Dear Editor,
Sadly, Dr Curl’s response (August en) to my letter (June en) reveals a common mistake.
There is certainly an external facet to temptation, but that is not in view in James 1. Each person is tempted, James says, ‘when he is lured and enticed’ not by an external trigger, but specifically ‘by his own evil desire’. The two verbs are hunting/fishing metaphors: to ‘draw out with a lure’ and to ‘catch with a bait’. We do not all have the same ‘internal velcro’ (as a contemporary theologian has put it), so Satan makes sure the bait is directed to the personal desires that arise from our indwelling sin.
