Good morning people who don’t buy into the deception of the enemy

James 1:13-15 NIV When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

This can be confusing in light of what I have said recently, so let me bring some clarification to what James is writing under the leading of the Holy Spirit.

When we are born again, we no longer have a sinful nature, therefore James is not talking about ‘our own sinful desire’, as if sin lives in us. Paul writes, ‘we are dead to sin and alive to Christ.’ We cannot interpret scripture in isolation from other scripture.

Our true nature as followers of Jesus is ‘for God’, not ‘for sin.’ However, we live in a fallen world that masquerades evil as good and dark as light. The power is in the deception.

The highlighted part in the scripture above literally means ‘to trap us in desire for what is forbidden.’ And isn’t this exactly what the devil did to Adam and Eve who were sinless and had the nature of God!

At the point of being tempted to eat the fruit that looked good to the flesh, Adam & Eve had not sinned! Their failure came by being led by their flesh, not by what God had clearly said. The same is true in our lives.