The Path that Leads to Life (1.13-18)
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 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. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
James starts right off by addressing an issue that was probably occurring among the believers. They were placing blame on God for the mess they found themselves in. Don’t we do this? We get mad at God because our car breaks down and we don’t have enough money to fix it. “Why God, did you CAUSE this to happen?” Yet we don’t recognize the fact that we spent $800 on a piece of furniture instead of thinking heavenly about our finances. God does not tempt us, he allows us to experience trials. There is a big difference.
The purpose of temptation is to get us to fall, to mess up. This is what sin and our evil desires inside of us do to us. That is why James says:
3 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
These two words, “dragged away” and “enticed”, are fishing terms used to describe the bait that is used to “tempt” the fish. God is not the source of our tempting to sin, that source is our fallen natures. Yet God does allow us to be tested, which as we talked about above, is a tool that refines us and makes us more mature. Testing allows us to practice thinking heavenly. Testing actually helps us overcome temptations. Let me say that again...Testing helps us overcome temptations. When we are given the opportunity to think heavenly in all the different trials and temptations of life, we are ready to say “NO” to our sinful desires that are trying to tempt us into sin. And look where that path leads:
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
James is painting a picture, and it is starting to look like this:
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Desires from Below---> leads to temptation----> leads to Sin-----> leads to Death.
Yet the picture does not stop there. James shows us the source of the “right” path that leads to life:
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 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. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
“Don’t be deceived”, when translated literally from the Greek, says “Do not wander off the path.” What a great translation. We have been given a path that is contrasted to the path shown above, and it begins with thinking heavenly. Thinking heavenly, or the wisdom from above, is one of the gifts that comes down from God, which James describes as the “Father of the heavenly lights”. Light always brought with it this image of guidance, like “your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” That is why James says the light is not like shifting shadows. He is just making a play on the images. Light guides down the right path, while the shadows, or desires, try to get us to stay from the path. In verse 18, James uses the same kind of language he used in verse 15. The sinful desires, when it has “conceived” it gives “birth” to Sin. Wisdom, through the word of truth, gives “birth” to life. James just finished the picture for us.
Wisdom from above (thinking heavenly)--> truth---> good deeds --> Life
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Desires from Below---> leads to temptation----> leads to Sin-----> leads to Death.
For the rest of the book, James is looking at all the different problems inside the community, and even giving seven different test cases, fleshing out this tension. He wants to show over and over again that thinking heavenly leads to Life, while living by our evil, worldly desires leads to Death. And after looking at the trials that were occurring outside the community, we will now examine the trials that were occurring inside the community. But the answer to all these trials is simple but extremely hard to live out....think heavenly.
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