Trailblazin Ministries

Take Responsibility - James 1:15-16

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Thursday, June 14, 2007

I want today's devotion to serve as an immediate follow-up to what we studied in James yesterday. As we took a look at not blaming God for our sins, we saw the process by which sin is conceived and birthed within us, as we are taken away from God by our own lustful desires. In today's passage, James urges the believer to man up and take responsibility for their sins. James 1:16 reads as follows:

James 1:15-16 (NASB95) - 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.16 Do not be deceived , my beloved brethren.

A very brief passage of Scripture, but when tied in with verse 15, which we studied yesterday, it speaks a very loud message in how we should be able to keep sin out of our midst. With all that we have learned thus far, we understand fully that God is not the one responsible for bringing temptation our way that causes us to sin; instead, we are the only ones to blame for falling into the snares of sin and death. Knowing that we are responsible for our sins, we must then take the responsibility upon our shoulders to prevent the sins from even coming into our lives. If we look back at yesterday's passage, we see the pattern for sin, and John MacArthur describes the process of sin as the 4 D's: 1) desire, 2) deception, 3) design, and finally 4) disobedience. First, the desire from our flesh arises, which then deceives us into rationalizing the sin; this rationalization of sin then leads us to designing a plan on how to accomplish it, which ultimately ends in disobedience as we follow through on our plans.

Knowing those 4 D's of sin, you should notice that sin is something that very heavily involves our mind, which is the area where we struggle with sin the most, and where we must step up and take responsibility. As MacArthur further states in his New Testament Commentary, the more we allow ourselves to think about a particular sin, the more likely we are to follow through and commit the sin; therefore, if we can catch ourselves and stop the process in its early stages, we will have a better chance of not falling prey to sin. I know this from personal experience; the more I allowed myself to think about a sin, and then plot how to get it, more often than not I ended up doing the sin and going pretty deep into it. On other occasions, when I caught them quickly, I was able to defeat my flesh and have triumph. Like I've already said, we need to man up and take control over our mind and let the Holy Spirit prevail. Romans 12:2 lays this out for us perfectly, and shows the kind of mindset we need to have, as well as Philippians 4:8; if we are able to renew our mind and think on holy things, we give ourselves a better chance at keeping our mind pure and free from sinful thoughts.

In all of this, we have to remember that even when we do sin, we are the only ones who are responsible. God is certainly not to blame, and we would be fools to even think about placing the blame for our sins on Him. Keep in mind that God is holy and no evil is within Him, therefore He is unable to cause us to sin. It is not even the devil, others, or our surroundings; it is our flesh, and the internal battle that rages within us. It is only when we take responsibility for our actions that we are then able to take control over it. Just like a drug addict or an alcoholic, it is only when they admit that they are the ones responsible for their problem (in our case it's sin) that they are then able to start taking those steps to be freed from it. The same way works with us; it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to work within us as long as we refuse to recognize that we and our flesh are the culprit when it comes to falling into sin. Once we make that confession, we are able to do those things that cause us to focus on Him (think prayer and studying the Word).

So, today, if you haven't already come to this realization, recognize that you alone are the root of your sin problem and that it is going to be up to you to take the necessary steps to be freed from it. Ultimately, we have to know that sin will always be a problem for as long as we are housed in this flesh body, but we can take steps to significantly minimize the amount of sin that is in our lives. Until tomorrow, remain strong in the faith, putting to death all of the misdeeds of your flesh!