How To Handle Temptation

A man was traveling on an overnight train from Chicago to New York, which was scheduled to make one stop in Pittsburg. Upon boarding the train in Chicago, the passenger found a porter on the train and explained that he needed to be awakened when the train arrived in Pittsburgh so that he could get off the train for an important business meeting. “Now, I am a heavy sleeper and may resist you. But whatever you do, make sure I get off the train,” the man instructed the porter.

The next morning, the man awakened to find the train pulling into the station in New York. Realizing he had missed Pittsburg and his important meeting. The irate passenger ran up and down the aisle of the train, looking for the negligent porter. When he found the porter, he started yelling, “l am going to sue you, the train company, and anyone else I can find!” As the passenger stormed off the train, another employee of the train company came up to the porter and said, “I’ve never seen anyone that mad before!” The porter, shaking his head, replied, “If you think he was mad, you should have seen the guy I put off the train this morning in Pittsburg!”

Many of us can sympathize with the guy who got put off the train in Pittsburg. There are some circumstances that happen to us that are completely beyond our control. Unfortunately, this attitude of helplessness many times extends to our attitude about sin and temptation. The phrase popularized by comedian Flip Wilson, “The devil made me do it,” exemplifies the lack of responsibility many Christians feel about their conduct.

However, James 1:13 offers a different perspective about temptation. You will remember from the first chapter that the theme of this letter is “saving faith produces genuine fruit.” If you are a true believer in Christ, your faith is going to infect every area of your life. As we saw last week, it will affect your response to trials in life.

But beginning in verse 13, James changes his discussion from trials to temptation. 

1. Temptation Versus Testing (James 1:13a)

• Their Similarity

James begins his discussion about this subject with a “promise.” Every Christian will experience temptation. “Let no one say when he is tempted… (1:13). Notice that James does not say “if he is tempted,” but “when he is tempted.” Experiencing temptation is a certainty for every believer.

In that sense, temptation is like testing. For in verse two of this same chapter, James speaks of the surety of trials for a believer: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials…” (1:2) But it is at this point that the similarity between trials and temptation stops.

• Their Difference

There is a difference between testing and temptation, but here’s what is interesting. In English, we have two different words: trials and temptation.  

• Trials come from God to test us and strengthen us.  
• Temptations are enticements to sin that come from Satan that are meant to destroy us.  

Two words with two meanings.

But in the Greek language, there is one word, “peirasmos” that can refer to either a trial or a temptation. The word “peirasmos” simply means a “difficult situation.” A difficult situation can be either a test from God meant to strengthen our faith or a temptation that Satan uses to destroy our faith. In fact, it can be both.

This explains what Jesus meant in the model prayer when he said, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver.” Was he saying, “God, please don’t entice us to do evil?” No, God never tries to lure us–or entrap us—in evil.”   

2. The Source of Temptation (James 1:13b-14)

• The False Excuse (James 1:13b)

The phrase “when he is tempted” is a present passive participle in Greek that denotes a person who is on the verge of yielding to sin and, right before he yields, offers an excuse, “I am being tempted by God.” 

But, in Greek there are two words to denote agency (or cause): upo and apo. The word upo denotes direct agency. For example, if I were to say, “The man was killed by his wife.” I would be saying that the wife was the cause or agent of the action. If I were to write that sentence in Greek, I would use the word upo to translate “by.” Upo means direct agency. 

The other Greek word, apo, designates indirect agency. If I were to say, “The man was killed by a gun.” What am I saying? Am I claiming that the gun got mad at the man and shot him? No, the gun was an indirect agent in the killing. It was the wife who was directly responsible.

Instead he is using the preposition “apo” for indirect agency. James is saying that even the excuse, “God is indirectly responsible for this,” does not hold water. God is neither directly nor indirectly responsible for the temptations that come into our lives. 

Then where do temptations originate?

• The Legitimate Cause  

James gives us the answer in the next verse: “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust” (James 1:14).

We have here what I often call “The Temptation Equation.”   

Corrupt Desires  + Right  Bait + Wrong Choice = Sin

3. The Result of Temptation (James 1:15b)

But James takes the analogy one step further. “…and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” To what kind of death is James referring? Is he saying that sin produces physical death? Sometimes it does. Death can be directly caused by sin itself. Other times, physical death is the result of God’s judgment on a Christian’s life.

4. Final Warning About Temptation (James 1:16)

Don’t be tricked! That bait that looks so appetizing has a hook in it that causes death. It may lead to physical death. It may result in a separation in your relationship with God. It may lead to the destruction of your good name, your witness for Christ, your family, and your dreams. Sin always leads to destruction and death.  

That is the line he used with Eve in the garden of Eden: “For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God…” (Genesis 3:5). But the truth is that the bait never fully satisfies our inner lusts. There is always a desire for more.

5. Experiencing Victory over Temptation

As Christians, we have the power of the Holy Spirit to help us say “no” to temptation.  But that doesn’t relieve us of our responsibility.  Later in James 4:7, James writes, “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.”

How can we successfully resist temptation?

• Refuse to Nurture Your Corrupt Desires (Job 31:1)
• Recognize and Run from Satan’s Bait (Genesis 39:12; 2 Timothy 2:22)
• Remember the Consequences of Sin (James 1:16)

Full Passage: James 1:13-16