When trials become temptations

Last Sunday morning we looked at the opening 12 verses of James’ letter, and saw that the theme there was Even trials are good for us. This seems counter-intuitive, as James well knows, but he gave us five reasons to explain what he was saying. He told us first of all that trials lead to maturity, because the grimness of today forces us to place our hope in the future, and by striving towards the future rather than languishing in the present, we develop maturity. But the Christian’s hope was not simply that things would become better, because they may not. Rather, the Christians hope was that he would become better, and therefore more able to deal with the trials he was facing.

The second reason James told us that trials could be good for us, was because Trials lead us to God. Trials expose our needs, and the only place the Christian knows to go when he is in need, is to go straight to God. Not only that, but trials lead us to a stronger faith. Just as a climber has more confidence in his safety equipment after it has saved him, so a Christian has more confidence, more faith in God, after God has brought him through trials. Trials also lead to contentment, says James, because when we’ve come through a difficult trial we know that what we have must be sufficient, even if it doesn’t seem like very much. And finally, James told us that trials lead to glory. Trials are an inevitable part of life, but they won’t be part of eternity, of heaven. So as every trial passes, we know that we’re one step close to being free from trials and difficulties and pain, one step close to being forever with the Lord.

So it’s easy to see why James said that even trials are good for us. But he wants to sound a cautionary note, because in the section that we’re looking at this morning, he wants to address a problem that every one of us has faced. This morning, in verses 12 to 18, James is going to look at When trials become temptations.

James spend the first twelve verses explaining how trials can build us up. But James is just like you and I, and he knows that sometimes that just doesn’t happen. Sometimes trials don’t build us up, trials drag us down.

Why is that? If trials are given us by God, does that mean it’s God’s fault when the trial becomes too much, and we fail? That’s exactly the problem that James is going to address today. He does it by giving us three points. Firstly, in verses 12 and 13, he tells us that Steadfastness in trials brings life. Then in verses 14 and 15, he warns us that Succumbing to temptations brings death. Finally, in verses 16 through 18, he tells us that Security in trials is brought by God .

Firstly then:

Steadfastness in trials brings life (vv 12-13)

You’ll remember that we dealt briefly with verse 12 at the end of last week. We’re returning to it today, because it serves double-duty in the letter. It brings to a close everything that James wanted to say about trials being good for us, but also leads us into this new section that explains how trials become temptations.

But before we can understand this section completely, I need to teach you a little bit of Greek. Don’t worry, it’s very simple, and I promise you it will be helpful.

In English, we think of a trial and something different from a temptation, don’t we? If you look up ‘trial’ in a thesaurus (at least in the thesaurus that I checked), it won’t say ‘temptation’. They’re two different things. We normally think of a trial as something that we have to do, that is particularly difficult. And a temptation is something that we’d like to do, but probably shouldn’t! They’re quite different things.

But in Greek in the first-century, they didn’t have two different words, as we do. They had just one: peirasmos. And this one word had two different meanings. I looked it up in the best Greek dictionary I have, and it said that its first meaning was “an attempt to learn the character of something”, but that its second meaning was “an attempt to make one do something wrong”. So you can see in the first case peirasmos would be translated as trial, and in the second case it would be translated as temptation.

The problem is that James uses this word right throughout chapter one. He uses it in verse 2 when he says “count it all joy when you fall into various trials”, and he uses the equivalent verb peiraso throughout verses 13 and 14 when he says that God tempts no-one.

So we have to be very careful how we interpret these verses, to make sure that we’re using the correct translation of peirasmos.

Actually, though, I think the Greeks had it about right, by using the same word for both things. Let me tell you about Dave. Dave is a bit overweight, and is thinking of going on a diet. His wife, Deborah, thinks this is a wonderful idea, and because she works for Children in Need, suggests that he makes it a sponsored diet for that cause. Dave agrees, and sets off to find sponsors. It seems not many people have too much confidence in Dave, because if his diet works, he’s going to raise hundreds of pounds. One lady, Linda, has sponsored him £1 for every pound of weight he loses.

His diet starts of quite well for the first few weeks, and he begins to lose weight. His wife Deborah is very careful to buy lots of low-calorie food, and to hide the biscuits! Then, one evening there’s a dinner-party at Dave’s house, and of course – for the first time in weeks – a really fattening pudding is on offer. And it happens to be Dave’s favourite – Triple Chocolate Cake. Just before she brings out the cake, Deborah thinks to herself, “This is going to be a real test for Dave. We’ll see whether he’s really committed to this diet.”

I won’t tell you whether Dave ate the cake. But I will tell you that a few weeks later he and Deborah found themselves at Linda’s house for a meal. Linda takes one look at Dave and sees that he’s already lost an awful lot of weight. At this rate, Dave’s diet is going to cost her a fortune. So when it’s time for pudding, she says to herself, “Now let’s see if I can tempt Dave here”, and brings out his favourite pudding, a Triple Chocolate Cake.

Now what’s the point of that story, other than to make you all feel very hungry! Simply this, from Dave’s point of view, exactly the same thing happened at both dinner-parties – a great big Triple Chocolate Cake was put in front of him. But on one occasion he was being tested, on the other he was being tempted! What’s the difference? Well, when his wife brought out the cake, she wanted him to pass the test. But when Linda brought out the cake, she wanted him to succumb to the temptation.

So let’s read the first part of verse 13 again. Let no-one say when he is tempted or tested, “I am tempted by God”. Do you see what James is saying? God will send us all kinds of trials in life, but God always wants us to pass the test, he never wants us to succumb to temptation. God never encourages us to sin.

Now I hope that illustration helps us to see how God never tempts us, because he always wants us to pass the test. But perhaps some of you see a problem. We know from our own experience that often we fail tests. So if God wants us to pass, why is it that we seem so often to fail. Does that mean it’s God’s fault when we fail?

Perhaps another illustration will go some way to answering that question. Imagine a teacher in school, preparing her pupils for an exam. Let’s call her Mrs Jones. Mrs Jones teaches her class diligently, doing the very best she can to ensure that all of them know what’s required of them, and understand the subject. Soon, she knows, it’s important that she tests each of them to see how much they’ve learned. Mrs Jones has the job that none of the other teachers want. She’s teaching the bottom set. She has the class where everyone is used to failing. But Mrs Jones has worked hard, and she knows that with her help, each one of them would be able to pass. But despite that, she is concerned that one or two, might not pass the test. So, in the weeks leading up to the test, she uses her class time for revision, she gives up her lunch-break in order to run tutorials, and she even offers individual tuition to those pupils are really struggling. There really is nothing Mrs Jones isn’t doing to help her class pass the test.

The day of the test comes. Mrs Jones is confident that her hard work will pay off. She’s confident that her class will pass the test.  Confident of everybody, that is, apart from little Jonny. Jonny, you see, has always struggled. It’s not that he’s thick, it’s that he doesn’t put the effort in. His grades were poor, but Mrs Jones is not convinced he’s been revising, and he certainly hasn’t been to her tutorials, or come for one-to-one tuition.

At the end of the exam, Mrs Jones collects the papers in. She was right! They have all passed. Everyone, that is, apart from Jonny. He’s not done well at all, there are whole sections completely unanswered, and he’s finished with a poor grade. What should Mrs Jones do?

She could, of course, pretend questions that are wrong, are really right. She could sweep his lack of effort under the carpet. No-one would find out. She set the test, and it’s up to her how it’s marked. Or she could perhaps fill in the correct answers to the questions that Jonny has left blank. She’s always been pretty good at writing in other people’s style.

What should Mrs Jones do? As she sits with that paper in her hand, she knows that her decision will decide whether Jonny passes or fails. And what makes it worse, is that she really wants him to pass.

What should Mrs Jones do?

Of course, there is only one thing she can do. It may be possible for her to treat what is wrong as if it were right, or to add to what Jonny has done. It may be possible to do so, but it wouldn’t be right. So despite the fact that Mrs Jones really wants Jonny to pass, when Jonny gets his exam paper returned, he sees that he has failed the test.

There was no way that Jonny could blame Mrs Jones that he failed his test, was there? Yes, Mrs Jones had set the test, it was her who decided what was right, and what was wrong, but it was Jonny’s responsibility alone that he failed. He refused the help that had been offered.

In passing, it’s perhaps worth mentioning Freddy. Freddy was typical of everybody else in the class. And when he had is exam paper back, he saw, to his great surprise, that he had passed! He never thought it possible, but he knew exactly why he’d passed. “Why, thank you”, he said to Mrs Jones. “It’s all down to you. If it wasn’t for you, I’d never have passed this test!”.

Freddy was right, of course. It really was all down to Mrs Jones. If it wasn’t for her, he’d never have passed the test. But it was entirely Jonny’s fault that he had failed.

Now that’s not a perfect illustration, and it doesn’t answer every question about God’s sovereignty and our responsibility. But I hope it goes some way to answering the question. If God wants us to pass, why do we sometimes still fail? And it also shows just a little insight into what the Bible teaches us. When we fail, it really is down to us – we cannot blame God at all. But when we pass the tests, then it really is down to Him – we cannot take credit at all.

So I hope now, we understand verse 13 just a little better. God does test us, but he doesn’t tempt us – that is, he always wants us to pass the tests.

But let’s just go back, very briefly, to verse 12. Because here James gives us the positive application of the truths of verse 13. Remember that peirasmos can be translated as either trials or temptations, and remember that God never gives us temptations to make us fail, but only trials that he wants us to pass. So what does verse 12 say, from God’s perspective?

Blessed is the man who endures testing; for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Do you see? God not only wants us to stand the test, and equips us to stand the test, but he promises a reward, the crown of life, to those who do so.

What is a crown of life? Nowadays when he think of crowns, he tend to think of the queen, don’t we? I don’t think that’s what would have been in James’ mind. He probably would have thought first us all of the competitors in the ancient games, who were given a crown of laurel leaves when they had endured. We know what a crown of laurel leaves is made of, don’t we? So we know too what a crown of life is made of. That is God’s gift to us, to those of us who love Him. God gives us life itself, elsewhere we will read that it’s everlasting life! And that’s God’s promise!

So how obvious then, that God never tempts us. If God has promised this wonderful reward, that is given to those who love him, and whom he loves, how clear it is that God never wants us to fail, that God always wants us to endure. Surely we ought to live in the light of that.

So that was James’ first point: Steadfastness in trials brings life. It’s the positive side of the coin, but now we wants to move on to the more negative, because his second point is:

Succumbing to temptations brings death (vv14-15)

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Here James is making it very clean why sometimes we fail. God can’t be blamed he has said, we must shoulder responsibility ourselves.

In some way, these two verses are fascinating for what they leave out, as much for what they put in. Do you notice what’s missing?

Well, if we’d never read these verses from James and I was to ask you “Why are you tempted?”, I wonder what you’d have said. Perhaps your answer would have mentioned the media, or the influence of friends, or advertising and marketing that is so alluring. Or perhaps you would have talked about the devil deliberately tempting you in an effort to make you stumble and fall. And perhaps some of us would not have mentioned the very thing – the only thing – that James feels is important here. “Why am I tempted?”. “Well really, I can only blame myself.”

It’s not that James doesn’t believe in the devil – chapter four makes it clear that he does. And of course, like all men, he understands the pressures the world can bring to bear upon is.

But James knows his own heart, and therefore he knows my heart and your heart too. And James knows that his biggest problem is not the world, not the devil, but his own sinful nature. That’s why he can say: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”

James is purpose in these two verses is very clear. He wants first to explain how temptation comes, and then to explain where temptation leads.

Temptation comes, verse 14, as a result of our own desires. That’s what turns a test into a temptation – our desire. The Greek word is epithumia, and it’s a strong word. It often has negative connotations, as it does here, but always refers to a longing, a craving. It’s not just something we want, it’s something that drives us.

I’m glad the Bible is honest with us, aren’t you? Because if we really are converted, we know the battles that rage every day in our own hearts. We know that our sinful nature seeks to turn every test into a temptation. We know that whilst God wants us to pass our tests, something perverse inside us wants to make us fail every time.

So that is where temptation comes from, verse 14. But where does it lead? That’s what James know goes on to show us, in verse 15.

He uses an illustration that we’re all familiar with, that of a family growing up. These evil desires, he says, will conceive, and give birth to a far more dangerous child, sin. This child called sin, then itself will grow, and grow, and eventually sin too will have a child: death.

There’s an awesome inevitability to this, isn’t there? There is a natural and frightening consequence. Our desires James says, if there are allowed to live, will soon bring death.

I’m not a gardener, but there are one or two things that I know. Because we’re trying to sell our house, for the first time, we’ve been concerned about weeds, particularly on the path up to the house. So before we put the house on the market, we spend hours pulling up weeds, then we sprayed the whole lot with weed-killer just for good measure. Of course, despite what it said on the spray-can, in a matter of weeks, the weeds were making a reappearance. They were only tiny, but they were definitely back. They were tiny, so we left them. It would have been quite easy to pluck them, I suppose, but it just didn’t seem worth it. But by the time we go back from camp and the conference, things had moved on quite a bit. One weed was several inches tall! Action was now necessary, and would you believe we filled a five-gallon bucket with weeds. So much for season-long weed-killer!

I want to remind you that there is no such thing as season-long weed-killer in the Christian life, either. The battle against our desires, and against sin is an ongoing one. God has told us that the battle will come to an end, but it will only do so when we are in glory. Thankfully the weeds in our garden never became full-grown, and I pray that the sin in your life never becomes full-grown either. But you know, and I know, that the best – the easiest – way to tackle sin, is to root it out as soon as we can, and never to let it grow. Once we allow our minds to settle on what is wrong, once we start to feed our evil desire, it is only a matter of time before sin starts to become prevalent.

So what can we do to root out our sin? Well here, James doesn’t tell us. But he’ll spend much of the letter dealing with exactly these problems. James doesn’t shirk the issues, and throughout the letter tackles some of the biggest issues we face: our desires to turn living faith into dead religion, our desires to use our tongues for evil, our desires for one-upmanship, and so it goes on. All that is ahead of us.

But for now, let’s answer the question “what can we do?” by jumping ahead not whole chapters, but just a few verses, to verse 21. We’ll deal with this verse in more detail, next time, of course, but it would be wrong to state the problem without giving any hope of an answer. “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

If we want to be saved from our own desires, we need to receive the implanted word. It may not be season-long weedkiller, but if it constantly re-applied it is enormously effective. There is great challenge in verse 21, as we’ll come to see, but there’s great encouragement too. And the encouragement is that if we are a believer, then we already have the means to defeat our desires. Do you notice where the word is? It is implanted in us. It is already there. What we need to do, James says, is to receive it.

Nowadays it’s relatively common for people to have heart and lung transplants. But often when surgeons attempt the operation, there is a problem – that the body rejects the new organ, and starts to fight it, even though this new organ will save the patient’s life. That’s exactly the problem with some Christians, James says. Some of us reject the implanted word, even though it is able to save us. It is the gospel, the word, that brought us to Christ, and it is the gospel, the word that will keep us and aid us in our battle against sin.

Imagine someone who was dying receiving a kidney transplant that saved their life. How foolish it would be if, when they were better, they thought that their new health obviously meant that they didn’t need the new kidney anymore! It has done its job, and now they can do without it. How foolish! But that’s exactly what some Christians do. It is the gospel that saves them, but they think that now they are converted they do not need the gospel any more. It is the gospel, it is our thoughts of Christ, it is our remembrance of all that Jesus Christ has done that will put to death our sinful desires.

But before we move on, I want to say something to those of us here this morning who are playing with sin. Look carefully at what James is saying, particularly at the end of the verse: “Sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death”. I have a friend in Wrexham called Andrew. When Andrew was about 13, he was almost as tall as me. Now, he’s six foot seven, wears size 15 shoes, and he’s still only a teenager! And apparently, he’s not stopped growing! No-one knows when he’ll be full-grown!

And no-one knows when your sin will be full-grown either. If you’re playing with sin, then all we know is that your sin is growing. And one day, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, one day, it will be full-grown, and will bring forth death. The conclusion is obvious, isn’t it? We can’t afford to play with sin.

And so, that leads us on to James’ final point. He’s told us that steadfastness in trials brings life. Then he warned us that succumbing to temptations brings death. Finally, in verses 16 through 18, he tells

Security in trials is brought by God (vv16-18)

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

So as James brings to a conclusion this section on when trials become temptations, he does so by lifting our eyes well beyond ourselves. He tells us very clearly in verse 16, that he doesn’t want us to be deceived. That’s why he went to so much trouble to explain that God does not tempt us, he only tests us. And not only that, but he gives us the means to be able to pass those tests. That’s why James is more than confident to say in verse 17 that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

Do you remember what we learned last week from verse five? “If any of you lacks wisdom [that is, lacks wisdom to endure the test], let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” The only way that we will endure the tests is if we can stop our own desires turning God’s tests into temptations, and God is more than willing to give us the gifts we need to do just that.

Did you notice how James described God? “Father of lights”. It’s a wonderful describe, unique in the New Testament, but full of meaning. I think James is reminding himself that God is the creator of the universe, he is the Father of all of the heavenly lights. But it also reminds us of God’s openness and honesty, and his ability to cut through the darkness both to expose us, and to enlighten our path. And it is this God, James says, who is the source of these wonderful gifts.

That has been the case for generations, and it is just as true today. This God, you see, has no variation. He doesn’t change. If this God gave good gifts in James’ day, then he’ll still be giving good gifts in our day. If he was a caring God in your youth, then he remains a caring God in your old age. He doesn’t even change. Throughout our lives things will change. Even things were we would think of unchangeable seem to change as the sun moves across the sky, and the shadows fall in different places. Those of you who take photographs will know what a difference shadow can make to the object you are photographing. But because God is the source of all light, then the change in other things doesn’t affect God – in him there is no variation or shadow of change.

This of course, should give the Christian total security. James teaches us that our ability to persevere rests on divine gifts alone. And because he teaches us that the God who gives those gifts doesn’t change, the inevitable conclusion is that the gifts won’t dry up, but they’ll always be there for us. It means that we can feel tremendous security, even in our trials.

But James is not content merely to remind us that God cannot change. He also wants us to remember that God has completely changed us! Look at verse 18. Of his own will, He brought us forth. What a contrast to verse 15! In verse 15, it was our passions, our desires that ultimately bring forth death. And in verse 18 it is God’s will, that brings us forth, in other words, that gives us life!

I find it particularly helpful that James doesn’t say it is God’s desires that brought us forth, it’s God’s will. The Greek word is boulomai, and it’s a wonderful word. It means ‘desire’, but it means much more than that. The dictionary says: “to desire to have or experience something, with the implication of planning accordingly”. Isn’t that wonderful? The problem with our own desires is that they come, often unexpected, and almost take control. Not so with God. His desires are completely in his control, and he carefully plans to ensure that his desires come to fruition. Our passions shift and change, his will is settled and determined.

And it is that will that allows James to describe him as the Father of lights, the creator of the universe. And it is that will, verse 18, that brings us forth, by the word of truth. That’s the gospel again as Paul makes clear in Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1. Never forget that God’s brings people forth, brings people life, by the word of truth. What a striking example of God’s good and faithful giving.

And if that was not enough, James reminds us that this is only the start. God’s will in saving us is wonderful, but God has much greater plans. Your salvation and mine is merely a part of God’s great plan of redemption, which will encompass countless generations of every nation, and even the creation itself. We are simply a kind of firstfruits, an initial harvest, of all that will one day be redeemed.

Truly, we worship a remarkable God.

So, steadfastness in trials brings life. Succumbing to temptations brings death. But Security in trials is brought by God .