Temptations in Trials
Text: James 1:13-18
Core Idea: Every trial is also a temptation because every trial is an opportunity to grow or an occasion to sin. Therefore, we must fix our eyes on the Giver – to be completely satisfied by the Lord so that we wouldn’t want anything else occupying our hearts.
INTRODUCTION
Well, we are going through the book of James – looking at different ways the gospel impacts our lives. And here’s what we learned so far. From verses 2-4, we talked about the reality of trials – that trials are inevitable and that they come in many kinds. This of course is something we know to be true just by looking at our lives. But what did surprise us was that James called us to consider all trials pure joy. Again, to clarify, this wasn’t a call to enjoy our trials as if we’re happy to suffer or a call to hide our grief as we pretend to be happy. No, this was a call to think of our trials as pure joy knowing that God is testing our faith, producing perseverance, and making us more like Christ through our trials. All this to say, our trials will not be wasted – God will use them to accomplish His purpose in us. Then from verses 5-8, James shared that if we’re having a difficult time doing this, we ought to ask God for His wisdom because it will help us navigate through our trials. But more importantly, we can confidently go to God for this wisdom because He will generously give to those who ask Him in faith. Then from verses 9-12, James gave us an illustration of how God’s wisdom can transform the way we perceive our trials – specifically the trial of adversity and the trial of prosperity. Then he concluded by pointing our attention to the reward that’s reserved for us in eternity – the crown of life.
Now, this is something that I’ve been thinking a lot about this week – and I realized that we often undermine how godly it is to persevere in our trials. Let me share just two verses to help us think through this. Jesus said in Matthew 5:45, “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” In other words, blessings and troubles equally come to both the believers and the unbelievers. But do you know what the difference between the two is? Proverbs 24:16 says, “Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” In other words, when trials come, only the righteous rise again, plant their feet, and persevere while the unrighteous fall and are unable to come back up again. That’s how the two are distinguished. Then let this encourage you today – if you are going through trials and if you’re persevering, if you’re standing your ground, you’re doing something that’s pleasing to the Lord. You’re choosing godliness. Then as James says in verse 4, “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Now, two weeks ago, I shared that James concluded his thoughts on trials in verse 12 – I was wrong. I didn’t realize that this text must also be read in light of our trials. So, the theme of trials continues today. Then with this in mind, let’s open our Bibles to James 1:13-18. Let me read this for us.
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. 16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all He created.
Amen. This is the Word of God for you today.
Let me share three things from this passage:
· THE TEMPTATION
· THE CONCEPTION
· THE GIVER OF LIFE
1) THE TEMPTATION
Verse 13 begins with the words, “When tempted.” Like I said, James is not changing the subject but continuing with the theme of trials. And we know this to be true because the Greek word for “trials” in verses 2 and 12 and the Greek word for “to tempt” in verses 13-14 have the same root word – peirazo. James intentionally uses this word that conveys the meaning of both trials and temptations to show us that these two are in fact closely interconnected. Then what is James trying to communicate to us? It’s that every trial is also a temptation because every trial is an opportunity to grow or an occasion to sin. Brothers and sisters, if you’re experiencing trials in your life, you’re standing at a crossroads that can either make you or break you. You can either respond in a God-glorifying manner that leads to life or a self-serving manner that leads to death. You can either grow closer to God or move away from God. Then how are you responding to your trials today? The stakes are incredibly high here.
Then considering this, James gives us a warning in verse 13, “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.” In other words, in His sovereign grace, God will allow us to experience trials for the purpose of our growth and refinement. God will push us beyond ourselves so that we would seek help from Him and Him alone. God will take us to places of hardship in order to produce in us that we cannot achieve on our own. But James also tells us that He is never the One tempting us. Yes, God is the One who designs the trials but He’s not the author of temptation. He will never seduce us to sin because that would be a horrible violation of His character. Everything in Him resists sin. Evil is inherently foreign to Him. He is perfectly sinless – perfectly holy. He cannot be responsible for the temptations in our lives.
Then who is? If God doesn’t tempt us, how does a trial become a temptation – an occasion to sin? Verse 14 says, “Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.” The word “dragged away” is drawn from the world of fishing. I don’t know a lot about fishing, but we all know that we would never cast a line just with a bare hook – no fish would bite that. We use a bait that appears attractive, appealing to the fish as a way to conceal the hook that’s designed to drag the fish out of the water. And in the same way, when we’re tempted, we’re being enticed by something – like a bait. Now, that’s not hard to understand. But what’s shocking is that James says the bait is inside of us. It’s not something that comes from the outside, but we’re lured away by what’s inside us – our own evil desire. Then here’s another truth that James wants to emphasize: God is perfectly sinless, and we are utterly sinful. Think with me. What’s interesting is that after James says, “God is holy and He’s not responsible for our temptations,” he didn’t start talking about how Satan is the one who pulls us away. Now, if he did, he wouldn’t be wrong because Satan does tempt us to sin. But that’s not what he wanted to emphasize – even though he knew that the enemy would make every effort to lead us away, he didn’t want us to miss the fact that the responsibility for our sins also lies directly within ourselves. When we sin, there’s no one else to blame but us. We only have ourselves to blame. No matter how much pressure we receive from our circumstances or the people around us, ultimately, we are at fault for our sins because trials are the occasion for sin, not the cause of sin.
Now, this is incredibly counter-cultural because when we do something wrong, the world is quick to tell us that the fault isn’t ours but that there must be something else that caused us to do this. The blame is given to our parents and how they raised us, our friends and how they misled us, the school system and how they failed to equip us, the government and how they failed to provide for us – and so on. But the blame is never put on us. The world tells us that it’s okay to rationalize our actions and defend our innocence as long as there’s something else to blame.
But, of course, that’s not just the way the world thinks. Sadly, this tendency to blame is also common to us all – in fact, it can be traced all the way back to Adam who modeled it for us in the Garden of Eden. Immediately following his disobedient act of eating from the tree that was in the middle of the garden, when God asked, “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Gen. 3:11) this is how Adam replied – Genesis 3:12, “The woman You put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Rather than humbly taking responsibility for his sin, Adam blamed his wife. Not just that, he was also blaming God for his sin. The implication of his words was that if God hadn’t given Eve to him, he would not have sinned – “God, it’s Your fault for giving her to me.” Just a few verses ago, Adam was singing, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23). She was his treasure – his source of joy. But all of a sudden, she became just a burden to him – a source of his downfall.
Now, does this describe you in any way? You praise God for the person you married but you also blame God for the sins that you commit in your marriage, “God, I would never have done this or that if he/she didn’t do this or said this. If I had a little more of an understanding spouse, I wouldn’t have been so angry, so bitter.” Or you praise God for the children He gave but you also blame God for the sins you commit in parenting, “God, the children You gave are the reason why I’m so worried, so depressed, so mad. If my children were less rebellious, less whiny, more grateful, I would be happier – I would never complain.” Here’s another example. You praise God for the job He provided but you also blame God for the sins you commit at work, “If my boss wasn’t so relentlessly demanding, if my clients were less needy, I would have more time for You. If You had helped me to get the other job, I wouldn’t be so money-driven like this. This is all Your fault.” Does this describe you in any way? Are you blaming God for the way you are and the things that you do? If so, listen to what James says here. He’s telling us that it’s the evil inside of us that’s enticing us to express that evil outward. Then let that truth sink in. The problem is not God – it’s not even the circumstances or the trials we face. The problem is in our hearts – the problem is us.
Then what’s the bait that’s enticing our hearts to sin? James says it’s our own evil desire. Now, the Greek word for “evil desire” is epithumia which actually just means “desire or yearning.” The word “evil” has been added by the translators to further explain the kind of desire that James describes – but Pastor Tim Keller shares that that could be misleading. Listen to what he says, “The essence of sin is not wanting bad things – it’s wanting things so badly. Sin is not just breaking the rules – sin begins when something other than God becomes the greatest desire of your heart.” There’s nothing wrong with loving your family, your career – loving to travel and eat, having money, being successful. These are all good gifts that God has given us to enjoy. But the enticement begins when we make these things more important than God – when these things become the source of our security, our joy, and our hope. In fact, we’re tempted to sin when these things are threatened to be taken from our lives. So, in order to protect them, we choose to sin. Remember the responsibility is on us. Now, someone might say, “Well, I disagree. My boss told me I had to lie, or he’d fire me. I didn’t want to lie but I had to lie. I was forced to sin.” But James would respond by saying, “No, you still chose to sin because your desire to keep your job was more important for you than honoring God by telling the truth. You did what you most wanted to do. It’s not that you couldn’t help but sin – no, you sinned because you were being dragged away by your greatest desire.” Then here’s a truth I want us to reflect on – that each desire in itself may not be evil, but all of our desires have the potential for evil. Then brothers and sisters, are there things in your life that you’re tempted to make it more important than God? Guard your hearts so that you won’t let those things take the throne of your heart which belongs only to the Lord.
2) THE CONCEPTION
Then what happens when we are dragged away by our desires – when we give in to those desires? Verse 15, “After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.” When that desire conceives, when that desire becomes the greatest delight of our hearts, it gives birth to sin. Now, before we go on, I want to point out something very important – that there’s a difference between a temptation to sin and an actual sin. The temptation to sin is not the same as sin – which implies that the temptation alone is not sinful. I want to clarify this because I’ve met many Christians who wrongly assumed that because they felt temptation so strongly, they must not be in close fellowship with the Lord. If this is you, I want to let you know that the Christian life is not the absence of temptation – it’s the commitment to stay faithful to the Lord in the presence of temptation. The author of Hebrews says that even Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we are – yet He did not sin” (Heb. 4:15). It’s certainly true that our temptations can lead us to sin, but they’re not the same thing. But it still doesn’t change the fact that we cannot take our sins lightly because here’s what will happen if we allow our desires to be conceived and give birth to sin: verse 15, “And sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”
Sin gives birth to death. Sin always gives birth to death. Think of our sins like a fire that breaks out on the couch in our living room. We’re not just going to sit there and say, “Well, it’s just a couch – everything else seems to be okay” because if we don’t do anything about it right away, the whole house will soon be engulfed. That’s because fire is never satisfied. It can never be confined to a corner on its own. It will eventually but always overtake everything. And in the same way, sin will eventually consume everything about us. It will bring pain and destruction not just in this life but also in the life to come. No wonder John Owen so desperately pleaded with us, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” We can’t take our sins lightly – we shouldn’t take casual means to fight against our sins. We must do anything and everything to avoid sin. Then let me ask you, “Are there sins that no one knows about, sins that you’re constantly justifying, sins that you don’t want to deal with because, in the deepest of your heart, you enjoy them, sins that you’re too lazy to do anything about, sins that you keep returning to over and over again?” If so, I want you to listen very carefully. The enemy will continue to tell you that it’s too late, that you’ve failed too much, that you might as well give up completely – that there’s no way back. But listen to what James says in verse 16, “Don’t be deceived.” Brothers and sisters, don’t be deceived by this kind of nonsense because there is a way back because that’s what the gospel is all about. When Jesus Christ died on the cross as the Substitute for our sins, the barrier was brought down for good – and He made it possible for us to enter the presence of God and be in a relationship with Him. Then friends, respond to God’s gracious call and take immediate, dramatic, drastic action against your sins today. It’s not too late. Let your fight against your sins begin today.
3) THE GIVER OF LIFE
If what we discussed so far is true (and it is), how do we guard our hearts from being dragged away by our own evil desires? James tells us in verses 17-18, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all He created.” Here’s what he means: He’s basically inviting us to take our eyes off of the gifts that can drag us away but place them on the Giver of those gifts. Don’t focus on the blessings but the Giver of those blessings. Thomas Charmer said, “The only way to break the hold of a beautiful object on the soul is to show it an object even more beautiful.” One of the reasons why sin reigns in our hearts is that we have little delight for the Lord. We were created to treasure God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strengths – but our hearts have been occupied by something else. Then James is telling us that the way to reverse this is to let our hearts be completely satisfied by the Lord and Him alone. Let me explain it like this. Last weekend, some of the men were away at the retreat. It was, by the way, one of the most memorable retreats for me ever – and I’m not just saying this because I’m the pastor and I have to say this. No, the Spirit was really moving powerfully, and it was an amazing time of encouragement. Ask the ones that went – and they’ll agree with me. Now, even though we were there for only a short time, a retreat wouldn’t be complete without a night of Korean cup noodles. So, everybody was devouring it even though we knew that we would suffer the next day. But I saw Manu just standing there – just watching people eat. So, I asked him, “Hey, aren’t you going to have one?” And he said, “No, I had two dinners on my way here.” And I responded, “But don’t you want one?” And this is what he said: “No, I’m so full that I actually don’t even want it.” Now, that’s exactly what James is inviting us to do – to be completely satisfied by the Lord so that we wouldn’t want anything else occupying our hearts. James is basically saying, “You think those gifts are good? The Giver of those gifts is better.” And he gives us two reasons why that is.
First, our God does not change like shifting shadows. It’s been said that “the only constant is change” – and we know this to be true when we look at our lives. Now, many people still fear change because they show us just how unprepared we are for them, and how fragile our sense of stability really is. But the real problem lies deeper than that – we dread when change comes because it’s exposing how much of our identity has been rooted in our circumstances. When our routine is broken, when our set structure crumbles down, our hearts are often filled with anxiety, worries, and discouragements because it just reminds us that we don’t have control over our lives – and that the thing that we’ve been so desperately holding onto can be taken away from us just like that. But I want us to realize that the changes that come to us in life are actually a gift from God because it’s an invitation from God to realign ourselves to the One who never changes. In our trials, in our uncertainties, in our instability, He remains “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). He does not change like shifting shadows – our God is always good, always generous, always merciful, always loving regardless of the severity or the duration of our trials. When everything seems uncertain, and nothing constant, when every foundation we leaned upon seems to shift and crack, we can still rely on our true Rock, the unchanging One – who remains faithful in every change. And this is why we should fix our eyes on Him. But that’s not all.
Second, our God gives us a new birth that leads to a new life. In fact, James tells us that God chose to do this – even before we chose Him, He chose us. He wants to give us life. Paul says it like this in Ephesians 2:3-5, “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” In other words, we owe our lives to His sovereign grace – His grace has brought us to be where we are, and His grace will continue to carry us to the end. But the most encouraging part about this verse is that in our new birth, we will be made into the firstfruits of all He created. What does that even mean? The firstfruits in harvest show what the rest of the fruits will be like – in other words, the firstfruits are the foretaste of what’s to come. Then when James says that we will be a kind of firstfruits, he’s basically saying that what God has done in our hearts, our lives are just a foretaste of what’s to come when Jesus comes back to redeem His people and make all things new again. There will be no more trials, and there will be no more temptations. And this is why we should fix our eyes on Him – He gives us hope and life in the face of our temptations.
CONCLUSION
Lighthouse family, every trial is also a temptation because every trial is an opportunity to grow or an occasion to sin. Therefore, we must fix our eyes on the Giver of every good and perfect gift – to be completely satisfied in the Lord so that we won’t want anything else occupying our hearts. Then let this be true in your lives – especially in your trials.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1) Do you agree with the statement, “Every trial is also a temptation because every trial is an opportunity to grow or an occasion to sin”?
2) Have you ever gotten tempted to blame God for your sins?
3) James shares that sin always gives birth to death. How is the Spirit convicting you to respond to this truth? What is one thing you can intentionally do to fight against your sin this week?
4) Read verses 17-18. How does the truth from this passage help us guard our hearts from being dragged away by our evil desire?