Greetings!
Do you make use to temptation for the indwelling?
“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” (James 1:14-15).
In this passage
, James is talking about temptation that is successful, or results in sin. He describes for us the process.
The Greek word translated “evil desire” really means strong or intense desire. It does not have a specific meaning of good or bad. In fact, it is the same word Jesus used in Luke 22:15 when He said to His disciples: “I have
eagerly desired
to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” Let’s restate the first phrase like this: “Each one is tempted when, by his own intense desire…..”
This strong or intense desire,
at its foundation, is built into you by the Creator. He has created you with a deep need for love and acceptance
so that
you will seek and find love and acceptance in Him. This need is the foundation of every desire. However, our God-created desires become misdirected when we seek to have them met outside of God. Anything outside of God only meets the surface of the need and provides only temporary relief and must be repeated over and over again. “As when a hungry man dreams that he is eating, but he awakens and his hunger remains; as when a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, but he awakens faint with his thirst unquenched” (Is. 29:8). We spend our resources on bread, which does not satisfy. We devour, but are still hungry; we eat, but are not filled.
When we repeatedly turn our strong and intense desire outward to the world, a pattern of behavior becomes fixed. The very need or desire that should have turned us to God has turned us away from Him. Instead of being freed from our need by having it eternally met, we become enslaved to our need by having it forever unsatisfied. We have, then, a misdirected desire. It has taken root in us. It becomes a
root of unrighteousness
and it grows a fruit called sin.
“By his own [strong, misdirected] desire, he is dragged away and enticed.”
This misdirected desire, this root, has developed a magnetic attraction to something in the world. We’ll call the object or situation in the world a “stimulus.” A stimulus in the world acts as a magnet to entice you and drag you away. James is really using a fishing term here. It means “to bait” or “to set a trap.” Satan has dangled bait in front of you. Your misdirected desire has taken the bait and been lured into a trap.
The stimulus has no power of its own
. What tempts one person does not tempt another. The power is not in the object or the occurrence in the world. The stimulus is neutral. Unless it is enticing, it cannot tempt. Its only power is the attraction it holds for you. It is
your own misdirected desire dragging you away.
“After desire has conceived, it give birth to sin.”
The root of unrighteousness in you mates with the stimulus in the world. The mating results in conception and sin is born. Sin is born of the mating between your misdirected desire and a stimulus in the world.
If one or the other
(misdirected desire or stimulus in the world) did not exist, no mating could occur. It is unrealistic to think that the stimuli the world offers will disappear. Jesus said that we would have trouble in the world. He prayed that we not be removed from the world, but protected from its damaging influence. The stimuli in the world will not go away.
Where does the answer lie?
The root of unrighteousness must be destroyed. Once the root is gone, the stimulus in the world has nothing to mate with. The stimulus looses its power and becomes a neutral object.
Once the inside is clean, the outside will be clean also.
Jennifer Kennedy Dean
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Content from, p
ersonal writings, Jennifer Kennedy Dean 2018
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