Trailblazin Ministries

God Didn't Do That - James 1:13-15

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Wednesday, June 13, 2007

What we have been studying for the past few days has been progressively leading us to a point of understanding of what it means to face trials and the response that we should have to them; yesterday, we reached a milestone of sorts when we studied how all of this perfecting of our faith leads us to receiving a crown of life (i.e. eternal life) if we are able to remain steadfast and endure through the trials. In today's passage, we come to a very important observation, one that is significant for every believer to get a firm grip on, as it directly looks to how we view the origination of our trials, and consequently our overall reaction to the situation. If we are able to walk away from today's study with an understanding of what Scripture says, we will be much better off when it comes to either facing our current trial or any subsequent ones that come our way. Let us begin by taking a look at our Scripture passage for today, which is James 1:13-15.

James 1:13-15 (NASB95) - 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

In many circles, it is commonplace for a Christian to say that "God is testing/trying me," but you rarely hear anyone say that God is tempting them. Why is that? Today's passage gives us the answer to that question. We see as plain as day in verse 13 that we are never to say that we are tempted by God when we encounter various trials. We see that the reason for this is because God cannot be tempted and that He does not tempt anyone. Knowing this leads one to ask a few questions: 1) why can't God be tempted and 2) if God isn't tempting us, then why do we have trials whose purpose is to perfect our faith in God? The first question is a very easy one to answer; God cannot be tempted because He is holy, and His very nature does not even allow Him to be susceptible to evil in any capacity (Habakkuk 1:13, Isaiah 6:3, 1 Peter 1:16). End of story, God is holy and He cannot be tempted, no other explanation is needed; if He could be tempted, He would cease to be God (that's a scary thought if He could be tempted). The next question appears on the surface to be a little more troublesome to answer, but it is not. The point of trials (same Greek word that is also translated as "tempt" in this passage) are to strengthen us if we obey God and remain in Him; trials do have the capacity to turn into temptation or a solicitation for sin if we do the opposite of what is prescribed in James 1:2-8. Therefore, God allows temptations to happen, but only in the capacity that we are able to overcome them if we keep our trust and faith in Him. Remember, He has promised to put no more on us than what we are able to bear (1 Corinthians 10:13) and He makes a way of escape in every trial, but it is left completely up to us whether we will take that way of escape that God provides or if we will indulge ourselves in that sin. Verse 14 of our passage continues with this very thought.

Verse 14 tells us that our trials turn into temptations to sin when we allow ourselves to be drawn away by our own evil desires and lusts. The one thing that every believer knows and understands about sin is that we are only tempted by those things that are pleasing to our flesh; we are not tempted by those things that we have no interest in. With that in mind, we are fully aware that we are housed in a wicked flesh body that is prone to sin and it has lustful desires that it constantly entices us to take part in. In this instance, we are enticed when we see temptations that appear to us to be good and fulfilling, when in actuality it is simply bait that has been placed to catch us in a trap, much in the same manner that a wild animal is lured into a trap because of something that interests it. This is exactly what temptation does when we allow ourselves to take our eyes off Christ and focus on what we think are pleasurable things, whatever they might be. Notice that the text says that we are enticed by our own lusts; in other words, it is an internal situation that we are dealing with and one that is different for each person, depending upon our inclination towards certain sins. It is also worthwhile to note that these desires come from previous sins, because as we sin, we wind up with a propensity to want to do them again and more frequently. This is the kind of thing that Paul talks about in Romans 6-8, which is definitely worth studying in your quiet time.

Moving right along to verse 15, we are given a visual image of what happens when we allow that desire to take root within us, and eventually ends with us falling into the temptation and committing the sin. In this verse, temptation and sin are likened to child birth, which begins with conception, then the maturing of the fetus, and the eventual birth of the baby. Quite frankly, this is exactly how sin operates within us, as it is never a spontaneous occurrence that takes place in our lives; it is one that we give over much thought to, playing it out in our mind, before we even physically act upon those thoughts. The analogy is pretty self explanatory without going into all the details, because we know all know that we normally think long and hard before we act out on our sins. Sin is always a choice that we consciously make. One thing to note though is the latter portion of verse that says sin leads to death. This is severely true for the unbeliever, as it results in eternal death, but this is spoken of in the context of a believer, and we know that we have eternal security and cannot lose our salvation, therefore we cannot die spiritually once we have been given life. But this can mean having to face the consequences of the sin, or possibly even physical death as a result of our sin (i.e. getting HIV/AIDS or worse), 1 Corinthians 11:30 and 1 John 5:16 are two verses that further drive home this point.

Taken as a whole, we come away with a very clear picture of temptation and how it is birth in us. We understand that God allows trials to come into our path, but He always provides a means for us to keep from falling in sin, with each and every trial. It is only when we allow ourselves to be drawn away by our own lusts that we fall into temptation and commit sin. This is no doing of God, and the blame falls squarely on our shoulders because we chose to take our eyes off God. This passage should serve as both a lesson and encouragement to believers, knowing: 1) God is the one allowing the trials and He always gives us an out, and 2) we know how we are enticed, so we should be able to then take measures to help prevent ourselves from falling into temptation (i.e. asking God for wisdom, James 1:5). Indeed, the truth of God's word is powerful in equipping us to walk in holiness and engage in the angelic conflict. Let us walk in the truth of His Word, knowing that by Him we are able to overcome!