James Bible Study — Part2 ( 1:13–18)
Source of Temptation :
(James 1:13–14) says, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man 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.
God can not tempt us, He will test us through our trials to strengthen us in our FAITH.When we look at Jesus’ temptation in Mathew 4:11 Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, the Holy Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted. God allowed Devil to tempt Jesus to show how Jesus is like all of us who tempted every way like us ( Hebrew 4:15)
Source of temptation is never GOD!!
Source of temptation is our EVIl DESIRES!!
(1 John 2:16) says, For everything in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — comes not from the Father but from the world.
We get tempted by everything in the World that is
The Lust of the Flesh (Excessive desires to satisfy bodily needs)
The Lust of the Eyes (Some one captivated by an outward show of materialism)
Pride of Life (Arrogant spirit of self sufficiency)
Jesus Temptations ( Mathew 4:1-11)
Lust of Flesh → Devil tempted Jesus for food.
Lust of Eyes → Devil tempted showing all the riches of the world.
Pride of Life → Devil tempted saying you can do whatever you want God will help you.
Adam/Eve Temptations (Genesis 3:6)
Lust of the flesh → woman saw that the tree was good for food.
Lust of the eyes → that it was pleasant to the eyes.
Pride of life → and a tree to be desired to make one wise.
Devil tries to attack when we are weak or weaker areas of our life.how Jesus overcame these temptations ? using word of God! having word of God in our hearts is key to fight enemy!if we analyze and find the root of any of our temptations ,they may fall in one these three categories.
Process of Temptation
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
desires → conceived → Gives birth to Sin → fully grown → death.
Everything starts with desire when we have a desire to grow in our job we study, desire to look good we put effort to dress up, desire to have a clean house we put effort to clean up, when we want to grow in God we take time to spend time with him.. So everything starts with Desire..It’s really important to reflect on what desires we have and be honest about it.When we have good desires pleasing to God we have good fruits and we have desires of the world that will lead to sin.If we don’t kill that desire before it is conceived it will be hard to kill it later once it gives birth to sin.. If it’s fully grown it may be impossible !! The Holy Spirit reminds us constantly and help us to come out of these temptations, obedience to the spirit promptings is the key !
(1 Corinthians 10:13) says, No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Its encouraging to read 1 Corin 10:13 , God will provide a way of escape to endure the temptation!
Ways to overcome Temptation
(Mathew 6:13) says, Pray that we don’t fall under temptation and deliver us from evil.
(James 4:7) says, surrender to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you.
To resist the temptation
1) Pray earnestly that we don’t fall under temptation.
2) Pray for deliverance from evil one.
3)Surrender to God.
4) Resist (using word of God as Jesus did )
With our own strength we cant overcome any temptation.Surrendering to God is very important! Having a desire to overcome any temptation will help us to earnestly pray for the deliverance.Even if you fall into temptation , repent and do the above steps every day! some day we will be over comers of our temptation.God is faithful when we have the desire to overcome he will help us!
Summary : We face temptations every day in our life, the origin of any temptation is having desires of the world! Its important to walk every day in the spirit (Galatians 5:16) obeying to his reminders and kill any desires before they even conceived, so we save ourselves from death! Please remember enemy is like a roaring lion to see how he can capture our hearts and take us away from GOD! these temptations can be hinderance to our walk with God if we dont take them seriously!
Gods Love
(James 1:16–18) says, Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.
- Every good and perfect gift come from God
(1 John 1:5)says, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”
Darkness represents sin,evil and corruption
Light represents goodness, honesty, purity, wisdom, glory, and love everything that God is. From darkness(sin,evi) there is nothing good comes out of it. God is light we get only good gifts from father of lights. - God never changes
(Hebrew 13:8) says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. He can not change mind the way we do based on circumstences! - He gave us new birth through the word of truth
Yes we are new creation through word of truth that is Gospel - He chose us to be the first fruits of all creation.
Gods chosen people are the first fruits!
Summary : God loves us, we are his chosen people,He gave us new brith in the spirit and He gives every good and perfect gift that are in his soverign plan!Many times we are in trials or temptations we forget his love, He loves us so much that he wants us to transform us in to christ likeness !
Take away points
God loves me so much! I am his Chosen ! He gave me new Birth!
Root of temptation is my evil desires
I have to be wtachful of my temptations
temptation will lead to sin and sin to death
To overcome temptation — Pray → Surrender → Resist