HOW A PERSON SINS WHETHER A BELIEVER OR UNBELIEVER
AND HOW A BELIEVER CAN LIVE OUT TRUE LIFE
James 1:13-20
As taught by Dave Lindstrom
I. Temptation toward evil desires come from ourselves and not from God
(James 1:13-18).
A. The Greek word “peirasmos” can be translated as the English word “trial” or as
the English word “temptation.”
1. The noun form of the word is usually, but not always, the idea of outer
difficulties where “trial” would be used (James 1:3,12).
2. The verb form of the word is usually, but not always, the idea of inner conflicts
that could lead us to sin. The word “temptation” would be used in these places (James 1:13,14).
3. The context of the sentence and paragraph many times give us clues, but it
sometimes takes extra work to figure out which word is best (Matt. 26:41;
Gal. 4:14; Heb. 11:37; Matt. 4:1; Matt. 6:13).
Thought: How are trials and temptations different and how are they the same as you
deal with them in your life?
B. The source of humanities desire to sin and do evil comes from something inside of
them (vs 13-16).
1. Scripture agrees with the Genesis account of the fall of humanity as found in
Genesis 3.
2. The Bible tells us that all humanity is depraved, wicked, and separated from
God’s ways (Ps. 14:1-3; Isa. 1:18, 64:6; Rom. 3:9-20).
3. Through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, believers have been given a
new birth and are newly created (Rom. 3:21-28; 2 Cor. 5:16-21).
4. Believers have the possibility to please God by living life in their new nature
under the power of Christ’s Spirit but can still sin. The believer sins by
choosing to follow the ways of sin which Scripturally is called the flesh or not
living according to the truth (Gal. 5:13 - 6:5; I John 1:5 - 2:6).
5. James describes our desire to sin with fishing and hunting metaphors where
prey is being lured out by bait. As Christians, we have certain tendencies in
our flesh which baits us and starts the sin process rolling! (vs 14)
6. The lustful bait will go through a “conceiving” process which will lead us to
sin (missing the mark) and death (broken fellowship, loss of true life for that
time period, unproductivity, loss of reward, possible early physical death)
(I Cor. 3:10-17; Rom. 5:1 - 6:23; James 5:19,20; I John 5:14-17).
C. Our Father of creation is 100% good, giving, and non-sinful (vs 17,18).
1. God’s creation in the heavens of stars, planets, and moons cast differing
shadows that can distort light, but God is above His creation.
2. Sin also is a distortion of the light or truth of God’s creation, but God, by His
word of truth, has redeemed His people to be a first fruit of a new creation.
3. The first fruit of the harvest in the Old Testament (Ex. 34:22; Lev. 23:10) was
the first pickings of the new crop dedicated to Yahweh. It was the promise
of the harvest and participation in Yahweh’s blessings to come.
II. As believers live out their new lives here on earth, they should learn to be “quick to
hear,” “slow to speak,” and “slow to anger,” which is also how James structures the
rest of his letter (James 1:19,20, 1:21-2:26, 3:1-18, 4:1-5:12).
