Day 31 – Holiness is From Above; Lust is From Below

Adulterous hearts chase worldly lust, for they’re enthralled by dust.

Genesis 3:6 - ⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Deuteronomy 5:21 - ²¹ “‘And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.’

Once Eve viewed the forbidden tree through the Serpent’s eyes, she began desiring and thinking like him. The Hebrew word translated “desirable” is the same word translated “covet” in the 10^th Commandment. Eve coveted the forbidden tree, twisting God’s good creation. She willed sin in her heart, then ate with her mouth, and immediately tempted her husband, like the serpent.

This reveals a sobering truth: lust begins not as a neutral impulse but as sin’s seed, bearing the same evil nature from its first impulse to its bitter end. Not only can you not commit sexual immorality, but you also can’t desire it in any form, not even in your heart; not even a fleeting thought, impulse, inclination, or desire.

James 1:13-18 –

[After telling his hearers that God gives us trials to mature us (James 1:2-4), he writes,] ¹³ Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. ¹⁵ Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. ¹⁶ Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. ¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. ¹⁸ Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

God gives us trials to produce perseverance, to mature and complete us (James 1:2-4), but He never tempts us with evil. He cannot be tempted by sin and can never tempt anyone with sin. Rather, often during our trials, our lusts seize moments of weakness to tempt us with evil. We tempt ourselves. The Greek word translated “desire” (James 1:14) can be translated as good desire or evil desire depending on the context. The context here requires it to be translated lust/lawless desire because it’s a desire that God cannot produce and it only conceives sin and grows into death (James 1:13-15).

Sin’s lifecycle begins in the heart, where our lust lures us like a predator stalking its prey. If the devil tempts us, he sins; if someone tempts us, he or she sins; if we tempt others, we sin; but we also sin when we tempt ourselves.

Then, when we submit to our lusts, our internal temptations, we conceive mindful sin, a deeper form of sin. Had we repented at the first lustful impulse by turning to Christ and confessing the lust, we could have rejoiced over our repentance and that we didn’t go further into sin.

Just as a thornbush yields only thorns, lust can only lure and entice us to mindful sin and death, only producing evil, never anything neutral or good. Though trials come from God for our good, temptation, inner or outer, never does, because He only gives good and perfect gifts. Therefore, our inner lusts are always our fault, never God’s; but in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can repent.