The Deadly Desire

The bad things for us rarely show their true colors at first glance. Life would be a lot easier if every evil thing in this world came with a warning label, but evil is far more clever than that. It’s usually the exact opposite; what’s wrong tends to work its way to convince you that it’s right.

I was reading in James 1 this morning, and a few verses stuck out to me. “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13).

This first verse is quite straightforward in explaining to us a key piece of God’s character. James tells us explicitly that God is not the one who tempts us. God is big enough to use things that we struggle with to teach us lessons and ultimately work them for good, but He’s not the one who says, “Z, today I’m going to make you struggle with telling the truth.”

So, where does the temptation come from? James continues by saying, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).

It’s the progression that James lays out that I find intriguing. He says it’s “his own desire” that tempts us. Desire in and of itself is not wrong. God made us to pursue life hand-in-hand with Him. When we pursue desire on our own, apart from God, is when we’re vulnerable.

Notice how James concludes his point with “brings forth death.” See, sin does not walk around with a “promise to kill” sign on its forehead. No, sin’s advertisement often comes under the banner of “freedom.” How often have you heard a skeptical individual claim that following Jesus is rigid and narrow-minded, that being a Christian sounds boring?

This was the enemy’s argument against the Lord to Eve in the Garden of Eden. He told her that God was holding out on her. She’s the one who should decide what’s good and evil (Genesis 3). Well, look around, we can all see how well that’s turned out.

I used to play a game on my phone called Plague. After the Pandemic, it became a little too real, but the nature of the game was developing different pathogens that you would mutate and evolve to increase its infectivity, severity, and lethality. The goal was to kill the world.

I know, very terrible, but they made the game intriguing. Here’s the point: if you made the pathogen too lethal, it would kill too many people before infecting everyone else. The goal was to create something that was highly infectious but stayed under the radar. Infect everyone, crank up the lethality, and by then it’s too late.

Sin works similarly. James says it starts with playing with our desires. Encouraging us to do something we were made for – pursue desires – but to do so apart from God. The way of life that’s conceived here is where sinful thoughts and actions are birthed, but notice something – death doesn’t show up yet.

Sin still must grow. And what do babies, new plants, and anything in infancy require – fostering. Sin grows as we water it, give it attention, and hold on to it. The very thing we end up holding and spending our time and attention on, will eventually do what it always does  kill us.

This is where knowing the Word of God is our only lifeline. The enemy turned Eve away from God’s Word in the Garden and sin entered. By knowing who God is and what His Word says, we can stand firm against the attacks of the enemy and resist the deadly desire of life apart from God. We can pursue desire with the Lord in righteousness and live a true life of freedom the way it was meant to be lived in Jesus.