Temptation - Dancing with Death

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:12 – 15 ESV).

This passage in James and the previous posting’s passage in 1 John inform one another – that is, each helps us understand the other and together they increase our understanding of temptation.

John makes it clear that if we follow our lusts (desires) in loving the world (this present evil age) that the love of the Father will not be in us (1 John 2:15). He also makes it clear that the world and its lusts are passing away, but that the one who does the will of God lives forever (not the one who thinks about doing the will of God!).

When Adam and Eve lusted after the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and acted on their desire the result was death; spiritual death working in the soul and body of humanity. James paints a picture of what this dance looks like, it is as if we are participating in a masquerade ball:

We see someone desirable to dance with, she (or he) looks attractive. As we dance to the music we are drawn ever more deeply into the embrace of our dancing partner. Before long we are unaware of our surroundings, our discernment abandons us, we lose our perspective and equilibrium. We are enveloped with and in sin. Do we realize that the fruit of our dance is death? To dance with death is to produce death. To dance with temptation is to dance with death. It may not look like death as we approach it; it may look desirable for food, it may be pleasing to the eyes, it may promise to make us wise if we will only dance with it – but it will kill us. It will deaden our souls, dull our minds, and harden our hearts.

Temptation will nearly always look like something better than what we have, and it will always entice us to disobey God’s Word and turn our eyes away from Jesus Christ.

James warns us not to be so foolish as to think, “This temptation is from God,” when he writes:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”

The stakes are high. How high?

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

This has to do with our love for God when facing temptation, do we love God or do we love our lusts? Note that John also frames the issue of our desires in the context of love: “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15b).

Temptation challenges our hearts. To whom do our hearts belong?

Paul evokes Genesis when he writes (2 Corinthians 11:3 NASB), “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” Once again, we are all reenactors; shall we play the role of Adam and Eve, or shall we play the role of Jesus Christ? Shall we choose to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or shall we eat from the Tree of Life, our Lord Jesus Christ? What is feeding our desires?

James writes:

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2 – 4 ESV).

The word “trials” can just as easily be translated “temptations”. God desires to use our temptations to mold us into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we are tempted we can either submit to God and His Word, or give ourselves over to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. If we foolishly think that we can control temptation, or that we can moderate our downward spiral into sin and death and somehow go so far and then turnaround and go back to obedience…we are fools. We are either slaves to God and His Word, or we are slaves to sin (Romans Chapter 6); what we are not is autonomous – we will either serve God or the devil…which will it be?