09 - Origins of Sin
CHAPTER 9.
- The source of trial.
- The lust (epithumia).
- The misapplication of the word.
- The steps in the production of a sin.
- Desire, its nature.
- Numerous passagesin which epithumia is applied to a desire, decidedly good. IN the previous Chapter the subject of temptation was considered. It was shown that the word peirasmos, translated “temptation,” and peirazo, translated “to tempt,” are derived from peiras, to make a passage through; the word peira meaning passing through. It was further shown that as, in making a passage through anything, some difficulty is experienced, the word peirao means to try, and viewed mentally in reference to the passing of the mind through observation to gain experience, it means to experience. It was shown also, that peirasmos means, strictly speaking, a trial, and peirazo, to try; and that these two words are, in the Common Version, sometimes translated “trial,” “try.” The passages quoted were demonstrated to have greater clearness when these words, instead of being translated “temptation” and “tempt,” were translated “trial” and “try”; in fact, it was proved that “trial” and “try” are the proper renderings of these words. These remarks were made as preparatory to the inquiry into the, so-called, temptation of our Lord On the present occasion the source of trial, miscalled “temptation,” is to be considered as absolutely necessary to know, in order to understand the nature of the Saviour’s trial, more particularly as he is said to have been tried according to all like things with us. Hebrews 4:14-16 - “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” The source of trial, as being from ourselves and not from God, is specifically attested by James 1:13 - “Let no man say when he is tried, I am tried of God, for God cannot be tried with evil, neither trieth he any man.” That is the negative part of James’s declaration: the positive follows: 5:14- “But every man is tried when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” The source of this trial when operating injuriously is then detailed: 5:15- “Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
“One’s own “lust” is the source, then, of trial: and the question occurs, “What does lust in this passage represent?” The common meaning attached to this word is decidedly unfavourable: it is one associated with vice. The word used is epithumia. It is compounded of two words, epi, upon, and thumos, breath. As man becomes a living soul by God breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, this word thumos came to be applied to that which proceeds from breathing, namely, the life, the mind, the soul, the individual life, the self, the movements or emotions of the soul, the affections, the desires: and as the passions, particularly anger, strongly active, swell up the mind, this word came to signify more specially anger, and is so translated in many passages in the Common Version.
Epithumia is the mind, the self, resting upon something: that is, the setting the mind upon any object: and, as when the mind is set upon any object, that object is desired, the word means simply a “desire.” The word implies nothing bad. “Desire” is the correct meaning, and therefore James asserts that “every man is tried when he is led away of his own desire, and enticed.” It is not enough, as will be seen from the passage, that the man is led away: there is a second step: he must be enticed.
What, then, is desire? It is the activity of any power of mind, directed towards an object, between which and it the Creator has established an attractive relation: thus, to speak phrenologically, individuality desires an acquaintance with individual objects: benevolence delights in acts and objects of kindness: conscientiousness desires, and consequently delights in, acts of justice; acquisitiveness desires wealth, which it seeks; love of approbation covets praise; the love of sex seeks a sexual object; the love of offspring desires children; and so with every desire. No desire - (the desire being the result of the attraction between the power of the mind and the object, a relationship established by the Creator himself) - can, in itself, be bad. In fact, there is no evil in desire: but still desire, when active in an improper way, does bring trial, does induce evil. That the word epithumia is improperly rendered lust, which lust is badly regulated desire, a desire inconsistent with man’s duty to his neighbour and his God, and that the proper meaning of the word is desire, will be apparent from examining a few passages.
Luke 15:16 -This word occurs in reference to the prodigal son, who, after spending all his substance, was reduced to so low a state that “he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him.” (He had not small conscientiousness, otherwise he would have taken them.) The phrase “he would fain” is epithumei “he is desiring.” Here the word represents the state of mind as connected with the natural appetite of hunger in which appetite there can be nothing bad.
Luke 16:21 -A similar application of the word occurs in reference to the Lazarus of the parable. It is stated, “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.” - The word rendered “desiring” is epithumon.
1 Timothy 3:1 -This word is applied to the desiring after office. Paul writes, “This is a true saying, if a man desire (here it is not epithumce, but oregetai, and means if a man extends his thoughts to) the office of a bishop he desireth a good work.” The word for “desireth” is epithumei. This is a good desire a good lust if lust be the proper interpretation of epithumia.
1 Thessalonians 2:17 -This word is applied by Paul to the desire to see his brethren in Christ: “But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.”
The phrase for “great desire” is polle epithumei = much “lust.”
Php 1:23 -It is applied by Paul to represent the wish he had to be: released from prison: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain, But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my, labour: yet what I, shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt the two, having a desire to depart (eis to analusai = “for release”), and to be with Christ: *which is far better, and (de - a small particle which does not mean “nevertheless”)”to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” The words for “a desire” are ten epithumian = the “lust.”
Matthew 8:17 -It is used by the Saviour to express the desire which the excellent men of old had to see his day.
“For verify I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen, them and to hear those things, which, ye hear and have not heard them.”
1 Peter 1:12 -Peter, referring to the same anxious expectation of the men of old, uses the same word: “Whom having not seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you, by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.” desire to look into.” Peter thus applies this same word to the intense wish of message-bearers to look into these matters.
Luke 17:20-22 -The Saviour, knowing that though the disciples did not value as they ought the privilege of his being with them (the value of which they would not know till he was departed), tells them, in the following account, that they would desire to see one of the days of the son of Man: “And when, he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with neither shall they say, lo here! or lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, The day will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it.” The word for “desire” is epithumesete.
Luke 22:15 -But what still more positively establishes that the word epithumia does not of itself imply any bad sense -and that therefore “lust,” as long as a bad sense is attached to it, is not the term properly expressive of the use of this word by our Saviour on another most memorable occasion. It was at the last supper and its attendant events. “And they went and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down and the twelve apostles with the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them with desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not eat any more thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. This “desire” is epithumia: this I have “desired” is epithumesa.
Colossians 3:5 -That there is nothing bad in desire (epithumia) is proved further by the fact, that when badness is associated with desire, a word is superadded to indicate such addition. Paul, in writing to the Colossians, directs - “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” All these, called members, are activities of desire inconsistent with the law of love to our neighbour, the term for “concupiscence” is epithumia, but it has an adjective, kaken, “bad:” an addition which would not have been needed if epithumia meant “lust,” that is, “a badly-regulated desire.”
Titus 2:12 - In Paul’s letter to Titus an addition is made: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation bath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly ill this present world.” Here the word epithumias occurs: it is rendered “lusts” but the world “worldly” (kosmikos) is added to designate the inferiority of those desires.
1 Peter 2:11 - Peter, in his first letter, defines these desires (lepithurnion) as (sarkikon) “lusts” All these additions demonstrate, it is repeated, that desires are not bad in themselves but are bad only when the objects on which they outgo, or the means by which they are gratified, are improper.
1 Corinthians 10:6 - As a further proof, Paul writes of “lusting after evil things.” Referring to the destruction inflicted upon the Jews in the wilderness on account of their wickedness, he remarks, “Now these things were our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they lusted.” The words epithumetas and epithumesan occur here: but there is the addition to damnify the desire “after evil things.” If epithumia were “to have evil desire,” and as such bad in itself, the addition of “after evil things” would have been quite unnecessary.
Galatians 5:16; Galatians 5:17 - To add, if it be needed, additional evidence that the word epithumia is not necessarily bad in its meaning, the following quotation from Paul’s letter to the Galatians is apposite. “This I say then, Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against tire flesh: and these, are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Here it will be seen that the word epithumei is applied to the activity of the spirit, which is holy, against the flesh, as well as to the activity of the flesh against the spirit; so that if the term epithumia means “lust,” and “lust” is bad, then it most follow that the “lusteth” is as bad in the one as in the other. But as this word has not necessarily a bad meaning, no such inference need be drawn: and it is said in truth that the flesh, that is, the animal nature of man, has desires contrary to the spiritual nature, and the spiritual nature has desires contrary to the animal nature. And it is true “that they that are Christ’s crucified the flesh,” which is not, as some foolishly talk, destroyed, which would be to unman and unwoman mankind, but they nailed to the higher principles of the truth (the “to love mercy,” the “to do justly,” the “to walk humbly with God” principles), the activities of the lower desires of man’s nature, namely, the affections and the desires. To have a desire is therefore no sin: but to allow that desire to lead away from the higher duties, to entice us to violate the law of love to our neighbour or to our God, is sinful. Happy is the man who has been tried in all points, and without sin. We shall see him soon; the man, Christ Jesus.