The faith that works recognizes that temptation comes from our selfish desires...

This week, we are looking at a section of a letter that was written by James, who was the half brother of Jesus who repeatedly doubted Jesus claim to be God, but became a follower of Jesus who was the pastor at the church in Jerusalem and who was ultimately killed for believing that Jesus was God. Yesterday, in a command made by James, we discovered a timeless truth when it comes to the faith that works in that the faith that works recognizes the true source of temptation.

In James 1:13-18, we will see James reveal for us three different ways that the faith that works recognizes the true source of temptation. In addition, James revealed for us the reality that the faith that works recognizes that temptation does not come from God. Temptation does not come from God because God is incapable of being tempted. And temptation does not come from God because God does not tempt others to rebel against Him.

Now a natural question that arises here is “Well Dave, if God is not the source of temptation, that what is the source of temptation? If God is not the One who is enticing us to do things that rebel against Him, then who is?” We see James provide the answer to that question in James 1:14-15:

But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

Here we see James explain to followers of Jesus throughout history that instead of claiming “I am being tempted by God” the reality is that “each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust”. Now what is so interesting is that the phrase carried away, in the language that this letter was originally written in, is a word picture of someone being dragged away by something after displaying some initial reluctance.

In addition, when James uses the word enticed, this word literally means to arouse someone’s interest in something. James then explains that what drags us away after overcoming one’s initial reluctance; what arouses our interest, is his own lust. Now when James talks about lust here, James is referring to a desire for something that is forbidden.

James point here is that we are enticed into rebelling against God by our own selfish desires for something that goes against God’s desires for our lives. And after some initial resistance, these selfish desires drag us away from following God’s desires for our lives and toward fulfilling our own selfish desires that go against God’s desires for our lives.

And it is here that we see James reveal for us the reality that the faith that works recognizes that temptation comes from our selfish desires. It is theses selfish desires that drag us away from God. It is these selfish desires arouse within us a desire for something that is forbidden by God. And as James explains in verse 15, it is these selfish desires place us on the path of death.

James paints a powerful word picture of pregnancy and birth to reveal the reality that the true source of temptation is not from without but from within. When James uses the phrase “then when lust has conceived" he is revealing for us the reality that when we become pregnant with selfish desires for that which has been forbidden by God, eventually we will give birth to something.

James then explains that what those selfish desires for what is forbidden by God give birth to is sin. The word sin refers to acts of omission or commission that hurt God and others and that flow from our selfishness and rebellion against God and the word of God. James point here is that our selfish desires within us give birth to, or produce, our actions or inactions of rebellion against God.  James then explains that “when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” But what does that mean?

As we have talked about previously, when we see the word death in the Bible, the word death conveys the sense of separation. As a result of sin’s entrance into the world we experience physical death, which is the separation of our soul from our body. But not only do we experience physical death as a result of sin; we also experience spiritual death, which is the separation of us from God. Now if we physically die while being spiritually dead, we experience eternal death, or eternal separation from God. James point here is that as these selfish desires cause sin to come into being in our lives, and as sin runs its course in our lives as we act on those selfish desires, the result is separation from God.

You see, so often we live out our day to day lives in a way that attempts to manage our selfish and rebellious desires. So often, we live out our day to day lives as though we can tame those selfish and rebellious desires in the same way we tame a pet.

On YouTube, there are those videos “When animals attack.” And in one of these videos, there is a model on a photo shoot with a lion. And this model was supposed to lay with her head on the body of this lion. And of course they had an animal trainer there because they had trained and tamed this lion, so this photo shoot should be no problem right. Hello, the lion is an alpha predator.

And as an alpha predator, about five minutes into the photo shoot, that lion did what alpha predators do; the lion attacked the model. Now as I share that story and you are probably thinking to yourself “What an idiot! Who would do something like that?” But isn't that exactly what we do when we think we can manage or tame our selfish and rebellious desires? Isn't that the exact thing that we do when we think we can manage or tame sin as thought it can be a house pet in our lives?

Instead of trying to manage our sin; instead of trying to tame those selfish desires within our lives, we need to do what had to be done with that lion; we need to kill that sin; we need to take out a gun and kill those selfish desires within us.

We need to kill those selfish desires because those selfish desires are the true source of temptation. We need to kill those selfish desires because those selfish desires give birth to acts of selfishness and rebellion against God and others. We need to kill those selfish desires because those selfish desires produce selfishness and rebellion that separate us from God.

Friday, we will see James reveal a third way that the faith that works recognizes the truth source of temptation...