“These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, (a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations).” (Proverbs 6: 16-18a).
I was a Christian for several years before I realized that it was not a sin to be tempted. I assumed that every time I had a bad thought or was dared to do something out of character, that I had sinned. I would beat myself up every time these temptations occurred until God revealed to me that it was not the temptation that was sin, but the contemplation and act itself that made it a sin. After all, Jesus was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15). When we understand the process of temptation, we will be better able to defend against it. James says that every man is tempted incrementally in five steps: 1) Man is drawn away by his own lust 2) enticed by the temptation 3) the lust is conceived 4) lust brings forth sin 5) sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. Hence temptation only becomes sin when lust is conceived: birth must be given to the thought before it is sin. Satan throws fiery darts of temptation at us all day long. When those tempting thoughts come, we must cast them down (II Corinthians 10:5) and refuse to dwell on them. If we fail to do so, we will begin to visualize and fantasize about the temptation. Satan knows our weaknesses and exploits them, sending specific temptations tailored to our vulnerabilities. The Lord hates the heart that deviseth wicked imagination because He knows that whatever we dwell on in our heart- even imaginations- will eventually be acted upon. Like a developing baby, the more you feed the temptation, the bigger it will grow until it demands to be born. Similarly, when our hearts are allowed to continually devise wicked imaginations, sin will eventually be conceived and, ultimately, bring forth death.
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