“. . . for God cannot be tempted with evil and He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” James 1:13-15
(I published this last year and for some reason lost it, so here we go again)
Was musing on this verse the other day when into my mind popped images from the Alien movie that fit very well with much of this text. My recollections may be a touch dim, but as far as I can remember the humans landed on a planet and were scouting things out when one of them found something interesting, a pod in which lay an egg of some sort. Finding this very interesting the human took a closer look, and out of the egg exploded an octopus-like thing, wrapping itself around the poor fellow’s helmet. “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” I wonder how many folks tonight, feeling lonely, lazy, angry, neglected, drunken, frustrated, tired, bored, depressed etc . . . will wander into the dark forest of Internet banality in search of something that may distract them and give them, however fleetingly, the adult equivalent of a baby’s soother? Millions. They will be much like good king David who, having napped in the afternoon (2 Samuel 11) went up on the roof of his palace in search of new ways to fritter away his time, and indeed found one. Back to the Alien.
With the young Alien firmly attached, the crew takes him on board the ship and try to cut the creature’s arms off his face, to no avail. But lo, the next morning the creature has disappeared and the guy seems to be in great health, none the worse for wear it would seem until . . . the little Alien, having hidden in the poor guy’s chest cavity, chews it way out and explodes through his chest, killing him, screaming at the rest of the crew before sprinting off to hide in the ship. “Uh oh! Seems like we’ve got a bigger problem now!”
“Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin . . .” Everything seemed okay on the outside. He appeared in robust health. Everything seemed normal. But a brewing desire always wants to cut loose and is never content with any kind of restraint. It wants out. It must get out, just like the Alien. And so birth is given, but not the kind of birth to celebrate, but rather a birth to kill. The little Alien is no cuddly friend but a horror who only wants to destroy, much like a desire for some illicit pleasure will attach itself to someone or something, not to give life and deep, lasting satisfaction, but simply to get, get, get, regardless of the cost.
“. . . and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” The Alien, an apt ambassador of sin, is not content to stay small but grows bigger and more powerful with each passing human it destroys. The creature becomes so powerful that at the end it is really against the odds that anyone survives. “. . . and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Sin, like the Alien, is a fire; it consumes and is never inclined to say, “I’ve had enough, I’ll stop destroying.”
Unlike us, the human who first investigated the strange pod did not know what was waiting there for him. We on the other hand know that when our desires are stirred and illicit cravings call us to act, when for example lust and its buddy pornography calls us to the swamp, we have the opportunity to fight our desires when they do not yet have fully formed hands and feet. When we do not fight back however, the Alien bores deep into us, nuzzling and feeding alongside our hearts for a time before bursting out of our chests to do us and others as much harm as possible. And on the menu will be found a whole host of items: Regret – “I thought he really loved me”. . . Disease – “I didn’t know she had genital warts”. . . Enslavement – “I can’t get these images out of my head . . . I can’t make love to my wife without seeing these other girls”. . . Guilt – “I wish I had never done it”. . . An unforgiving heart . . . .”I will never trust him again” Death – “You mean I can’t have kids, ever.”
The debris trail is as long and varied as it is expensive.
Brothers and sisters, let’s stop playing with sin, calling it sweet names. It’s an assassin that wants your life, it wants your joy, it wants your peace. It eats faith in Christ, whether it is big or still small and growing.
Therefore in the words of the great Puritan John Owen, ”Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”