James 1

“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (vs. 14,15)

Temptation in itself is not wrong; Jesus Himself was tempted, and yet victorious. Temptation will never leave us alone while we are in this body of flesh, but the strength to overcome it is what we really need. I used to think that it was us ourselves who resisted temptation, and indeed the Bible tells us to resist Satan (James 4:7), but now I have discovered a very important Truth. It is Jesus that resists, unto death even, and on our behalf. The more of Him we have, the stronger we are against temptations. It behooves us then to “Draw nigh” unto Him as much as possible; even more than we think to be possible, lest we quit before the task is accomplished. The key to this thought is seen in our text verse; the tempting comes when we are drawn away of our own lusts, and we no longer lust after Christ. That’s what we need to do, lust after Him, become completely and entirely consumed in His loving grace, and seek Him with heart, mind soul, and body. If we “walk in the Spirit” we will not fulfill “the lust of the flesh.” (Gal. 5:16). If we will learn to seek the Lord in spirit, our flesh will follow suit. We need to “lust” after Him in spirit, and we will have little trouble lusting after the things the flesh desires so readily. Fill your heart and life with Jesus, that is where we learn to resist temptation; It is Him working in us, He is doing the resisting, but if we are weak in Christ, we have little “muscle” against temptations. Let’s work on developing our spiritual muscles.

Often, on the other hand, we are not tempted in the flesh until the temptation meets enticement. The Lord admonishes us to ask the Father, “lead us not into temptation”, I believe we are asking Him not to let the temptation cross paths with the opportunity, or enticement, so that we can be delivered from the sin it entails. That is the most critical time for us, when enticement and temptation meet together. Remove one, and there is no promotion to sin, no prompting. Sin brings forth death, and we are delivered from the power of death, so it cannot complete the cycle in us. Thank God for this mercy. When we resist the temptation, the enticement loses its effect; when we flee the enticement, the temptation loses strength.