{"id":25992,"date":"2012-09-19T20:58:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T01:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=25992"},"modified":"2020-09-12T21:02:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T02:02:11","slug":"what-is-the-difference-between-temptation-and-lust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-temptation-and-lust\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the difference between temptation and lust?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Hi<\/p>\n<p>I was reading some of the questions that many have posted and one of them caught my attention. In it, you said that being tempted is not a sin. Many of the things we do that are wrong start in the mind, right? So when do the thoughts themselves become a sin? How do you tell temptation from sin in the mental realm? Actions are pretty good for me to tell but thoughts not so much. Any advice would be helpful thanks. Also if I am not clear enough in any way let me know.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>First, let me prove my point:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jesus was without sin. &#8220;<em>And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin<\/em>&#8221; (I John 3:5).<\/li>\n<li>Jesus was tempted. &#8220;<em>For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin<\/em>&#8221; (Hebrews 4:15).<\/li>\n<li>Therefore, being tempted is not sinful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>James details the process of sin in this fashion: &#8220;<em>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<\/em>&#8221; (James 1:14-15). The steps are:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Desires:\u00a0<\/strong>Each of us is born with a normal, natural set of desires. The physical desires are the consequence of the operation of our bodies. We also have spiritual desires, such as not wanting to be alone, wanting to be liked by others, or wanting something pretty.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Temptation:<\/strong>\u00a0Satan tries to place us in situations where it appears that the satisfaction of a desire will require the breaking of a law of God. Temptation is the forcing of a choice to be made: either to break a law of God and satisfy a desire or to forego satisfaction in order to keep God&#8217;s law.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lust (desire conceived):\u00a0<\/strong>When a person mentally consents that breaking a law of God is worth satisfying the desire, then the person has moved into the realm of lust. This is when the person justifies to himself that breaking God&#8217;s law can be excused, at least in some situations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sin:\u00a0<\/strong>This is when a person seizes an opportunity and actually breaks God&#8217;s law.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Licentiousness (sin full-grown):\u00a0<\/strong>Sin is rarely done just once. The excuses to sin come fast, such as &#8220;I&#8217;ve done it once, doing it again isn&#8217;t going to make much difference.&#8221; Eventually, the person becomes calloused to sin and no longer feels guilty about what he is doing. He doesn&#8217;t care what other people think. He may even convince himself that he has the right to sin. (Licentiousness means thinking you have a license to sin.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Death:\u00a0<\/strong>A person fully convinced that he ought to sin and doesn&#8217;t care what even God thinks about his actions won&#8217;t be persuaded out of his sin. Since he won&#8217;t leave his sin, he will die in his sin.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>As an example, hunger is a desire &#8212; it is neither right nor wrong. Temptation is when you are in the convenience store and see a candy bar, but realize you don&#8217;t have enough money to pay for it. Lust is when you tell yourself that the store can afford to lose some items and that they are expecting some loss, or telling yourself that you could pocket it now and pay for it later and you accept that these are adequate justification to steal. Sin is when you walk out with the candy bar without paying for it. Licentiousness is when you think it is fun to take things off the shelf even though you have adequate money to pay for it. And from there it is a short step to spiritual death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Hi I was reading some of the questions that many have posted and one of them caught my attention. In it, you said that being tempted is not a sin. Many of the things we do that are wrong start in the mind, right? So when do the thoughts themselves become a sin? How&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[156,185],"class_list":["post-25992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-lust","tag-temptation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23019,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-matthew-528-apply-to-other-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":25992,"position":0},"title":"Does Matthew 5:28 apply to other sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Matthew 5:28 says \"But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.\" Does this apply to other things? If I had a desire to smoke and drink, but I actually don't do it, does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20038,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-obsessing-over-my-sinful-thoughts-what-can-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":25992,"position":1},"title":"I&#8217;m obsessing over my sinful thoughts. What can I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello. I am a member of the church of Christ and have been for a while now. However I have been plagued by many tormenting, fearful, and bad thoughts on a daily basis. I have talked to many doctors, psychiatrists and church counselors who chalk it up to anxiety\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40285,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-question-everything-i-do-even-though-there-arent-commands-against-it-because-it-might-not-be-from-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":25992,"position":2},"title":"I question everything I do, even though there aren&#8217;t commands against it because it might not be from faith","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello again. For a while now I have been struggling with making sure I am doing things in faith as mentioned in Romans 14:23 while not trying to stress myself out and worry about it so much. What is talked about in Ecclesiastes 7:16 seems to be what I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1334,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-does-adultery-start\/","url_meta":{"origin":25992,"position":3},"title":"How does adultery start?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How does adultery start? In what way then is it looked upon as adultery Answer: James describes the steps leading to death from sin as thus: \"Let no one say when he is tempted, \"I am tempted by God\"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36929,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-denying-i-sinned-if-i-tell-myself-that-i-didnt-use-profanity-even-though-the-words-appear-in-my-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":25992,"position":4},"title":"Am I denying I sinned if I tell myself that I didn&#8217;t use profanity even though the words appear in my mind?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I would like to ask a question. I was reading I John this morning and came to the verse where it says that if we say we have not sinned we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. I recognize that even though I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18683,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-cannot-be-tempted-but-jesus-was-tempted-so-is-jesus-not-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":25992,"position":5},"title":"God cannot be tempted, but Jesus was tempted; so, is Jesus not God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My friend, who is an Arian, gave me this puzzling logic:\u00a0 God can't be tempted, but Jesus was tempted; therefore, Jesus is not God.\u00a0 Is this true? Answer: For a Christian, it would be easy to spot this line of reasoning as a falsehood because it ends with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}