THE PURE AND PERFECT RELIGION

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we close out chapter 1 of the letter James wrote to the first century Hebrew Christians, we find the matter of religion take center stage. He says this in verse 27:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

It’s important to note that there were a lot of religions in the time of James. We know the Roman empire was in control and reigning over Israel as well as other nations in the region and Europe. There was a polytheistic belief system and the Romans worshipped multiple gods and goddesses.

Gnosticism was another belief system that was thriving during the first century. Gnostics held to a firm belief that attaining special divine knowledge is what could save a person, not faith. They also feel there is a creator but don’t view them as being holy or in a place of authority over the earth, just one of several divine figures that can provide knowledge but aren’t present in space and time.

And then there was Judaism, a long existing religion that both James and his Jewish audience prescribed to before converting to Christianity. Prior to Jesus’ coming, death, and subsequent resurrection, the Israelite people were God’s chosen people. They were to be obedient to all the laws, regulations, and commandments He provided them and, in turn, He would protect and bless them.

But then things changed in a big way and Jesus ushered in the new and only true religion, Christianity, when He said these words:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

God now offered the gift of salvation to all people, Jew or Gentile. All they had to do is simply places their belief in His Son as Savior. But even after God had established His new covenant for salvation, there were many Hebrew people who rejected Jesus and refused to set their Judaism aside to follow the new “Way” as Christianity was known early on.

The bottom line is that the Christian religion had a great deal of competition at its onset and so it’s easy to understand why the Lord would speak truth through James to set the matter straight.

Now, of interest, the Greek word that gets translated as the English word “religion” is thréskeia, derived from the Greek thréskos, which means external religious worship. In applying this to our scripture verse for today, the only religion that is acceptable to God the Father is the Christian faith that leads a believer to exhibit these two critical traits:

First, Christians are to care for the disadvantaged.

“...look after orphans and widows in their distress...”

During Biblical times in the New Testament, it wasn’t like there were well established orphanages in place where parentless children could be cared for and eventually join foster families. Rather, orphans were socially marginalized and economically disadvantaged. They couldn’t fend for themselves and had no one to lead, guide, and take care of them. Often, these children could end up enslaved by sinful adults who sought to exploit the children’s vulnerability.

Widows, in this instance primarily speaking of women, found themselves in a similar place of need, particularly if they didn’t have children who could take them in and care for them. Married women rarely worked to earn a wage because their husbands were the ones who earned the household income. The wives were relegated to caring for the household and bearing/raising up children. And so when a husband died, the wife was too often left with nothing and, like the orphans, were socially disenfranchised.  

The call for Christ followers was to take care of those who were, as Jesus said, “the least of these” (Matthew 25:31-46) for this is something God viewed as “pure and faultless” behavior.

The other trait that God favored in anyone practicing the Christian religion was their willingness to conscientiously work to “keep...from being polluted by the world”.

We know Satan is alive, well, and influencing the worldly domain in which we abide in. His number one mission is to disrupt and destroy every good thing God is trying to do and that includes every Jesus believer. He often does this insidiously by leading a Christ follower into sin when they allow him to pollute them through the world and its ways. To prevent this, God calls on all Christians to mirror Jesus and His conduct in everything that they do for that is what being a believer is supposed to be all about...to be Christ-like in every way possible.

Yes, there may have been many religions during the time of James, just as there are today, but since the death and resurrection of Jesus, only one religion is legitimate in the eyes of God and that is the pure and faultless precepts of the Christian belief system which I am blessed to be a part of.

I pray you feel likewise.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

WATCH YOUR TONGUE!

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

James 1:26

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How many times have you said something that you later regretted?

I think we all have made this mistake in the past as it’s so easy to do.

This is why we saw an earlier exhortation from this first chapter of James that commanded Christians to be “slow to speak” because once words are out, they’re out. There is no bringing them back and those words, in certain circumstances, can damage people and relationships to a place of no return.

Maybe you can relate, having been hurt and scarred by things spoken by another in your life. Often times, these verbal assaults aren’t accidental but rather delivered with intent like firing bullets out of as gun at another.

Now while the world might simply brush this kind of behavior away, possibly even accepting it instead of condemning, the Lord would call His followers to exercise restraint and conscientiousness before words are said. In fact, He wants us to allow the Holy Spirit to do the talking, driving what we say as much as He dictates how we think and behave. For frankly this is the only hope that any Christian has regarding talking in right and righteous ways to others.

There’s too much at stake to do otherwise, right?

For consider how much damage a person could do to the Christian faith if they chose to speak in sinful ways. The consequences are detailed in our scripture passage today as James writes:

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 1:26

Many a professed Christian have allowed their tongues to speak unchecked and not only damaged their own reputation but that of their Christian religion.

Consider the ever increasing number of false teachers, self affirming pastors who are misleading believers by misrepresenting the entire Word of God. For only preaching prosperity while remaining silent on the matter of damnation, judgment, and Hell for anyone who fails to place their belief in Jesus is only telling people what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.

And then there are Christians who allow the matter of politics and cultural matters to drive them to verbally attacking others who believe differently than they do. In fact, I have seen proclaimed Christians communicate in ways that make them look no different than the world they live in and that’s not what Jesus has called us to do. Rather, He has called us to follow His lead and be in the world but not of it...to dare to be different.

Of as God commanded, be holy (read...set apart) as He is holy.

Friends, the Lord is speaking to us today from His word with firm direction. Essentially, He is calling us to watch our tongues and refrain from speaking in ways that could discredit Him or the Christian way. If we keep our focus on Him in every manner, to include the way we talk, we achieve this and ensure that every word we say is approved by Him and in accordance with His will because He would have given the words to us.

Let us pray.

Lord, please help us to be disciplined in the way we talk to others. We submit our tongues to you and ask that you will guide and dictate our words so that they will work to bless others and honor You. For we love You and place our fullest trust in Your ability to do all things as we pray in your precious and holy name. Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

PUT THE WORD INTO PRACTICE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

James 1:22-25

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The best life instruction manual ever written is the Holy Bible because it’s the only book written by the Lord God Almighty. And since the Lord is perfect right and just in every way, that means every word written in His divine scriptures is true and trustworthy.

In other words, anytime we seek counsel from God’s Word, we can be totally assured of its integrity and validity.

Now, like any other set of instructions we might need to follow, success doesn’t come by ready what one is supposed to do and then deciding to do something else. When this happens, recipes result in ruin and things constructed fail to function as designed, just to name a couple of common examples. Nothing becomes what it was intended to be when directions aren’t followed to the tee.

This principle also applies to our spiritual lives as we look at today’s passage from the first chapter of James. There, he writes this:

Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. Vv. 22-25

Through His holy Word, God wants to lead His people to right and righteous living, to be more like His Son Jesus, the One He sent to be the Savior of the world. But it’s not enough to read or hear the Word of our Lord. We have to put it into practice or as our scripture passage demands, we need to:

“Do what it says.”

Note that this is a demand, not a suggestion. It doesn’t say, “I think it would be a good idea if you did what the Bible says” or “I recommend you read and listen to the Word of God and then put every part of it into practice”.

No, the Bible, the inerrant word of our God orders every single Christian believer to”

“Do what it says.”

Emphasis on the “Do” part.

James likens someone who doesn’t carry out what the Word commands to a person who sees themselves in the mirror and then immediately forgets what they look like when then go away from it. In other words, Lord wants us to be a reflection of what His scriptures call us to be. When we sit down our Bibles and walk away, our lives are to mirror the kind of person He wants us to be, the person who has looked “intently into the perfect” Word of God with its laws and regulations for living, and then carried out that Word in obedience. As a result, the Lord will “bless” that Christian believer “in what they do” because what they do will be in accordance with His scriptures and therefore pleasing in His sight.

The call today from our God is to make sure His Holy Word is put into practice. My prayer today is that this message will be a reminder for you to do just that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

PUSH THE FLUSH HANDLE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the Word planted in you, which can save you.

James 1:21

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

One need go no further that look at the anatomy and workings of the human body to marvel at the amazing complexity and mastery of the creative hand of God.

Think about it.

What is happening in complete synchronicity for a healthy person every single second of every day?

Isn’t a heart pumping life sustaining blood through a network of vessels (arteries, veins, and capillaries)? And simultaneously, two lungs inhale equally life sustaining oxygen.

We have mouths that allow us to chew and then swallow food into a gastrointestinal system that extracts the nutrients needed to fuel everything the body does.

Add to this our sensory abilities to smell, hear, and see, our ability to perform dexterous work with our hands, and the mobility gained through our lower extremities to include two feet.

The body even has disposal capabilities because we produce waste products that need to be expelled. After every inhale, our lungs exhale carbon dioxide, the byproduct of cellular energy production that needs exhausted. And at the end of the digestive tract are orifices used to expel unneeded waste from the body, whether liquid or solid. This is done in a bathroom and toilet, after which we typically will push a flush handle because we don’t need to keep the waste around. We need to deliver it to a sewage system where it is processed and eliminated.

Why the discussion of the body and how it operates, even down to the matter of waste disposal?

Because it has direct application to our scripture passage today, verse 21 of James, chapter 1. There we find these words:

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the Word planted in you, which can save you.

Just as with the physical body, our spiritual body needs to bring in the good and get rid of the bad, the moral filth of sin that pollutes our souls and sickens us unless expelled. Essentially, James is commanding his readers, the first century Hebrew Christians, to push the flush handle of their spiritual self, sending off the “evil that is so prevalent” in the life of a transgressor.

They are to also ensure that they are bringing in the good for spiritual nourishment, the very “Word planted” in them, the Word being Jesus Himself who is the only One who can save.

Need verification that Jesus is the Word?

Consider this from the opening of John’s Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the Light of all mankind. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-5, 14

The message is clear here to all Christian believers.

Push the flush handle on your sinful, moral filth and replace it in your spiritual self with the blessed Savior Jesus, the One who was, is, and will always be the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

YELLOW LIGHT/GREEN LIGHT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

James 1:19-20

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In nearly every country one might drive in, there are traffic signals that are universal, having a language of their own transmitted by color.

Green means go.

Yellow means proceed but with caution.

Red, of course, means to stop.

This collection of colors and their associated meanings are often used as an analogy for making other important points. Today’s message, titled “Yellow Light/Green Light” is one such example as we continue to examine text found in the first chapter of James. Look again at these words here:

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Vv. 19-20

In regard to our behavior as Christians, these words take on critical meaning as we seek to live as God intends for us to live and that is to be a model of Jesus’ conduct when He walked this earth more than 2,000 years ago. James, the author of this letter, implores his “dear brothers and sisters”, the Hebrew Jesus believers, to adopt the following conduct:

1. Be quick to listen.

This is a “green light” command, but one that calls us to restraint as well.

For we are to be “quick to listen” which means we need to shout down our minds and mouths so to be ready to fully receive and understand what someone else is saying to us. If you rearrange the letters in the word “listen”, you get another word “silent”. Don’t think the Lord did this by accident. The best listeners silence themselves and respect what the other person is saying. There will always be ample chance to talk when it’s your turn to.

2. Be slow to speak.

How many times have you spoken without thinking first and gotten yourself in trouble?

I know I have, more times that I would like to confess and this is why we find this “yellow light” caution in the scriptures.

The truth is that we all can find ourselves guilty of speaking too quickly without first stepping back and thinking about our words first, and even more so, consulting the Lord and asking Him to provide the words to say. For if we allow Him to drive how and when we speak to others, we can always be sure we are talking in His perfect time using His perfect words.

3. Be slow to become angry.

Here’s we find our final exhortation and it’s definitely another “yellow light” command.

Too often, we react badly to our circumstances such as when someone wrongs us or we find ourselves in disagreement with another or others.

Unfortunately, we encounter a lot of people in our society with very short fuses, both in person and online. It’s not only important to not be counted in that number but to show restraint when it comes to responding in kind. As they say, “two wrongs don’t make a right” and angry situations can either escalate or diffuse depending on how we respond to someone in midst of their anger. While the world would urge people to respond in kind, the Lord would call for us to be peacemakers and we can do just that when we invoke the Spirit of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, into these matters.

Ultimately, the end goal in the way we live out this life the Lord has blessed us with is to bear the fruits of righteousness in everything we do, the righteousness “that God desires”. We can do so, not just in upholding these “yellow light/green light” orders but also in allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us to the following defining life principles found in Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia. In the fifth chapter, God speaks these words through His apostle to us:

“...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Vv. 22-23

Let’s “green light” all of these, making them a priority as we drive through life each day on the way to the blessed eternal life that our Father God promised us through our belief in Christ Jesus, His Son.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

WHERE ALL GOOD GIFTS COME FROM

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created.

James 1:17-18

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Think about any good thing you have ever received.

Maybe it has been an unexpected blessing of money, a car, or something else that was badly needed.

Maybe you received news of healing from an affliction. I’ve never had cancer but I can’t imagine how incredible it is to hear the word “remission” and the ensuing classic ringing of the bell after leaving the treatment facility for the final time.

Maybe you welcomed a new child into the world, becoming a parent for the first time or again, and, of course, where there are parents, there are usually grandparents feeling excited and grateful or even great-grandparents who are experiencing the gift of longevity in this worldly life.

Maybe you have some talent, like the ability to sing, play an instrument well, write, draw, play sports, or work in some special capacity within a career field.

And then there are gifts that others bless us with, some expected and some not.

Our birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, or Father’s/Mother’s Days bring thoughtful gifts of love from family and friends. But at other times, maybe someone does something wonderful for you when you least expected it. I know I often just bring a dozen roses home for my wife, not because it’s a special occasion but rather to just remind her how much I love her. And when I am at a store, I often will pay for the person’s item or items who are behind me in the checkout line. I remember there was one time I did this when the woman behind me began to cry because of my generosity and kindness. She shared that there had been a death in her family and she was buying things for the funeral reception. I had no idea about that but you know who did?

Our Almighty God...and He wanted to bless that woman with a gift through me.

Friends, this needs to be the way we view any good thing that happens to us. We need to see it as a perfect gift from God because as we see in our scripture verses from James, chapter 1 today, He is the source of all good gifts. James writes this to his audience, the first century Hebrew Christians:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created. Vv. 17-18

God’s word to us is crystal clear. He tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from Him, the “Father of the heavenly lights” and so we should fist give thanks to Him anytime we experience a blessing in our life, no matter what that blessing is.

This passage also reminds us of one more special gift that God has given every single Christian and that’s the blessing of being born again, something that has to happen for someone to come to salvation. Here’s what Jesus said about it as He spoke with Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin council:

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a Teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with Him.”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into Heaven except the One who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.”

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:1-18

Jesus makes it clear that before a person can enter Heaven, the very Kingdom of God, they must be reborn into the Holy Spirit and that only happens when someone places their belief in Jesus as Savior. Consider these words of the Lord spoken through the Apostle Paul as he writes in the eighth chapter of his letter to the Romans:

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. Vv. 9-17

When someone chooses to believe in Jesus, they are reborn, becoming a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)  while gaining many good and perfect gifts from the God who provides them all.

1. They belong to Christ Jesus.

2. They receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who leads them away from spiritual death to righteous spiritual living and the assurance of eternal life which is number 3.

3. They gain the saving of their souls and the assurance of blessed eternal life with God the Father and His Son, the Savior Jesus.

4. They become a child of the God Most High, and kinsperson to Jesus, His Son.

5. They gain an inheritance to Heaven, the Kingdom of God, as co-heirs with Christ Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, God lavishes us with good gifts and in response, we should do nothing less than show Him perpetual gratitude, lifting up our praise to Him. Satan wants to keep you from this by shining a spotlight on all the negative things in your life. Counter his efforts by counting your blessings every day and you will constantly be reminded of how very gracious the Lord has been to you, not just in the present but rather guaranteeing you will be blessed for all eternity.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

THE SOURCE OF TEMPTATION

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

James 1:13-16

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Temptation happens. All the time actually, although it’s not something most people want to get out in the open and talk about.

Many people hate and despise temptation, ashamed of the things they do when they give in to it. Others seem to embrace it gladly and welcome it like a good friend when it comes.

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. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.  Vv. 13-16

Note here that the source of temptation isn’t God. A person doesn’t face the challenge of doing good or bad because God is somehow testing them. Rather, the issue of temptation always begins within the heart and mind of the person being tempted.

God offers everyone a choice. They can either carry out His will and way or opt to chase after their own desires.

Choosing God is a sure way to defeat temptation when it comes. Rejecting His path to follow your own is what will lead you to be “dragged away” by your “own evil desire” and “enticed” by Satan in that place as he makes sin be conceived within. That conception quickly gives way to birth, and the growth and maturation of iniquity as the sinner finds satisfaction in fulfilling their desires. Ultimately, walking this wide path of sin birthed from giving into self gratification will lead to spiritual death which is code for eternal damnation in Hell. Only believing in Jesus, becoming a new creation by trading in one’s ways to live as He did, can save a person from sure everlasting torment and suffering.

We live in a world that would convince a person to “just do you” which is code for living however you want to live, no matter what anyone else might say. James finishes this passage by giving sound words of advice as he writes:

“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.”

Temptation is the gateway to sin and it only happens when we place our wants in front of what the Lord wants. Deny yourself and submit fully to Him. You’ll never regret it.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.