Does James 1:13 really mean that God does not tempt anyone? We read in the Bible that God sometimes tempts/tests the believer. Should Christians be tempted?
People often say that God is testing them when it's not God at all. God cannot be tempted with evil nor does He tempt with evil. In verse 12 it states that God is trying us as Christians, it proves us, verses 13-14 show that God in no way tempts us to do evil.
Often man wants to blame God for the problems/tragedies that happen in their lives such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes; etc… people usually shout " God did this to us!" When really it is our own fault. We build next to a river for example. We build there for the beauty, the recreation or whatever, then when a natural occurrence come & the heavy rains fall, the water rises & overflows, flooding homes & businesses people get angry at God. When we ourselves maybe shouldn't have built so close to the river, same with hurricanes & the beach house. This kind of thinking has been around since Adam & Eve. They were tempted by Satan to disobey God. They did it & Adam says, "… The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” " The woman whom You gave to be with me…" He blamed God for Satan's temptation that he fell into.
Jesus could not sin, Why then, was He tempted? In Matthew 4:7 Jesus said: "On the other hand, it is written, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'" God wants to save from sin, & He does not tempt men to sin. He wants to deliver men. He never uses sin as a test, but He will permit it, as we will see. Jesus had no sin in Him, "…the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me." The reason He was tempted was to prove that there was nothing in Him. After Jesus had been on earth for thirty some odd years, Satan came in with temptation that appealed to man's total personality …physical side, mental & spiritual side of man. Jesus could not fall. The testing was given to demonstrate that He could not fall.
Vernon McGee gives a great story of a time when he was young growing up in Texas. He lived near a branch of the Brazos River & in the summertime there wasn't enough water in the river to rust a shingle nail, but in the wintertime, you could almost float a battleship on it. One year a flood washed out the wooden bridge on which the Santa Fe Railroad crossed the river. They replaced it with a steel bridge & when they completed it, they brought in two locomotives stopped them on top of the bridge & tied down the whistles. All of the people in the little town knew for sure that something was happening; so they ran down to see what it was. When they got there one of the braver citizens asked the engineer, "What are you doing?" The engineer replied, "Well, we built this bridge, & we are testing it." The man asked, "Why? Do you think it's going to fall down?" That engineer drew himself up to his full height & said, "Of course it will not fall down! We are proving it won't fall down." Jesus was tested for the same reason. God cannot be tempted with sin & He will not tempt us with sin.
God does permit us to be tempted with sin. 2 Samuel 24:1 reads "And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, & He moved David against them to say, go, number Israel & Judah." Really that was sinful. So did God tempt David with evil? To understand the Bible you have to get the full story.
In 2 Samuel you have man's viewpoint of the events recorded. Man sees it as God was angry with Israel & He just had David do this. But if you check out 1 Chronicles you're told God's viewpoint. "And Satan stood up against Israel, & provoked David to number Israel". Who provoked David to sin? It was Satan. Not God. God permitted Satan to do it because God was angry with Israel & their sin. God never tempts man to do evil.
What causes us to be tempted & sin? Look at James 1:14, "But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust & enticed." God does test us as Christians, but He will never tempt us to sin, that blame lies on Satan & us.
Vern
3 comments:
Greetings, I enjoyed your article here on James 1:13 This is one of my favorite passages. I agree with you so strongly that God does not tempt us with evil. I'm sure you already know the word "tempt" is translated "test or try". So it's pretty clear that God does not test or try us with any form of evil. James says "let no man say when he is tested and tried, that he is tested or tired "of"God.
This little word "of" has been well overlooked. To put this real simple without writing a book here, that little word...when broken down in the Greek means .....
Let no man say when he is tested or tried that he is tested or tried of God. Don't say God directly or indirectly test or tries you with any form of evil.
Don't say God test you with evils such as sickness, disease, destruction in any form. This passage lets us know God is not directly sending evil to test us, nor is he indirectly sending it. He is not allowing evil to attack us.
So why are blood brought Christians often defeated in so many ways? Lack of knowledge or rejection of the knowledge laid out for us in God's word.
God gave us His Word so we could learn to hear, believe, act, and receive. We have to accept responsibility and be accountable for whether we believe God or just believe in HIM. Mark 4:24 I quote this all the time when teaching at different conferences. "to the amount of thought and study you give to the truth you hear, that is the amount of understanding you will receive and then more understanding will be given to you.
{my paraphrase}
I enjoyed your article and hope this post has been encouraging.
God bless you, your family and your ministry.
TRS
Here is a link to my blog sites.I forgot to add them to my post.
http://www.answersbibleblog.wordpress.com
http://realbibleanswers.blogspot.com/
Having fun learning how to blog. If you have any tips, send over. Suggestions welcome.
God bless
TRS
You nailed it
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