James 1:14-15

The Message: The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

NKJV: 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.

Woah, those are strong words indeed! James is telling us here that we are our own worst enemy. The temptations we face are because of our own desires, our own wish to enjoy or acquire something, to satisfy a craving within. The desires we have will be different for each person. One person may love chocolate and will give in to the temptation of eating chocolate even if they have had more than enough to eat. Another person may like fine wines, so is always out looking for wines, researching, tasting, buying them. Others may enjoy sex, and always seek out the next partner, try different ways and methods, whilst some people may like the thrill of adventure, or taking risks, and will do anything to get the adrenalin rush of excitement. Some people take pleasure in being in charge, exercising their authority and are guaranteed to do or say the very thing that makes you feel small and belittled, and themselves feel superior and powerful.

So when we give in to those desires, take that extra piece of chocolate, tell that little white lie, read or watch something we shouldn't, thump our brother or sister ("because he/she made me tends to be a common excuse in our house!), then why should we blame God for this?

God may have given us the liking for chocolate, the ability to see, hear and listen, strong muscles so we can use our arms and legs, and so on, but He is not the one who made us gorge on chocolate, cakes, and sweets, gossip, lie, cheat, steal, drink to excess, be proud and self righteous, look down on others, etc. When we give in to temptation, we ourselves are the only ones to blame.

Yes, the devil may be the one tempting us but really, who is it that says yes, that does those things, says those words, watches those films, behaves in that way? We have to take responsibility for our own actions.

There is also a tendency these days to blame our upbringing, lack of parenting, the area we live in, lack of a job and whatever else people may come up with as an excuse to blame bad behaviour. You only have to read about court cases and how the lawyers for the accused come up with all sorts of reasons why they robbed a bank and knocked the security guard on the head. Not one of those reasons will be the fact that the accused saw this as a way to make easy money without having to work 9 am to 5 pm everyday and just wanted to get rich quick at the expense of others.

What about rapists and child pornographers who say that the woman, the child made them do it because of their behaviour, the way they were dressed? Since when does a child of six dress or act provocatively to seduce a grown man? Or a woman wear a low cut blouse and short skirt so she will be attacked on her way home?

At the end of the day, we are each responsible for the things that we do or choose not to do. It is no good telling ourselves that it's because we had no mother, no education, no money and so on, or saying that it is all God's fault. We always have the choice to do right or to do wrong, to do good or evil. And no matter how much we may try to convince ourselves otherwise, to blame our circumstances, other people, or God is ridiculous, because the only one to blame is ourselves. We are the ones that give in to temptation instead of running as fast as we can in the opposite direction, and on the Day of Judgement, God is the one who will point out to us each and every single time we did this.