James 1:14

James 1:14-15. But every man is tempted when — In the beginning of the temptation; he is drawn away of his own lust — Greek, υπο της ιδιας επιθυμιας εξελκομενος ; literally, he is drawn out of God, his strong refuge, by his own desire; excited by some external object presenting itself; and enticed — Δελεαζομενος , caught with a bait. It is generally supposed that the allusion here is to the drawing of fish out of a river with a baited hook: a metaphor used by Plato, as quoted by Cicero, ( De Senect., cap. 13,) “Divine enim Plato, escam malorum appellat voluptatem; quod ea videlicet homines capiantur ut hamo pisces.” Plato divinely calls pleasure a bait of evil things; namely, because by it men are taken as fishes by a hook. With regard to most temptations that draw men into sin, the case seems to be thus: 1st, An outward object presents itself, which appears to be desirable, either on account of the profit or pleasure it seems calculated to afford; 2d, Through an inordinate love of ease, honour, wealth, or pleasure, a desire of that object arises in a man’s corrupt heart; 3d, That desire is yielded to, instead of being resisted, and thereby he is drawn from that line of duty in which he before walked, and from that state of union and communion with God which he enjoyed, and is entangled in the guilt and misery of sin. We are therefore to look for the causes of every sin chiefly in ourselves; in our appetites, passions, and corrupt inclinations.

Even the injections of the devil cannot hurt us, till we make them our own, by entertaining and yielding to them. Then, when lust, desire, hath conceived — By obtaining the consent of our will, that is, when it is yielded to; it bringeth forth actual sin — By a speedy birth, where, perhaps, the full indulgence of the desire was not at first intended. It does not follow from this, that the desire itself is not sin. He that begets a man is himself a man; and sin, when it is finished — Actually committed; bringeth forth death — Tends, in its consequences, to the final ruin of both soul and body, as naturally as the conception of an animal does to its birth. Indeed, sin is born big with death. Thus St. James “represents men’s lust as a harlot, which entices their understanding and will into its impure embraces, and from that conjunction conceives sin. And sin, being brought forth and nourished by frequent repetitions, in its turn begets death, which destroys the sinner. This is the true genealogy of sin and death. Lust is the mother of sin, and sin the mother of death; and the sinner the parent of both. James 1:18 , the apostle gives the genealogy of righteousness. All the righteous deeds which men perform, and the holy designs and desires, intentions and affections, which are found in them, proceed from their renewed nature; and their nature is renewed by the power of truth and grace; and God is the prime mover in the whole.” — Macknight.

Drawn away (ἐξελκόμενος) Only here in New Testament. This and the following word are metaphors from hunting and fishing. Drawn away, as beasts are enticed from a safecovert into a place beset with snares. Note the present participle, as indicating the progress of the temptation: "is being drawn away." Enticed (δελεαζόμενος) As a fish with bait. Also the present participle. See on 2 Peter 2:14.

Jam 1:14 . Ἕκαστος , every man ) Antithetical to οὐδένα , “ no man ,” Jam 1:13 .— ὑπὸ , by ) Lust is, as it were, the harlot; human nature, the man.— ἰδίας , his own ) We ought therefore to seek the cause of sin in ourselves, and not without us. Even the suggestions of the devil do not occasion danger, before they are made our own ( ἴδια ). Every one has his own peculiar lust , arising from his own peculiar disposition, habit, and temperament.— ἐξελκόμενος , drawn away ) in the beginning of the temptation, which draws him away from truth and virtue. A passive participle.— δελεαζόμενος , enticed ) in its further progress, admitting the allurement to evil (allowing himself to be enticed). A middle participle.

14. Every man, when tempted, is so through being drawn away of (again here, as in Jas 1:13, the Greek for "of" expresses the actual source, rather than the agent of temptation) his own lust. The cause of sin is in ourselves. Even Satan's suggestions do not endanger us before they are made our own. Each one has his own peculiar (so the Greek) lust, arising from his own temperament and habit. Lust flows from the original birth-sin in man, inherited from Adam. drawn away—the beginning step in temptation: drawn away from truth and virtue. enticed—literally, "taken with a bait," as fish are. The further progress: the man allowing himself (as the Greek middle voice implies) to be enticed to evil [Bengel]. "Lust" is here personified as the harlot that allures the man.

Verse 14 states the true origin of temptation. While the occasion might be of God "in the order of his providence and of our spiritual training," the inclination is not of him. Compare with this verse the description of the harlot in Proverbs 7:6-27 . Here lust is personified, and represented as a seducing harlot, to whose embraces man yields, and the result is the birth of sin, which in its turn gives birth to death. James 1:14

He shows the great cause of sin; that lust hath a greater hand in it than either the devil or his instruments, who cannot make us sin without ourselves: they sometimes tempt, and do not prevail; but when lust tempts, it always prevails, either in whole or in part, it being a degree of sin to be our own tempters. Drawn away; either this notes a degree of sin, the heart’s being drawn off from God; or the way whereby lust brings into sin, viz. the impetuousness and violence of its motions in us. Of his own lust; original corruption in its whole latitude, though chiefly with respect to the appetitive faculties. And enticed; either a further degree of sin, enticed by the pleasantness of the object, as represented by our own corruption; or another way of lust’s working in us to sin, viz. by the delightfulness and pleasure of its motions: in the former it works by a kind of force, in this by flattery and deceit. It is either a metaphor taken from a fish enticed by a bait, and drawn after it, or rather from a harlot drawing a young man out of the right way, and alluring him with the bait of pleasure to commit folly with her.

(14) So far the inspired Apostle has spoken of the outward part of temptation; now he lays bare the inner—for we suffer the two-fold evil. From without come the whispers of Satan, by himself or his legionaries, skilled in all that may entice and delude the unwary soul. And if the doctrine be true that to every one a guardian angel is appointed, so also would seem to be the opposite idea, that each has some demon of the pit watching him incessantly, and commissioned specially for his utter destruction. How terrible must be the skill of such assailants, experienced in the arts which have deceived mankind since the first fatal day. But there is the limit of external power in this matter; the ablest and subtlest fiend can but guess what is passing in its victim’s mind, and shape its snares accordingly. God only is the discerner of hearts, and the “spirit of man which is in him” alone, with its Maker, “knoweth the things of a man” ( 1Corinthians 2:11 ). The Holy Spirit “searcheth all things” ( James 1:10 ), and all are manifest in His sight ( Hebrews 4:13 ), but to no less than His own omniscience. Satan, therefore, can merely act on his general knowledge of human nature, aided by particular guesses at the individual before him, whom he fain would destroy. He has learned too well the deep corruption of the heart, and knows what gaudy bait will most attract the longing and licentious eyes.

Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of (or, by) his own lust, and enticed.—Evil humanity thrills responsive as a harp played by a cunning hand; but no power of hell can force its way through the barriers which God the Holy Ghost erects around the faithful and confiding soul: only by treason of the man himself can the great enemy enter in and reign.

14 . when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed ] Both the participles are primarily used of the way in which animals are taken, the first of capture by the hook or noose, as with fish or the crocodile (Herod. 11. 70), the second of beasts or birds which are attracted by food set for them as a bait. Both words had come to be used figuratively of sensual passion, the latter twice by St Peter ( 2 Peter 2:14 ; 2 Peter 2:18 ), and the imagery that follows here suggests the thought that St James had the picture of the harlot of Proverbs 7:6-23 present to his thoughts. There the “young man void of understanding” yields to her allurements as “a bird hasteth to the snare.” “Lust,” or rather, desire , in its widest sense, including desire for safety, riches, ease, as well as sensual pleasure, is to man’s will as the harlot-temptress of that picture. The temptations of which the earlier verses of the Chapter had spoken are thus, though no longer prominent, not excluded. Adversity and persecution expose men to the evil solicitations of their lower nature, to love of ease and safety, no less than luxury and prosperity. In both “desire” tempts the will to depart from what it knows to be the will of God.

Jam 1:14 . ἕκαστος δὲ πειράζεται ὑπὸ τῆς ἰδίας ἐπιθυμίας : according to this the evil originates in man himself, which would be the case more especially with the sin of lust; with regard to temptation to sin of another character see 1 Thessalonians 3:5 , … μή πως ἐπείρασεν ὑμᾶς ὁ πειράζων , who is doubtlessly to be identified with Satan.— ἐξελκόμενος καὶ δελεαζόμενος : describes the method of the working of ἐπιθυμία , the first effect of which is “to draw the man out of his original repose, the second to allure him to a definite bait” (Mayor). ἐξελκ . is in its original meaning used of fishing, δελεαζ . of hunting, and then of the wiles of the harlot; both the participles might be transferred, from their literal use in application to hunting or fishing, to a metaphorical use of alluring to sensual sin, and thus desire entices the man from his self-restraint as with the wiles of a harlot, a metaphor maintained by the words which follow, ‘conceived,’ ‘beareth,’ ‘bringeth forth’; cf. 2 Peter 2:14 ; 2 Peter 2:18 , where the same verb is found, and Philo, Quod omn. prob lib. , 22, ‘driven by passion or enticed by pleasure’ ” (Knowling).