James 1:14-15

The context

James 1 addresses a congregation facing trials and temptations, and it insists that God is not the source of either. Verse 13 forbids the thought that God tempts anyone, verses 14 and 15 explain the actual mechanism, and verse 17 turns to the good gifts that come down from above.

What it establishes

The verses establish a chain: desire draws a person away, desire conceives, sin is born, and sin matures into death. The imagery is of a lure and of childbirth, and the responsibility is placed on the desire that is enticed, not on God or on circumstance.

What it does not establish

It does not say desire itself is sin. The verse distinguishes being drawn by desire from the act that follows, and the letter elsewhere speaks of good desire. Nor is the sequence a claim that every temptation ends in sin.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• I am homosexual and I was born homosexual – don't homosexuals have the right NOT to be hated and persecuted by the church?

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.