Opening illustration: In March 2009, a 62-year old woman was charged with stealing more than $73,000 from her church in the state of Washington. When the detectives interrogated her, she told them: “Satan had a big part in the theft.” It sounds like she was saying that the devil made her do it.
Satan may have played a role in her choices, but she had some faulty thinking about temptation and sin. The devil tempts believers, but he doesn’t make us sin. James tells us that God isn’t to blame either: “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” [James 1: 13]. He is good and holy. (Illustration from Marvin Williams, Our Daily Bread)
Let us get into God’s Word and turn to James 1 and check out who really makes us do it …
Introduction: At the back of this passage there lies a Jewish way of belief which is also a universal way of belief of which all of us are to some extent guilty. James is here rebuking the man who puts the blame for temptation on to God.
Jewish thought was haunted by the inner division that is in every man. It was the problem that haunted Paul: “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7: 22, 23). Every man is a walking civil war; and every man is pulled in two directions. Purely as an interpretation of experience the Jews arrived at the doctrine that in every man there are two tendencies or two natures so called the good and evil tendencies. Now this simply states the problem; it does not explain it. In particular it does not say where the evil tendency came from. So Jewish thought set out to try to explain where the evil tendency came from. Some came up with theories of Satan implanting that in man, some went to the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and how Satan had physical desires for Eve, which are talked about in Genesis the sons of God having physical relationships with the daughters of men. Some Jewish rabbis said that the fallen angels were responsible for it … whatever theories emerged they just simply pushed the problem one step further back. Where did the evil tendency ultimately come from? Satan may have put it into man; the fallen angels may have put it into man; man may have put it into himself. But where did it ultimately come from?
To meet this problem some rabbis took a bold and very dangerous step. They argued that, since God has created everything, He must have created the evil tendency also … The danger of all this is obvious. It means that in the last analysis a man can blame God for his own sin. He can say, as Paul says, “It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7: 15-24). Of all strange doctrines surely the strangest is that God is directly and ultimately responsible for sin.
Who made you do it?
1. God? (v. 13)
In this verse the word ‘tempted’ means ‘a solicitation to evil,’ and this, James says, is not from God but from man’s own inner lust. There is nothing in God that has a tendency to do or think wrong; there can be nothing presented from without to induce him to do wrong:
• There is no evil passion to be gratified, as there is in men;
• There is no want of power, so that an allurement could be presented to seek what he has not;
• There is no want of wealth, for he has infinite resources, and all that there is or can be is his Psalm_50: 10-11;
• There is no want of happiness that he should seek happiness in sources which are not now in his possession. Nothing, therefore, could be presented to the divine mind as an inducement to do evil.
We are perpetually thinking - the heart suggests it constantly - that God does place before us inducements to evil, with a view to lead us to sin. This is done in many ways:
• People take such views of his decrees as if the doctrine implied that he meant that we should sin, and that it could not be otherwise than that we should sin.
• It is felt that all things are under his control, and that he has made his arrangements with a design that men should do as they actually do.
• It is said that he has created us with just such dispositions as we actually have, and knowing that we would sin.
• It is said that, by the arrangements of his Providence, he actually places inducements before us to sin, knowing that the effect will be that we will fall into sin, when we might easily have prevented it.
• It is said that he suffers some to tempt others, when he might easily prevent it if he chose, and that this is the same as tempting them himself.
2. Satan?
We all know from the story of Jesus’ encounter with Satan after Jesus had fasted for 40 days that Satan tempted Him but is not able to make anyone sin. Apparently many believers often wonder why they still have temptations. Does God tempt them? Apparently God tests people, but He does not tempt them by trying to seduce them into sin. God allows Satan to tempt people, however, in order to refine their faith and to help them grow in their dependence on Christ. We can resist temptation to sin by turning to God for strength and choosing to obey His Word. The only other possibility is when people are possessed with evil spirits who control them and make them to do evil things that normally they would not do.
3. Me? (v. 14)
Every man is tempted, when - In the beginning of the temptation. He is drawn away - Drawn out of God, his strong refuge. By his own desire - We are therefore to look for the cause of every sin, in, not out of ourselves. Even the injections of the devil cannot hurt before we make them our own. And every one has desires arising from his own constitution, tempers, habits, and way of life. And enticed - In the progress of the temptation, catching at the bait: so the original word signifies. By "lust" is meant the principle of corrupt nature, which has its residence in the heart of man; is natural and hereditary to him, and therefore is called his own; he is conceived and shaped in it; he brings it into the world with him, and it continues in him, and is called his own heart’s lust, Romans_1: 24.
It is easy to blame others and make excuses for evil thoughts and wrong actions. Excuses include ~
• It’s the other person’s fault
• I couldn’t help it
• Everybody is doing it
• It was just a mistake
• Nobody’s perfect
• The devil made me do it
• I was pressured into it
• I didn’t know it was wrong
• God is tempting me
A person who makes excuses is trying to shift the blame from himself / herself to something or someone else (ref: Garden of Eden). When God challenged Adam and Eve with their sin, they said not to blame them but … Finally resulting in blaming God. Man has always been an expert in evasion. A Christian, on the other hand, accepts responsibility for his / her wrong doings, confesses them, and asks God for forgiveness. James sternly rebukes that view. He addresses that man’s own evil desire is responsible for sin. Sin would be helpless, if there was nothing in man to which it would appeal. If temptation struck no answering chord, then temptation would not be temptation. Now desire is something which can be nourished or stifled. A man can check or control his discipline, and even, by the grace of God, eliminate desire if he faces it and deals with it at once. A man’s thoughts take him places and the he succumbs to his evil desires when he doesn’t discipline himself. You know what idle hands and mind are vulnerable to and capable of doing.
If a man nourishes and encourages desire long enough, there is an inevitable consequence. Desire becomes action. If a man thinks about anything long enough, all the chances that are in the end he will do it. Desire in the heart in the end begets sin in the action. Apparently this desire is beyond sexual desire. This sin begets death.
Consequence of SIN (v. 15) ~
Romans 6: 23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Death! The course of sin is described as that of a birth. The sinful desire is the conception; the sinful deed the birth; moral and eternal death the final result. In allusion to this notion, James represents men’s lust as a harlot; which entices their understanding and will into its impure embraces, and from that conjunction conceives sin. Sin, being brought forth, immediately acts, and is nourished by frequent repetition, till at length it gains such strength that in its turn it begets death. This is the true genealogy of sin and death. Lust is the mother of sin, and sin the mother of death, and the sinner the parent of both.” Then desire having conceived - By our own will joining therewith. Brings forth actual sin - It doth not follow that the desire itself is not sin. He that begets a man is himself a man. And sin being perfected - Grown up to maturity, which it quickly does. Brings forth death - Sin is born big with death.
Application: So who is to blame for our sin? James says, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” Just as a fisherman uses bait to lure his prey, so our own evil, unchecked desires lead to giving in to temptation and sin.
When we disobey God by sinning, let’s not shift the blame or justify our actions with the faulty “the devil made me do it” theology. Instead, let’s take full responsibility for our actions, confess our sins to a gracious and forgiving Father, and pursue right living again.
When we sin, the blame lies within.
