Daily Bible Verses for 3/6/2017
Daily Verse(s)
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 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. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
Reading Notes
One of the things which James tells us is that God is not tempted by sin, nor does God tempt anyone to sin, as a matter of fact sin cannot exist in the presence of God. This is such an important concept for us to understand. Many times when people are caught by their own sin, they blame God for letting them sin or worse, we blame God for the circumstances which we placed ourselves in, created or purposely sought out because of the desires of our flesh. People will do this to absolve themselves of their God-given responsibility to use wisdom in the exercise of their free will. And because our sin nature loves to blame God, we accuse God using the excuse, “He let us do it.” As if God should have violated our free will and forced us not to rebel against Him. And as silly as this sounds, this is how we can think when we give in to sin and live in rebellion against God. Therefore, it’s important to remember that God is never tempted. God is holy and righteous and God has perfect love. Moreover, when God looks at us, He does so with eternity in mind, not wanting any to perish, but for all to spend eternity with Him in Heaven.
Therefore, it’s important for us to understand, that there is nothing within God to which sin can make its appeal. The attributes of God’s character cannot be attracted to sin. Unlike humanity, God does not have a sin nature within Him. This means there is nothing within God for sin to entice. We on the other hand, because of our sin nature, have a propensity to be tempted by sin. In other words the ability to tempt others and the ability to be tempted are both the result of our fallen humanity and having a sin nature. A nature which currently resides in all of fallen humanity. What does this mean for us and our faith? It means God cannot be tempted or to put it another way, it’s impossible for God to sin. However, God will allow us to be tested by trials. He will do so as a means of revealing to us the nature and true quality of our faith. We have to remember, our Christian faith can only be revealed to us and the world by remaining steadfast through a trial. In addition, trials help us to build our faith stronger, because they increase our endurance when we remain steadfast in the faith we have in Christ Jesus our Lord. Our stronger faith and perseverance as a result of going through trials, in turn, will allow us to be greater used of God for His kingdom work.