James 1:14-15 (NLT)
Temptation comes from our own desires,
which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions.
And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.
Have you ever heard of the “LSD” of sin? Here it is from the book of James. The LSD here is “Lust—Sin—Death”. The original Greek word for “desires” used in
this translation is “epithumia”, translated as not only desire for what is
forbidden, but also craving and lust. So
the source of your temptation(s) is lust and what lust does is to entice you
and drag you away. The original words
for “drags us away” has the same imagery as what you might have watched on
Animal Planet where victims of lions or tigers, or crocodiles are lured from
their hiding places or even innocently attacked and killed. Remember how “Crocodile Dundee” described to
his girlfriend how a crocodile grabs its victim and takes him to the bottom of
the river and rolls him over and over until he can be stuffed into some hiding
place. Terrifying imagery, yet that’s
the imagery that James is describing here about what the enticement of lust
will do to you if you give in to it.
Adrian Rogers preached that there are three sources
of temptation—the flesh (our internal foe), the world (our external foe) and
the devil (our infernal foe). The
temptations of the flesh attack our body, the temptations of the world attack our
soul, and the temptation of the devil himself attacks our spirit. Fleshly temptations tend to occur primarily
in our younger years, temptations of the world (e.g. greed, materialism, pride)
occur primarily in our middle years, and the temptations of the devil attacking
our spirit (in the form of discouragement, loneliness, feeling unworthy or
useless) occur primarily in our later years.
Lustful desires, if not controlled, give birth to
sinful actions. All sin starts in the
mind and heart (read Matt 5:21-28); you are what you think (Prov 23:7). Jesus said in Matt 15:19 that out of the
heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lying and
slander. Someone has said that the
problem with a little sin is that it does not stay little. What starts in the mind as a little thought
will eventually erupt as a huge sinful action if you do not put a stop to that
little thought right away. The subtlety
of sin is its deception that starts so small yet ends so destructive if not
dealt with. Think of any sin in your
life, particularly any habitual sin, and go back to when you first remember
committing it. What caused it in the
first place? You likely don’t even
remember; it was so small.
Sin, if allowed to continue and spread, will give
birth to death. The word for death is
“thanatos” that can mean death to the body, separation from God and misery in
hell. James is not mincing words here. Uncontrolled sin, unconfessed sin, sin that
is never stopped will end up causing eternal death, a life in hell, a life
separated from God. That’s how serious
sin is according to the Word of God.
Despite what the world says is not sin, don’t be
deceived. Sin in God’s eyes is not
something to play around with, you must see it as it is, as it is defined in
the Word of God. Allow your mind and
heart to be convicted of any sin in your life and confess it. God promises to forgive you and to cleanse
you of that sin (I John 1:9). Then do
all you can to stay away from whatever sources there might be in your life to
cause you to be tempted again to commit that sin. You deal with your desires first, ask the
Holy Spirit in you to push those desires behind you (Matt 16:23), and you won’t
be led into temptation by these desires.
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