“Faith That Works: The Birth Process”
James 1:13-18
A young woman came to Christ in a marvelous way. Her conversion was, from a human perspective, partly due to the fact that she had come to a very low place in her marriage, making her intensely aware of her spiritual need. Having met Christ in her extremity, her life immediately took on an attractive buoyancy. She was truly a new person—and it was beautiful to behold. But sadly, her troubled husband did not follow suit as she had so dearly hoped. After a year of continuing marital disappointment, she sought help from a counselor. Instead of receiving help, she was lured by a professional seducer. She was seduced, and there followed the inevitable history of liaisons and further damage to her fragile self-esteem. To be sure, she was a victim of an unprincipled male in professional sheep’s clothing, but she was also a victim of self. But it was neither to him nor herself that she placed ultimate blame. Rather, she said through clenched teeth, “I asked God to lead me to the right person, and he led me to this man. It is God’s fault! He is to blame for what happened!” (1)
Have you ever felt that way? “God gave me this desire; God could have stopped this from happening; God made me this way. Why did God do this?” James suggests that it is wrong to blame God for the enticement to sin that accompanies our trials. In fact, in verse 13 he says that THERE IS A DISTINCTION TO GRASP. ‘When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” Blaming the gods was typical of the pagan mind-set in Biblical times because their gods were capricious, vengeful, soap-opera deities who taunted and tantalized humanity. Jewish believers, dispersed in various pagan cities by persecution, were not immune to this mind-set. Evidently in their misery some were saying God was tempting them to fall; that He had lost patience with them and was deliberately bringing them down, so God was to blame for their sin. (2) But the word used for ‘temptation’ is the same word used in verse 2 for ‘trials.’ Both testing and temptation precipitate a crisis. Both reveal something about us. A circumstance is either a trial or temptation depending on who it comes from and what we do with it. How we respond determines how it turns out. This is the distinction James raises.
We need to understand the difference. First, GOD TESTS US TO DEVELOP US. Beginning in the Old Testament it’s clear that God does test His people; He brings them into situations where their willingness to obey him is tested. ‘God tested Abraham’ when he ordered him to sacrifice his son Isaac (Gen. 22:1), He tested Israel by leaving them surrounded by pagan nations (Judg. 2:22). But while God may test or prove his servants in order to strengthen their faith, HE NEVER SEEKS TO INDUCE SIN AND DESTROY THEIR FAITH. The tendency to blame God for temptation, and therefore deflect blame for yielding to temptation, was a familiar problem for a people who stressed the sovereignty of God— they thought that if temptation comes from God, how could one resist it? But, says James, a holy God cannot conspire with evil. “And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and He never tempts anyone else.” (NLT)
SATAN HOWEVER TEMPTS US TO DESTROY US Think, for example, of the fact that God put a blockade in front of Adam & Eve to develop and protect them. He told them to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil – for their own good. But Satan used it as a temptation, because, unlike God, SATAN ALWAYS WANTS TO DESTROY US. Consider also Matthew 4:1 which states that “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” ‘Tempted’ is this same word, meaning either testing or tempting. It’s because the experience was both a testing and tempting. God intended it for strengthening Jesus while Satan intended to break Jesus down. Dr. William Brownson wonderfully explains the distinction by pointing to a political candidate, running for public office. Her campaign manager wants to get her exposure so people get to know here and what she stands for. Her opponent, meanwhile, wants to expose her by digging up weaknesses and moral issues in her life so people see the ‘real her.’ Both people want to expose her but for completely opposite reasons. (3)
Another way to think of it is to look at automobile companies. Let’s say General Motors produces a new car. GM runs tests to point out the strengths and improvements over previous models. Environmental and watchdog groups run tests to expose the bad points. Each has different motives. So remember the distinction – in any given circumstance God is out to test and develop you while Satan is out to destroy you.
But we cannot blame either God or Satan when we yield to temptation by sinning. As James makes clear, in verses 14-15, THERE IS A DESIRE TO CONTROL. Verse 14: “Everyone is tempted by their own cravings; they are lured away and enticed by them.” (CEB) With every sin, with every yielding THERE IS A BEGINNING POINT. J. B. Phillips translated verse 14, “No, a man’s temptation is due to the pull of his own inward desires, which can be enormously attractive.” The Amplified Bible puts it, “But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire (lust, passions).” TEMPTATION SPRINGS FROM SINFUL IMPULSES, as we allow circumstances and situations to lure and entice us. ‘Dragged away’ connotes a forceful dragging away, while enticed suggests the attraction exerted by some bait. Both terms describe the attractive force of some perceived pleasure. But the imagery of fishing is clear: a good lure draws the attention of the fish and stirs up within the fish a good desire to eat. But once the fish swallows the bait, it is dragged away and reeled in.
It’s important to note that a temptation is often an opportunity to accomplish a good thing in a bad way. When Satan tempted Jesus in desert, he asked to do three things that in and of themselves were not wrong; but the motives, the reason for doing them were wrong. Our desires by and large are good by creation, for they lead them us to enjoy creation, to eat, even to procreate; but they have been corrupted so that they also lead us to lust, to steal, and to be sexually promiscuous. Our circumstances could not temptt us at all unless our internal voice was saying, “Go ahead; you deserve it; it feels good.” Behind every act of gluttony is a pleasure in good food that comes from God. Beneath every act of adultery is a desire to be loved, to know the warmth of human touch, to satisfy a sexual drive - all of which come from God. As G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “If you can only get back far enough into the mystery of your sin you will find a desire which is not wrong in itself.” Satan knows our strengths and our weaknesses. He knows the lures and the “bait” which will most readily entice us. He wisely offers us that bait just as surely as he offered the forbidden fruit to Eve.
And James reminds us that inability or unwillingness to control the direction of our desires is harmful, because the womb of the heart cannot hold the illegitimate desire forever; THERE IS A BIRTH taking place (15). “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” Desire’s child comes to birth, and its name is sin. Disobedience is the turning point; desire moves move from emotions and intellect to the will – and the Christian life is a matter of the will not our feelings. It is always a matter of the will. But as Jeremiah prophesied (17:9) our hearts are deceitful. Jesus repeats the same thought when he describes the human heart in these words: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matt. 15:19). FOLLOWING OUR HEARTS RATHER THAN STRENGTHENING OUR WILLS LEADS TO SIN WHICH LEADS TO DEATH.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book entitled Temptation, describes how this works: “With irresistible power desire seizes mastery over the flesh.… It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money.… Joy in God is … extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature. At this moment God is quite unreal to us, he loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real; … Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.… The lust thus aroused envelops the mind and will of man in deepest darkness. The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us. The questions present themselves: “Is what the flesh desires really sin in this case?” “Is it really not permitted to me, yes—expected of me, now, here, in my particular situation, to appease desire?” … It is here that everything within me rises up against the Word of God.” (4) Disobedience always gives birth to death.
But all is not lost. THERE IS A DECLARATION TO EMBRACE (16-18) Look at verse 16: “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.” DO NOT BE DECEIVED BY A LIE – God will never ask you to sin! So focus on God!
First, we should not be deceived REGARDING THE SOURCE OF EVIL—that is Satan. He is the one who would tempt us to do evil and who would delight in leading us to sin and death. Then, we should not be deceived CONCERNING THE ONE WHO IS THE SOURCE OF ALL GOOD—that is God. He is not only the source of good, but He is the One who is committed to making all things work together for good for His children, those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). Satan loves to have us think ill of God. That was his approach, recorded in Genesis 3, with Eve as he led her to question God’s motives.
So James urges us to HOLD FAST TO THE TRUTH (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.” Notice two things. First, EVERYTHING FROM GOD IS GOOD; He only gives good gifts. The phrase “coming down” means “keeps on coming down,” and describes an unending succession of good gifts.” God is goodness personified; He is the fountain of all that is good; goodness originates with Him. The gifts God makes available to his people are good and perfect—every one of them. They include spiritual and material gifts. (5)
Second, remember that in the midst of a changing world, GOD NEVER CHANGES –He is the same yesterday, today, forever (Heb. 13:8). Nathan told David that if he had remembered all God’s goodness he would not have gazed upon and invited Bathsheba to sin (2 Sam. 12:7-8): “Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.”
The good news this: GOD IS ETERNALLY GOOD. God will always be good to us. In his final column in Eternity magazine, a column he authored for over twenty years, Joe Bayly said, “Since I’ve shared the severity of God with my readers [speaking of the deaths of three of his children], I want to share the goodness of God in this final column.” And then he recounted God’s grace in the lives of each of his four living children. What is especially significant in relation to the truth of the text we are expounding are his final words: ‘Mary Lou and I are aware that all this represents the grace of God, but also that for ourselves and our children the road hasn’t ended. Yet we know that both by his severity and by his goodness God has shown consistent faithfulness. God is good. He is worthy of all trust and all glory.’” (6Y)
“Every good and perfect gift is from above [all good comes from above], coming down [in unending succession] from the Father of the heavenly lights [the good framer of the universe], who does not change like shifting shadows [his goodness stays at unchanging, eternal high noon].” That is the good news! God is good! “Great is Thy Faithfulness...Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not...As Thou hast been Thou forever will be.”
We should not blame God – He’s simply being God. We should not blame Satan – he’s busy being Satan. Both are doing what they ought to do. So James continues by pointing out that one of the greatest gifts from God is that HE GIVES US REBIRTH (18). “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” The idea of A DIVINELY-GIVEN NEW HEART is expressed in many ways in the Bible. As J. A. Motyer points out, Jeremiah speaks of a heart on which the law of God is written (Je. 31:31–34), a heart tailor-made for obedience. Ezekiel speaks to the gift of a new heart (Ezk. 36:26), a heart expressive of the true human nature which the Lord intended. Paul speaks of a new creation (e.g. 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 4:22–24). James looks straight back to the word of truth, the teaching of the Lord Jesus, who spoke to Nicodemus about being ‘born again’ or ‘born from above’(Jn. 3:3–8). Earthly life originated with human parents, who bequeathed to us human nature in all its fallen hopelessness and helplessness. But there is another birth that comes to us irrespective of our age, and wholly apart from our own or any other human agency: a birth of the Spirit. With this new birth there comes new life, new energies, new prospects and, above all, a new relationship with God, by whose will the birth has come about. (7)
And the purpose is that WE MIGHT BE THE FIRST-FRUITS – the proof that a greater number will eventually be born. Christians stand as the ‘first installment’ in God’s plan of redemption. As the Living Bible paraphrases this verse: “And it was a happy day for him when he gave us our new lives through the truth of his Word, and we became, as it were, the first children in his new family. “(LB) It all comes through the Holy Spirit.
So our response to our circumstances – our tests or temptations – always leads to birth; either the birth of sin and death, or of the Spirit and life. And there an escape from temptation. God has not forsaken us. He still hears and answers our prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matt. 6:13). And Paul writes these reassuring words: “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor. 10:13). Hold fast to this truth!
(1) (Preaching the Word – Faith That Works - LOGOS)
(2) (Preaching the Word – Faith That Works - LOGOS)
(3) Dr. William C. Brownson, “How Temptation Works”, Words of Hope, 7/1/79
(4) Biblia.com
(5) Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 14: Exposition of James and the Epistles of John. New Testament Commentary (52). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
(6) Biblia.com
(7) Motyer, J. A. (1985). The message of James: The tests of faith. The Bible Speaks Today (57–58). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.
