James 1:15

James 1:15. Then. Now follows the genesis of sin.

when lust, evil desire, hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. Lust is here considered as a harlot who seduces the will, and sin is the consequence of this unhallowed alliance. Sin is the child of our corrupt passions; it has its origin in our evil desires; it is the outcome of inward depravity. First, there is evil desire in the heart, and then by the will yielding to that evil desire there is sin in the life.

and sin when it is finished, fully developed or matured. There is no distinction here between the internal and the external act; as if it were sin in the form of the external act which worketh death. St. James speaks of sin in general, whether in the heart or in the life. Sin may be developed in the heart as well as in the conduct.

bringeth forth, or begetteth, as the two verbs are different in the original, death. Lust is the mother of sin and death its progeny. (Cp. Milton's sublime allegory in Paradise Lost, Book ii. 745-814.) Death here does not denote only physical or temporal death, but, as the contrast is to the crown of life which God has promised to them that love Him, it must include eternal death. Cp. the statement of St. Paul: ‘The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life' (Romans 11:23).