Conception By Deception - James 1:13-15 Series

“Do I have to leave?”

“No, you can hang around. I need to think this over.”

There are certain sins that don’t shock us, don’t repulse us, don’t grate against our soul; and so if there is something I really, strongly desire, and I can have it if I’m willing to commit that sin, my response is, “Hmmm, interesting.” And the possibility of doing that sin in order to get that pleasure or avoid that pain is still on the table.

Your desires do not have the power to drag you toward sin without your consent. And when we give our consent it is because we just don’t see that particular sin as being all that evil.

Striking a Chord

If I walk up to a piano and play a note on my trumpet, as soon as I stop you can hear that same note ringing inside the piano. The sound waves, vibrating at that particular frequency, vibrate the one string in the piano that vibrates at that same frequency. But it has no effect on the other strings in the piano, because they don’t vibrate at that frequency. So I walk up and play a concert b flat, and when I stop you will hear the b flat string ringing out a b flat from inside the piano, and no other strings will be making any sound. The way Satan tempts us is by simply playing the note of some sin, then listening carefully to see if there is a string inside us that is ringing. Is there something inside us that vibrates at that same frequency? What happens when the world plays the note of “Get drunk,” or “Get high on something.”? For some of you, that strikes a chord. Something inside you will ring at that frequency. Others of you don’t have that particular string at this time in your life so the temptation has no pull on you. But when the selfishness note or pride note or irritability note gets played, it does get a response. We all have different points of weakness.

Conception – Getting Desire Pregnant with Sin

So, how do I solve the problem of having these strings inside me that resonate with certain sins? What do I do about my desire disorders? James gives us some priceless insight on this in verse 15, where he changes the metaphor. He leaves the hunting and fishing illustration and describes desire as being like a woman getting pregnant.

15 Then, after desire has conceived it gives birth to sin…

To conceive means to get pregnant. So at what point does a desire in your heart get pregnant with sin? The answer is in verse 14 – it happens when you get drawn out and enticed. Verse 15 is literally, Then, desire having conceived, it gives birth to sin. The grammar that James uses requires that the being drawn out and enticed and the becoming pregnant with sin are referring to the same thing. So the point is this – when you allow desire to draw you out of the place of safety to go after the bait – that is the moment when desire gets pregnant with sin. That is all it takes to conceive sin. You want something, you realize that getting that thing would involve some sin, but instead of the normal reaction of, “Well, I guess that’s out of the question,” it remains on the table as an option – right there you just got your desire pregnant with sin.