James 1

12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.
19 This you know, my beloved brethren But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
James 1:12-20

I recently read this section from James, and its kind of sticking with me. Its intense. The last part especially, The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Like such an obvious statement, but its something we need to think about sometimes, when we are giving up excuses for our sin. Like oh, its not a big deal. But your not a big deal is not producing any righteousness.

Something that also struck me as pretty heavy was the description in 14-15. Each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when the desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.

An easier translation would go something like this:

But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire (lust, passions).
Then the evil desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully matured, produces death.

Now, practicaly this verse would look something like this: We are tempted, maybe by our friends to get drunk, maybe be our boyfriend or girl friend wants us to have sex, or maybe even to say something bad about someone behind their back. The opportunity arises, and we give in to it. As soon as we give into it, it is sin, aka really bad, aka punching God in the face. And as soon as it becomes a sin, it produces death. Now, maybe not literally death, but you never know. I think this death is referring to spiritual death, or emotional death. For example, sure you start to get drunk with your friends, and then you start to do it more and more, but the drinking only causes you to be lonely and unable to cope with your emotions. You dont remember what its like to feel life. You dont remember what its like to do something fun without being wasted. Does that sounds like something life enriching? Naw, not too much, atleast not to me.

According to James, the writer of this, temptation does not come from God. He is not going to tempt us. It likely comes from the fact that as humans, we are stupid evil fools and we want to do what is wrong. So when we are tempted, is it not some outside force trying to get us to sin. We are just getting a snapshot of what is inside of us. And that snapshot should send us running to God, the only One who can make us better than we naturally are.

Of course, we are all going to be tempted at some point, probably multiple upon multiple times. My favorite thing about this verse is the promise in verse 1 that The person who is able to endure temptation and not give in will be extremely blessed. Thats an awesome thing to think about. Like, dang, if I dont give into this temptation, God is going to bless me. And I will be honoring God. Thats outstanding. Its hope.

Now, of course, as humans, like I said, we are stupid evil fools who give into stuff way to easily sometimes. But thats where God's grace comes in. So pretend that we give in. And then we struggle and struggle with that decision. Now, like I said, sin produces death. But as soon as we ask God to forgive us, then BAM. No more death. He loves us. He forgives us. He gives us life, and love and He has patience with us. Its awesome.

Im glad God loves me. Im glad I know this truth. I hope you all do too.