James 1:13-15: When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 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. (NIV)

Some people today talk about how everyone is inherently “good.” I don’t know how they reach that conclusion. Haven’t they ever checked out a two-year-old? Their world revolves around themselves, and two words that they learn early on are: “Mine!” and “No!” We may be more polite when we grow up, but that nature remains with us throughout life.

This is the concept of “original sin.” From Adam and Eve’s disobedience, we all have this “sin nature” coded into our DNA. And even in the original sin, they tried to slough off responsibilities: “The woman you gave me…” and “The snake deceived me.”

God does allow trials in our lives (James 1:2-12), but, as it says above, He doesn’t tempt us. Yet there are temptations all around us. Well, sure, we live in a fallen world! As this passage says, each of us is tempted because of our evil desire (sin nature). But the trap is to resist being dragged away, enticed, conceiving the desire to sin, and giving birth to sin.

How do we do that? I always remember the old analogy of sinful thoughts being like birds. You can’t keep them from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. We know we can do that because of Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

The obvious question is what happens when we stub our toe and sin anyway? If we have Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, His sacrifice on the cross has covered that sin. We don’t have license to sin (Romans 6:1). Yet we do need to remember that, when Christ paid the price for our sins, they were all in the future. It is that grace, that unmerited favor, which we need to remember when facing temptation.

Paul Neighbors