Temptations: (1:13-18):
Believers are in danger of falling before the attacks and pressures of trials. But they are also subject to falling before the attractions and pleasures of temptation. Just as a wrong reaction to testing will obstruct spiritual growth and maturity, so will a wrong response to temptation
- Sources of Temptation: (1:13-14): Those who find an easy excuse for their sinning say, “I am tempted by God. James made it clear that God cannot be tempted. There is nothing in God to which evil can make an appeal.
Furthermore, He tempts no one. God often tests, but He never tempts.
The source of temptation is from within a person (1:14). It is his own evil desire, lust, or inner craving. He is dragged away and enticed. This inner craving draws a person out like a fish drawn from its hiding place, and then entices him. So a person both builds and baits his own trap.
- Steps of temptation: (1:15-16): The lust or desire conceives and from this conception sin is born. The unmentioned father is most certainly Satan. The grotesque child, sin, then matures and produces its own offspring The steps are all too clear: unchecked lust yields sin, and un-confessed sin brings death. How strange that sin gives birth to death. Just as a right response to trials can result in growth to full spiritual maturity, so a wrong response to lust will result in decline to abject spiritual poverty and ultimately to death itself.
- Solutions for temptation: (1:17-18): The father of darkness – Satan (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13) – generates the offspring of sin and death. The Father of the heavenly lights (i.e., God, who created the starry universe) gives salvation and life and is unchanging. Shadows from the sun shift, but not the One who made the sun!
The solution for temptation is to be found in a close relationship with the Father and a constant response to His Word. One must rest in the unchangeable Lord of light and rely on His life-giving “Word of truth” (Eph. 1:13; Col.1:5; 2 Tim. 2:15).
There is no reason why one of God’s chosen first fruits, or regenerated believers, has to yield to temptation. He must learn to resist its deadly force, or he can never grow into the spiritual maturity God desires of His children of light (Eph. 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:5).
Stand upon the Word: (1:19-27)
The key to responding to trials and resisting the temptation is by waiting upon the Lord and upon His word. One must accept God’s Word, act on it, and abide by it.
James says: let everyone…be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. In an argument, of course, the one who is listening rather than lambasting is the one who is slow to anger (3:1-12). Anger fails to yield the righteous life that God desires, the goal to which this epistle is committed.
Consequently it is essential to put away, or remove, all moral filth and all the evil, and humbly receive the implanted Word. The Word is to be ingrown or inborn, rooted in the fertile soil of the soul. It is that Word of God which can save.
- Our response: (1:22-25): It is not sufficient just to receive the Word; one must respond to it in active obedience. The command is clear. Do not merely listen to the Word but do what it says. One must become a doer of the Word and not just a hearer. The one who listens and does nothing is like a man who glances at his face in a mirror and then forgets what he saw. It is interesting that James cited a man in this illustration. A woman would probably not give just a cursory glance, and if she saw a flaw she would probably do what she could to cover it or correct it. Not so this man who sees the “face of his birth” and then forgets about it.
To look into the mirror of the Word of God involves an obligation. One must look intently into the perfect Law that gives freedom.
- Practice the word of God: (1:26-27): One must be obedient and put the word into perpetual practice. It is clear that God’s emphasis is not on religious ritual but on right living.
James outlined what God the Father stresses: look after orphans and widows – referring to one’s conduct, and keep oneself from being polluted – referring to one’s character. A believer would help others in need and thus is faultless (pure, undefiled ), and keeps himself pure. Again, the goal of mature Christian is to walk in faith and keep oneself holy through the Word of God.