LEARNING DAILY

James 1:13-15, 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. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

My two sons-in-law enjoy fishing. That means I tagged along and learned a little about the great sport of trying to “lure” or “entice” a great redfish to attack the bait I put on a hook so I could reel it in. I would give a short jerk on the line to get the shrimp used as bait to look as yummy as I could for any redfish (but usually a hardhead) to be so tempted that it would open its mouth and take the bait which resulted in getting hooked. It was all deception to try to catch that big red so it could become a meal.

Does the analogy make sense? When one “is lured and enticed by his/her own desire,” he/she is deceived in the heart by some outside deception just like the redfish seeing what it desired to eat. The temptation to sin always comes from within us. To continue the fishing analogy, all people are deceived by the world’s attempts to make something, or someone, or the next fad or opportunity look so inviting that one cannot resist taking the bait and getting hooked. Many years ago, I was convinced (maybe several times) that a multilevel marketing concept was the way to earn extra money. Nope! I allowed myself to be deceived several times because of what I thought was an easy way to make money.

Have you noticed how easy sin looks, how beautiful sin looks, how sin attempts to satisfy one’s wants, and how it carefully twists our heart away from God? Remember the Garden of Eden where Eve looked at the fruit and saw that it was pleasant to her eyes? John wrote about the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16) as ways the devil deceives and tempts all of us. All Eve needed was the suggestions the devil made for her to disobey God and pick the fruit and eat it. Like Eve, every Believer knows the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness. We are tempted when we put ourselves in the wrong place, looking at the wrong things, and in circumstances that have deceived us in the past.

James warns Believers of the consequences of giving into our desires. Sin leads those who follow where they should not go, should not do; sin leads one to defeat and ultimately death. “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (v. 15). When one says yes to the desire, he/she wants to do, instead of trusting God and being obedient to Him, sin is the result. There is never any good that results when sin is in our lives. Paul wrote, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). Death means separation from God. Not too many people consider the problems sin can cause in their life – for Adam and Eve it meant to be taken out of the Garden plus other things.

The only real way to deal with this idea of temptation is to walk with God in such a way that He removes the desires. He must change our desires and give us a new nature. That happens when we give Him our old nature and trust Him with the new nature He gives. When you sin, remember 1 John 1:9 and confess it, asking Him to forgive it as He promised to do when He took your place on Calvary’s cross. Stay away from the things that you know will tempt you. Stay in God’s word and use it when tempted as Jesus did when He was tempted by the devil. Walk the narrow way; do not look to the left or to the right! Do not forget to pray, “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).