“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." - James 1:14-15

If you are like me, quarantine has been a time of increased temptation to sin. In this text, James describes sin with a sobering metaphor. He says that our sinful desires are like a potential sexual partner by whom we are enticed. If we say “yes” to these desires, they will conceive and gestate and eventually give birth to a baby—an active and growing sin. And this sin, if we feed and nurture it, will eventually grow up to kill us. 

So the pattern looks like this: 

desire surrendered to > sin > maturing sin > death 

What does this teach us? That the war on sin is won on the battle ground of small moments. The sin that kills begins as the temporary acceptance of a small desire. When sin is nothing more than a beckoning desire, we must learn, with God’s help, to shake our heads “no” rather than nod “yes.” Remember, that desire can birth something that will kill you. 

But the encouraging thing is that this works the other way around. When we, in the small moments, refuse evil desires and accept godly ones, there will birth into our lives a maturing and life-giving righteousness. These moment-by moment actions are, in the words of one writer, like “the steady progression of small choices that laid end to end will become like the stones of a pleasing path stretching to eternity” (Douglas McKelvey, Every Moment Holy, 163). And it is never too late to start building. 

Questions: 

1. What are the small battle grounds of your war on sin? 

2. What is the long-term consequence of your momentary choices in these areas? What could happen if you accept the enticement of ungodly desire? What could you build by choosing Christ instead? 

Prayer:

O Christ, be my joy. Outshine those things that tempt me with the bright light of your glory. Let me love you, Lord, by obeying in the small things, trusting that sin is serious, even when it doesn’t feel like it, and that you are worth every sacrifice, even when it is hard to let go of my desires. Help me! I am weak. Be my strength. 

By Bryan Elliff