The Lord's life was continual temptation and continual victory, from earliest childhood until His last hour of life in the world. This can be established from many things in the Old Testament, and this passage in Luke establishes that His temptation did not end with the temptation in the wilderness: "After the devil finished the whole

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the Lord's life was continual

temptation and continual victory

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temptation, he left Him for a while" (Luke 4:13). His continual temptation is also established by the fact that He was tempted on the cross right up to His death, or the last moment of life in the world. This shows clearly that the Lord's whole life in the world, from earliest childhood, was continual temptation and continual victory.

The final temptation was when, on the cross, He prayed for His enemies—which is for everyone in the whole world. Except for this last temptation, the life of the Lord in the Gospels, in the Word, mentions only His temptation in the wilderness. That is all that was revealed to the disciples. The literal sense represents what they did notice as so mild  that it is hardly anything,  for to say  so-and-so and answer such-and-such is no

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to destroy anyone's love is to destroy that person's life itself,

for love is life

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temptation. And yet it became more grievous than any human mind could ever possibly believe. No one can appreciate what a temptation is like except the one undergoing it. The temptation narrated in Matthew 4:1 -1 I, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13 does include the most important temptation: that for love of the whole human race He confronted the self-interest and materialism that the hells were fraught with.

Every temptation is an attack on a love that a person has. Whatever the amount of love, that is the amount of temptation. If it is not an attack on love, it is no temptation. To destroy anyone's love is to destroy that person's life itself, for love is life. The Lord's life became love for the whole human race, and indeed it was so great and of such a kind that it was nothing but pure love. Against this life of His, continual temptations were let loose, as has been said, from earliest childhood until the last moment of His life in the world.

The love that was very precisely the Lord's life was represented in metaphor when He was hungry, and the devil said, "If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into bread," and Jesus answered, "It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by all the words of God"  (Luke 4:2-4; Matt. 4:2-4).

The fact that the Lord confronted materialism, or everything related to worldly love, is represented where the devil took Him up on a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the earth in a moment and said, "I'll give you all this power and its glory, since it's been given to me and anyone I want to give it to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." But in answer Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan, for it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and serve only Him'" (Luke 4:5-8; Matt. 4:8-10).

The fact that He confronted self-interest and everything related to self-interest is represented where the devil escorted Him to the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and told Him, "If you're the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it's written, 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands  they shall  bear

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the greater the love,

the more severe the temptation

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you up lest you dash your foot against a stone.'" And Jesus said to him, "Again, it is written, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God'" (Matt. 4:5-7; Luke 4:9-12).

Continual victory is indicated by the fact that after temptation "angels came and cared for Him" (Matt. 4:1 I; Mark 1:13).

In summary, from earliest boyhood until the last moment of His life in the world, all the hells were confronting the Lord. He continually met, mastered, and conquered them, and only out of love for the human race as a whole. This love was not human but Divine, and the greater the love, the more severe the temptation, so one can verify how severe the struggles were, and how savage on the part of the infernal. I, Emanuel Swedenborg, know for certain that these were the facts. [Arcana Coelestia 1690]

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