[AI translation] James is now talking about one of the most intimate matters of the spiritual life that every human being knows from personal experience: temptation. No man in the world is free from it. Even Jesus was tempted by the devil when he lived our human life among us in physical reality. Even the believer, the born-again man, is constantly exposed to it, because through the forgiveness of sins, through the reception of grace, the believer has not ceased to be a sinful man. And temptation is not something that comes only occasionally, rarely, that one encounters only once or twice in a lifetime, or perhaps not at all. Rather, it could be said that there is not a single day, not a single hour, without temptation. This passage reveals to us the secret of this process that goes on in the depths of the human soul, so that we may know the essence of temptation and be able to guard against it.So what is temptation? What is the essence of this phenomenon? Temptation is not yet a sin, but immediately precedes sin, that is to say, what is already a sin, either in thought or in deed! Temptation is not yet! So temptation is the moment when sin can still be fought against. And it is good to emphasize this, because many times people think that when they are tempted, they have already committed sin with themselves, and therefore all further resistance and struggle is futile and unnecessary. It is just like a soldier who thinks he has already lost the battle when he sees the first enemy appear. No! It means that you must be alert now, because the battle is about to begin! In the temptation, the thief is still circling around our heartland, looking for a weak spot to break into. That's not a bad thing, especially if the master of the house is on the lookout! The problem is that inside the house the thief has an accomplice who is waiting for the thief, who is in cahoots with him, who reacts immediately to his approach, who suddenly senses that he is lurking there, and who even opens the door for him, secretly, unnoticed, lets him in, helps him. It is the enemy within who joins forces with the temptation from without: according to James, it is nothing other than desire!
"Every man is tempted when he is drawn and enticed by his own lust." (James 1:14) The reason why Jesus was able to shake off all temptation was because He did not have this enemy within. There was nothing in Him that was in collusion with the powers of darkness. In him there was no susceptibility to sin, just as gold or diamonds are no more affected by the attraction of a magnet horseshoe. But in our corrupted human nature there remains to the end of our lives this inner enemy, this self-wish, this desire of the old "I" which seeks to take advantage of every opportunity to reassert itself. It is a flammable substance in us that is ready to flare up again at the slightest fire, to flame, to burn, to devour, to get us into trouble.
And now let us again distinguish this desire of ours from our natural instincts. An apple in my neighbour's garden can whet my appetite just as much as one in my own. Or a physical beauty in a stranger's garden may appeal to our sexual instincts just as much as one in our own. These are facts against which it is no use denying or solemnly declaring that they should not be so. Because they simply are, because it is a biological function. And there is no harm so long as even these most natural biological instincts of my humanity remain within the framework of the divine world order. In other words: I can contemplate my neighbour's blushing apple with pleasure and find bodily beauty that does not belong to me beautiful, as long as I do not desire it, as long as I do not feel the desire to commit theft or infidelity even in thought! The trouble is that these natural instincts of our humanity are the very weak points where the inner enemy, desire, is quickest to open the door to the outer. This is how temptation then becomes a menace, how it spreads within us, how it occupies our innermost being, how it becomes a driving force, a burning fire, a paralysing bondage. That is how it becomes sin.
Man is drawn, seduced by his own lust, and lust, "when it has taken hold, gives birth to sin." (Jas 1:15a) So there, around the desire, is the real problem of temptation. So much so, that even without any external attack from outside, it is only the desire itself that can become a temptation. Who would not know the spiritual process which could be described in this way: desires, the innermost, most secret desires, colour for themselves imaginary images, and the imagined images awaken desires, intensify desire. It simply happens that desire is conceived in the womb, desire begets sin! So it is never the temptation from the outside that is the real problem, but the response from within, the reaction of desire. Here is the fiery nest of all temptations. That is why everything in the world can become a temptation. Prosperity as well as misery. Joy as well as sorrow. Beauty is just like ugliness. Good is just like bad. Good fortune is just like bad fortune. For it is not in the situation, not in the circumstances, not in the behaviour of other people in this or that way that temptation becomes problematic, but in the fact that man is attracted and sweetened by his own desires.
And here James grasps the root of the temptation, because it is precisely this temptation, that man is drawn and seduced by his own desire. Man, who should be drawn and attracted by the will of God, is now suddenly attracted by his own desire, and is drawn away, lured away from communion with God. The temptation is the moment when man is faced with the choice of whom to obey: God or his own desire? It is the moment when man's instinct, his emotions and his will life are taken out of the forbidding and commanding dominion of God's presence and are taken over by desire. Temptation is therefore something that happens between me and God. It is the possibility of turning away from the Lord, of going my own way, of trying to live my life without God, according to my own mind, in my own strength. Temptation is the moment when I am left alone to face sin. "Tempted, sweetened by the lust of self" is something of an attitude: I can do it myself! Why should I pray first, why should I call on God's help here, why should I come to Him first?
This secret self-empowerment of myself, this independence of myself, in which I believe myself to be my own master and the maker of my own fortune; this strange freedom I take for myself, to go off without God, to enter into the various situations of life, to take part in good or bad, in joy or sorrow, in the world or in solitude: this is the poison root from which the whole life is corrupted! And so a happy hour, a joyful state, can become a temptation, for what joy, what happiness, is it to be without the Lord? And so can a disappointment, a failure, a pain, a death, become even more of a temptation for me: for how would I want to pass through this terrible hour without the Lord? The temptation, then, is the danger of falling away from communion with the Lord and giving myself over to the pull of my own desires. Therefore, let no one say that he is tempted by God, let no one blame God for leading him into heavy temptations, for letting him into them, nor let no one blame his environment, the outside world, the evil of men, the sin-infested atmosphere! Let us not shift the blame to others. Let's not talk about inheritance, let's not say: it's not my fault, this is my blood, this is my nerves, God made me this way! Because the root of temptation is in us. James would not deny the power of heredity, of blood, or of nerves, but he would say: you have forsaken the Lord and that is why everything is! If you were in close fellowship with the Lord, you could not be corrupted by your blood, your nerves, or the sin of others. "Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren," says James. Make no mistake about the context. We ourselves are to blame. The problem is that we are drawn and seduced by our own desires instead of the Lord's will.
Well, - but we have these desires within us, no doubt! So what are we to do with these desires? Do we suppress them within ourselves, do we repress them? By no means, - because repressed desires are sent down to our unconscious world, where, escaping the control of the conscious mind, they continue to live, to develop, to boil, to function, and at the first opportunity they erupt with demonic force and wreak terrible havoc. So it is not precisely to suppress that tempting desire, that desire, but to make it very conscious, to bring it to the light of consciousness and expose it, expose it to a good friend and expose it to the Lord! To reveal - to Him! The most powerful weapon against temptation is confession and prayer! It is not for nothing that he speaks of the "Father of lights" in this very context. To open the soul to the Father of light: let the light of the Father's grace, holiness, glory shine in, precisely where desires want to hide in the darkness of the hiding place. To let in the heavenly light into this mysterious depth of the soul.
James says: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of change." (James 1:17) Well: to be continually replenished with this good gift and perfect knowledge from above. It is as if James were saying: you have forsaken Him, but He has not forsaken you! His good gifts and His perfect gifts continue to descend from above: mercy, welcome home, grace, forgiveness of sins. All in all: the descended Jesus Christ, the greatest gift and the most perfect gift. He descended so that in Him God might be perfectly with us! So that the relationship, the communion of life, may be preserved, so that this relationship and communion of life may be taken up again and again with Him.
He ends the line of thought thus. (v. 18) He has just said of the desire that when it is conceived, "it begets sin; and sin, when it is made full, begets death." (verse 15b) Here again he speaks of birth. The Word, that which comes from above, from the Father of light, plants in us another type of life. By its power, new life is born: Christ in us! And if desire has given birth to sin and death in me, the Word of Truth gives birth to the new man, the Christ who lives in me. He makes me a living part of the new creation of the world which began with Jesus' victory over sin and death, with the resurrection, and whose fullness will unfold afterwards.
The solution to the whole problem of temptation is expressed in the prayer we sing:
In my spiritual trials, Jesus, be with me,
Let not my life falter from you.
Fear if it hurts or gain haunts me,
Let me not be parted from you for anything.
(Canto 338, verse 1)
Amen
Date: 12 April 1953.
Lesson
Mt 4,1-11