RECOGNIZING THE TRAP

Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. JAMES 1:14 Temptation doesn’t come from God but from within. The term drawn away was used in hunting contexts to describe animals being lured into traps, and enticed is a term used to describe catching fish with bait. Every person is tempted when the trap of sin is baited with that which appeals to his lust. A person’s lust responding to enticing bait deceptively draws him away to the point where he is trapped. What pulls us so strongly to the bait? It’s not God. And it’s not Satan, his demons, or the world’s evil system that entice us to sin, although they bait the hook. It is our lustful nature that pulls us to take hold of it. Our flesh, our fallen nature, has a desire for evil. From a spiritual perspective, the problem is that even though we’ve been redeemed and have received a new nature, we still have an enemy within. The resident passion of the flesh, not God, is responsible for our being tempted to sin. John MacArthur, Truth for Today : A Daily Touch of God’s Grace (Nashville, Tenn.: J. Countryman, 2001), 323.