AM Bible Study Group; April 4, 2012

James 1:13-18

Theme: We keep our perspective in times of temptation when we remember where temptation comes from—and where it doesn’t.

Pastor James had been speaking to the subject of temptation. In verse 12, he began by setting before us the blessedness that comes from enduring temptation and staying faithful to God’s call on our lives: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. ” It may be that the persecuted Jewish Christians to whom he wrote were particularly tempted to abandon their devotion to Jesus and to return to their Judaism. We today are often tempted to abandon our devotion to Christ—perhaps not by returning to Jewish rituals and ceremonies because of persecution; but by giving in to sinful practices because of the pressure from the world around us. We are often tempted to “go” with the sinful “flow”. But in either case, the blessing of endurance is the same. Verse 12 is meant to be a powerful encouragement.

But now, after giving this encouragement, James shows his readers the dynamics of temptation and how it works in our lives. Knowing how it works will better equip us to endure it—and to experience God’s blessings as a result.

I. TEMPTATION DOES NOT COME FROM GOD (v. 13).

A. It may seem surprising to some of us that anyone would suggest that it does; but as a good pastor, James had a working familiarity with the deceitfulness of the human heart—and so has just about everyone since his day who has ever worked for the cause of Christ in the lives of others! People often make excuses for their sins that place the blame squarely on God: “I can’t help it . . . God made me this way. ” “If God didn’t want me to give in to it, then why didn’t He take away my desire?” “God could have stopped me, but He didn’t; so it must be that He wanted me to do it. ” (See Romans 3:5-8 for more examples of this kind of self-deception. )

B. In answer to this, James asserts that “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. ” He Himself is light, without darkness (1 John 1:5). It may be—as we have seen from verses 2-4—that God permits temptation in order to refine us. But He is not the author of it, nor is He a victim of it. The deceptiveness of our heart is shown in that it is ready to blame God for our sins in order to get the attention off of where the real blame lies.

II. TEMPTATION HAS ITS SOURCE IN OUR OWN DESIRES (vv. 14-15).

A. James speaks of how “each one” is tempted—putting the blame on the individual. The principle that pulls us toward temptation to disobey God’s commands is our “own desires” or “lusts” or “passions”. To explain how temptation works upon these desires, he uses the language of the fisherman or the animal trapper; saying that each one is “drawn away” and “enticed” by means of them. It’s just like a fish is lured to the hook or the animal is lured to the trap by means of “desire”. Perhaps the greatest example of this is the one we read in Genesis 3:6 about the temptation in the garden. There, we read, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. ”

B. In verse 15, James changes his metaphor. He goes from speaking in the language of the fisherman or the hunter, and speaks—quite frankly—in the language of pregnancy and birth; and perhaps as if in an illicit context. Once someone is lured away into temptation by desire, and then acts on that temptation, something is “conceived” that is called “sin”. “Sin”, as the Bible tells us, “is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). It is, as Question 14 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism has it, “any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God. ” It’s as if the action of giving in to desire resulted in a child called “sin” is born. And that ‘child’, “when it is full-grown, brings forth death. ” As the Bible tells us, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). God warned Adam that, on the day he ate of the fruit that God forbade to him, he would die (Genesis 2:17). He ate. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—” (Romans 5:12).

III. NO ONE SHOULD BE DECEIVED ABOUT GOD’S RELATION TO TEMPTAION (vv. 16-18).

A. James recognizes that there would be an inclination in the fallen human heart of the people he loved to fool themselves about this. It would be easy for them to do the very thing he warned them not to do at the beginning of this passage—that is, to blame God and try to take the blame off themselves. But we will never get anywhere by doing that. We become false before God—who Himself is not fooled. “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). The fastest way to forgiveness is to own-up to our own blameworthiness when we fall in sin. “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren” (v. 16).

B. But isn’t it wonderful that James calls his readers “beloved brethren”! His purpose is not to condemn us for our failures in the past, but to enable us to endure temptation in the future. And so, he puts our attention on the holy character of God. He does this in two ways:

1. He points to the character of God with respect to Himself. He writes, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (v. 17). God is not the one who sends bad things our way, but rather sends every good thing to us. Anything good and beautiful and satisfying in our lives came from Him. What’s more, He never changes or ceases to be the source of all good. There isn’t even a “shadow of turning” in Him; such as you would see if you moved a light slightly and made a slight “turning” in the shadow on the wall. He will never change in the least little bit from being the good God He is.

2. Then, he points to the character of God with respect to us. He further says, “Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (v. 18). The great plan for our salvation and future glorification in Christ is His; and He’s the one who willingly set that plan into motion. He’s the one who “brought us forth”—that is, gave birth to us (using the same word as in verse 15) in His Son Jesus Christ—by “the word of truth” which He Himself spoke. He did this so that we would be like “firstfruits”—the best fruit of the harvest, and that served as an indication that more fruit was coming! His goal for us, always, is to make us like His holy, sinless, glorious Son (1 John 3:1-3).

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The point is that, if He is good, and never changes, and did all of this to make us like Jesus, He’s not going to work against it all at the same time by tempting us so that we stumble into sin. So; rather than blame Him for our temptations, we should trust in His help in the midst of them; and endure in such a way as to receive His fullest blessings in Christ!