Charles Ellicott Commentary James 1:15

"Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death." — James 1:15 (ASV)

Then when lust have conceived. . . .—Then come the downward steps of ruin—Lust, having conceived, bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. The image well depicts the repellent subject. The small beginning is from some vain delight or worldly lust and pleasure; next from the vile embrace as of a harlot—sin, growing in all its rank luxuriance, until it bears and engenders, horribly, of itself, its deadly child. The word parturition is frightful in the sense it would convey, as of some monstrous deformity, a hideous progeny tenfold more cursed than its begetter.

The one effect of sin, more especially that of the flesh alluded to here, must be Death. The act itself is deadly, the result inevitable; just as much so, and as naturally, as the work of poison on the body. There are antidotes for both, but they must be given in time; the door of mercy does not always stand open, nor will the “fountain opened . . . for sin and uncleanness” (Zechariah 13:1) flow on forever. “Because,” says the Wisdom of God (Proverbs 1:24–26), “I have called, and ye refused . . . I also will laugh at your calamity.” “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and their paymaster is the devil.