James 1:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then we are torn more grievously than women in labor. Therefore I urge you not to accept a corrupt desire, especially at the beginning. But if we have accepted it, we must destroy the seed within.

If we have been negligent even to this point, then the accomplished sin must be erased through confession, tears, and self-accusation. Nothing is so destructive to sin as recognition and condemnation.

But "desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin." Do you not fear this? "Sin, when it is accomplished, brings forth death." At least fear death.

If you do not fear sin, fear that to which sin leads. Sin is sweet, but death is bitter. This is the final calamity of men.

The things for which they sin, they leave here when they die, but they take the sins themselves with them. You sin for money; you will leave it here.

You sin for other possessions; you will leave them here. You sin for a woman; you will leave her here. Whatever you sin for, when you close your eyes in death, you will leave it here.

With you, you will take only the sins themselves, which you committed for the sake of those things.

Let us show this by examples. Joseph was tempted by the words of his mistress. But since he had no lustful desire, he could be tempted only by suggestion, not by delight and consent. Therefore he became the victor over the enemy.

David was tempted by the sight of another man's wife. Since he had not yet conquered fleshly desire, he was drawn away and deceived by his own desire.

As soon as he committed the transgression conceived in his heart, he became guilty of death, being condemned even by his own mouth. Yet he escaped death through repentance.

Judas was tempted by love of money. Since he was greedy, he was drawn away and deceived by his own desire, and through consent he fell into perdition.

Job was tempted in various ways. Yet since he preferred neither possessions nor bodily health to divine love, he could be tempted only by the enemy's suggestion. He in no way wished either to consent to sin or even to take pleasure in it.

Accomplished sin brings forth death. What is said here is opposite to what was said above about the man who endures temptation. Because, having been tested, he will receive the crown of life.

For if the one who conquers in temptation merits the reward of life, then the one deceived by his own desires is conquered by temptation and justly suffers defeat unto death.

For our Lord Jesus Christ, by whose grace we are ministers, is High Priest of the good things to come, not of temporary things. By His blood He truly entered the Holy Place, having obtained for us not temporary but eternal redemption.

This eternal liberation is what we also had as our aim. Believe me, we cared for afflictions of the soul, not those of the body.

For our weapons, as the Apostle says, are not fleshly, but mighty through God for the destruction of strongholds, not material strongholds, but those built against us by the spiritual enemy.

But, as it seems to me, you neither understand nor seek this liberation from temptations of the soul. You grieve especially over those trials over which you should rejoice, since they can provide us with eternal liberation, if only we desire it.

From me you greatly seek this liberation from material afflictions. I have come here to you in order to suffer with you, although I give less importance to this liberation from visible troubles.

But if we grieve over our sins more than over the misfortunes that come upon us, not only will salvation of soul and eternal redemption be added to us, but also deliverance from temporal temptations.

For why has our life become painful and full of many sorrows, filled with struggle and calamities? Is it not because, through transgression of the commandment, we cast ourselves into forbidden temptation, by which I mean sin?

If now we cleanse ourselves from every sin by repentance, then even here we shall have need of lighter temptations. In due time we shall enter into a life without sorrow and without burden.

Turning to this saving thought, let us grieve and be troubled not over bodily misfortunes and losses, but over injuries of the soul. These are true temptations and are worthy of grief.

Then we may say to God as He Himself taught us: "Lead us not into temptation," that forbidden and wholly accountable temptation, "but deliver us from the evil one. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, unto the ages of ages. Amen" (Mt 6:13).

For example, the evil desire of those two Jewish elders conceived the sin of adultery against the chaste Susanna. In the end, it brought them a double death, of body and soul.

As Daniel said to one of them: "Beauty deceived you, and desire corrupted your heart" (Dan 13:56).

Desires also put the negligent to death, so that they do nothing with their hands. Solomon said: "The desires of the sluggard kill him, for his hands refuse to do anything" (Prov 21:25).

So too the desire for riches plunges a man into utter ruin and destruction. Paul said: "Those who desire to be rich fall into trials and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge men into utter ruin and destruction" (1 Tim 6:9).

As was said, evil desire conceives sin. Therefore, conversely, good desire conceives virtue through consent and gives birth to it through action. Virtue, when accomplished, gives birth to the life of the soul.

Solomon said: "A good desire is a tree of life" (Prov 13:12). And again: "The desire for wisdom leads up to the kingdom" (Wis 6:20).

For this reason Daniel was called by the Archangel Gabriel a man of desires (Dan 9:23), or better, by the Spirit, according to Gregory the Theologian in his discourse to his father.

The divine Cyril of Alexandria also cites this saying: "Those who tolerate idols in their soul and allow shameful images and thoughts to be present in it should know that they will become a dwelling of bats, that is, of unclean spirits.

"Each one, he says, is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desire," and so forth. Therefore let us suppress the beginnings of the passions and cast away the new idols, the sensual desires that invade through thoughts.

Let us remember what is written: "If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place; for healing will quiet great sins" (Eccl 10:4) (Homily 2 on Isaiah, vol. 2).

This means the healing of the first assaults of thoughts, which prevents sin from being committed in deed. These are the assaults that arise from the conjunction and consent of thoughts.

In another place, the same Cyril noted on the same saying: "You see how the first generation of wickedness is accomplished in desires, and how the first seeds of sin are conceived in shameful pleasures" (book 4 on John, vol. 4).

There the fruit of temptation is patience, which leads to moral perfection, and the end is eternal blessed life. Here the fruit of temptation is sin, and the end is eternal death.

Should one rejoice even in these latter kinds of temptations, which of course also occur not without God's permission? They too can serve moral perfection, if a man struggles against them with God's help.

If, when overcome by them, he rises again, then in this case such temptations too must certainly be received with joy. But if a man does not struggle against them, and is only carried away by them, he sinks into sins and is deprived of eternal life.

Then weeping and groaning must take the place of joy. The Apostle, however, does not unfold this here. His purpose here is only to show and prove that God is not the author of temptation leading to death, but man himself.

That struggle was between submission to the will of God and self-will. Dissatisfaction with God's commandment arose in her. A desire contrary to God's will was conceived, a desire to act against the commandment.

The cunning spirit of malice, who was watching her sharply, noticed this God-opposing desire in her and strengthened it by his suggestions.

Under the influence of the devil's flattering words, which promised our first parents equality of honor with God and independence from Him, the fruit of the forbidden tree became a lure.

Eve rushed upon it with the eagerness of a bird that sees the bait and fails to notice the net beneath it, which destroyed it.

Eve ate this fruit, "drawn away and enticed by her own desire," and thus sin, at first hidden in the soul, was committed in deed. After sin came the sentence of death.

Desire conceived sin in the soul. The commission of sin in deed corresponded to the birth into the world of a conceived infant. The accomplished sin brought forth death.

This history of the ancestral sin is repeated in the life of every sinner. "Each one is tempted toward sin by his own desire," that is, by an irrational desire contrary to the will of God.

At first the root of this desire is the representation of sin. This representation of sin is called an assault, or provocation. In itself it is not imputable, so long as sympathy for sin has not arisen in the heart.

This sympathy is called conjunction with sin, or being deceived by sin. If this sympathy is not stopped at the very beginning and has deeply taken root in the heart, this means that the soul has conceived sin.

Conceived sin, as is proper to every seed, grows and strives to bear fruit, to turn into a sinful deed. The irrepressibility of this striving is called captivity.

This means that the soul has brought itself into slavery to sin, to the loss of freedom to resist it. Then sinful desire gives birth to a sinful deed, which in turn gives birth to death.

First comes spiritual death, which consists in the soul becoming insensitive to the voice of God's grace calling it to salvation. It dies while still alive to the spiritual life. Then follows eternal death, that is, eternal perdition.