![\"TrojanWar.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/imgs\/TrojanWar.jpg\")
<\/span>James looks into the eyes and hearts of the oppressed and poor messianists, now scattered from home and facing oppression at the hands of the rich \u2014 the odds are against them. He looks at them and tells the to keep their heads up because God is good and God will make things right SomeDay. He tells them not to blame God for the situations. And he narrows the scope down to the temptation problem and says this:<\/p>\n13<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>When tempted, no one should say, \u201cGod is tempting me.\u201d For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire<\/b>, he is dragged away and enticed. 15<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full\u2011grown, gives birth to death.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sin leads to death. But the origin of sin is not located in original sin but in human desire. In other words, he says \u201cTake responsiblity yourself.\u201d <\/p>\n
I would not add the word \u201cevil\u201d in this text; all James says is \u201cby his\/one\u2019s own desire.\u201d James locates the origins of sin in this text in human lusting and yearning desiring.<\/p>\n
\nJames uses a term for lust, but he thinks of the yearning desires of the messianists instead of sexual desires. These desires were at work in the use of violence (1:20) and even violent outbursts against one another (4:1-2). I\u2019m not sure if these can be tied here, since James is using a more general expression in 1:13-15, but he clearly ties sin to the human impulse of yearning.<\/p>\nWe sin, he says, because we want what God does not design for us to want.<\/p>\n
This yearning creates \u201csin unleashed.\u201d Yearning leads to sin and sin leads to death: to unleash desire is to unleash death.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
James looks into the eyes and hearts of the oppressed and poor messianists, now scattered from home and facing oppression at the hands of the rich \u2014 the odds are against them. He looks at them and tells the to keep their heads up because God is good and God will make things right SomeDay. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1777],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james"],"yoast_head":"\n
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