James 1:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"For God is not tempted by evils, nor does He tempt anyone."

God is not tempted by evil, as it is said: "That which is divine and blessed neither itself does anything, nor gives work to others." All this belongs to mortal and earthly nature, in which change and mutability are observed, the primary properties of our nature.

Desire, sin, and the death born from it have become, for the soul, as it were, steps of human perdition. For desire, finding a harboring place, produced sin, which gave birth to death.

Only by uprooting this through repentance do we lay the beginning of our other life.

This saying belongs to Epicurus, who laid it as a foundation for denying the providence of God. But blessed Theophylact understood it in a good sense, and therefore used it here to explain the thought of the holy Apostle.

That is, no one who has committed robbery, theft, false witness, murder, fornication, or anything similar should say that he was compelled by God to do such a thing. Nor should he say that he could in no way avoid such deeds.

For God does not tempt toward evil, that is, toward enticements. He Himself tempts no one, that is, with the temptation that entices the merciful to sin.

For temptations are of two kinds. Some entice, and others test. God tempts no one by those that entice. But by those that test, God tempted Abraham (Gen 22:1; Heb 11:17).

The prophet also asks for this temptation: "Test me, O Lord, and try me" (Ps 25:2).

"For in that He Himself suffered, having been tempted," says the Apostle, "He is able to help those who are tempted" (Heb 2:18).

After He was baptized in the Jordan, He also went up the mountain for temptation, as the Gospel says (Mt 4:1). Thus the external bodily afflictions that come upon men are also called temptations.

So too is the very assault of the enemy, even if it is unsuccessful for him. In this way, when tempting, he also assailed the Lord.

The temptation of man begins from his very birth, since he is born in sins; see Ps 50:7. It continues until the end of life (Prov 20:9; 1 Jn 1:8; Job 4:3-5).

This does not exclude even those people in whom Christ dwells, as may be concluded from the examples of Saints David, Peter, Paul (2 Cor 12:7-10), and others.

For this reason every believer, however high he may stand, is commanded to be sober and watchful (1 Pet 5:8). He is commanded to be faithful even unto death (Heb 13:14), so as to receive the crown of life (Rev 2:10).

Second, by saying, “I am tempted by God,” you show pride and cannot humble yourself or repent. You will not even be able to endure the temptation you are experiencing without murmuring and with thanksgiving.

By not enduring it, you undergo a double torment, as Saint Isaac says: “Every affliction not joined with patience serves for a twofold torment.”

What, then, must you do? You must always reproach and accuse yourself, saying that you are the cause of all temptations, both the pleasure-loving and voluntary ones, and those by which you suffer evil, that is, the involuntary ones.

For if you had not sinned, God would not have permitted temptations to come upon you. By this self-reproach you humble yourself, repent, and endure temptations with thanksgiving.

By this thanksgiving you incline God either to remove entirely from you the temptations in which you find yourself, or to lighten them. As Paul also said, “If we judged ourselves, we would not be judged” (1 Cor 11:31).

The great Anthony also said concerning self-reproach: “This is the great work of man: to ascribe his transgression to himself before God, and to expect temptation until his last breath.”

Abba Poemen also said: “The one who reproaches himself, if he encounters something sorrowful, whether loss, dishonor, or some other affliction, considers himself worthy of what happened and is never troubled” (from the Paterikon).

“For God is not a tempter by evil, and He Himself tempts no one.”

God, says Theophylact together with Oecumenius, is not tempted by any evil. As one of the outsiders said, “What is divine and blessed neither does anything itself nor gives any work to others.

All this belongs to the mortal earthly nature, in which change and alteration are observed, these primary properties of our nature” (Sextus Empiricus, book 3, ch. 24).

In other words, the blessed and incorruptible God not only has no temptations or disturbances in Himself, but He also casts no one into them.

For temptations follow the corruptible and earthly nature of men, which is inclined to changes, alterations, and the other things that possess and dominate man’s corruptible nature.

Saint Mitrophan, interpreting this saying, says that God is Goodness Itself by nature and tempts no one, ever. Still less does He incline anyone toward evil thoughts, words, and deeds. May it not be!

This is impossible, since “a good tree cannot produce evil fruit,” as the Lord said (Mt 7:18).

A certain wise man also said: “If what is begotten by them is good, then they too are good. If they are good, then what is begotten by them is good.”

This means that the good Creator creates creatures good, and conversely, good creatures are created by a good Creator. Since God is the good Creator, He places in creatures not any evil, but every good.

Perhaps some are perplexed why it is written that God tempted Abraham. The same Mitrophan answers that He did not tempt him by evil in order to bring him to an evil end.

This is what tempting enemies, demons or men, do when they search out ways to separate man from God through temptations. Rather, He tempted him for good and toward a good end, as his Friend.

He did this in order to unite him still more to Himself and show him more radiant. Strictly speaking, this cannot even be called temptation, though Scripture places the word here by departing from common usage.

He tested him, knowing that he would obey His command to slay his son, so that he might be shown obedient by his works and receive exceptional glory throughout all generations.

The tempter is principally called the devil, as it is written, “And the tempter came to Him” (Mt 4:3). Every man who imitates the devil is also called this.

For the enemy tempts men out of hatred and suffers until he has pushed them into evil, so that afterward he may try to separate them from God and destroy them.

Here a perplexity arises. If many temptations come according to the divine economy or by God’s permission, how does the brother of God say the opposite here?

To resolve this perplexity, some say that temptations are of two kinds, as has already been said. One kind comes from pleasures and occurs according to our will, not without demonic cooperation.

The other is sorrowful, bitter, and painful for the one experiencing the temptation. The pleasure-loving temptation never comes from God, because God does not will it, neither before the temptation comes nor after.

This temptation is nothing other than the very sins that a man commits, by which he destroys his own soul while fulfilling his own will and desires.

The sorrowful and bitter temptation does come from God. This temptation always occurs for the benefit of the one tempted.

It comes either according to the divine economy and for testing, as with Job, Paul, and the other saints, or by permission for the cutting off of sin, or by abandonment.

The great Barsanuphius among the Fathers interprets this saying as follows: “There is a temptation that happens from ourselves, and there is another that occurs by God’s permission.

That which comes from ourselves harms the soul. It is about this that the Apostle James cried out, saying, ‘Let no one who is tempted say, I am tempted by God.

For God is not a tempter by evil, and He Himself tempts no one.’ But that which happens by God’s permission is profitable for the soul.

It leads a man to experience, and experience leads a man to hope. Hope does not put to shame, according to what is written (Rom 5:5).

And the one who is not put to shame is already saved in Christ Jesus our Lord” (answer 388).

The Apostle now has in view the distinction between these temptations. In contrast to the temptations that God permits or sends as trials, necessary and beneficial for man’s moral perfection (vv. 2-4, 12), the Apostle begins to speak about another kind.

The absence of a connecting particle also indicates this. He speaks of temptations whose root and basis are properly in man himself, and which lead to sin and death, not to perfection.

Probably among the people to whom the Apostle’s epistle was sent, as often among people generally, there were some who, when falling into sins, justified themselves by saying that these were temptations sent by God.

Thus, lacking wisdom (v. 5) to distinguish temptations, they considered God the cause of sin. Against such people the Apostle here points out this distinction between temptations.

Therefore the concept of temptation here is taken in a somewhat different sense than in verse 2. There temptation is a trial of faith for the elevation of man’s moral perfection, often not dependent on the will of the man being tempted.

Here temptation is the sinful action of man himself, or, more precisely, an inward disposition toward sin, which leads the man drawn by it to moral death.

In this latter sense, temptation is the man’s own work. God is by no means and in no case its cause, nor the cause of the sin that follows it.

Having first expressed this thought briefly, the Apostle then unfolds it from both the positive and the negative sides, pointing out the true source of such temptations.

“In temptation,” meaning the kind that consists in man’s sinful action and brings him to moral death, let no one say, and no one ought to say or think, that “God is tempting me.”

Such a claim is altogether wrong and contrary to truth. It says that He is the cause of such temptation, and therefore of sin and death.

This does not agree with truth, because it contradicts the most fundamental concept of God as all-holy and all-good.

As the All-Holy One, He Himself is not tempted by evil, for He is immeasurably above the assault of every evil. Evil is utterly foreign to His nature by reason of its holiness.

For the same holiness, and also by reason of His goodness and love for man, He Himself tempts no one.

His nature, alien to every evil and sin, cannot be the cause of evil and sin in men. When He permits man to be tempted by sin because of man’s free will, He Himself does not produce sin, because He cannot produce it.

If, according to His wise purposes, He permits temptations upon men, and perhaps at times even brings them, it is because temptation is useful for men themselves.

For example, it is useful through temptation to expose false and hypocritical virtue. This frees a man from self-delusion and sets him on the path of true repentance and correction.

It is useful through temptation to raise even genuine virtue to higher purity, strength, and perfection. It is also useful to reveal already purified faith and perfected virtue through temptation, so that others may know it and take it as an example for imitation.

Thus God permits temptations upon men, but He Himself does not tempt to evil and is not tempted by evil.

If Scripture speaks of God being tempted by men, compare Heb 3:8-9 and the like, this is said only in human terms. It designates certain perverse relations of men toward God.

The thought that God cannot be tempted by evil remains untouched, although such perverse actions of men do call forth punitive actions toward them from God.

If Scripture speaks directly of God tempting men, as for example in Deut 13:3 and the like, temptations are understood not as incitements to evil that produce evil, but as incitements to good that produce good.

They are stirrings in the soul of the principles of good for open battle against evil, or against obstacles to good, for moral strengthening and perfection.

Therefore man is not tempted by evil from God (v. 13). From whom, then? There is a tempter of men above all, who tempted the first parents in paradise and became the author of sin in the world.

He dared to tempt even Jesus Christ Himself, though he was defeated by Him. He is a murderer and a liar, and therefore the tempter above all (Jn 8:44 and the note).

The Apostle James rises decisively against the opinion that the Lord God is guilty of human falls into sin.

Let no one among those who have stood firm, or those who do not hope to stand firm against temptations, dare to say, "God is tempting me."

Of course, people are not subjected to temptations apart from the will of God. But God permits them in no way for evil. He Himself is not "tempted by evil," is not drawn to the side of evil, and leads no one into evil.

Whence, then, does evil come? Why do those who are tempted fail to endure temptation? The Apostle answers in verses 14-15.