TEXT: James 1:13-20

SUBJECT: Exposition of James #2: Is God to Blame?

The first twelve verses of this chapter urge us to view our problems as an opportunity for spiritual growth. Because "the testing of [our] faith produces patience", we're to "count it pure joy when [we] fall into various trials". Good men have done this. Paul, for example, took "pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, [and] in distresses". David realized the benefit pain so often brings with it: "Let the righteous strike me; it shall be a kindness".

Such insight is rare. Most believers resent problems; we gripe about them; we blame others. The problems God designs to make us better end up making us worse. The worst thing problems can to do us is to make us doubt the goodness of our Savior or to charge Him with folly. James knows the temptation and refutes it with his customary gentleness.

He begins with a rebuttal, v.13: "Let no one say when he is tempted, `I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone".

Because all sin is hateful to God, He is not enticed by it in the least; He cannot be. He is "of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity". Therefore, He tempts no one to sin.

This presents a problem: If God doesn't want us to sin, why doesn't He keep temptations away from us? The answer lies in His motive. Temptation is part of His will for our lives; make no mistake about that. But He sends them so that we will resist them, and thereby grow stronger. If we yield to them, however, how is God to blame? Do they overpower us? We often think so, but Paul says otherwise: "God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able". He has warned us of them; He has provided the resources for overcoming them.

The use of the singular pronoun is worth noting: "Let no one..." No one--no one at all--can blame God for his sin. Never has He caused a sin or contributed to it. The excuse dates back to Adam: "It is the woman You gave me". It was phony then; it remains phony. Elihu laid down the challenge, a challenge many have taken up, but no one has met:

"Who has assigned Him His way?

Or who has said,

`You have done wrong?'"

The Psalmist had it right:

"As for God, His way is perfect".

If God is not the source of our sins, who or what is? It depends on whom you ask: The media, schools, parents, and Satan are commonly blamed for the ills of society. Each makes its contribution--healthy ones. But none of them causes us to sin. James tells us what does: "But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed".

"Desires" are to blame. Personal desires. "Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed". What kind of desires are they? Natural desires? No! They are desires which find sinful things appealing. This is easily demonstrated by the life of our Lord.

We do. We sin, therefore, because we find sinful things appealing. If we would quit lusting, our temptations would lose their power. It is not God who is lusting for sinful things, but we! Therefore, He's not to blame for our temptations because they come from our "own desires"!

But where do our "desires" come from? Some say from God. He is the Creator, but He didn't create lust. "God made man upright--says the Preacher--"but they have sought out many inventions". Others blame Adam.

"In Adam's fall

We sinned all".

This is true. "As by one man sin entered the world..." But they are not Adam's desires that so entice us. All he ever wanted was a persimmon! Our desires tend to be more varied and lurid than his. "But he transmitted his lustful nature to us" someone pleads. True. But if we find the lusts so repugnant, why don't we give them up? Here's why: We don't find them so repugnant; they're rather appealing. There is no way of getting around it: You are to blame for your sins. "Thou art the man!"

The metaphysical argument has been made. But James is too practical to leave us there. He goes on, in v.15 to draw the practical application: "Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown brings forth death".

The thinking is easy to follow: Evil desire produces sin which produces death. We mustn't be satisifed knowing where our sin came from. We must go on to ponder where our sin is taking us. It is taking us to death--physical, spiritual, and eternal death. "Because of these things, comes the wrath of God on the children of disobedience".

This is a point worth making. It is not, however, the point James is trying to make. He is tying this into his rebuttal of the idea that God makes us sin. If sin leads to death, it can't be from the God who is Life.

This "death" (which stands for everything evil) is contrasted with the character of God, vv.17-18: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will, He brought us forth by the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures".

Rather than being the Bringer of Sin, God is the Donor of "every good and perfect gift".

"Blessed be the LORD Who daily loads us

With benefits, Even the God of our salvation".

Of the "good and perfect gifts which come down [to us]", one stands out: salvation. Which came about--not because we willed it--but "Of His own will".

Why did He will it? So that we would be the first to enjoy the salvation He will finally make universal. In the end, God will remove the curse and redeem the whole creation. But long before He frees the sun or the stars, the mountains or the ocean, the fish and the birds, He frees us! This He does by "the word of truth" which is the Gospel.

The God who saves us is "The Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shadow or turning". "Father of Lights"--I believe--means "The God who once pronounced the visible light "good", also knows the difference between moral darkness and light. And is pleased only with the latter.

He is "Light" through-and-through. He has no dark corners; nothing to cast a shadow.

If God is the source of light and life, He cannot be the author of the sin which is darkness and death. Therefore, we mustn't blame Him for our faults.

The application of vv.19-20 brings the thought to a close: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God".

When we yield to temptation, we must become:

Why? Because resentment and self-pity are not righteous, but childish, rebellious, and blasphemous. Like Job, we're to say,

"Behold, I am vile;

What shall I answer You?

Once I have spoken,

but I will not answer;

Yes, twice,

but I will proceed no futher".