Messages to Young People

Needless Temptations to Be Shunned

“God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” And we also have a part to act. We are not to place ourselves needlessly in the way of temptation. God says, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, ... and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters.” If by associating with worldlings for pleasure, by conforming to worldly practices, by uniting our interests with unbelievers, we place our feet in the path of temptation and sin, how can we expect God to keep us from falling? MYP 81.2

Keep yourselves away from the corrupting influences of the world. Do not go unbidden to places where the forces of the enemy are strongly entrenched. MYP 82.1

Do not go where you will be tempted and led astray. But if you have a message for unbelievers, and if you live so near to God that you can speak to them a word in season, you can do a work that will help them and will honor God. “I pray not,” Christ said, “that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”—The Review and Herald, April 14, 1904. MYP 82.2