Luke 4:8-12: in context

Luke's account of the temptation in the wilderness includes a moment that should unsettle anyone who trusts the Bible. The devil has already offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he will only worship him, a shortcut to a glory that was going to be his anyway, and Jesus has refused: worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. Then the devil takes him to the pinnacle of the temple and tries a different tack. If you are the Son of God, he says, throw yourself down. And to seal it, he quotes Scripture, a real promise from Psalm 91: he will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so you will not strike your foot against a stone.

The tempter has the text right. What he has wrong is the use of it. He is turning a promise of God's protection into a dare, urging a reckless, showy leap to force God to catch him, and dressing the presumption up as faith. Jesus does not answer by throwing out the verse. He answers with another one that governs it: it is said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. A promise of God's care is not a license to jump. Trusting God and testing him are opposite things, and a Bible verse in the mouth of the suggestion does not make the leap holy.

The devil used a true promise to talk Jesus into a reckless leap and call it faith. Where am I using something God said to justify a leap he never asked me to take, and naming my presumption trust?