Study of James
Lesson # 5
The Source Of Our Temptations
Introduction
As James discusses the attitudes we need in life concerning the hardships we face & our focus concerning the abundance of material things in our lives, he now deals with some supposed arguments as to why God would allow these things to come about in our life. Man always is looking for an excuse when he needs to accept his responsibility.
1. Don’t blame God for your temptations
a. In every person a civil war is going on – as we are pulled in 2 directions
1) Rom.7:22,23
2) Man’s logic - Since God created everything, He must be to blame for
this civil war & evil tendency that we find in our lives.
3) Rom.7:17 – “It is no longer I that do it, but sin living in me”
4) Mt.6 – Lord’s prayer – “lead us not into temptation”
b. Our trials can easily become temptations
1) Although God’s goal is our maturity, when we don’t face these trials as
God wants us to, but instead react to them with bitterness &
hardness of heart they become temptations to sin.
2) When this happens, we have a tendency to blame something or
someone else other that ourselves.
a) See Adam & Eve
b) Saying – “If it hadn’t been there, wouldn’t have done it”
c) Goal is somehow to justify our behavior & quiet our conscience.
c. James says – don’t seek to justify your behavior by blaming God
1) Examples
a) Wondering why would God ever allow such a thing to happen?
b) Thinking that God created us with desires & passions, so He
will understand & forgive us.
2) God did create us with desires & passions, but He is not the person that
arouses them – we are.
3) God allows trials but He does not do so with evil entent.
2. Reasons God is not to blame for our temptations.
a. God’s character - God can’t be tempted with evil.
1) He is of such a righteous, holy & perfect character that He is not
susceptible to temptations.
2) There is absolutely nothing in God to which evil can make its appeal
b. God’s actions – God does not tempt anyone
1) His character would not allow Him to do something morally wrong
2) He tests our character, but not to solicit evil.
3) 1 Cor.10:13 – God works to counteract the work of the enemy
2
3. Man is to blame for his own temptations.
a. Each one = suggests that here is a universal truth; no exceptions
b. Temptations come from our own lusts – we are inescapably responsible
1) Sin would be helpless, if there were nothing within man to which it
could appeal.
2) Things we must understand to conquer temptation
a) Everyone has lusts & desires & can be enticed. Therefore all lust
must be controlled – discipline ourselves. We are all
susceptible to sin.
b) The danger begins when we allow these desires to be focused
upon forbidden things. Instead of fleeing we allow our
mind to picture the pleasure & dwell upon it. Sin is
conceived. Mt.5:28
c) The result of allowing this lust & enticement to go unchallenged
is death
3) William Barclay has a thought on temptation that should challenge us to
turn our total being over to Christ. The statements are in outline
form for emphasis:
“Now desire is something which can be nourished or stifled. A man can...by the grace of God, eliminate desire if he faces it and deals with it at once. But...
·he can allow his steps to take him into certain places and certain company.
·he can encourage his eyes to linger on certain forbidden things.
·he can spend his life fomenting desire.
·he can use mind and heart and eyes and feet and lips to nourish desire.
“[However, a man] can so hand himself over to Christ and to the Spirit of Christ that he is cleansed of evil desire. He can be so engaged on good things that there is no time or place left for desire. It is idle hands for which Satan finds mischief to do; and it is an unexercised mind which plays with desire, and an uncommitted heart which is vulnerable to the appeal of lust.
“If a man nourishes and encourages desire long enough, there is an inevitable consequence. Desire becomes action. If a man thinks about anything long enough if he allows himself to desire it long enough, all the chances are that in the end he will do it. Desire in the heart in the end begets sin in the action” (The Letters of James and Peter. “The Daily Study Bible.” Philadelphia, PA: The Westminister Press, 1958, p.61f).
c. Two participles – carried away & enticed
1) These are terms used in hunting & fishing
2) Carried away = to draw out like bait being used to lure a fish.
Satan tries to lure is by appealing to our desires.
3) Enticed = to trap or snare with bait
4) Both participles are in the present tense suggesting a continual problem
5) The picture – Satan attracts & stimulates our desires which results in
temptation.
6) Satan is bound & has no power over us except what we give him. The
origin of all of our temptations are within us, therefore we are to
blame if a situation happens & we are tempted to sin.
7) Notice – our guilt is not derived from Adam, but from our own actions
8) If we allow sin to go unchecked & we are unrepentant, it brings death
3
1. Don’t allow yourselves to be deceived.
a. Man can both be deceived & deceive himself – 1 Cor.6:9,10; 15:33; James 1:26
b. We are responsible for the way that we react – stop blaming others
2. See the nature of God
a. He is good & perfect – rather than envisioning God as tempting & evil – see
Him as He is – good & giving
1) He alone is good in the absolute sense (only gives good)
2) Good = useful, profitable, beneficial
3) Perfect = complete, lacking nothing
4) God’s giving is both beneficial & complete (without lack)
5) Coming down = present tense (continually coming)
b. He is unchangeable – no shadows – His gifts are always good & perfect
c. He wants only our salvation & our best
3. First fruits
a. Were sacred & belonged to God – joyfully given in anticipation of harvest
b. So we are reborn through the word to become the sacred property of God.