James 1:15

A brother asked Poemen about the words, 'Do not render evil for evil' (1 Thess. 5:15). He said to him, 'The passions work in four stages: first in the heart, then in the face, third in words, fourth in deeds – and it is in …

Each one of us is tempted by our own lust, so let us fight and resist and not give in nor allow ourselves to be lured by it, nor allow it to conceive anything to which it might then give birth. It is like this—lust coaxes and coddles you, it excites and urges you on, positively encouraging you to do something wrong. Do not give in and it will not conceive. If you ponder it willingly and with pleasure, then it will conceive and give birth, and you will die.

The desires of sinners are the birth pangs of death.

If we sin when we are drunk with pleasure, we do not notice it. But when it gives birth and reaches its goal, then all the pleasure is extinguished and the bitter core of our mind comes to the surface. This stands in contrast to women in labor. For before they give birth, such women have great pain and suffering, but afterwards the pain goes away, leaving their bodies along with the child. But here it is quite different. For until we labor and give birth to our corrupt thoughts, we are happy and joyful. But once the wicked child called sin is born we are in pain as we realize the shame to which we have given birth, and then we are pierced through more deeply than any woman in labor. Therefore I beg you right from the start not to welcome any corrupt thought, for if we do so the seeds will grow inside us, and if we get to that stage, the sin inside us will come out in deeds and strike us dead by condemning us, in spite of all our confessions and tears. For there is nothing more destructive than sin.

Let no one who is tempted say he is tempted by God: for God is not a tempter of evils, and he tempts no man. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own conscience. Then when lust has …

Concupiscence, when it has conceived, brings forth sin; and sin, when it is consummated, begets death. If, however, suggestion and delight stop short of consent, it is a venial sin. But if consent and action follow in those things which are prohibited by divine law, …

Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Temptation occurs in three ways: by suggestion, by delight, by consent. By the suggestion of the enemy, and by delight or also by the consent …

Since it has been proven concerning the Divine nature that God is neither Himself tempted nor tempts others, here by "temptations" he means thoughts that disturb the soul, for temptations from God do not disturb but strengthen the soul by illuminating it, which is why …

Stop the beginnings of sin therefore, or else all the evils it produces must be wholly charged upon us. The final issue of sin, and how it ends: Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. After sin is brought forth in actual commissions, the finishing of it (as Dr. Manton observes) is its being strengthened by frequent acts and settled into a habit.

All passion, and rash anger, and vile affections, ought to be suppressed. The word of God should be made our chief study: and what we hear and know of it we must take care to practise, otherwise our religion will prove but a vain thing. To this is added an account wherein pure religion consists,

Then when lust hath conceived - Compare Job 15:35. The allusion here is obvious. The meaning is, when the desire which we have naturally is quickened, or made to act, the result is that sin is produced. As our desires of good lie in the mind by nature, as our propensities exist as they were created, they cannot be regarded as sin, or treated as such; but when they are indulged, when plans of gratification are formed, when they are developed in actual life, the effect is sin.

The guilty union is committed by the will embracing the temptress. "Lust," the harlot, then, "brings forth sin," namely, of that kind to which the temptation inclines. Then the particular sin (so the Greek implies), "when it is completed, brings forth death," with which it was all along pregnant [ALFORD].

When lust hath conceived - When the evil propensity works unchecked, it bringeth forth sin - the evil act between the parties is perpetrated. And sin, when it is finished - When this breach of the law of God and of innocence has been a sufficient time completed, it bringeth forth death - the spurious offspring is the fruit of the criminal connection, and the evidence of that death or punishment due to the transgressors. Any person acquainted with the import of the verbs συλλαμβανειν, τικτειν , and αποκυειν, will see that this is the metaphor, and that I have not exhausted it. Συλλαμβανω signifies concipio sobolem, quae comprehenditur utero; concipio foetum; - τικτω, pario, genero, efficio; - αποκυεω ex απο et κυω, praegnans sum, in utero gero. Verbum proprium praegnantium, quae foetum maturum emittunt. Interdum etiam gignendi notionem habet. - Maius, Obser. Sacr., vol. ii., page 184. Kypke and Schleusner. Sin is a small matter in its commencement; but by indulgence it grows great, and multiplies itself beyond all calculation. To use the rabbinical metaphor lately adduced, it is, in the commencement, like the thread of a spider’s web - almost imperceptible through its extreme tenuity or fineness, and as easily broken, for it is as yet but a simple irregular imagination; afterwards it becomes like a cart rope - it has, by being indulged produced strong desire and delight; next consent; then, time, place, and opportunity serving, that which was conceived in the mind, and finished in that purpose, is consummated by act. “The soul, which the Greek philosophers considered as the seat of the appetites and passions, is called by Philo το θηλυ, the female part of our nature; and the spirit το αρῥεν, the male part. […]