Have your Bible handy to reference the scripture for this lesson. Scripture: James 1:12-18
Our study of the book of James began with the topic of enduring trials and afflictions. We also looked at the concept that God will generously give us wisdom if we ask Him for it and rely on Him alone for that wisdom. Then we looked at some scriptures in Chapters 1, 2 & 5 that dealt with our attitudes and behaviors toward the rich and a warning to the rich about living in humility. This lesson now goes back to Chapter 1 and picks back up the topic of enduring testing and temptations.
We are told that we will be blessed if we patiently endure testing and temptations. In fact, God will give a crown of life to all those who do overcome tests and temptations because they love Him. That’s a great promise and blessing.
Next, James tells us that when we are tempted we should not blame God for the temptation. We should not tell anyone, “God put this temptation in front of me.” The reason is that God does not tempt anyone to do wrong. He is good, not evil, and He will never put a temptation before us so we will choose to do evil. That is not consistent with His nature.
Well, where do temptations originate? Verse 14 gives us the answer to that question. Temptations develop when we give in to our desires. Giving in to our desires will lead us into evil actions as we try to satisfy those desires. The evil actions (we call them sins) drag us away from obedience to God’s will for our lives.
If we allow the evil actions to control us and to gain strength in that control so they dominate our reactions to desires, then the sins will lead to spiritual death. God never intended for us to perish in our sins. He wants us to come to repentance so we can ask for and receive forgiveness for yielding to our desires.
When Eve was deceived by the serpent in the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis, that deception was accomplished through appealing to her desires. She ate the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, and then she gave it to her husband Adam, who ate the fruit, too. God’s command was broken through disobedience because of yielding to evil desires. That yielding led to sin, and sin brought spiritual, and physical, death.
When James tells us enduring temptations will bring blessings, he was pointing to the eternal life that comes from loving and obeying God. When he reminds us of the origin of temptations, he was reminding us of the consequences that not enduring temptations will cause.
Let us pray that we are able to patiently endure temptations so we can receive that crown of life promised to us by God.