Did You Pass?

But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.  Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. James 1:14-15 NASB

Tempted – The Greek peirao needs some explanation. Today we often think that “tempted” is virtually the equivalent of “sinned.” Perhaps that’s because our personal experience frequently seems to connect these two. It’s hard to distinguish between being tempted and doing what the temptation suggests when the line between the two is a blurry mess of white-knuckled resistance and subsequent yielding. But it helps to realize that James’ Greek verb is not about tempting as much as it is about testing. “Each one is tested when” has a different nuanced sense for us. We recognize (hopefully) the difference between a test and a failing grade. The grade is determined by how we perform, not by the test itself. James is pointing out that everyone is tested. Everyone experiences times of examination, appraisal and scrutiny. There is nothing unusual about this process. The secret is being ready for it.

James notices the relationship between testing and desire. In Greek, it is almost an interesting word play. idias epithymia exelkomenos deleazomenos ([your] own desire enticingly lures you away).   And it’s not just any old ordinary desire. This is epi-thymia, the added particle provides emphasis. It’s interesting that most often in Greek epithymia is associated with food or sex. The Tanakh recognizes virtually the same connection. Really important tests come in the context of food and sex. You might give that some added thought. How are you doing with those two tests? Have you considered that what you eat is a divine test? Have you reflected on sexual activity as a divine test? God has a standard. Did you pass or fail?

We should also notice that there is a difference between a test and an obligation. Addictive behavior patterns obligate you to act. Once you choose, you can’t avoid it. Tests only suggest something about your choice of action. In a test, you can choose A, B, C, or my favorite, “None of the above.” The choice is up to you. If you’re prepared, you will know which one is right. But once you make the choice, the rest follows with divine inevitability. If I choose behavior that leads toward addiction in order to medicate my pain, I have set in motion a neuro-chemical sequence that demands a particular outcome. I have obligated myself to the consequences. This is the Hebraic idea that sin includes its own punishment.

The key word in all this is epithymia. In the Gospels the word can actually have positive consequences. My desire for God or for the good is also epithymia. But in James’ verse, epithymia is the rush (both physical and temporal) of disobedience. Make no mistake. It is powerful. Its pathways are well-trodden and deeply engrained. The ruts in the road will automatically guide you toward the detour from Torah if you are not prepared to fight against them. And sometimes that fight seems all but impossible. Luzzatto’s insight about watchfulness is critical here. The smallest, most insignificant, ordinary occurrence can easily become the semaphore that opens the side rails. The test happens far before epithymia gets its grip. The test begins when we uncover all of those semaphores before we get to them. Watchfulness in hindsight is futile.

Do you know your test score? You can only know that if you have identified your brand of epithymia. It’s your semaphore that matters.

Topical Index: epithymia, desire, test, tempt, peirao, James 1:14-15

A TRAVEL NOTE:  Tomorrow I leave for Barcelona where I will board the Silversea Silver Spirit to lecture for two weeks.  From tomorrow until May 10, book orders will be delayed.  Only printed book orders.  Everything else is readily available on the web site.  Thanks for your patience.

 

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laurita hayes

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” I have noticed that what occurs in my brain is a CONSEQUENCE of whatever has already been determined in my heart. But what is in my heart? How do I know that? Skip has written in a previous TM that we are exhorted to capture our thoughts as they occur, but the reason we do that is in order to tame them, not annihilate them. I think of it as the difference between shooting the messenger or listening to what he has to tell me.

The thoughts in my head are already down the creek from the reality of what is in my heart. By the time I am thinking that thought, I have already agreed with what it is going to be ‘telling’ me. My brain will refuse to think a thought I am not in agreement with already. What is going on in my head tells me what is in my heart. When I catch myself starting to think a thought, I still have a chance to choose whether or not I am in agreement with it, and I can cast down vain imaginations, too, but it took me years to notice that not everybody suffers from the same set of thoughts and emotions. Some people, in fact, don’t seem to have them even come up to fight at all. Why?

It is a scientific fact that what occurs in the body is directed first from a thought or impulse or directive that has passed through the portal of my HPA axis and, usually, amygdala, too. Reality is sifted through multiple layers of determining whether or not it is true FOR ME before I ever even get to think the thought or feel the emotion. This is not even confirmation bias: this is more like determining what the bias is going to be!

So what does this tell me when it comes to “testing”? I need to know what is in my heart, but until I can see it, I do not know what is there. Temptation is whatever gives me that opportunity. If I really want to shut up a particular temptation, however, refusing to think the preceding thought is still not going to cut the cake. Ultimately, I am going to have to do the heart work, for my heart contains all the controls for the rest of my responses to reality. What is in my heart determines how the filters I construct to process that reality get created. What is in my heart – what I believe to the bottom of my soul and bones – is what sets my sails. If I am chasing behaviors around, or even trying not to think thoughts, I am still just driving ambulances at the bottom of the hill, and shutting barn doors after the cows are already in the corn.

How do I set my sails, and how do I build the filters of my paradigm? Paradigms are not bad: like everything else that got created into reality, they are neutral tools that we determine how to use. “To the pure, all things are pure” is talking about a filtration system that has been successfully built to filter out the contaminants. How do I become pure? Soul searching shows me what I am believing about love, for all beliefs of the heart have something to do with love. The heart does not care about anything else except love, in fact. If I have not visited Love Central lately, and inspected the place, I am not even going to know how well (or how poorly) my heart is protecting me from danger and filth. What I believe is what sets my paradigm, but my paradigm is what is either going to protect me from the “hour of temptation” or is going to be dumping me into the same old mud puddle. Again. Resetting the paradigm, however, is all going to be about what I believe about love, for the paradigm is a reflection of the beliefs of the heart. How I perceive and process reality really IS all about love!

Judi Baldwin

Skip, I will keep you in my prayers as you set out for Barcelona to lecture abord the Silversea’s “Silver Spirit”
God must have some big plans for that group…hence, He’s bringing out the big guns…Skip Moen.
I’ve no doubt that He has already hand picked the lives that will be profoundly changed by this upcoming voyage. And, as you know, His Truth can penetrate quickly. It can happen in a plane ride from Orlando to Chicago. :-))))
I encourage all your readers to be praying for the passengers. May they have soft hearts that are open to conversation with you throughout the journey. May they have ears that hear, eyes that see and recognize Truth.
Blessings.

Ester

Judi, shalom, and a hearty AMEIN from me too!
Yes, ABBA has hand-picked those whom He knows are hungry and seeking!

Judi Baldwin

Indeed!!

Michael C

Shalom, and I’m in prayerful agreement with you Judi and Ester. Praying Skip’s audience are in shape to hear and do resulting from the hearing! It’ll be a work out, I’m sure. Probably even sore mind and heart muscles in the days following from the excellent workout that awaits them! Wish I could have joined them but grateful for them to be able to hear Skip’s fruitful sharing.

Michael C

May they continue.

George Kraemer

Amen and the beat goes on. Godspeed Skip. May the fish in the Med rise to the bait once again.

Dana

Skip, speaking of testing, how do you think YHWH looks at those who experienced severe trauma in the womb or as an infant or toddler and want healing from that trauma? I know many who have experienced horrible things at a time when they don’t even understand what it is, but yet, the trauma affects their behaviors and choices. They believe(learn) lies so young that they can’t comprehend that they’re lies. How does God judge that individual? Or, look at them, stuck in certain cycles of behavior, wanting to get out but can’t until HE helps them?

Teth

I’ve come to understand these reasons as one of the core details to why we are to try and refrain from (personally) judging other individuals – we can distinguish between rightful and wrong actions, but should try to avoid judging the individual per see, in this manner we avoid casting judgements on circumstances and matters too complex for us to wholly understand and be fully aware of