Conquer yourself, and the whole world is conquered

“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.” James 1:13-16

Following are significant statements from "A Thirst for Wholeness" by Jay Adams regarding this passage.

“God doesn’t tempt his children, even though He does strengthen and complete them through trials.” (p 27)

“From God’s perspective, the event is an opportunity, designed for your good; a trial that can strengthen. From Satan’s perspective, the event has potential for evil that will weaken you. In every trial, you should remember the double possibility.” (p 27)

“Some Christians construe every event only as a temptation and miss the opportunity for inner growth. Seeing only temptation defeats and discourages, and, in part, accounts for their failure to overcome.” (p 28)

“So-called positive thinkers see only the good side; the possibilities and the potentials in the trial. Because they do, it is possible for them to treat a trial too lightly, unaware of the dangers in it, and thus fall into one of the many traps Satan sets along the way.” (p 28)

“Every time of trouble comes as a wall with two doors; on the one is written God’s way to victory, on the other Satan’s way to defeat. The fact that you opened the wrong door and stepped in is not God’s fault, but yours.” (p 28)

“The force at work within you when you turn trouble into temptation is not some foreign power that invaded you from without; it is your own desire. That is your principal problem.” (p 28)

“The way James puts it is that you entice yourself to sin. By allowing the outside event to stir some inner desire, you create the temptation.” (p 29)

James outlines a four-step process whereby the indulgence in a desire results in the destruction of the life. The four steps are:
1. Intercourse (in the heart) – Your desire stirs in response to an outward event. You allow your imagination to go and assent to the sin in your mind; your mind goes to bed with the desire; you have sinned in your heart.
2. Conception (in the heart) – You begin to contemplate actually carrying out the sin, not merely indulging it in your heart.
3. Birth (of sin; outer transgression) – Outward expression of the sin in word or deed
4. Death – For the believer, the line leading to death has already been severed by Christ. For an unbeliever, the result is the birth of spiritual death. (p 31-32)

“You like Jesus, have one way of resisting temptation: by countering it with the appropriate Scripture which you must choose to obey rather than the desire.” (p 34)

“Once you have committed inner sin, there is still the possibility of repenting of it and cutting off the process at this point. To go further and sin outwardly as well as inwardly only doubles the sin before God and man and complicates matters.” (p 35)

“When repenting of a sin of the heart (for example, revengeful thoughts) you must seek God’s forgiveness. When you commit outward transgressions (actually do something revengeful toward another), you must seek the forgiveness both from God and from the one against whom you transgressed.” (p 35)

“True repentance involved taking action to block further sin by radical amputation of all aids to sin and effort to plan ahead to do what is fine in the eyes of everyone (Rom 12:17).” (p 35)

“Pray that God may make you conqueror of yourself…not of your enemy without, but of your own soul within…Let no enemy from without be feared: conquer yourself, and the whole world is conquered.” (p 38)