The Enemy Within

The Enemy Within

God is not our enemy. When we are tempted, when evil solicits us to sin, God is not the One doing it. In James 1, the first preacher of the Jerusalem church goes into great detail to help his readers understand temptation. If we heed these inspired words, we too will be better prepared to have victory over temptation instead of misunderstanding it.

Notice verse 13. “Let. no man say that when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted of God’; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.” Instead, verse 17 declares that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.” God gives good gifts; He does not author solicitation to do evil.

From where does temptation come, then? James answers that question in verse 14. “Every man is tempted and when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.” Temptation comes from within. We are drawn away of the lust that exists within us. Though the devil is one of our three enemies, seldom are 21st century Christians tripped up by the devil himself. Much more frequently, the culprit is our own flesh—our own lust.

We always have the choice, then, to reject or receive the impulses of our lust. You can be a Demas, who loved this present world and yielded to the enticement of his flesh, or you can be a Paul, who laid up for himself a crown of righteousness. We can behave like David in his adulterous affair with Bathsheba, or we can be like Joseph and flee from Potiphar’s wife. The difference in each case is how the men responded in times of temptation.

As we advance toward the ultimate goal of Christlikeness, it is a spiritually advantageous thing to consider the temptations to which we are especially vulnerable. These temptations are all common to man. Sexual enticements—pornography, sexual fantasy, or unclean, unhealthy meditations—are promoted in our culture and are easier than ever to access. Verbal temptation includes gossip (talking about people to those who are not part of the problem), tale bearing, and lying. You may also be susceptible to intellectual temptation. Remember that “lust” in James 1 is more than sexual desire. It can also be an unhealthy intellectual desire rooted in pride; for example, intellectual superiority or self-exaltation. The Pharisees were especially guilty of this kind of lust; they were self-exalted and arrogantly confident in their erudite abilities.

Perhaps your temptations are not sexual, verbal, or intellectual, but rather emotional. There are lots of opportunities to give into unrighteous anger; instead of advocating for righteousness, some habitually respond with unjust wrath toward towards their spouse or children. Perhaps instead of unjustified anger, you tend toward unjustified tears. Tears can be righteous; after all, Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, and he wept over Jerusalem. Isaiah 53 calls Him “a man of sorrows.” However there is a real temptation to exaggerate and exacerbate our emotional situation.

Regardless of exactly how we are tempted, it is wise to slow down these times of temptation to look more closely at the process. Though we know 1 Corinthians 10:13 in our mind—that “God is faithful who will not suffer you to be temped above that which you are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape,” the process of temptation often moves so quickly that we forget that God is faithful. We miss the way of escape because we were blindsided by the temptation and, instead of considering the consequences, we transgress and indulge. Here in James 1, we can slow down the process of temptation and study it. Pastor James presents us with the five-step process of temptation.

Deception

According to James 1:14, “every man is tempted when he is drawn away.” That “drawing away” is deception. We are unlikely to give into an obvious evil that will clearly harm us. However, if the evil is disguised with an appealing appearance, we are more likely to accept it. Growing up in the Land of 10,000 Lakes (Minnesota), I had many opportunities to freshwater fish. The key to successful fishing is to put something on the end of the hook that will deceive that fish into biting. Only after they bit can they be reeled in. For the fish, the shiny bait is an attractive and deadly deception. Temptation works the same way.

Enticement

The next step in the process of the temptation is also found in James 1:14: “every man is tempted when he is drawn away away of his own lust and enticed.” Notice that “every man” is susceptible to unique enticements. When each one of us is solicited to do evil, we are presented with something sexually, verbally, intellectually, or emotionally enticing, and our flesh responds.

Conception

This third step is the moment we bite. Verse 15 explains that if lust is allowed to mature further, it conceives sin. Remember, temptation in itself is not sin. Jesus was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). We are not forced to bite the deceptively attractive temptations dropped into the water. Every time the steps of deception and enticement happen, God is faithful and provides a way of escape. At that point, we have the choice whether to recognize His faithfulness and to take the way of escape. However, the text cautions us that, if we walk past the way of escape and bite the hook, then we transgress.

Transgression

Notice verse 15: “when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin.” To transgress is to cross a line. In James 1, the line is holiness. Scripture commands us repeatedly to be holy, because the Lord is Holy (Lev. 19:2; 1 Pet. 1:16). If we had a Biblical understanding of how our sin affects God, we would conduct ourselves much differently in moments of temptation. After all, it is because of our sin that God sent his only begotten Son to die in our place. Somebody had to pay the price for sinners such as us. Transgression is serious and we should not excuse it. Neither should we compare our sin to that of others. Those in the habit of comparing themselves among themselves will excuse “respectable” sins because they don’t look as bad. However, all sin is transgression and crosses the line, bringing us one step closer to destruction.

Destruction

Verse 15 says that, “when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Death is the destruction of this fifth step in the process. Romans 5:12 says that “wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men.” Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death.” Do you see the pattern of death? Because of our sin we deserve eternal separation from God. Even though the redeemed will not experience the torments of the lake of fire, sin still brings physical destruction in this temporal life.

If you read the proverb that corresponds with the day of the month, you know that a theme of the book is that death follows sin. Especially strong warnings are given in chapters 5-7. Don’t pretend you're serious about overcoming sexual sin if you can’t recall the content of Proverbs 7. In our age the strange woman—the harlot—advertises herself on every social media feed, and on platforms like OnlyFans. Where once pornography was primarily available in magazines that were difficult to acquire, now harlotry is available in just a few clicks. According to Proverbs, where does this this type of temptation lead? 7:27 says that “her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death." It’s the same message as James 1:15.

Anyone who indulges in an adulterous affair will die. Will they die immediately? Not in the same way as God struck down Ananias and Sapphira, but the sin still kills. If you’re found out that you’re involved in these things, it will kill your reputation and relationships, especially your relationship with your spouse. Even if your marriage isn’t completely destroyed, your sin will hurt the marriage in deep ways, and it will destroy your children’s respect for you. Sin even kills dreams and aspirations for the future. The actions of duplicitous pastors have affected entire congregations and changed the course of their life.

Because of the harmful effect sin has on leaders, James 3:1 cautions aspiring teachers. Masters, or teachers, will face the greater condemnation. In other words, the more relationships you have, the more the more relationships that will die if you're found to be duplicitous. More people are disappointed in a man who was once considered to be a preacher of holiness and a promoter of righteousness.

As we consider the steps of temptation from the enemy within—deception, enticement, conception, transgression, destruction—consider how James the apostle, the half brother of the Lord Jesus and the pastor of the Jerusalem Church describes himself. As the book opens, he calls himself “James, a servant of God.” A servant of God is not also a servant to his flesh. If you’re yielding to the fruit of the Spirit of temperance, you will not be simultaneously be fulfilling the desires of the flesh. God is faithful; He is doing his part to warn and to provide the way of escape. With the Spirit’s enabling, we should do our part to add the holy affection of temperance to our faith (like 2 Peter 1 describes) so that none of us becomes 1 Corinthinans 9:27 castaways. We don't need any more Demas men, or another David and Bathsheba story. We need more like the Apostle Paul who fought a good fight, finished their course, and kept the faith. We need more men like Joseph who flee fornication rather than indulging in the sinful temptation of Potiphar’s wife. Reject the temptation of death, and take the way of escape. God is faithful.

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The above article was written by Pastor James C. Johnson. He is the pastor of NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fl. To offer him your feedback, comment below or email us at strengthforlife461@gmail.com.

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