Alister McGrath has a book about the Christian life entitled The Journey. That’s a helpful image. Too often I’ve heard the Christian life described more like a destination; you make a decision to trust Jesus Christ for salvation, which ensures that you have a place in heaven, and that’s pretty-much the end of what you need to do. If you’re the kind of person who goes in for that kind of thing, you may cultivate a life of prayer and discipleship, but it’s not really necessary. Your place in heaven is assured, since you’ve accepted the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.
The problem with this view is that it’s completely alien to the New Testament. In the New Testament, turning to Jesus Christ is the beginning of a lifelong journey. When we accept the free gift, what we’ve done is enter the path of discipleship, which we’re committed to following for the rest of our lives. Turning to Jesus Christ for salvation is the beginning of the journey. One of the classic books describing this journey of discipleship is The Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan.
Christian, the main character in the book, starts out with a horrible burden on his back (which represents sin). He starts running up the hill of salvation, but he’s hardly able to make it because of the burden he’s carrying. Then, when he approaches the cross, the burden rolls off his back and falls into a tomb. He’s been traveling for awhile, but he hasn’t yet reached his destination. He’s on the path, and his burden has been removed. But there’s still a long way to go.
A little before this, a man named Pliable begins traveling with him. Christian tells him that he’s leaving the City of Destruction and traveling to the Celestial City, and Pliable decides to go along. But right away they both fall into the Slough of Despond, a place where those who are convicted of sin become filled with fears and doubts. And as they’re wallowing in the mire, Pliable begins to question the wisdom of the journey: “At this Pliable began to be offended, and angrily said to his fellow, Is this the happiness you have told me all this while of? If we have such ill speed at our first setting out, what may we expect ‘twixt this and our journey’s end? May I get out again with my life, you shall possess the brave country alone for me. And with that he gave a desperate struggle or two, and got out of the mire on that side of the slough which was next to his own house: so away he went, and Christian saw him no more” (p. 7). Pliable, like many others in the history of the Church, turns back as soon as he encounters difficulties along the way.
James, in these early verses of chapter 1, is deliberately ambiguous in the word he uses for temptation. The word he’s using in verses 12-18 is the same one he used in verse 3, when he was talking about trials. The word means either trial or temptation. In the early part of the chapter, James is clearly thinking about trials and difficulties. And in verse 13, he’s clearly talking about temptations to evil. But in verse 12, it’s not so clear, and the translations are divided on whether this verse is talking about the blessing of persevering under trials, or the blessing of resisting temptation. James allows the discussion to slide from one use of the word to the other, but he’s not clear on where the transition actually takes place.
Why does he do this? Because there’s a strong connection between trials and temptations. Trials weaken us and expose us to temptation. That’s what happened with Pliable. He was determined to make the journey, but he became discouraged by the difficulties he encountered along the way, so he turned back. When we’ve been beaten down by trials and difficulties, we’re more susceptible to temptation. So James allows these two ideas to flow together, with no clear separation between them. Verse 12 can either be connected with the earlier verses in the chapter, saying that those who endure trials are blessed (as the NIV translates), or it can be connected with the following verses, saying that those who resist temptation are blessed (as the NRSV has it).
James says it’s a good thing to keep going and resist temptation. Those who resist are blessed. Those who say “no” to temptation are better off than those who give in. They’ve done something they won’t regret in the long run. The advertising industry tells us just the opposite: “indulge yourself;” “you deserve it.” They don’t say these things because they want us to become better people, or because they think we’ve been too hard on ourselves and need to take a break. They tell us these things because they want us to spend money on their products. James says it’s a good thing to resist; those who resist are blessed.
A.W. Tozer has a good description of this: “To want a thing, or feel that we want it, and then to turn from it because we see that it is contrary to the will of God, is to win a great battle on a field larger than Gettysburg or Bunker Hill. To bring our desires to the cross and allow them to be nailed there with Christ is a good and a beautiful thing. To be tempted and yet to glorify God in the midst of it is to honor Him where it counts. This is more pleasing to God than any amount of sheltered and untempted piety could ever be. To fight and to win in the name of Christ is always better than to have known no conflict” (“The Sanctification of Our Desires,” in The Root of the Righteous, pp. 117-18). It’s a good and beautiful thing to persevere in resisting temptation. It’s a thing that pleases God and that brings honor to Him.
And yet, this doesn’t just happen. We don’t persevere in resisting temptation by “going with the flow,” doing whatever we feel like doing at the moment. Like everything else in the Christian life, we learn to resist temptation by training ourselves. We try our best to resist, but eventually we fail. So we think, “next time I’ll have to try harder.” But, of course, this gets us nowhere. Trying harder doesn’t help. Imagine what would happen if I decided to become a ski jumper. I could read books on ski jumping; I could buy all the necessary equipment and then travel to a place that has a ramp. But the fact is that I’ve never been on skis in my life. I don’t even know how to ski on a gentle slope. Unless I went through the necessary training, I’d be likely to kill myself on the first try. It’s not a matter of trying hard, but of training wisely. It’s the same in other areas. If you want to play classical piano, you don’t just listen to a recording and then try with all your might to play what you’ve just listened to. You go through a period of training, which will lead you through a series of steps, and then, eventually, you’ll be able to play. You don’t just keep trying harder. You equip yourself through training.
It’s the same in the Christian life. We don’t persevere in resisting temptation by trying harder each time we fail. We learn to keep going through temptation by training ourselves. And James gives us some ways of training ourselves in these verses, some things which will help us learn to say “no” to temptation.
The first thing he says is to recognize the source of temptation. James is thinking about temptation to evil, but he has in mind those who’ve been weakened by trials and difficulties and are tempted to find relief in sin. When that happens, God is not trying to trip you; he’s not the one who is tempting you to give up. If you become confused and begin thinking that God is tempting you, the next logical step will be to turn away from Him. One thing that happens when we’re facing temptation is that we’re often in a sort of fog. We can’t see clearly. We’re confused and have lost our bearings. When that begins to happen, we need to step back and remind ourselves that this confusion, this feeling that it’s not worth it continuing to resist, is not from God. God does not ever tempt us to evil.
Where does the temptation come from? From our evil desires: “each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.” James isn’t denying the presence of our spiritual enemies in temptation. He’s saying that temptation finds a foothold in our evil desires. The problem is not with God. The problem is in ourselves. The temptation comes to us and we find ourselves wanting to give in. Our own desires begin leading us away. We can’t say, as Flip Wilson used to say, “the devil made me do it.” The devil may tempt us, but he can’t make us do anything. Here’s how these verses read in The Message: “The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust.” Those evil spiritual forces that want to destroy us find a willing ally in our own evil desires. We need to begin by taking responsibility for ourselves, confessing that we often give in to temptation because that’s what we really want to do.
The next thing James says is that we need to understand where temptation is leading. Notice that there’s more here than just praying “Lord, help me.” We need to pray, but sometimes just repeating this kind of prayer actually strengthens the force of the temptation. We’re praying over and over, but at the same time we’re obsessing about this thing we want to do. James wants us to seek help from God, but part of seeking help from God is stepping back and reminding ourselves of some things. One of the ways God helps us is by reminding us of the truth: 1) this temptation is not from God; 2) this temptation has the ultimate purpose of leading me away from God completely.
Why does Satan tempt us? Do you think he’s going to all that trouble for the mere pleasure of seeing us commit certain acts of sin? No. He wants us to turn completely away from God. His purpose in tempting us is to lead us into destruction. He wants to destroy us absolutely. The whole point of temptation is to bring us to death. In The Screwtape Letters, Uncle Screwtape, who is advising his demon nephew in how to destroy his human victim, shows very little interest in any specific sins. In one of the letters, he says: “Nothing matters at all except the tendency of a given state of mind, in given circumstances, to move a particular patient at a particular moment nearer to the Enemy or nearer to us” (C.S. Lewis, pp. 87-88).
James has a very graphic picture of the process in these verses. It begins with evil desire. The temptation finds a foothold in our desires; we’re “dragged away and enticed” by our own evil desires. “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” The purpose of temptation is to destroy us, to harden our hearts by a series of steps that lead us further and further away from God. The apostle Paul says the same thing with a different image in Galatians 6: “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit” (vv. 7-8).
The third thing James says is that we need to know God. We need to know who He is, what He is like. The first step in temptation is very often to make us doubt the character of God. If we’re in doubt about God’s goodness, we’ll be more likely to turn away from Him. That was Satan’s strategy with Eve. He came to her in the garden and said, “God knows that when you eat [the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). He convinced her that God was trying to deprive them of a good thing, so she gave in to the temptation.
So James assures us that God is the source of all good. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” He wants us to remember what God is like, so we won’t be drawn away from Him by doubting His character. He is the source of all good things. And He doesn’t change; He doesn’t go back and forth, good one day and cruel the next, depending on His mood. I’ve worked for bosses who were like that. They loved being in charge, lording it over those under their power. They could be very gracious at times, even kind. But you never knew when their mood might change, then they’d become cruel and vindictive. God is not like that. His goodness is unchanging. He is gracious and kind to us, not because He’s in a good mood today, but because He is good. He is always good. He’s proven His goodness by giving us life. Listen to these verses in The Message: “So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.”
Those who resist temptation ultimately resist because they love God. Their perseverance is an active demonstration of their love. That’s the point at the end of verse 12: “Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” Jesus says the same thing in John 14: “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.... Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.”
As we respond to Him in obedient love, Jesus promises that He will come to us and make Himself known to us. We’ll know Him, the source of all goodness. And as we grow to know Him more truly as He is, we’ll be strengthened to resist temptation. If we see clearly who He is and what He’s done for us, we will love Him. And if we love Him, we will want to bring every area of our life into obedience. But it doesn’t happen all at once. We need to train ourselves in a life of obedience, which involves: 1) recognizing the source of temptation, and taking responsibility for our evil inclinations; 2) understanding that temptation is meant to destroy us; and 3) growing to know God more truly as He is. As we bring ourselves back to these things over and over again, we’ll be growing in obedience, and at the end of our lives, when we reach the end of our journey, we won’t be full of shame and regret. “Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
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