James 1:13

James 1:13. Let no man say when he is tempted. The connexion is: if, instead of enduring the temptation, we yield to it and are overcome by it, we must not lay the blame of our fall from virtue upon God. Hitherto the word ‘temptation' has been used chiefly in the sense of tests of character; here it denotes solicitations to sin; and yet there is hardly any change of meaning, as some think. These two views of temptation involve each other; what is a test of character may also be a solicitation to sin. Temptations may be considered as either external or internal. The trials which occur in the course of life, the afflictions which befall us, the persecutions to which religion may expose us, are external temptations and tests of character. But when these draw out our sinful desires and excite to sinful actions, they become internal, and are solicitations to evil. In themselves, temptations are not sins; when resisted and overcome, they are promoters of virtue; it is in our voluntary yielding to the temptations, in the consent of the will, that sin arises.

I am tempted of God, or rather, ‘from God,' denoting not the direct agency in the temptation, but the source from which that agency proceeds. It is improbable that there is any reference here to the doctrine of the Pharisees concerning fate; rather, the reference is to that common perversity in human nature which attempts to throw the blame of our faults upon God: that the temptations to which we were exposed, and in consequence of which we fell, were occasioned by God, being caused either by the circumstances in which His providence has placed us, or by that temperament with which He has created us (cp. Genesis 3:12).

for God cannot be tempted with evil. Some render these words: ‘God is unversed in evil things' inexperienced in them; all evil is completely foreign to His nature.

neither tempteth he any man: that is, to evil, to do what is wrong. God certainly tempts in the sense of tries. But the design of the Divine trying is not to excite to sin, not that sin should arise, but that it should be overcome; He tries our virtues, in order that they may be purified; He designs by these trials our moral improvement. The external tests of character may be from God; but the internal solicitations to evil are from ourselves.