The Book of James - A Battle of the Wills

James 1:12-18

The complete Christian is patient in trials. James has been writing about trials of outward circumstances. But in our passage this week, he turns to temptations on the inside. Trials may be tests sent by God, or they may become temptations ‘enticed’ by our fallen nature. It is these temptations on the inside that James now deals with in 1:12-18.

“Why did James connect the two? What is the relationship between testings without and temptations within?” Simply this: if we are not careful, the testings on the outside may become temptations on the inside. When our circumstances are difficult, we may find ourselves questioning the love of God and resisting his will. At this point, we find an opportunity to escape the difficulty. This opportunity is temptation.

We find many illustrations of this truth in the Bible. Abraham arrived in Canaan and discovered a famine there. He was not able to care for his flocks and herds. This trial was an opportunity to prove God; but Abraham turned it into a temptation and went down to Egypt. God had to chasten Abraham to bring him back to the place of obedience and blessing.

While Israel was wandering in the wilderness, the nation often turned testings into temptations and tempted the Lord. No sooner had they been delivered from Egypt than their water supply vanished, and they had to march for three days without water. When they did find water, it was so bitter they could not drink it. Immediately they began to murmur and blame God. They turned their testing into a temptation, and they failed.

Certainly, God does not want us to yield to temptation, yet he providentially allows us to experience this time of testing that we will mature in his grace. If we are to become complete Christians, we will face testings and temptations. As one person wrote, “We are not God’s sheltered people; we are God’s scattered people.”

Join us this coming Lord’s Day as we learn about what God gives, what God is, and what we are. “In a nutshell, behind the circumstances of life of vv2-11, there are the unseen factors of human nature [what we are] and of the divine nature [what God is] – and above all, that basic unseen but potent factor, what God has done for us in the new birth (1:12-18)” (Motyer). Are you becoming a ‘Complete Christian’?

See you Sunday with a Bible in your hand, a smile on your face, and joy in your heart.

Because He lives,

Pastor Wayne