James 1:13 - The Blame Game

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.  But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.--James 1:13-18

Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,


I love this particular section of Scripture...5 verses packed with wisdom!  We will look only at verse 13 for this post.  The message of it is really the heart of these verses.  God cannot be tempted nor does He tempt anyone!


It reads, "Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 


1 Corinthians 10 says that temptations are common to man and verse 14 of the KJV of the very passage we are looking at begins by saying, "but every man is tempted."  We all face both trials and temptations. How we deal with them and respond is a test of genuine faith or lack of it.  Do you blame others or God or do you accept responsibility for your own sin?


I have learned in my study of this section of James that the same Greek verb "peirazo" and the same Greek noun "peirasmos are  used in verse 2 and verse 13 but are translated differently.  The word is translated trial in verse 2 and temptation in verse 13.   So why does James make the distinction between trials and temptations.  "Trials" come from God to test us and strengthen us and in those trials God allows temptations to occur. I repeat...God allows temptations to occur, but God does not tempt anyone.  So a trial on the outside can become a temptation on the inside when we doubt God's love and care for us and disobey.  Trials are all about testing, strengthening and maturing us.  In the midst of one, however, this can be easily forgotten because trials are hard. They cause us to lose our balance, question God's love and resist His will. Satan then comes on the stage and cleverly provides an opportunity for us to perhaps escape the trial. If we take the bait, we have given way to temptation and allowed the trial to become a solicitation for evil.  The results of which will obviously not be God's best for us. Each trial we go through then has the potential to strengthen us and make us more like our Lord or it can become an opportunity for sin.  The beautiful thing here is that God has promised not to test us more than we are able and always provides a way of escape.  Look and pray for God's way to escape the pressure that is inherent to a trial. 

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.--1 Cor 10:13



The rest of  verse 13 tells us that we are not tempted by God because He cannot be tempted nor does (He) God tempt anyone.  This is really the heart of this whole passage.  Whose fault is it when we fall into sin.  Adam blamed God..."the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat." And Eve who was deceived by the serpent blamed the serpent: "the serpent beguiled me and I did eat."   Lord, it is your fault...you made me this way...you are in control over my circumstances or  Lord, how can I resist the temptation if it is you who are tempting me? I am but dust.  It also says in Isaiah 63:17:  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?  Proverbs 19:3 says "The foolishnesss of man perverts his way and his heart frets against the Lord.  We are NOT God's victims when we sin. 

Girls, that is the tendency of our flesh...to blame God or others for our sin.  James is adamant here...He forbids it. Our sin is not God's fault.  In order to receive forgiveness for our sins and confess them, we need to say the same thing about our sin that God says.  We need to own it and accept responsibility for it.  That is the only way that a heart change occurs.  God looks on a broken and contrite heart.  We need to understand and accept our inability and inadequacy to save ourselves in order to understand our need for a Savior.  Blaming and making excuses for our sin is not repentance.  As we go further into the text we will, according to John MacArthur, find 5 proofs that God  does not tempt us...either directly or indirectly.

The first proof is the nature of evil.  Light and darkness are opposites...they have nothing to do with one another.  God is holy...He has no capacity for evil nor can He be tempted.   We are not tempted by God because God cannot be tempted.  Literally in the Greek text it says:  "For God is inexperienced with evil." It is not in His nature at all. John MacArthur says something interesting in speaking about the gods of Greek mythology:  He says "that the deities and gods of paganism are always liable to temptation to evil and they themselves are frequently seen as sinning and tempting others to sin.  The reason is because...wait for it....they are the creation of the minds of fallen men or the minds of fallen wickedness from which they come. Their character is corrupt because their creators are corrupt and no stream can rise higher than it s source."  Girls, the bible tells us this in Isaiah 55: My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways,  And My thoughts than your thoughts. God is our creator...we are His creatures. That truly is something to be thankful for especially as we dig deeper into His nature.

God does not tempt us directly or indirectly.   All evil repulses Him.  He has not experience with evil, no capacity for it and no vulnerability to it.  He is like a fortress of good  if you will...Evil cannot penetrate.  The fortress is impregnable.   That really makes me feel safe.  God is holy...He is not like us....It brings to mind the verse from John that says God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.   God does send us trials to test us, but never more than we can bear and always provides for us a way to navigate through the trial/temptation victoriously. He does allow temptations to occur within those trials and men make choices. But God tempts no man. Evil is contradictory to His nature. If we succumb to temptation we have no one to blame but ourselves.  

You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,  And cannot look on wickedness.--Habakkuk 1:13
The Lord is holy---Leviticus 19:2



Love
Mom