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Both Jesus and his brother James discuss how temptation turns into sin. For Jesus, hating or lusting mentally commits murder or adultery. James concurs with Jesus’ teaching and discusses how desire, temptation, and sin interrelate.
Since getting temptation, desire, and sin right matters so much for our personal growth, we need to get this right. And besides, current discussions on same-sex attraction revolve around these same subjects. So it is also a timely subject for discussion.
In John Owen’s well-known work on sin and temptation, he defines two kinds of temptation: ones that come from without and others that come from within (Works, 6:194). The first kind of temptation works like this. I am hungry. And someone offers me stolen food. This temptation comes from without and is morally neutral.
The second kind of temptation works like this. From within me, I propose a desire to steal food for the pleasure of eating. According to Owen, “the very proposal from within, it being the soul’s own act, is its sin” (Works, 6:194).
Although this taxonomy of temptation may seem overly detailed, it becomes important when we ask the question: when does temptation become sinful? Or more specifically, when does sexual or romantic desire become sinful?
