'Blessed be the man that endures temptation' James

Temptation seems over time to have become linked to sin. If you are tempted by something it is a warning that what you are about to do is wrong. Which doesn't seem right to me what's the sin in being tempted by a chocolate biscuit or wanting to go for a swim ' I'm tempted to have a dip ' surely the two key questions as to whether an action is going to be wrong are does this going cause pain to others and is it to excess? Although excess in itself isn't necessarily wrong again it comes down to the end result of having too much of a thing. A man has too many drinks and beats his wife or an obsession with making more and more money. Surely the correct way forward in life is balance and doing the right thing at the right time ' a time to weep, a time to laugh a time to mourn.' The key thing is to understand and respect the balance of life.

I think that temptation comes down , as ever to a matter of choice. Being able to do the right thing at the right time. So what does James mean by enduring temptation? I don't believe at all in the old picture of temptation as some kind of divine sweetshop to which we are lead like children with God ready to chastise us as we reach for the nearest Mars bar.Nor the hair shirt version that confuses denial with sin. Either of these reduces and demeans our relationship with God. He is a loving father and he treats us with respect he has given us the freedom and the wisdom to make our own choices and accept the consequences of our actions. I see James ' endurance ' as referring to life . God has blessed us with being able to move forward in life with the ability to make our own decisions, learn from them and as a result mature as souls. We progress through this world by way of a series of lessons which are for our good ' Happy the man is our ability to learn from them.