“Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” James 1:12.
With verse 12 we shift gears and find ourselves dealing with a trial of another sort. As quoted in, “That You May Be Perfect, James 1:1-11”, the trials mentioned in verses 2-4, are sent by God, with the intention of proving, or testing ones character, or faith.
The temptation spoken of in these verses are defined as follows. “Temptation, enticement to sin arising from either inward or outward circumstances”, Thayer’s Lexicon; this should become clear as we go along.
“The crown of life”, is a real, genuine life that begins in this life and continues on into an eternity of blessings, which will include rewards for enduring temptations.
Mature Christians who have endured temptations and received the crown of life will tell you that life becomes more bearable and their stress level has dropped because they now have a confidence in God’s care and take everything to Him in prayer, and leave it with Him.
“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. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” James 1:13-14.
Immediately we see the validation of the definition of temptation given by God in verses 13-14 above, it is induced by our own lusts. God cannot be tempted by evil because He is infinitely good; evil would not even enter His mind.
Concerning the evil that Judah committed in offering up their children as burnt sacrifices, God said the following.
“Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind)…” Jeremiah 19:4-5.
An omniscient God, all knowing, yet with a mind so holy and pure that evil does not even enter His mind.
We are drawn away by our own desires, or lusts, and are enticed by them. These desires or lusts are our weaknesses, known by the devil and used against us; yet they are our desires, so we decide how to respond to them. God says above, that He does not tempt anyone.
Can you hear God whisper in your ear, “Wow, look at that woman! Ask her out. Your wife will never know.”
That is nuts! It is Satan who says those things to you. Jesus says this about Satan.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10.
Satan excites these thoughts in our minds to rob us, to kill us, and to destroy us. Many a man both worldly and Christian has been destroyed by him.
Satan is far more intelligent than any thousand rocket scientists. His organization of fallen angels makes the most efficient communist secret police look like a group of children set loose in a candy store.
Do not; absolutely do not, face this person alone; do not under estimate him; do not think you can sink below the radar, the enemy has already engaged you, and he will not stop attacking you just because you hold up a white flag.
God is omnipotent, His power and intelligence is infinitely greater than Satan and his gaggle of followers; He is the only one who can and will guard you from this evil army’s onslaught. Take everything, every temptation every worry to God in prayer.
The dictionary defines the word entice as, “to lead on by exciting desire; allure; inveigle.” Some synonyms are, “lure, attract, decoy, tempt.” The antonym is to repel.
Inveigle means “to, entice, lure, or ensnare by artful talk or inducements”; sometimes it seems like you need a dictionary to use the dictionary!
We are tempted when we are drawn away by our own desires; the things we want; then we are enticed by them. The word entice here suggests that we dwell on this object of our desire; it is at this point that the train wreck begins.
Bear in mind that it is not a sin to be tempted. There is a saying that goes like this, “You cannot stop a bird from landing in your hair, but you can stop him from making a nest.”
That is the basics of temptation, you see it, you desire it, you say to yourself, “It is wrong for me to have it”, and you forget it. Dwelling on it is the beginnings of sin.
Temptation is not just the bad boys of sin like, adultery, illicit sex, or murder; it is also, jealousy, the tendency to gossip, petty theft, stabbing a hated co-worker in the back when possible, revenge, and the so-called white lies, this is not a complete list.
The reason we need to study the Bible is so God can reveal these hidden sins to us.
“Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Psalm 119:11.
If we do not sin against God, we will not sin against man.
“Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” James 1:15.
Permit me, if you will, to treat this verse like a sex education class, it is not my intention to be crude and my apologies to any who are offended.
We have the man and the woman, desire and enticement; separately they will bring forth no issue, but when the man and the woman come together, the means of conception are present. When that happens a living soul is conceived, and inevitably the child comes forth.
So desire and enticement conceive and after gestation sin is born, and sin which eventually takes over kills its parent.
Death in this verse may take different meanings. If a young man is going to medical school and gets someone pregnant, he may quit school to marry her, and there is death of a dream.
You have all seen a televangelist confessing some grievous sin on television and with their reputation destroyed there is death of a ministry.
Do something wrong at work and there is death of a career.
It is a fact that many men who die of a heart attack do so during adultery. Often enough, men are murdered when they are caught with another man’s wife, so literal death is meant here too.
“If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.” I John 5:16-17.
All sin does not lead to death, but unless God intervenes there are always consequences. Confess your sins immediately when you are convicted of them by the Holy Spirit.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John1:9.
If it will take our reaping the consequences of our sin to cleanse us from it, we will go through them, yet with God at our side.
The Crown of Life, James 1:12-15 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 8-17-11, updated on 10-2-20.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.