James 1:14-15, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”

There exists a progression from temptation to sin to death, a progression that is detailed in today’s text, and a progression that is inevitable if we yield to temptation rather than run from it as Paul encourages us to do in 2 Timothy 2:22. For the past two weeks we slow-walked through Proverbs 7, and there we saw the progression of temptation to sin to death in the form of nine steps down into sin and destruction. During those devotions we answered the question, “Why do we yield to temptation?” with nine reasons that the chapter provided.  

With the remainder of this week’s and next week’s devotions, we will attempt to answer another question: “How do we avoid sin?” (Obviously, we cannot perfectly avoid sin. Believers are a new creation in Christ Jesus, but that new creation is yet to be perfected. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin since we are unable to perfectly avoid sin? God forbid! Obey Christ instead of sinful passions and enjoy an abundant life that sin can never deliver.)

To get wisdom and understanding about sin we will walk through Proverbs 7 again, only this time we will take nine steps up rather than down. In other words, we will examine the chapter from a positive perspective.