Don't Blame the Devil for Everything

 December 21, 2024

Saturday

James 1:14–15 (NASB 2020) ¹⁴ But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. ¹⁵ Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.

The devil gets blamed for some things that he didn't do. He has no power to make us sin. He is not irresistible. The lust for sin is present before we are ever tempted. It will carry us away if it is not arrested before it gains momentum.

I helped a friend load a train car with grain while I was in high school. We had a simple system of using a stationary auger to load a car, then move the next car under the auger to fill it. I cannot imagine how much a train car full of grain weighs. Moving the cars seemed easy. We simply took a tractor, hooked up and chain to the cars and moved them one space. We had measured the space and placed a large log on the tracks to stop the cars. We didn't notice that the train cars were on a slight decline. My friend hooked up the tractor and I released the brakes on the last car. Everything was going fine until the cars quickly started going faster than the tractor. The log was split as if it were a toothpick. We had runaway train cars with no possibility of unhooking the chain from the tractor. So, I ran until I caught the last car and turned the brake until it stopped everything.

Our lust is like a heavy load on a decline. The first problem is that we can't understand how it could ever get out of hand. The second problem is that we don't notice it is out of hand when it is. It is conceived and gives birth. It takes us away from a close relationship with the Lord. It doesn't eliminate the relationship but there is no intimacy. It is like a estranged marriage. The couple remain married but there is no intimacy. Death is the lack of that relationship. 

Jesus said that He came to give abundant life. That life is one of a close relationship with the Lord. The lack of that life is a type of death.

We cannot blame the devil for all of this. We are the ones who should have evaluated the load and the decline. We should never try to resist temptation. We must flee from it. That is our responsibility. We must keep our eyes open and our ears tuned to hear the Lord tell us that we are on a slippery slope. 

Sin is no more of an accident than breaking through the barriers that warn that the bridge is out.