even its utter nothingness." ^{Mis., p. 114.}

Now, this raises the query, Is there any present value to humankind in temptation? There's value in resisting temptation. Everything in God, eternal Truth, is good, and He is all there really is. Every time we resist sin's enticements through claiming our native purity as God's offspring, affirming only His control and influence as real, we are demonstrating the impotence of evil, of matter, and striding forward in spiritual progress.

During testing times let us cherish this Bible assurance, which can wipe out self-condemnation and fear: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able." ^{I Cor. 10:13.}

God Himself never tempts us, and the eternal Christ, Truth, that Jesus epitomized is active in every human breast, continually urging us to morality and goodness and to the rejection of evil as no part of true being. In this, Christian Science is our adequate guide. Proclaims our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, "Those only who are tried in the furnace reflect the image of their Father." ^{Mis., p. 278.}