“Resisting Temptation” -- James 1:13-15; 1 Corinthians 10:12-13

Watching television on stations that are not mainstream lends itself to seeing commercials that are geared more to people who watch those particular shows. I realize that Joe Namath is a better pitchman than Joe Theismann, even though they’re pitching the same product.

I’ve also learned that it’s not my fault that I can’t lose weight. I have it on solid information that I am incapable of losing weight on my own, unless I’m willing to purchase a pill that will overcome my body’s resistance to losing belly fat.

This ad appeals to what you and I like to do most often in life. We prefer to blame life’s problems on things beyond our control rather than have to take responsibility for poor decisions or wrong choices. I can take a pill that will magically reduce my belly fat without having to diet or exercise. The fact that I was the one that allowed myself to get to the weight I now have is completely irrelevant. It’s not my fault. Only, it is my fault; I alone made the choices that got me to the state in which I currently find myself.

Oddly enough, we too often like to try to blame God for hard times in life. This recent ice storm will be declared an “act of God,” as though He’s to blame for the freezing cold, power and water outages and the general discomfort of the event. Tornadoes, hurricanes and lightning bolts are all “acts of God.”

In today’s passages, James and Paul both let us know that our sins are own fault. We cannot blame temptation on God. Instead, God gives us all we need to overcome sin, if we will only trust Him.

Background

James’ letter is one of those letters that both lifts us up and removes excuses from our daily living. It isn’t that James is hard, just that he doesn’t seem to want to suffer fools gladly. There’s an old joke with the punch line, “You’ve gone from preaching to meddling.” That’s James. He writes hard truths that, if we will accept them for what they are—God’s inspired word and guidance—will transform the way we live out our faith.

Paul’s writing to the Corinthians is in a similar vein. He is addressing a church that has numerous factions, almost all stemming from a lack of spiritual maturity on the part of the Corinthians. Paul writes them solid advice inspired by God, including a verse that tells us how to handle temptation and avoid sin in our lives.

As we look at today’s passages, beginning with James, let us keep in mind this truth:

Central Truth: Living a holy life means overcoming temptation.

Temptation:

1. Comes from the devil (James 1:13)

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone;”

We go back to the idea of looking for someone to blame for our mistakes. James is building off his words found in v. 12: “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” The words for “trial” and “temptation” are similar, and both connote a difficult time in our lives. While God allows both trials and temptations, He is not the instigator anything evil.

A more accurate reading of v. 13 should be, “No one should say, ‘My temptation is from God.’” This idea is that we can trace all things back to God. The difference here is that, while God allow us to be tempted, He is never the one tempts us. As James writes in vs. 16-18, “Every good and perfect gift comes from above”—that is, God is the source of the good.

Temptation—the encouragement to sin and rebel against God’s will—is always coming from Satan. He is the murder Jesus describes, the one who’s native tongue is lies and who seeks only to destroy. God, the One who loves us enough to send His Son to die for us, to free us from sin’s consequences and to give us eternal life and reconciliation, never seeks to destroy but to build up.

If that’s so, then why does God allow us to be tempted? Why not, the moment we accept Christ, bind Satan from us and refuse to allow us to come under temptation. The short answer is that God allows us to be tested through temptation. Look at the book of Job. The underlying reason for Job’s suffering was a test of his faith. God knew Job well enough to know that he was a righteous man. Satan sought to undermine his testimony. The suffering was all designed to tempt Job to reject God. We can see this in Job’s wife’s plea for his suffering to end: “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). When Job stood strong in his faith, the result was a growing awareness of God and His majesty.

God does not tempt us Himself, but He allows us to be tempted in order that we can learn to resist the devil and to turn to the One who saves.

2. Leads to sin if we let it (14-15)

. . . but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.”

Temptation, in and of itself, is not bad. If we indulge temptation and embrace it, only then will it lead to sin, and the wages of sin is death. James gives a description to let us see how temptation works.

When we are tempted, it begins with a simple desire. This desire can be as small as to suggest we stay in bed on Sunday morning instead of getting up to go to church. The simple desire is to go against God’s will, but it is only a suggestion.

It’s when we take that suggestion, that desire, and begin to cultivate it that it slowly turns to sin. The temptation is the appeal to the evil desire. When we begin to consider it, then it turns into an enticement. The enticement conceives the idea that it will be all right to “just this once” give in to the desire. The desire then turns into action, and that action is sin. (It can also turn into inaction, refusing to do what we know is the right thing.) Sin then leads to the rendering of our relationship with God. While our salvation can never be taken from us, our sin can hinder our walk with the Father by quenching the Holy Spirit, muting His leading and drawing us away from the power and promise.

A classic example is how the serpent spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, found in Genesis 3:1-7.

Satan begins the temptation with a twisted view of things, which is common for him. He asks, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” What God had said was they were free to eat from any tree except one, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is the temptation, the devil planting the seed of doubt through a twisted question.

Eve reasons that the devil doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and tries to correct him. In doing so, she misunderstands God’s command, including that they are not allowed to touch it. It’s possible that Adam added that when he instructed Eve about the tree. We don’t know.

Satan furthers the temptation by disputing God’s instructions—“You will not surely die.” And he replaces the warning with an enticement—“You will be like God.”

When were Adam and Eve tempted? It was the first question, designed to plant doubt about God’s goodness. When did they become enticed? When they continued to listen to the serpent. The desire conceived when Eve reached out and touched the fruit. The sin came in eating the fruit.

When should they have resisted temptation? They should have realized at the beginning that the serpent was lying to them. They could have dismissed the devil when they were enticed with the false promise. Even when Eve touched the fruit, they could have turned away. With each step, though, we move further away from temptation and toward sin, and each step makes it easier to sin.

The devil is very good at what he does—he embraced evil long ago and has been working at destroying God’s world ever since. He is subtle and he is very good at wooing us, luring us away from knowing God’s will and seeking our own. He tells us the things we want to hear, shows us the things we want to see, all with the encouragement that no one will really get hurt.

Remember this: Satan is a liar and everything he says is just the opposite of what he promises.

More importantly, remember this, too: God gives us a way out.

3. Is overcome when we trust in God (1 Corinthians 10:12-13)

“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to ma. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will aslo provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

The Bible tells us pride goes before the fall. It’s when we are most confident in ourselves that we are most easily tripped up. Paul gives us that warning in 1 Corinthians 10:12. As Peter reminded us last week, we must practice self-control and stay alert.

All that we said in the previous point, indicating Satan’s power of persuasion, we need to also emphasize that the devil is only able to do what God allows him to do. God places limits on the devil. And God gives us the ability to overcome temptation if we will practice self-control and stay alert. He shows us this truth in v. 13. There are three things to point out in this verse.

The first is that the temptations we endure are not unique to us. We are not the first to be tempted to commit a particular sin, nor will we be the last. There are times, when Satan is tempting us, that we may feel alone or particularly vulnerable. Rest assured, you are never alone. We are tempted with ordinary things. These things may be strong in their ability to persuade us, but they are not so powerful that we cannot resist them and tell them no. We who are the children of God literally walk in Christ each day—He is always with us and never leaves us. His Spirit guides us and protects us. When we are tempted by common temptations, remember that the temptation is not as powerful as the God who saved us, who calls us His children and who empowers us by His Spirit.

The second thing we need to remember is that God, who is faithful, will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. God knows our limits. He limits Satan to our abilities. This should be a point of gratitude on our part. When we know we are being tempted, we should thank God that He knows us well enough to know that we can say no. By the power of the Spirit within us, we can practice self-control, resist the devil and turn to Christ for help. Because God knows us so well, He knows not only what we can bear, but He also knows that we can overcome.

Finally, when we are tempted, God will give us the ability to stand up against it. Jesus resisted Satan with scripture in the wilderness. He resisted Satan with an awareness of God’s will for His life and His ministry. Jesus resisted the devil because He gave Himself over completely to the Father’s will. Jesus practiced the self-control to say no to Satan. He sets the example. He gives us the strength and the wisdom.

Conclusion

One of the most important parts of self-control is the need to resist the devil and turn away from temptation. It’s not easy. Satan knows what buttons to push to lead us away from God. But the devil is limited in his ability to lead us astray.

Implied in all of this talk about temptation is that we have to have the desire to resist. We can know everything there is to know about Satan and his ways, and we can know about God and His will, but unless we really want to live holy lives, we will find it easy to succumb to temptation. We’ll regret it, but we’ll be easy prey the next time around, too.

In order to live holy lives, we practice self-control, saying no to Satan’s temptations and yes to God’s will. This means we need to know God’s will and we need to want to do God’s will. If we will desire God’s will, and if we will learn God’s ways, then we will be more capable of resisting temptation. And we know that, in those times when we do succumb and sin, God’s forgiveness will heal us and allow us to continue to walk with Him.

Really, the question we have to ask is, “How badly do I want to follow God?”