Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. – James 1:15

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 17, 2017): James 1

The “slippery slope” is an argument in logic theory that argues that small steps in a certain direction can often end with unexpected and largely negative consequences. Sometimes it is referred to as the “camel’s nose inside the tent” philosophy, where the argument is that if you allow that Camel’s nose inside the tent, soon you will have the whole camel in the tent. Slippery slope philosophy is generally recognized as a type of false thinking, or in other words, what we often indicate is a slippery slope is not actually one, but rather a series of unconnected events. But then, sometimes and when we least expect it, we do enter onto a slippery slope. Dean Koontz in “Brother Odd” describes the slippery slope like this. “I don't know if this deception qualified as a half-step down the slippery slope. I had no sensation of sliding. But of course we never notice the descent until we're rocketing along at high velocity.”  Opponents of slippery slope arguments argue that there are always ways to get off of the slope and they use the example of skiing on a very literal slippery slope. But the problem is that, once you are rocketing along at high velocity, getting off the slope is going to cause pain.

James uses a form of the slippery slope argument as he opens his letter. The idea is that desire, gives birth to sin, and sin gives birth to death, so the logical inference is that desire is the grandparent of death. In our culture, we often recognize desire, and stress that desire by itself is okay, desire in and of itself is not sin. I used to have a married friend who was continually remarking about the women around him. He argued that there was nothing wrong with him looking at the menu, he just couldn’t order off of it. It is this kind of thinking, and comment, that we now recognize as a culture is wrong because of where the thinking leads us. And maybe it is not a surprise that his marriage was ended by an affair. Does every marriage that featured a man making a similar argument end the same way? Maybe not; we have the ability to get off of the train. But the recent sexual abuse allegations that are being revealed through the media on an almost daily basis remind us that stopping at desire is often a difficult thing to do.

Maybe we are entering an age when we finally are beginning to recognize what James was writing about almost 2000 years ago. If we want to be successful in life, the first thing that we need to understand is how it is that we control what it is that we desire. In the early moments, desire always seems to be innocent. But when uncontrolled desire grows up, it still leads us someplace that we do not want to go.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: James 2