This passage is far too important to me and to my spiritual life to give it a short treatment. I therefore make no apology for the length of the following study. I hope you’ll stick with me.
James is shining the light on sin in my life and yours. After trying and praying and trying even harder, why do I continue to give into temptation?

To fully grasp James’ message, I will do an exercise in what I refer to as “end-forward analysis.” I’ll start at the end (v.27) and break down James’ teaching in reverse until I get to v.13.

I found that makes the nuances of his complete message clearer.

1:26-27

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26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

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James lists three components of a pure religion that God accepts. You and I can use these to test whether God accepts the religion we practice. God accepts my religion if I:

1. Take care of people who are facing trials. James uses the example of widows and orphans, which in the economy and society of their day were among the worst off (v. 27)
2. Remain unpolluted by the world (v. 27) 
3. Control your tongue (v. 26)  

Are these components of your life?

• Do you regularly take care of needy people?
• Do you shun natural values and natural thinking? 
• Do you avoid using your tongue to gossip, cuss, slander, lie, spew out angry words, etc.? 

If you really want to discover why sin persists in your life, this is the place to start. Check your own religion against James’ measuring rod here.

James presses further in v. 26 when he says that A LOOSE TONGUE = SELF-DECEPTION. If you can’t control your tongue, you are deceiving yourself about how acceptable your own religion is to God.

1:25

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25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

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Living a moral life results in God blessing things you do. Conversely, you can’t expect God to bless things you do if you are living an immoral life.

What does it take to live a moral life?

1. Look into the “perfect law that gives freedom” [See my side note below] 
2. Do this continually so you don’t forget what you’ve learned
3. Put what you learn into practice
   

1:23-24
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

There’s that same phrase, “looks intently.”

The best educators know that instructing isn’t enough. After students learn, they need opportunities to apply what they’ve learned in order to incorporate their new knowledge into who they are.

James wrote about that here. After you listen to the Word, you must also apply it to your life for it to change you from the inside out.

If you simply hear or read the Word but don’t do what it says, it’s like looking into a mirror, walking away, and forgetting what you look like! That’s because the Word doesn’t just teach us about God. It teaches us about ourselves – our tendencies and natural inclinations.

Without putting my learning into practice, the Bible has just been a good read, and those promptings of the Holy Spirit in my life have just been good ideas.

1:22

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But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

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If that is what I do – learn God’s will but don’t apply it – I am deceiving myself.

That’s the second “self-deception” James mentions. We’ll get a third one in a moment.

1:21

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21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

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Moral filth and evil are everywhere, James says. It sure is no different today! You need to get rid of it in your own life by humbly accepting God’s Word.

He planted that Word in you in order to save you.

1:19-20

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19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

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This is why I wanted to study this backward. I brought out a surprising truth than could be easily overlooked.

Did it surprise you in this “backwards reading” exercise, that the “filthiness” was James thinking of in v.21 is anger?

In our society, anger is socially acceptable and even expected, thanks to a large degree to sports and politics.

Anger is taken for granted. Few people today would think of anger when you say “moral filth.”

But God destroyed His creation by the flood because violence (which is just anger acted out) had gotten to be so bad. Genesis 6:13 says “So God said to Noah, 'I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.'”

1:17-18

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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.

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V.18 God gave us rebirth through “the Word of truth.” He did this so that we would become a kind of “firstfruits” of His creation.

There’s a deep significance in James’ choice of the word Firstfruit that may be lost on modern Christians. Here’s a summary:

• In the Old Testament, God’s people weren’t allowed to pick the first produce from a tree or grain for 3 years because it provided the purest seed for reproducing. 
• In the fourth year, they were to sacrifice the first of their produce to God as the finest sample (Lev 19:23-24).
• Priests were allowed to eat this first fruit sacrifice, but they were to “eat it as something most holy” (Num 18:10-11). 

So, when James says God planted the Word in us so that we would become His firstfruits, he is saying that God gave us birth through the Word in order to make us a pure, holy, and acceptable offering to Him.

V.17 Every gift in your life that is from God is “good and perfect.” On the other hand, anything that is not from God is not good and perfect, and anything that is not good and perfect must not be from God.

The application here is simply to be honest about the “stuff” in our lives.

• What is truly from God? If it’s not good and perfect, it’s not from Him.
• What should we ask God for in our prayers? Nothing that is worldly or imperfect.
• What should be our attitude toward the not-so-good and imperfect things in our lives? We should realize we probably achieved them on our own. They didn’t come from God.  

James answers that explicitly in the next 4 verses...

1:13-16

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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.

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So we still have that same burning question we started with: “Why do we sin? Why, after trying and praying and trying some more, do we continue to give into temptation?”

First, God never tempts you to sin. You cannot blame God for putting you in a tempting situation. You must accept that temptation is coming from your natural desires, not from God (v. 13-14)

Next, look carefully at the progression in vv. 14-16:

1. Your evil Desire “drags you away.” The Greek word translated “dragged away” - exelko (ἐξέλκω) - describes bait being dragged through the water in order to attract a fish.
   
2. Then you are “enticed.” This is another fishing term in Greek, deleazo (δελεάζω). It describes a fish actually biting the bait.
   
3. Your Desire then becomes pregnant. That is, your desire “conceives.” What impregnated your Desire? You did it - when you took the bait. 
   
4. Your pregnant Desire gives birth to Sin.
   
5. Your Sin becomes pregnant and “gives birth to death” (which is a very strange phrase!)

Notice closely:

• Your Pregnant Desire isn’t Sin, it’s the mother of Sin.  
• You can abort Sin before it’s born, even after you’re tempted. You do that by looking intently into the Word and applying what you’ve learned.  
• Your Pregnant Sin isn’t Death, it’s the mother of Death.  
• You can abort Death before it’s born, even after you’ve sinned. 
• You do that by allowing God to make you His firstfruit sacrifice by giving you birth through the Word of truth.  

Blaming temptation on God, confusing temptation with sin, or giving up hope when you’ve sinned… James calls these self-deception, too (v. 16).

Pulling It All Together
So now I’m going to try to pull together the full message of James 1:13-27.

James highlights three forms of self-deception:

1. Self-Deception #1: Misunderstanding Temptation and Sin
   Believing that temptation comes from God, feeling hopeless to resist temptation, or giving up hope after I’ve sinned (vv. 13-16)
2. Self-Deception #2:  Misunderstanding The Purpose Of God’s Word
   Believing that learning God’s Word is adequate and not applying it to my life (vv. 17-25)
3. Self-Deception #3: Misunderstanding The Religion God Accepts  
   Believing that my religion is acceptable to God even if I don’t control my tongue (vv. 26-27)

Lessons Learned – Short Version:

• Regarding Self-Deception #1, your sin comes from you being lured by your evil desires and you biting the bait. When you do this, sin eventually happens, and death is the end result. 
• Regarding Self-Deception #2, God saves you through the Word as it is applied to your life. God will bless the things you do if you continually look intently into the Word and then apply the things you learn to your life. 
• Regarding Self-Deception #3, if you want God to accept your religion you must have control over your tongue, take care of people who are facing trials, and refuse to be polluted by the world.