The most brazen lie of all is the lie people tell themselves. I have nothing to worry about from the wrath of God. My God is a God of love. If that is your thought, your God is an idol… Sin is not simply making bad choices or mistakes. Sin is having the desire in our hearts to do the will of the enemy of God. R.C. Sproul
James now explains the inner trials that Christians face.
James 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own evil desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
17 Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.
Temptation is a trial that we are all familiar with. It almost always rolls out the same way. We know, as referenced above, that Christ has rescued us from lives of futility that will end in death. We have received the crown of life. James 1:12 We have been adopted into God’s family, given life, John 1:4, and given a new way of living, as Christ explained, If you love me you will keep my commands. John 14:15 Yet despite knowing all of this, when we are presented with something that we desire, something that is contrary to the law of love, Romans 13:8-10, we frequently begin to look for a loophole. We begin to rationalize. We look for a way to justify giving in to our desires.
James uses two analogies to explain the process of temptation.
The first is fishing. A fisherman puts a lure on a line and pulls it through the water in order to attract the attention of the fish and draw it away from it’s place of safety in order to catch it. Similarly, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. We allow a desire to lure us away from God’s truth, our place of safety. We become ensnared in sin.
The second analogy is a woman giving birth to a child. A child is conceived, is born, and then grows to maturity. Similarly, after allowing ourselves to be lured away by a forbidden desire, sin is conceived. In other words, we rationalize ways to get as close to the sin as possible, as close to fulfilling our desire as possible, without actually crossing the line. But that strategy is impossible. We are caught by the lure. We cross the line we have been carefully trying to toe. We pursue the sin that we desired. We become slaves to sin. Continuing on that path leads to death. Romans 5:16
In fact, we are so steeped in our rationalizations that today we rarely talk about sin. Instead we have adopted, what we believe to be a medically neutral term; addiction. In fact, six of the seven deadly sins, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth are now defined as medical conditions, and pride is seen as a virtue. After all, the word sin points to our culpability, while addictions, we rationalize, are beyond our control. But, as James points out, we are slaves to them, all the same, regardless of how we label them.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
We deceive ourselves. We lie to ourselves about our sin. We tinker with the definition of sin. James is saying, think of any sin that you are struggling with and then realize that your biggest problem is, not the sin, but the deception; the lies you tell yourself, so that your can be comfortable with the sin; so that you can rationalize getting away with it. You may be struggling with anger or bitterness, but the real issue is the lie(s) you tell yourself to justify those attitudes. You may be struggling with covetousness but the real issue is the narrative you have built to justify your greed. You may be denying Christ or distancing yourself from Christ, by being afraid to fearlessly represent his Word, but the real issue is that you have deceived yourself into thinking it is okay to compromise.
Of course, anger, bitterness, resentment, covetousness, being ashamed of Christ, and any other sin you may hold on to, are all contrary to the nature of God, 1 John 1:5, and must be confessed. But we must first dig out the root of the individual sins that we cling to; self-deception. Our major problem is that we lie to ourselves, thinking that the lies somehow justify the anger, bitterness, greed, etc. We are so caught up in deception that we have lost sight of Christ; led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3 We are caught in the tangled web of deceit that we weave.
Put away all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. 1 Peter 2:1
Why is James warning his congregation about temptation?
Remember, his congregation has recently been forced to flee for their lives from the persecution in Jerusalem. They are refugees heading out into the pagan Roman world. The temptation to go along with the pagan practices so they might fit into their new communities is very powerful. In fact, Christ gives us examples this type of temptation in the book of Revelation.
There was a false teacher in the church of Thyatira, a city in modern day Turkey, who taught that in order to remain in good standing in the community, Christians could worship the local gods at the guild temples, offer sacrifices to the gods, and engage in religious rites with the male and female temple prostitutes. Revelation 2:20-23 Just as James warned his congregation that following their temptations would lead to death, Christ warned the church members at Thyatira that he would come in judgment against those who continued to compromise with the culture. And just as sin fully grown, leads to death, their judgment would be death.
James knew that some of the members of his congregation had come to falsely believe that the temptations they were facing, temptations to compromise with the culture, were actually temptations sent to them by God. In attempting to ease their conscience, they blamed God for their sin.
Have you ever fallen into sin, or more accurately, have you allowed yourself to be lured into following your very own wicked desires? Have you then blamed God for putting the temptation in your path? “God was testing me, what was I to do?”
To set the record straight James directly addresses this lame excuse, Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God.” God does not tempt his children. Don’t excuse your behavior by attributing it to God.
James then gives three reasons as to why Christians should never blame their temptation into sin on God.
First, God cannot be tempted with evil and he, himself tempts no one. There is no evil in God so it is impossible to conclude that he could be the author of temptation.
Second, as we already explored, temptation comes from our own evil desire. We allow our desires to lure us away from the light of God’s truth. We are, many times, the author of temptation, not God. We rationalize. In the case of the persecuted Christians to whom James addressed his letter, these rationalizations can be very powerful. In the case of Thyatira, Christians were rationalizing, “If I worship at the pagan temple, my neighbors will accept me. They will like me. I can keep my job and feed my family.” But Christ warns, Woe to you when men speak well of you, Luke 6:26, because compromise with sin leads to slavery to sin and slavery to sin always leads to death.
Third, instead of sending temptation, Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. God’s gifts are never destructive like our temptations. God’s gifts are good, perfect, kind, and helpful. God is not capricious. He does not change. We can place our trust in him without fear.
Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. Through the word of truth; Christ’s resurrection and the gift of the Gospel; everlasting life, freely offered to us by God, James wants his congregation to understand that they are first-fruits. First-fruits refers to the first portion of the harvest given to God. Exodus 34:22, Leviticus 23:10. These early persecuted Christians are to take heart. They are just the first of a multitude of believers that God will raise up in the world, throughout the generations to come. As Christ revealed, I saw a multitude to large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Revelation 7:9
James encourages his congregation. Yes, times are hard. Persecution is real. But you are the children of the King of Creation. He will not abandon you. In fact, as you remain faithful, through the coming centuries, your descendants will grow into a multitude to large to count. And the Christians believed that they were the first-fruits.
The remarkable thing is that although Christians were by no means numerous till after the middle of the second century, they recognized that Christianity formed the central point of humanity… It is truly amazing that a tiny set of people should confront the entire strength of the Roman Empire. Adolfo Harnack
Next James warns his congregation against falling into anger.
To put this into perspective, look at the words of Christ speaking to the church in Smyrna, I know about your afflictions and poverty… I know about the slander… some of you will be put in prison… you will suffer persecution… Revelation 2:9-10.
How do you feel when you are slandered? What would your natural reaction to those who slander you? How would you feel if you were imprisoned for no cause, or imprisoned for confessing that you believe in Christ?
After the 2008 Hindu Purity Party riots, seven Christian men were arrested and charged with the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. They were sentenced to life in prison. They were in despair knowing that their wives and children were alone; how would they feed themselves, cloth themselves, get an education. Ruth was only allowed to see her husband twice a month. She said that whenever she was crying her seven year old son would comfort her saying, “Come to my room; let us pray. We only hope on Jesus. He will solve our problems; let us pray.” Ruth said that a lot of godly people helped the wives of the imprisoned men. “Whatever needs we had slowly became solved.”
In prison the seven men began meeting for prayer. At first the Hindu extremists opposed them but after observing their character they not only stopped harassing them, but 20 prisoners joined them for daily evening prayer and about 40 would join them for Sunday worship. Only one of the seven men was literate, but he had a Bible that he read to everyone, reading it through five times in eleven years. Seven of the Hindu prisoners became Christians.
After eleven years in prison a Maoist leader was captured and confessed to the murder of Saraswati. All seven men were released and returned to their families. One of the prisoners, Gornath, has keep a promise he made in prison. Not fearing death, Gornath states that “Every Sunday I go and I publicly share the gospel.”
Return to The Letter of James.