The desires of our heart: where evil begins

Before we start to live in sin, forsaking God to live like the world, something happens to us, something deep and on the inside. James 1:13-15 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” The scripture plainly states that the desires of our heart are where it all begins.

We are first drawn away by our own desires and enticed. Satan is looking for that desire, any weakness he can find. This mean, that the desires of our heart are the keys that unlock the door to sin.

The wrong desires are even sinful within themselves. Jesus said in Matthew 5:28, “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Here we have a certain desire of a man, for a woman, plainly being stated as sin! Second John 2:15-16 says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world.” If our desires fall into any of these three categories, the lust if the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, they should be done away with immediately!

Jonathan Glaesemann