Whatever doubt exists in verse 12 about trial or temptation vanishes in
verse 13. Here it is clearly temptation to evil. Hort (_in loco_)
suggests “tempted by trial,” and Moffatt puts it “tried by temptation.”
Certainly trial becomes a temptation to some men who use it as the
excuse for doing wrong. “Though trial in itself is ordered by God for
our good, yet the inner solicitation to evil which is aroused by the
outer trial is from ourselves” (Mayor). Any trial wrongly used may
become a temptation, whereas it was meant for our development and
perfection. Temptation is merely one aspect of trial and not a necessary
one. But the word is used of the great tempter (1 Thess. 3:5). So Jesus
was tempted by Satan in the wilderness (Mark 1:13). Satan desired to
sift the apostles as wheat, to ruin them if possible (Luke 22:31). The
Pharisees and the Sadducees sought to tempt Jesus (Matt. 15:1). It is
the devil’s business to seek to lure another into wrong.
When a man is tempted and yields to the temptation, he is eager to blame
someone else for his sin. If he cannot do otherwise, he will blame God
for having made him as he is, with evil possibilities. In particular is
this true of sexual sin, which Oesterley (_in loco_) thinks James has
specifically in mind here. Compare Matthew 5:28; 1 Peter 2:11. Adam
blamed Eve, and Eve the serpent. And even Adam blamed God, for he said:
“The woman whom thou gavest to be with me” (Gen. 3:12).
Some dare to say in so many words: “I am tempted of God.” They hold God
responsible for their appetites and passions and seek to quiet the
conscience thus while they give way to sin. Others hide behind heredity,
environment, or evil companions. Even Agamemnon excused himself for his
wrong to Achilles by holding Zeus and fate responsible. Sirach (15:11
f.) says: “Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell away.” The
origin of sin is a dark problem, but it is a lazy philosophy or a blind
one that shirks human responsibility, or tries to do it. It matters not
whether sin is the remnant of the beast in us (surely some men act at
times like the tiger) or the response to evil environment or both, we
are merely cowardly when we blame God for our own wrongdoing.
There is no response to evil in God. He is not “man’s giant shadow
skyward thrown.” The absolute holiness and ethical purity of God should
at least protect him from the charge of leading us into sin. The worst
of men, in their darkest moments of loneliness, sometimes come face to
face with God. Then they do not flippantly blame God but confess their
sins with broken heart. Two things are true about evil and God. One is
that God himself tempts no man to sin. He does send trial but not
temptation. We may not understand all the ways of God’s providence, but
we may rest secure in this: The devil does tempt us. That is his
business. And yet James does not refer to Satan by name here, for after
all, we ourselves are responsible, as he proceeds to show. It does not
help matters with us any more than it did with Eve to lay our sin upon
the devil. The other thing that is true is that God cannot be tempted
with evil. He cannot be tempted to do evil himself or be led to tempt
others with evil. The phrase does not occur elsewhere in the New
Testament or in the Septuagint, but it is a paraphrase of a common
proverb in the early Christian writings.[56] God does chastise us (Heb.
12:4 f.), but he does not tempt us.
All this is in strong contrast to the Greek and Roman notions of duty,
for the heathen gods were credited with all human and even inhuman
vices. The gods upon Olympus revel in lust and cruelty, jealousy and
hate. They furnish fit ideals for the philosophy of Nietzsche but do not
accord with the God of the New Testament, the God of consolation and of
peace, of purity and love.