The Letter of James - 1:12-18

Path to Maturity

Good morning.

We’re going to continue our study of James. Today, we’ll cover chapter 1:12-18. So go ahead and turn there if you like. We’ll have the verses on the screen as well.

So far, we learned that the author of James is the half-brother of Jesus.

He wrote this letter to Jewish Christians scattered outside of Israel. He wrote this letter sometime in the late 40’s during great persecution and he starts the letter off by saying to consider it an opportunity for great joy when troubles of any kind come your way.

We discovered that the verses 2-4 setup why he is writing this letter. He wants his readers to understand the pathway to spiritual maturity, being fully developed believers, perfect and complete, needing nothing.

The rest of the letter seems to give practical advice on how to get there, how to become spiritually mature.

Let’s jump into the text. James chapter 1:12.

James 1:12–18 NLT

12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. 13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. 16 So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. 18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

(NLT)

12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. 13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

16 So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. 18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

Let us pray.

Okay, that was a lot of information to unpack.

12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

Verse 12 seems to connect the first half of the chapter with 13-18. It’s like James is coming back to what he said in vs 2 in verse 12.

James 1:2 NLT

2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

James 1:12 NLT

12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

He then connects vs 12 with 13-18

He then connects vs 12 with 13-18

Blessed describes an attitude

When you face trials in life, know that these trials will will help you grow complete, needing nothing. know that if you patiently endure, God will reward you with the crown of life. Everything God gives is perfect.

As we discussed earlier, our joy is not in the trial, but what the trial can bring. Same with blessing. The blessing is not the trial, but our endurance through the trial brings the blessing.

After we patiently endure testing, after we get through this trial, we have something to rejoice about. That is how we consider troubles an opportunity for joy.

Next, James moves from testing/trials to temptation.

James 1:13–14 NLT

13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.

We’ve got to understand that temptation and testing are completely different.

God will test us. Testing will produce perseverance. Although, there is temptation in every trial. We could be tempted to blame God, to question his justice or existence.

If we’re not growing in Christ, trials will provide opportunity for sinful attitudes to grow within. That’s why it’s imperative that we ask God for wisdom when going through trials. When you don’t understand something, why you’re going through a trial, it’s easy to let attitude toward God grow sinfully.

God tested Abraham, Israel, Hezekiah, and so on. Here is the key to this testing. His testing is to strengthen our faith, to prove we are his. He never attempts to cause us to sin or destroy our faith.

God will never tempt us.

James 1:13 NLT

13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.

“God is tempting me.” That sounds familiar. Back in Genesis.

“God, the woman that you gave me, she gave me the fruit from the tree.”

Adam was shifting the blame, not to Eve, but to God.

I didn’t create her. I was happy without her. If you hadn’t created her, I wouldn’t have sinned. God, I’ve got bad news, it’s all your fault.

It is so much easer to shift the blame on to someone else. I believe this is a coping mechanism that humans use to plead their innocence. Some how we actually believe the lie as we’re making it up.

It’s not mine.

I didn’t do it.

It’s not my fault.

If they didn’t make me mad I wouldn’t have hit them.

The list goes on and on.

James shows us where temptation really comes from. I think he does this as a way to prove that temptation cannot possibly be “from God.’

James 1:14–15 NLT

14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

How temptation works in us

Temptation is from our own desires! Wow.

Picture this.

If you want to catch a wild animal, you can’t just set a trap and hope it will one day walk in. You must lure it in by appealing to its desire. If it’s not enticed by your bait, it will just walk away.

Once the trap is set and the bait is in place, all you have to do is wait.

Desires Produce Action

The source of temptation is desire.

Our own desires entice us and drag us away.

Each person is solely responsible for how they react to temptation. Temptation in and of itself is not a sinful.

James is not implying that christian maturity is indicated by how frequent or infrequent one is tempted, rather if one engages desire that leads to sin.

Also, he is not naming a specific sin. Often when we hear the word desire we connect it to sexual sin, lust. James is not.

I believe the sin he has in mind are things like jealousy, outburst of anger, selfish ambition, envy, discord, division, and so on.

The language James uses in vs 15 is very interesting.

James 1:15 NLT

15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

James uses the analogy of human conception and birth to describe sin.

Desires give birth to sinful actions. Sin is pregnant with death.

It kind of sounds like

Psalm 7:14 NLT

14 The wicked conceive evil; they are pregnant with trouble and give birth to lies.

James is warning that our own desires tempt us to sinful actions which results in the birth of death.

Birth of Death

This is a very graphic illustration that James uses. Could he be referring to a still born baby?

Is he comparing what sin produces to a baby being born dead?

Think about the agony and pain a couple goes through. The mom is pregnant with their first child. They’re so excited, get registered at Target for baby shower gifts. They start preparing the baby’s room, buy baby furniture, pain Noah’s ark on the walls, set up the cirb with the mobile, buy tons of dippers and wipes, setup the dipper genie, plug in the wet wipes heater, get familiar with how the car seat works. All the stuff you do to prepare for you first child.

The time has come, you head to the hospital, go through the whole routine, so excited. You have the baby’s name picked out. You’re in the delivery room ready to take photos and post them to facebook within minutes of birth. The anticipation is so strong, here comes the baby…

There’s complications, the baby is still born.

You give birth to death.

James 1:16–17 NLT

16 So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.

Don’t deceive yourselves, God never tempts anyone to sin. Sin is ugly. Sin is death. God is stable and gives good and perfect gifts to his children.

God is not like us. He does not have divided loyalty. He is not unstable. (Back to verses 6-8.)

James 1:18 NLT

18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

He chose. He is not obligated. He doesn’t owe us. He is not required.

He chose to give birth to us

He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we have become his prized possession.

James 1:18 ESV

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

(ESV)

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his crea

Temptation is a part of the christian life, just like trials. But know that there is great joy found in resisting and overcoming temptation.