Don’t be misled

The Lord warned me one day this week during my devotional time.

God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, no one who wants to do wrong should ever say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else either. Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires. These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death. So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters.  (James 1:12-16 NLT)

The “once saved, always saved” churches in which I was raised would agree that Christians need to be warned about the danger of succumbing to temptation, but they would have insisted that the worst a Christian would face for backsliding was a loss of reward in heaven. (I knew deacons who apparently ran a cost-benefit analysis and decided the loss of reward was worth it!)

That flies in the face of what Scripture plainly says.

In v.1, James says he is writing to Jewish Christians. In v.16, he refers to his audience as “dear brothers and sisters.” There is no doubt that he is warning believers to not be misled, not the “never saved” or “almost saved.”

And what is the danger he is warning these believers about? Not just that “evil desires lead to evil actions” but that “evil actions lead to death.”

Is he merely saying that the Christian who stops resisting evil actions will die a physical death, that God will remove him from this life so he doesn’t do any further damage to his witness? That certainly may happen. Ananias and Sapphira lied about what they were giving to the church and paid for it with their lives. (Acts 5)

But what James is saying here is far more certain than “perhaps” a Christian will die an early death if he lets his evil desires lure him into evil actions. There’s no “maybe” here. James is saying that evil desires always lead to evil actions and that evil actions always lead to death. The Greek word here is thanatos, not apollumi, but the implication clearly is that death, not life, is the result of sin. When Paul said, “The wages of sin is death,” he wasn’t talking merely about physical death.

Don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. The danger a Christian faces if he allows evil desires to continually lead him into evil actions is far worse than merely a loss of reward.

And while we’re at it, dear pastors and teachers, don’t be misleading your people either. After they patiently endure testing, that’s when they receive the crown of life they were promised. They should not regard themselves as having already laid hold of salvation but should press on toward the goal.  (Philippians 3:13-14)