Change Your Life - Know Your Enemy
- Paul Downie
- 4 days ago
- 14 min read
James 1:13-15 NIV
[13] When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; [14] but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. [15] Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
In October 2023, a judge threw out a lawsuit against the popstar Lady Gaga. She was being sued for $500,000, plus $1.5 million damages, because a woman had returned her stolen dogs, but Lady Gaga had refused to pay out the $500,000 she had offered for their safe return. The plaintiff argued that the mention of ‘no questions asked’ in the reward offer meant that she should receive the money.
However, the case was rejected as the plaintiff suing Lady Gaga had actually been partially responsible for stealing the dogs in the first place!
Placing the blame in the wrong place can have big consequences. Miscarriages of justice are always huge news – particularly because they play on our innate sense of justice, fairness and righteousness.
However, it’s no different with us. We all sin. We all succumb to temptation. But who we blame for this failure is really important, because who we blame affects how we recover from it – or even if we recover.
We live in a litigious society. No-one wants to take the blame for anything. Everyone is afraid of the legal consequences.
But if we are to fix this serious problem, we must find out what, or who, is responsible.
That is where this verse comes in.
Now, if we can read these verses without feeling downright uncomfortable, then something is severely wrong. James outlines the only reason why we cave in to temptation. His message is very close to home.
But before we reach the full devastating impact of this teaching on who is responsible for our moral and spiritual failings, we must first look at two individuals who are often blamed, but at not at fault for this.
The first of these is God Himself.
God
James 1:13 NIV
[13] When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.
‘I was born this way. I can’t be guilty of anything because this is how God made me.’
Have you ever heard that argument? It sounds so convincing. Even pop stars have used it.
Shame it’s utter nonsense.
God did not make you sin.
Why do I know that for sure?
Because God does not tempt.
He simply will not breach His holiness or encourage you to do likewise. It is not in His character. Because the Lord does not love evil, He hates it:
Proverbs 15:26 NIV
[26] The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked, but gracious words are pure in his sight.
Proverbs 12:22 NIV
[22] The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.
Proverbs 15:9 NIV
[9] The Lord detests the way of the wicked, but he loves those who pursue righteousness.
Proverbs 11:20 NIV
[20] The Lord detests those whose hearts are perverse, but he delights in those whose ways are blameless.
And that is just a sample.
Of course the Lord will not love sin or make you to love it: sin is ultimately destructive. It destroyed the creation He made.
So any nonsensical ideas that God would make you sin are exactly that – a pathetic excuse for your own lack of self-control.
However, this verse also says that God cannot be tempted by evil. Yet in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, we appear to see exactly that: Jesus, who is God, being tempted by the devil.
So what could this verse mean?
Many of us have devices that need to be plugged in to charge. Between the device and the power supply, we have a plug and a socket. We put the plug into the socket for the power to transfer from the mains supply into our device.
We can think of temptation like the plug, and our sinful desires as the socket. When temptation is successful, the plug enters the socket and completes the circuit, causing us to sin.
But Jesus had no sinful nature, so the circuit could not be completed and Jesus did not fall to sin. He was tested by the devil, but this testing did not result in an enticement or temptation because Jesus had no sinful nature it could plug into, and the devil’s attempt to divert Him from the Father’s will failed
After having seen that God does not tempt, and therefore God is not at fault when we surrender to temptation, we are then faced with a question: what about the devil?
The devil
James 1:14 NIV
[14] but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
There are three recorded temptations in the Bible where spiritual beings are directly involved: the Fall (Genesis 3), Job (Job 1 and 2), and Jesus’ testing in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13). The devil is involved in all of these.
But is he responsible when we succumb to temptation?
James says ‘No’.
And that might surprising, because ‘the devil made me do it’ is a constant refrain among those who are caught on the wrong side of the law in places dominated by Christian culture.
James says that it isn’t true.
In Matthew 4:3 and in 1 Thessalonians 3:5, the devil is described as ‘the tempter’ in English translations of the Bible.
So is he or isn’t he?
How exactly does temptation work?
Calling the devil ‘the tempter’ is really a slightly incomplete translation of this word, likely to do with the riches of ancient Greek compared to our own language. The word used here can also be used in the sense of trying something to see if it can be done, or to test something or someone, to probe at their purpose or quality or moral standing. It can mean ‘to tempt’. It actually means a lot more than that.
The best way to understand this is with the illustration of a mouse trap. We lived in an old building for six months. We found mouse droppings in our cupboards and heard them scrabbling around the walls at night. We needed to get rid of them. So we bought some traps and laid them out. We placed a lure in the trap – some cheese or some biscuits – and left them overnight. The following day, I checked the traps and removed the mice.
Eventually they got the message and left.
The devil lays the lure. Look at each of these temptations. You can see the lure. It was the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3:1-2. It was an end to suffering in Job (Job 2:9-10). It was a shortcut to success by avoiding the cross in Matthew and Luke.
In every situation, there was a lure.
There was also a sense that the lure was good, but God was bad, because God had placed the lure out of reach. We see it in the devil’s words in Genesis 3:4-5. We see it in the words of Job’s broken wife. We see it in the devil’s offering to Jesus of position and power and an end to suffering if He were to divert from God’s plan.
The whole point of setting that lure wasn’t just to get these people to sin. It had a much wider goal.
It was to destroy their faith in God: in His goodness, His greatness, His grace.
But that is not the temptation. That is the lure.
The temptation is the desire. It is the longing to cave in to the temptation for our own selfish gain.
The devil doesn’t tempt us.
He doesn’t need to.
We are quite capable of doing it on our own.
Take a look through the Bible. Read the history books. Time and time and time again, the leaders of both Jewish kingdoms make absolute stinkers of decisions, yet the devil is rarely, if ever, mentioned.
Why is that?
There are three forces ranged against us when we are tempted. There is ‘the world’ – in other words, the people around us with their various politics and systems and foibles. As John taught:
1 John 2:15-17 NIV
[15] Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. [16] For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. [17] The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
There is ‘the flesh’ – that is our inward desires to sin, like a car with broken steering that constantly heads towards the gutter.
As Paul taught:
Galatians 5:16-17 NIV
[16] So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. [17] For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.
And there is the devil.
James 4:7-10 NIV
[7] Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. [8] Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [9] Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Temptation works like a hunter laying a trap. The world and the devil lay the bait; our sinful, fleshly nature drives us into the trap.
Look at David’s gross sin with Bathsheba. It's a horrible scene in 2 Samuel 11. But during that entire dreadful episode, the devil is not mentioned once.
Why?
Because he’s not needed. Bathsheba is just doing what she needs to do. Worldly values of impunity for those in power are the lure. David's fleshly nature tempts him.
The devil didn’t need to do anything but grab a bag of popcorn and enjoy the show.
When we blame the devil for our sin, we are giving him credit – and glory – that he doesn’t deserve.
Because he didn’t do it.
And after God and the devil, the final individual whom we suspect of playing a role in our succumbing to temptation is Ourselves.
Ourselves
James 1:13-15 NIV
[13] When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; [14] but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. [15] Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Here we reach the uncomfortable truth.
For many years now, lawyers and counsellors and therapists have baulked at the prospect of their clients being accountable for anything. They have argued that when we sin the fault lies with our parents or our upbringing or our neighbourhood or our peers or our genetics.
Any little reason (or excuse) they can find to deflect responsibility, to lessen the charges, to weaken the psychological impact of guilt is utilised.
There is an element of that which explains wrongdoing, but it cannot ever excuse it or cause the blame to be passed to someone else.
I’ve even heard people spiritualise it with terms that simply are not in the Bible, like ‘generational sin’.
They don’t exist at all.
What James says here is that when we sin, we are culpable. We are to blame. We did the crime.
Ezekiel goes further:
Ezekiel 18:20 NIV
[20] The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.
Ezekiel 18:32 NIV
[32] For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!
And again in Romans:
Romans 3:22-24 NIV
[22] This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:23 NIV
[23] For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The entire point of the Gospel is that we are sinners in need of a Saviour. If we accept that salvation, we are saved; if not, we are condemned.
But we are saved from, or condemned by, our individual sin for which God calls us to account.
As it says in Revelation:
Revelation 20:11-13 NIV
[11] Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. [12] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. [13] The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.
Why would God judge the living and the dead for their sin if the sin was caused by someone else? That would not be fair! That would not be righteous! It would not make sense!
But our God is fair. Our God is righteous.
Why?
Because we are responsible for our sin!
What about confession of sin? John teaches us this:
1 John 1:8-10 NIV
[8] If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. [10] If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
But if we are not responsible for our sin, then we have nothing to confess. We only have to reason that someone else is responsible and walk away scot free. It would not make sense!
What about repentance? The Gospels and Acts are full of this clear command:
Matthew 4:17 NIV
[17] From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
But what point is there to repent of if are not responsible for our own sin? It would not make sense!
What about our need for a Saviour?
1 John 4:14 NIV
[14] And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
If we are not responsible for our sin, then we do not need a Saviour, we need a lawyer. It just would not make sense!
The Gospel is founded and undergirded on the basic principle that when we sin, we are accountable.
Any other explanation erodes the very rock on which we stand.
‘But Paul! This is terrible news! Are you saying that we are guilty every time we give into temptation?’ you might ask.
Yes, I am.
‘Are you saying that we are, like James says, destined to die because we’ve given in to temptation ‘
Yes, I am.
But there is a way out.
In Romans 7:7-24, Paul accurately describes the condition of someone who has been ensnared by temptation. It’s not a pretty picture. But anyone who has been trapped by an addiction or a sin of any description or type will recognise it immediately. Paul has this one on the nose.
At the end of it, he asks this question:
Romans 7:24 NIV
[24] What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
And his answer?
Romans 7:25 NIV
[25] Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Jesus Christ is our Deliverer. Jesus Christ is our Saviour. Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. And only Him.
But all of these concepts only make sense if we are responsible and accountable when we cave in to temptation.
That is why James’ teaching on our responsibility and accountability is actually good news, not bad.
If peer pressure or inherited behavioural traits or genetics or our environment were responsible for our sin, then we would be stuck and without hope. We could never change.
We would always be just bio-mechanical victims of circumstance.
If God or the devil were responsible, then we would be nothing but lifeless marionettes caught in a battle between rival puppeteers; hopeless victims in a cosmic war not of our own making.
But none of that is true.
It’s us. It’s you and it's me. We are responsible.
If it is our decision to cave in to temptation, then we can also decide not to cave in to temptation.
And in Christ, and with His power, we can do exactly that.
Conclusion
James 1:13-15 NIV
[13] When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; [14] but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. [15] Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Imagine that you are in the deepest, darkest of prison cells. You’ve been there for what feels like a long time. Your clothes are torn. Your hair is unkempt. You long for the outside, but all the light you have is through a tiny barred window.
However, the prison cell door is open. The guard is waiting at his desk to let you out. Your release papers are sitting right there in front of him. You can go free.
All you have to do is walk up to the desk and sign a confession to state that you did the thing you did.
Do that, and you can go free.
Do that, and your new life begins.
But somehow, for some plainly illogical reason, you refuse to leave your cell.
Because, even though you did the crime, you simply cannot admit to yourself that it’s true.
That is where we find ourselves when we are confronted with this verse. We did it. We caved in to temptation. We broke God’s laws. We committed the offence. We know it. It’s obvious.
But we just can’t admit our guilt to ourselves.
And so, despite our freedom being blood-bought, the price for our sin being paid by grace and the opportunity for freedom being right there in front of us, we remain a prisoner of our own sin.
Because we cannot admit our guilt.
We try to blame God. We say that we are this way because He made us this way. But that isn’t true. We made ourselves this way because we caved into temptation and we sinned.
We try to blame the devil. We say that he tempted us. But that’s not true either. We tempted ourselves. The devil simply set out the bait and watched with glee as we fell right into his trap.
And so we stay there, a victim of addiction, dependency and sin, because we refuse to take responsibility and walk away.
What a terrible state to be in!
This verse seems like bad news. But it’s actually the best news. Because if our decisions led us into the devil’s trap, then our decisions can also get out of it.
Freedom from temptation comes not when we spend out precious energy trying to justify or explain our actions, but when we accept responsibility, confess our sins and repent of them.
Most of all, it comes when we recognise a core truth in the Bible:
James 1:16-17 NIV
[16] Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. [17] Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
The lure of temptation comes from the wrong belief that somehow God is withholding something good from us.
However, if we really believe that God is good, then we must also believe that He is withholding the things we don’t have right now because right now they are bad for us. Believing that God is good reduces the effects of the lure and enables us to walk away from the temptation trap unscathed.
King David, the very King who would later succumb to temptation and ruin the lives of his family and his people, wrote these famous words:
Psalms 23:1 NIV
[1] The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
If we believed these words – truly believed them – then no lure of the world or the flesh could possibly tempt us, because we have all we need.
The Bible explains in detail who is responsible when we succumb to temptation. It isn’t God.
It isn’t the devil.
It’s us. It’s only us.
And when we are strong enough to accept that, we are halfway to finding freedom.
Having seen our temptation and who it is that causes us to be tempted, in my next post we will Know Your Weakness.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I’m done trying to explain away or excuse my actions. I know they are wrong. I know I am responsible. I confess that to You. I need Your forgiveness. Grant Mr Your cleansing. Make me new, I pray. Amen.
Questions
When we succumb to temptation, who is responsible? Why?
Why is this good news?
What can we do about it?
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