God Is Good! (3 of 11)
Series: James
Joe Alain
James 1:13-18
The Bible affirms that God's creation is good. "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day" (Gen. 1:31). And yet because of the presence of sin in the world, sometimes there are conflicts between God's good creations. As believers in Jesus, we know that even in times of adversity God is at work. That is why we can say as Job did after some difficult trials, "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? In all this, Job did not sin in what he said" (Job 2:10). Job affirmed the goodness of God in the midst of his adversity.
James in James chapter one has been telling us that trials and tests in life are designed to make us better not bitter, to make us stronger not weaker, to build us up not tear us down. But if we do not handle life's tests in the right way, testing times can become tempting times. In James 1:13-18, he has in mind some of his flock who have not responded to tests in the right way. As a result, they have reasoned that it was God who led them astray, who led them into temptation. It was God's fault that they were in the predicament that they were in. To that kind of thinking, James clearly says, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone" (1:13).
Ever since the time of Adam and Eve people have been playing the blame game, looking for someone to blame for their being tempted and giving in to temptation. And of course it's not a big leap to move from blaming one another to blaming God for our temptations. We reason, if God is sovereign then he must also be responsible for this temptation that I'm going through. And yet when it comes to temptation, James puts the responsibility squarely back on the person's nature (vv.14-15).
I. The Source of Temptation
In verses 14-15 we find th ...
Series: James
Joe Alain
James 1:13-18
The Bible affirms that God's creation is good. "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day" (Gen. 1:31). And yet because of the presence of sin in the world, sometimes there are conflicts between God's good creations. As believers in Jesus, we know that even in times of adversity God is at work. That is why we can say as Job did after some difficult trials, "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? In all this, Job did not sin in what he said" (Job 2:10). Job affirmed the goodness of God in the midst of his adversity.
James in James chapter one has been telling us that trials and tests in life are designed to make us better not bitter, to make us stronger not weaker, to build us up not tear us down. But if we do not handle life's tests in the right way, testing times can become tempting times. In James 1:13-18, he has in mind some of his flock who have not responded to tests in the right way. As a result, they have reasoned that it was God who led them astray, who led them into temptation. It was God's fault that they were in the predicament that they were in. To that kind of thinking, James clearly says, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone" (1:13).
Ever since the time of Adam and Eve people have been playing the blame game, looking for someone to blame for their being tempted and giving in to temptation. And of course it's not a big leap to move from blaming one another to blaming God for our temptations. We reason, if God is sovereign then he must also be responsible for this temptation that I'm going through. And yet when it comes to temptation, James puts the responsibility squarely back on the person's nature (vv.14-15).
I. The Source of Temptation
In verses 14-15 we find th ...
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