James 1:14

Plain English Version

We do it to ourselves. Whenever we think about things we want for ourselves, and we don’t think about things God wants us to do, we just trick ourselves. Then we go ahead and do wrong things. You know, if we keep on doing those bad things, we will die.

Cross References

Genesis 3:6

The woman looked at that tree. It was pretty, and the fruit on that tree looked really good to eat, and she reckoned that if she eats some of that fruit, she will think properly. So the woman got some of that fruit, and she ate it, and she gave some of it to her husband, and he ate that fruit too.

Genesis 6:5

God looked at the people on the earth, and he saw them doing lots of bad things. He knew the way they were thinking. They were thinking bad things all the time. God saw that the people were very bad.

Genesis 8:21

God smelled the meat cooking on that stone table, and he was happy. Then God said to himself, “People always just want to do bad things. They do that all their lives, from when they are little kids, right up until the time they die. But I will never again punish them the same way that I did this time. I will never again finish up everything that breathes air, and I will never again curse the earth. While the earth is still here, the seasons will stay the same. There will always be day and night, and every year there will be a hot time and a cold time, a wet season and a dry season. There will always be a right time to plant seeds for food, and a right time to get the food from those plants.”

2 Samuel 11:4

He was an Israel soldier, and he was fighting at Rabbah. So David sent messengers to get Bathsheba and bring her to him. You see, she just finished her washing ceremony, the one that women used to do to clean themselves every month. So Bathsheba did what David told her to do. She went to him, and he slept with her, as a man does with his wife. Then she went back to her home.

Matthew 4:1

Then the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the bush, and the devil, the boss over the bad spirits, tested him there, trying to trick him.

Matthew 5:28

But now I’m telling you this. If you look at a woman that is not your wife, and you think about sleeping with her, that is bad too. If you think about doing that, you are going wrong. Thinking about it is just as bad as doing it.

Romans 7:11

That bad part of us uses that law to trick us, so that we do bad things. And then we have to die.

Romans 7:13

So, does that good law kill people? No way. It’s like this. That law shows us the things that God said are wrong, and that law says that we have to die if we do those wrong things. So that law shows us that it is really bad to go wrong, and to do bad things against God.

Ephesians 4:22

You learned that we all have a bad part inside us that gets us to only think about what we want for ourselves, and it gets us to go wrong, and it gets us to do bad things. And you learned that now we have to turn around and stop doing those things. So don’t take any notice of that old bad part inside you. Don’t think about those bad things any more,

James 1:13

Whenever you feel like you want to do something that is wrong, don’t blame God and say that he is pushing you to do something wrong. No way. God never pushes anybody to do wrong things, and nobody can trick God to make him do something wrong.