James 1:13-15
13 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. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Have you ever been ice fishing? I am assuming either you have, or you can understand the concept. Let's take a quick trip to the lake.
Imagine for me that you have a nice 8" hole in the ice. You tie on your favorite lure to the fishing line. You lower your line and your Vexlar fish locator down the hole. You watch as your lure goes down just before the eyes of an un-expecting fish. Your goal is really to deceive the fish. You want the fish to think that the lure you have offered him will give to him "life" if he eats it. But really the lure will give to him "death", because you are planning to drag him through the hole and make a meal of him.
13 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. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Have you ever been ice fishing? I am assuming either you have, or you can understand the concept. Let's take a quick trip to the lake.
Imagine for me that you have a nice 8" hole in the ice. You tie on your favorite lure to the fishing line. You lower your line and your Vexlar fish locator down the hole. You watch as your lure goes down just before the eyes of an un-expecting fish. Your goal is really to deceive the fish. You want the fish to think that the lure you have offered him will give to him "life" if he eats it. But really the lure will give to him "death", because you are planning to drag him through the hole and make a meal of him.
You start jigging the lure before the eyes of the fish. The fish sees the bait and does indeed grab your lure and is trapped. He fights and fights to try to not go the direction you are leading him. You have successfully deceived him and he will soon be your dinner.
"But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire."
This is exactly the way we deceive and tempt ourselves with sin. We think of an object that is forbidden to us. It may be forbidden for the moment (a spouse to honor and love me the way I think they should), or forbidden forever (to have another wife or husband while being in covenant with the current spouse). We take this thought and jig, jig, jig it before our own mind. We entice ourselves to reach out and bite the object that is forbidden to us at the moment. I am luring and enticing myself with my own desire.
If we don't take this thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We will reach out and bite the forbidden object. It looks good to us, it promises "life." It looks fun, looks nice, maybe feels right, but it has barbs. And that desire that you have will hook you. It will lead you in a direction you do not want to go.
The desire has a seed in it. It will conceive and give birth. But it will not give birth to "life," but sin. And when sin grows in the belly and becomes full grown, it will bring forth death.
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