UNDERSTANDING THE SOURCE
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on April 17, 2024 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: April 17, 2024 from James 1:13-18
Theme: We cannot rightly endure temptation until we acknowledge where it comes from … and where it doesn’t.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
In his letter, good Pastor James was giving his beloved brothers and sisters important insight into an important subject: temptation. In verse 12, he wrote;
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him (James 1:12).
These were Jewish Christians for whom those words were very practical and relevant. They were Jewish Christians who had been scattered from their homeland—and from their church and pastor—because of persecution. Their particular form of temptation may have been to abandon their devotion to Jesus Christ, and to return to their old Judaistic ways.
We may not be tempted in exactly the same way as our first-century Jewish brothers and sisters were. We’re more likely to be tempted to abandon our faithfulness to Jesus—not by returning to old Jewish traditions and rituals and ceremonies—but by giving way to the sinful practices and habits and patterns of the world around us. We’re more likely to be tempted to “go” with the sinful ”flow” of the times; and to avoid suffering and persecution by allowing ourselves to fit in with the ungodly beliefs and values of the present age. But whether for Jewish Christians in the first century, or Gentile believers in our own time, verse 12 is a powerful encouragement. It holds out to us the promise of great reward if we faithfully endure for our Lord in times of temptation, trial, and testing.
But in order to do this as we should, we need to understand the true dynamics of ‘temptation’. We need to know how it works. We need to know where it comes from, and where our weaknesses lay, and—most of all—who our true Helper is. Knowing these things will help us to endure temptation—and to experience God’s blessing as a result.
And so, that leads us to what James went on to write. In verses 13-18, he added this to the encouragement to endure;
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 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. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures (vv. 13-18).
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Back in the 1970s, there was a very popular television comedian who had a standard line. Whenever he was caught doing something he shouldn’t have done, he said, “The devil made me do it.” It was a funny line; but it represented an attitude that many people have: When I fail and stumble in sin, it’s not really my fault. Someone else is actually to blame.
And that’s a spiritually dangerous idea. We cannot have the fellowship with God our Father that He wants us to have if we hold on to the idea that our sin is not our fault. The apostle John wrote;
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us (1 John 1:8-10).
So then; Pastor James urges his brethren to put the blame where it truly belongs. If we have stumbled and failed—if we did not endure temptation but rather gave in—then no one else made us do it. We are to blame. Praise God that our sins have been atoned for by the blood of Jesus. But unless we own our responsibility, then we cannot grow to endure temptation as we should.
So, in helping his readers to understand this, James tells us three crucial things. First, he tells us where the temptation to sin does not come from (in verse 13); second, what temptation’s actual source is (in verses 14-15); and third, what God Himself calls us to instead (in verses 16-18).
First, notice …
1. WHERE TEMPTATION TO SIN DOES NOT COME FROM (v. 13).
James begins by warning us, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’ (v. 13). Someone reading those words in a superficial way might be surprised by what James said. Would it really be true that someone would actually say such a thing? That comedian used to say that, if he fell into sin, the devil was to blame; but would someone dare to say that it was really God who was to blame for it?
In saying this, James actually demonstrates a profound insight into the remarkable deceitfulness of the human heart. And in fact, those who have worked in ministry—and have sought to minister to people in the name of Christ—can recognize the insight of James’ words. People today will very often—and very assertively—seek to justify a sinful lifestyle on the argument, “I can’t help it. God has made me this way.” There may be lesser forms of saying this; such as, “If God didn’t want me to do this, then why didn’t He take my desire for it away?” or “God could have stopped me from doing it, but He didn’t; so it must be that He wanted me to do it.”
Think of what it says in Romans 3:5-8;
But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just (Romans 3:5-8).
These are all forms of putting the blame on God. And this is a very dangerous way of thinking. If those arguments were actually valid, then it would mean that God’s commandments are unjust, or that God does not have accurate insight into the nature of the creatures He has made, or that His commandments are cruel and unnatural, or even that His condemnation of our practices makes Him out to be a liar. God is ready to forgive our sins through Jesus if we confess it; but no one can walk in fellowship with God who would make God to blame for their sin.
So; what is the truth of the matter? James made it clear when, in the later part of verse 13, he wrote, “for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.” James stated things very carefully. He had already taught us that God permits temptation to come into our lives in order to try us and train us. As he said in verses 2-4;
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (vv. 2-4).
But He Himself is not the author of temptation; nor is He ever a victim of it. He Himself is light; and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
So then; when we are tempted, no fault is being demonstrated in God at all. Rather, the deceptiveness of our own hearts is shown in the fact that we are ready to blame God for our sins in order to take the attention off ourselves.
So then; if it doesn’t come from God, where does temptation actually come from? James goes on to show us …
2. WHAT TEMPTATION’S ACTUAL SOURCE IS (vv. 14-15).
In verse 14, James wrote, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” The word that he uses for “temptation” to sin is the same word that is used to describe the testing of our endurance in verse 12. But what God permits in our lives as a testing of our endurance must not be mistaken as an inducement from Him to sin. The principle that pulls us toward the temptation to sin is our own “desires” or “lusts” or “passions”.
To explain how temptation works upon our desires, James used the language of the fisherman or the trapper of animals. He said that each one of us is “drawn away” and “enticed” by our own sinful desires—just as a fish is lured to the hook or the animal is lured into the trap by means of their “desires”. Perhaps the greatest example of this that we could ever find is the very first one—the one we find in Genesis 3:6; where we’re told;
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 (Genesis 3:6).
The serpent simply dangled the lure in front of her; but it was her own desires that caused her and her husband to take the bait. So, each one of us is tempted when we are drawn away from obedience to God by our own desires and enticed.
And then, James changes his metaphors. He switches from speaking in the language of a fisherman or a hunter; and changes to the language—quite frankly—of sexual attraction, pregnancy, and birth. In verse 15, he said, “Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
Once someone is lured away into temptation by desire, and then acts on that temptation—as it were ‘consummating the relationship’—then something is ’conceived’. That something is called ‘sin’. Sin, as the Bible tells us, is “lawlessness” (1 John 3:4); or as 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 results in the birth of a child called ‘sin’. And that child, when fully 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 had forbidden to him, he would die (Genesis 2:17). He ate; and thus—as Paul tells us in Romans 5:12;
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).
Now; no one should ever be self-deceived about the matter. To deceive ourselves—and convince ourselves that our sin is not our fault—is to short-circuit our ability to endure temptation. And God our Father doesn’t want us to yield to temptation—but to be blessed. And so; James goes on to tell us …
3. WHO WE SHOULD TURN TO IN TIMES OF TEMPTATION (vv. 16-18).
In verse 16, James recognizes that there will be an inclination on the part of the fallen human heart to fool one’s self about this matter. He wrote, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” The fastest way toward forgiveness of our sins is to own up to our own blameworthiness when we fall.
And isn’t it wonderful that James assures his fellow believers by calling them “beloved brethren”? His purpose in writing these words was not to condemn his readers for their failures in the past, but to enable them to endure temptation in the future … and to receive the blessing for doing so. And so, he puts their attention on the holy character of God Himself.
He does this in two ways. First, he points to the character of God with respect to God Himself. In verse 17, he wrote, “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.” God is not the one who ever sends bad things our way, but rather sends good things to us. Anything that is good and beautiful and satisfying in our lives came from Him. And what’s more, He Himself never changes from being the source of all good. There isn’t even a “shadow of turning” in Him—such as you would see if you moved a candle in a dark room slightly and made a tiny shifting of the shadows that it cast on the wall. He will never change even the slightest bit from being the good God that He is to us. No enticement to do evil will ever come from Him.
And second, he points to the character of God with respect to us. He went on to say in verse 18, “Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” The great plan for our salvation and future glorification in Christ is all His. Rather than being the cause of our failures, He is the source of our glorification. He’s the one who “brought us forth”—that is, who gave us new birth through His Son Jesus Christ—by “the word of truth” which He Himself spoke. He did this so that we would be like “firstfruits” of His creatures—that is, the very best fruit of the harvest that served as an indication of more blessings yet to come. His goal for us has always been only to make us like His own holy, sinless, glorious Son Jesus. As it says in 1 John 3:1-3;
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:1-3).
That’s the stake that the Father has in us as His children. And so, if He is good, and never changes from His goodness, and even gave His own Son to redeem us and make us holy in His sight forever, we can be sure that He’ll never work against it all by tempting us to stumble into sin or by enticing us to commit any evil act. Instead, we can rest in what we’re told in 1 Corinthians 10:13;
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).
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So; let’s remember how temptation works. Enticement to sin doesn’t come from God. Rather, we are enticed and lured in by our own lusts. But God Himself is our Helper. He is the source of only good things; and He has given His own Son for us in order to make us holy. When we fail, we can confess our sin and be washed clean by the blood of His Son. And when we are tempted, we can trust in His enabling help to endure.
In times of temptation, let’s turn to Him and pray, “Father in heaven; I know that this temptation does not come from You. You only give what is good and pure. And so I ask, dear Father, that You give me the strength and the help to endure and remain faithful to you. Strengthen in me what You wish to see in me. And when You have tested me, I pray that I may prove faithful … and one day hear Your Son say to me, ‘Well done!’”
If we do that, then do you know what we will have done? We will have done what James 1:12 encourages us to do:
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
AE
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