A VERSE BY VERSE COMMENTARY ON JAMES 1 13-27 DEALING WITH TEMPTATION AND ITS ORIGIN IN SELF AND NOT IN GOD.

1. JAMES 1 13-27 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is
tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil,
nor does he tempt anyone;
BAR ES, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God - See
the remarks on the previous verse. The apostle here seems to have had his eye on
whatever there was in trial of any kind to induce us to commit sin - whether by
complaining, by murmuring, by apostacy, or by yielding to sin. So far as that was
concerned, he said that no one should charge it on God. He did nothing in any way with
a view to induce men to do evil. That was only an incidental thing in the trial, and was no
part of the divine purpose or design. The apostle felt evidently that there was great
danger, from the general manner in which the word “temptation” was used, and from
the perverse tendency of the heart, that it would be charged on God that he so arranged
these trials, and so influenced the mind, as to present inducements to sin. Against this, it
was proper that an inspired apostle should bear his solemn testimony; so to guard the
whole subject as to show that whatever there was in any form of trial that could be
regarded as an inducement or allurement to sin, is not the thing which he contemplated
in the arrangement, and does not proceed from him. It has its origin in other causes; and
if there was nothing in the corrupt human mind itself leading to sin, there would be
nothing in the divine arrangement that would produce it.
For God cannot be tempted with evil - Margin, “evils.” The sense is the same.
The object seems to be to show that, in regard to the whole matter of temptation, it does
not pertain to God. Nothing can be presented to his mind as an inducement to do wrong,
and as little can he present anything to the mind of man to induce him to sin.
Temptation is a subject which does not pertain to him. He stands aloof from it
altogether. In regard to the particular statement here, that “God cannot be tempted with
evil,” or to do evil, there can be no doubt of its truth, and it furnishes the highest security
for the welfare of the universe. There is nothing in him that has a tendency to wrong;
there can be nothing presented from without to induce him to do wrong:
(1) There is no evil passion to be gratified, as there is in men;
(2) There is no want of power, so that an allurement could be presented to seek what
he has not;
(3) There is no want of wealth, for he has infinite resources, and all that there is or can
be is his Psa_50:10-11;
(4) There is no want of happiness, that he should seek happiness in sources which are
not now in his possession. Nothing, therefore, could be presented to the divine
mind as an inducement to do evil.
Neither tempteth he any man - That is, he places nothing before any human being
with a view to induce him to do wrong. This is one of the most positive and
unambiguous of all the declarations in the Bible, and one of the most important. It may

2. be added, that it is one which stands in opposition to as many feelings of the human
heart as perhaps any other one. We are perpetually thinking - the heart suggests it
constantly - that God does place before us inducements to evil, with a view to lead us to
sin. This is done in many ways:
(a) People take such views of his decrees as if the doctrine implied that he meant that
we should sin, and that it could not be otherwise than that we should sin.
(b) It is felt that all things are under his control, and that he has made his
arrangements with a design that men should do as they actually do.
(c) It is said that he has created us with just such dispositions as we actually have, and
knowing that we would sin.
(d) It is said that, by the arrangements of his Providence, he actually places
inducements before us to sin, knowing that the effect will be that we will fall into
sin, when we might easily have prevented it.
(e) It is said that he suffers some to tempt others, when he might easily prevent it if he
chose, and that this is the same as tempting them himself.
Now, in regard to these things, there may be much which we cannot explain, and
much which often troubles the heart even of the good; yet the passage before us is
explicit on one point, and all these things must be held in consistency with that - that
God does not place inducements before us with a view that we should sin, or in order to
lead us into sin. None of his decrees, or his arrangements, or his desires, are based on
that, but all have some other purpose and end. The real force of temptation is to be
traced to some other source - to ourselves, and not to God. See the next verse.
CLARKE, "Let no man say - Lest the former sentiment should be misapplied, as
the word temptation has two grand meanings, solicitation to sin, and trial from
providential situation or circumstances, James, taking up the word in the former sense,
after having used it in the latter, says: Let no man say, when he is tempted, (solicited to
sin), I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he
(thus) any man. Thus the author has explained and guarded his meaning.
GILL, "Let no man say when he is tempted,.... Here the apostle uses the word
"tempted", in another sense than he did before. Before he speaks of temptations, as
matter of joy and boasting, here of temptations, which are criminal, and issue in shame
and death; the temptations he before makes mention of, being patiently endured,
denominate men happy, but here such are designed, which are to be deprecated, and
watched against; before he treats of temptations, which were the means of trying and
exercising grace, and of purging away the dross of sin and corruption, but here of
temptations to sin, and which are in themselves sinful; before he discourses of
temptations in which God was concerned; but here of temptations which he removes
from him, and denies of him, as being unworthy of him: wherefore, when any man is
tempted to sin, whether when under adversity, or in prosperity, let him not say,
I am tempted of God; for God is holy, and without iniquity, nor does he delight in sin,
but hates and abhors it; nor can he commit it, it being contrary to his nature, and the
perfections of it; whereas no one can tempt another to sin, unless he is sinful himself,
and delights in sin, and in those that commit it, nor without committing it himself; and

3. yet sinful men are apt to charge God with their sins, and temptations to them, in
imitation of their first parent, Adam, when fallen, Gen_3:12 who, to excuse himself, lays
the blame upon the woman, and ultimately upon God, who gave her to him; and
suggests, that if it had not been for the woman, he should not have ate of the forbidden
fruit, nor should he have had any temptation to it, had not God given him the woman to
be with him, and therefore it was his fault; and in this sad manner do his sons and
daughters reason, who, when, through affliction, they murmur against God, distrust his
providence, or forsake his ways, say, if he had not laid his hand upon them, or suffered
such afflictions to befall them, they had not been guilty of such sin: he himself is the
occasion of them; but let no man talk at this wicked rate,
for God cannot be tempted with evil; or "evils", He was tempted by the Israelites at
Massah and Meribah, from which those places had their names, who by their
murmuring, distrust and unbelief, proved and tried his patience and his power; and so
he may be, and has been tempted by others in a like way; he may be tempted by evil men,
and with evil things, but he cannot be tempted "to evil", as the Ethiopic version renders
it; he is proof against all such temptations: he cannot be tempted by anything in himself,
who is pure and holy, or by any creature or thing without him, to do any sinful action:
neither tempteth he any man; that is, to sin; he tempted Abraham, to try his faith,
love, and obedience to him; he tempted the Israelites in the wilderness, to try them and
humble them, and prove what was in their hearts; and he tempted Job, and tried his
faith and patience; and so he tempts and tries all his righteous ones, by afflictions, more
or less: but he never tempts or solicits them to sin; temptations to sin come from
another quarter, as follows.
HE RY, "I. We are here taught that God is not the author of any man's sin. Whoever
they are who raise persecutions against men, and whatever injustice and sin they may be
guilty of in proceeding against them, God is not to be charged with it. And, whatever sins
good men may themselves be provoked to by their exercises and afflictions, God is not
the cause of them. It seems to be here supposed that some professors might fall in the
hour of temptation, that the rod resting upon them might carry some into ill courses,
and make them put forth their hands unto iniquity. But though this should be the case,
and though such delinquents should attempt to lay their fault on God, yet the blame of
their misconduct must lie entirely upon themselves. For, 1. There is nothing in the
nature of God that they can lay the blame upon: Let no man say, when he is tempted to
take any evil course, or do any evil thing, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be
tempted with evil. All moral evil is owing to some disorder in the being that is
chargeable with it, to a want of wisdom, or of power, or of decorum and purity in the
will. But who can impeach the holy God with the want of these, which are his very
essence? No exigence of affairs can ever tempt him to dishonour or deny himself, and
therefore he cannot be tempted with evil. 2. There is nothing in the providential
dispensations of God that the blame of any man's sin can be laid upon (Jam_1:13):
Neither tempteth he any man. As God cannot be tempted with evil himself, so neither
can he be a tempter of others. He cannot be a promoter of what is repugnant to his
nature. The carnal mind is willing to charge its own sins on God. There is something
hereditary in this. Our first father Adam tells God, The woman thou gavest me tempted
me, thereby, in effect, throwing the blame upon God, for giving him the tempter. Let no
man speak thus. It is very bad to sin; but is much worse, when we have done amiss, to
charge it upon God, and say it was owing to him. Those who lay the blame of their sins
either upon their constitution or upon their condition in the world, or who pretend they

4. are under a fatal necessity of sinning, wrong God, as if he were the author of sin.
Afflictions, as sent by God, are designed to draw out our graces, but not our corruptions.
JAMISO , "when ... tempted — tried by solicitation to evil. Heretofore the
“temptation” meant was that of probation by afflictions. Let no one fancy that God lays
upon him an inevitable necessity of sinning. God does not send trials on you in order to
make you worse, but to make you better (Jam_1:16, Jam_1:17). Therefore do not sink
under the pressure of evils (1Co_10:13).
of God — by agency proceeding from God. The Greek is not “tempted by,” but,
“from,” implying indirect agency.
cannot be tempted with evil, etc. — “Neither do any of our sins tempt God to
entice us to worse things, nor does He tempt any of His own accord” (literally, “of
Himself”; compare the antithesis, Jam_1:18, “Of His own will He begat us” to holiness,
so far is He from tempting us of His own will) [Bengel]. God is said in Gen_22:1 to have
“tempted Abraham”; but there the tempting meant is that of trying or proving, not that
of seducement. Alford translates according to the ordinary sense of the Greek, “God is
unversed in evil.” But as this gives a less likely sense, English Version probably gives the
true sense; for ecclesiastical Greek often uses words in new senses, as the exigencies of
the new truths to be taught required.
CALVI , "13Let no man, when he is tempted. Here, no doubt, he speaks of another
kind of temptation. It is abundantly evident that the external temptations, hitherto
mentioned, are sent to us by God. In this way God tempted Abraham, (Genesis
22:1,) and daily tempts us, that is, he tries us as to what are we by laying before us
an occasion by which our hearts are made known. But to draw out what is hid in
our hearts is a far different thing from inwardly alluring our hearts by wicked lusts.
He then treats here of inward temptations which are nothing else than the
inordinate desires which entice to sin. He justly denies that God is the author of
these, because they flow from the corruption of our nature.
This warning is very necessary, for nothing is more common among men than to
transfer to another the blame of the evils they commit; and they then especially seem
to free themselves, when they ascribe it to God himself. This kind of evasion we
constantly imitate, delivered down to us as it is from the first man. For this reason
James calls us to confess our own guilt, and not to implicate God, as though he
compelled us to sin.
But the whole doctrine of scripture seems to be inconsistent with this passage; for it
teaches us that men are blinded by God, are given up to a reprobate mind, and
delivered over to filthy and shameful lusts. To this I answer, that probably James
was induced to deny that we are tempted by God by this reason, because the
ungodly, in order to form an excuse, armed themselves with testimonies of
Scripture. But there are two things to be noticed here: when Scripture ascribes
blindness or hardness of heart to God, it does not assign to him the BEGI I G of
this blindness, nor does it make him the author of sin, so as to ascribe to him the

5. blame: and on these two things only does James dwell.
Scripture asserts that the reprobate are delivered up to depraved lusts; but is it
because the Lord depraves or corrupts their hearts? By no means; for their hearts
are subjected to depraved lusts, because they are already corrupt and vicious. But
since God blinds or hardens, is he not the author or minister of evil? ay, but in this
manner he punishes sins, and renders a just REWARD to the ungodly, who have
refused to be ruled by his Spirit. (Romans 1:26.) It hence follows that the origin of
sin is not in God, and no blame can be imputed to him as though he took pleasure in
evils. (Genesis 6:6.)
The meaning is, that man in vain evades, who attempts to cast the blame of his vices
on God, because every evil PROCEEDS from no other fountain than from the
wicked lust of man. And the fact really is, that we are not otherwise led astray,
except that every one has his own inclination as his leader and impeller. But that
God tempts no one, he proves by this, because he is not tempted with evils (105) For
it is the devil who allures us to sin, and for this reason, because he wholly burns with
the mad lust of sinning. But God does not desire what is evil: he is not, therefore, the
author of doing evil in us.
13. “Let no one, when seduced, say, ‘By God I am seduced;’ for God is not capable
of being seduced by evils, and he himself seduceth no one.”
BE SO , "James 1:13. Let no man say, when he is tempted — To commit sin, in
whatever way it may be; I am tempted of God — God has laid this temptation in my
way; for God cannot be tempted with evil — It cannot appear desirable, or
otherwise than detestable, in God’s eyes; nor can he be inclined to it in any degree,
through any external object, or any internal motion; neither tempteth he any man
— He does not persuade or incline, much less constrain any one to sin by any means
whatever. The word πειραζειν, to tempt, as we have seen, often signifies “to try, in
order to discover the disposition of a person, or to improve his virtue, James 1:12. In
this sense God is said to have tempted or tried Abraham and the Israelites. ot that
he was ignorant of the dispositions of either of them. In the same sense the Israelites
are said to have tempted or proved God. They put his power and goodness to the
trial, by entertaining doubts concerning them. Here, to tempt, signifies to solicit one
to sin, and actually to seduce him into sin, which is the effect of temptation or
solicitation. See James 1:14. In this sense the devil tempts men. And because he is
CO TI UALLY employed in that malicious work, he is called, by way of eminence,
ο πειραζων, the tempter. It is in this sense we are to understand the saying in the
end of the verse, that God is incapable of being tempted, that is, seduced to sin by
evil things, and that he seduces no one to sin. God having nothing either to hope or
fear, no evil beings, whether man or angel, can either entice or seduce him. Further,
his infinitely perfect nature admitting no evil thought or inclination, he is absolutely
( απειραστος) incapable of being tempted.” — Macknight.
BARCLAY 13-15, "At the back of this passage lies a Jewish way of belief to which
all of us are to some extent prone. James is here rebuking the man who puts the

6. blame for temptation on God.
Jewish thought was haunted by the inner division that is in every man. It was the
problem which haunted Paul: "I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I
see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, and making me
captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members" (Romans 7:22-23). Every
man was pulled in two directions. Purely as an interpretation of experience the Jews
arrived at the doctrine that in every man there were two tendencies. They called
them the Yetser (Hebrew #3336) Hatob (Hebrew #2896), the good tendency, and the
Yetser (Hebrew #3336) Hara' (Hebrew #7451), the evil tendency. This simply stated
the problem; it did not explain it. In particular, it did not say where the evil
tendency came from. So Jewish thought set out to try to explain that.
The writer of Ecclesiasticus was deeply impressed with the havoc that the evil
tendency causes. "O Yetser (Hebrew #3336) Hara' (Hebrew #7451), why wast thou
made to fill the earth with thy deceit?" (Sirach 37:3). In his view the evil tendency
came from Satan, and man's defence against it was his own will. "God made man
from the BEGI I G and he delivered him into the hand of him who took him for
a prey. He left him in the power of his will. If thou willest, thou wilt observe the
commandments, and faithfulness is a matter of thy good pleasure" (Sirach 15:14-
15).
There were Jewish writers who traced this evil tendency right back to the Garden of
Eden. In the apocryphal work, The Life of Adam and Eve, the story is told. Satan
took the form of an angel and, speaking through the serpent, put into Eve the desire
for the forbidden fruit and made her swear that she would give the fruit to Adam as
well. "When he had made me swear," says Eve, "he ascended up into the tree. But
in the fruit he gave me to eat he placed the poison of his malice, that is, of his lust.
For lust is the beginning of all sin. And he bent down the bough to the earth, and I
took of the fruit and ate it." In this conception it was Satan himself who succeeded
in inserting the evil tendency into man; and that evil tendency is identified with the
lust of the flesh. A later development of this story was that the beginning of all sin
was in fact Satan's lust for Eve.
The Book of Enoch has two theories. One is that the fallen angels are responsible for
sin (85). The other is that man himself is responsible for it. "Sin has not been sent
upon the earth, but man himself created it" (98: 4).
But every one of these theories simply pushes the problem one STEP further back.
Satan may have put the evil tendency into man; the fallen angels may have put it
into man; man may have put it into himself. But where did it ultimately come from?
To meet this problem, certain of the Rabbis took a bold and dangerous step. They
argued that, since God has created everything, he must have created the evil
tendency also. So we get Rabbinic sayings such as the following. "God said, It
repents me that I created the evil tendency in man; for had I not done so, he would
not have rebelled against me. I created the evil tendency; I created the law as a

7. means of healing. If you occupy yourself with the law, you will not fall into the
power of it. God placed the good tendency on a man's right hand, and the evil on his
left." The danger is obvious. It means that in the last analysis a man can blame God
for his own sin. He can say, as Paul said, "It is no longer I that do it, but sin which
dwells in me" (Romans 7:15-24). Of all strange doctrines surely the strangest is that
God is ultimately responsible for sin.
THE EVASIO OF RESPO SIBILITY (James 1:13-15 CO TI UED)
From the BEGI I G of time it has been man's first instinct to blame others for
his own sin. The ancient writer who wrote the story of the first sin in the Garden of
Eden was a first-rate psychologist with a deep knowledge of the human heart. When
God challenged Adam with his sin, Adam's reply was, "The woman whom thou
gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." And when God challenged
Eve with her action, her answer was, "The serpent beguiled me, and I ate." Adam
said, "Don't blame me; blame Eve." Eve said, "Don't blame me; blame the serpent"
(Genesis 3:12-13).
Man has always been an expert in evasion.
Robert Burns wrote:
Thou know'st that Thou hast formed me
With passions wild and strong;
And list'ning to their witching voice
Has often led me wrong.
In effect, he is saying that his conduct was as it was because God made him as he
was. The blame is laid on God. So men blame their fellows, they blame their
circumstances, they blame the way in which they are made, for the sin of which they
are guilty.
James sternly rebukes that view. To him what is responsible for sin is man's own
evil desire. Sin would be helpless if there was nothing in man to which it could
appeal. Desire is something which can be nourished or stifled. A man can control
and even, by the grace of God, eliminate it if he deals with it at once. But he can
allow his thoughts to follow certain TRACKS, and his steps to take him into certain
places and his eyes to linger on certain things; and so foment desire. He can so hand
himself over to Christ and be so engaged on good things that there is no time or
place left for evil desire. It is idle hands for which Satan finds mischief to do; it is
the unexercised mind and the uncommitted heart which are vulnerable.
If a man encourages desire long enough, there is an inevitable consequence. Desire
becomes action.

8. Further, it was the Jewish teaching that sin produced death. The life of Adam and
Eve says that the moment Eve ate of the fruit she caught a glimpse of death. The
word which James uses in James 1:15, and which the King James and the Revised
Standard Versions TRA SLATE brings forth death, is an animal word for birth;
and it means that sin spawns death. Mastered by desire, man becomes less than a
man and sinks to the level of the brute creation.
The great value of this passage is that it urges upon man his personal responsibility
for sin. o man was ever born without desire for some wrong thing. And, if a man
deliberately encourages and nourishes that desire until it becomes full-grown and
monstrously strong, it will inevitably issue in the action which is sin--and that is the
way to death. Such a thought--and all human experience admits it to be true--must
drive us to that grace of God which alone can make and keep us clean, and which is
AVAILABLE to all.
COFFMA , "The purpose of this verse is to take away from men any excuse for
their yielding to sin. There is not any need for the commentators to dig up
references in the Talmud, or in Wisdom, or in Sirach, or in mythology for something
which might have led to James' inclusion of this admonition. The book of
GE ESISrecords the fact of Adam's blaming Eve for his sin, with the implied
element of blaming God also, "the woman thou gavest me"; and from that day until
now, man has loved to blame the Creator for all of his troubles. And yet it is a fact
that God allows temptation. Punchard has this regarding God's use of temptation:
Trials and temptations are permitted to strengthen us, if we will, for God's mightier
service. Compulsory homage would be worthless to the loving Lord of all; so
voluntary must be found instead, and proved, and perfected. Herein is the
Christian's conflict, and the secret of God's ways with men.[34]SIZE>
There are all kinds of ways of shifting the blame to God. After all, did not God
create those fleshly appetites which we seek to control; are we not surrounded from
the very BEGI I G of life with all kinds of temptations; and did not God make
all of these things which tempt me? James' words here were given for the purpose of
destroying such fallacious reasoning. Surely, of all the evil doctrines ever advanced
by Satan, that of blaming God himself for human transgression must be one of the
worst.
E D OTE:
[34] E. G. Punchard, Ellicott's Commentary on the Holy Bible, Vol. VIII (Grand
Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), on James, p. 359.
WHEDO , "3. Blessedness of enduring temptation; which (temptation) comes not
from God; from whom is the good alone, James 1:12-18.
12. Blessed is the man—Whether of low DEGREE or rich.
Endureth— Who not only suffers, undergoes, but endureth; that is, bears up

9. against, and conquers temptation.
For—It is the most glorious of triumphs. He it is who may (James 1:2) count it all
joy.
Tried—Proved true by the tempting test.
Crown of life—He becomes more than a millionaire; he receives the crown of a
heavenly prince—a crown of life—from which he will never pass by death, and
which will never wither from him. The phrase crown of life does not signify a crown
possessed of or imbued with life; but a crown consisting of life. The life, or glorious
immortality, is itself the crown.
SCHAFF, "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.
PETT, "‘Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot

10. be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no man.’
There is a play on the meaning of temptation here. James has been speaking about
testings and trials, and he may well have heard some blame them on God. And he
has indeed made clear that that is partly true, for God allows His people to be tested
for their good. But ow he wants to make clear that while God may test men He
does not subject them to temptation to sin. Where temptation to sin occurs it is not
God Who is doing it.
One reason why that is so is because sin is foreign to God as He is by nature. Thus
He cannot be tempted with evil. He is above and beyond it as ‘the Holy One’. Thus
temptation to sin would be outside the sphere of His holiness. It is something which
He could not conceivably do. But that then brings out another remarkable fact, and
that is that in becoming man in Jesus God did subject Himself to temptation. ‘He
was tempted in all points as we are, and yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15, compare
also James 2:18). But that does not APPLY to God as Creator and Sustainer of the
Universe.
‘And He Himself tempts no man.’ James categorically DE IES that God tempts
men. It would be foreign to what He is. Thus we can never seek to blame our
sinfulness on God. It is all of man. Jewish tradition concurs with this conclusion,
‘Do not say, “it is through the Lord that I fell away -- it is He Who caused me to
err” (Sirach 15:11-12). For if someone did they would be putting the blame in the
wrong place.
Verses 13-15
There Is One Kind Of Testing That Is ot To Be Seen As Of God And That Is The
Temptation To Sin. That Springs From The Lusts Of The Human Heart And Leads
To Death (James 1:13-15).
James now moves from the trials of life to the idea of a particular trial, that of
temptation to sin. It would seem that some were blaming their temptations to sin,
and even their sinfulness, on God, so he assures them that it is not God Who tempts
men to sin, but men who are tempted because of what they are. They are led astray
by their own sinful desires. And they are to be aware that this kind of testing does
not lead to the crown of life, but to the dust of death (James 1:15).
Analysis.
A Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be
tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no man (James 1:13).
B But each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed
(James 1:14).
C Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin (James 1:15 a).
D And the sin, when it is fullgrown (‘has come to completeness’), brings forth death
(James 1:15 b).
OTEhow this is presented in the form of a sequence. First what is not the cause of

11. temptation (it is not God who causes man to be tempted), then what is the cause of
temptation (temptation is caused by man’s own desires and lusts), then the
consequence of temptation, (man’s lust ‘conceives’ and like a pregnant woman
‘bears’ sin), then the consequences of that sin (sin comes to completeness and, again
like a pregnant woman, ‘brings forth’ death).
HAMPTO 13-14, "Put The Blame On Self
In the first part of James 1:1-27, trials, or external hardships are considered. Then,
as Woods notes, James changes from the noun form to a verb in his consideration of
temptation. Woods tells us the verb form means "solicit to do evil" and gives the
example of Satan tempting our Lord (Matthew 4:1-11). God will test men, as we
have ALREADY seen and the case of Abraham shows, but he will not tempt men to
sin (James 1:13). Adam, like some today, tried to blame God for his temptation and
sin (Genesis 3:12). James clearly answers the challenge of Adam.
otice the external trial becomes an internal problem when we are drawn away of
our own lust. Adam tried to put the blame for his sin on Eve and Eve tried to blame
the devil (Genesis 3:13-16). James does not put the blame upon Satan because
ultimately it rests with us (James 1:14). The devil will receive his punishment, but so
will we because we are responsible for our actions. Ezekiel recorded the Lord"s
words when he said, "The soul who sins shall die" (18:4).
Similarly, Paul writes, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has
done, whether good or bad" (2 Corinthians 5:10; Galatians 6:7-8).
COKE, "James 1:13. St. James had said so much about the benefit of temptations,
or trials, that he thought it necessary to guard his readers against so dangerous a
mistake, as that of making God the author of sin, or ascribing temptations to him, as
they signify "a seducing men to what is evil:" In that sense they PROCEED not
from God, but from the lusts of men, which, if complied with, end in death, instead
of bringing men to a crown of life. Though, therefore, trials may be ascribed to God,
yet temptation, in the bad sense of the word, cannot by any means be ascribed to
him. Sin and death proceed from the lusts and wickedness of men; but God is not
the author of evil; on the contrary, He is, like the sun in the firmament, an
U IVERSAL Benefactor, and the author of all that is good: nay, he infinitely excels
the sun, as not being subject to any change or variation.—The Jewish converts were
by the divine benignity brought first into the Christian church; they therefore had
peculiar reason to ascribe goodness unto God, and to obey readily the precepts of
the gospel; governing their passions, bridling their tongues, manifesting their
meekness and charity, and doing every thing which the Christian religion requires,
through Divine grace. James 1:13-27.
Let no man say—I am tempted of God— See on Genesis 22:1. Exodus 15:25; Exodus
16:4. Deuteronomy 8:2. "There are two senses of the word temptation, says Dr.
Heylin, according to the different ends proposed; the one for trial, the other for

12. seduction: this last is here intended. As God, by virtue of his boundless knowledge
and almighty power, is incapable of being tempted by evils, so likewise he is of such
perfect rectitude and benevolence, that he tempteth not any man; that is, draws him
not designedly into sin, nor lays him, in any imaginable circumstances, under a
moral necessity of committing it."
CO STABLE, "God is never the source of temptation. He does not try to get us to
sin, even though some people blame God for their sins. He Himself is not even
subject to temptation because He is totally separate from sin and not susceptible to
evil. [ ote: Mayor, p. 53. See also his extended discussion of this subject on pp. 195-
97.] The only sense in which God is responsible for sin is that He permits other
things to tempt us, namely, the world, the flesh, and the devil (cf. JOB 1-2). James
did not mention this here.
Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Lead us not into temptation" (Matthew 6:13;
Luke 11:4). Jesus used a figure of speech (i.e., litotes) in which He expressed a
POSITIVE idea by negating the contrary. Other examples of litotes are "not a few"
meaning many, and "no rare occurrence" meaning a frequent occurence. James did
not imply that God does lead us into temptation. His point was that He can help us
stay away from it. Essentially Jesus meant we should ask God to allow us to
experience as little temptation as possible (cf. Mark 14:38). James was not
contradicting Jesus' teaching.
"We all know only too many people who have ceased to walk with God under the
pressure of trouble or tragedy ..." [ ote: Motyer, p. 50.]
ELLICOTT, "For God cannot be tempted with evil.—We can see here a good
instance of the excellence of the old Geneva Bible, “the first on several occasions to
seize the exact meaning of a passage which all the preceding versions had missed.”
Our present rendering follows the Genevan exactly, rejecting those of Wiclif. “God
is not a tempter of yuell things”; Tyndale, “God tempteth not vnto evyll”; and
Cranmer, “God cannot tempte vnto euyll.”
either tempteth he any man.—The trial comes of Him, i.e., the Tempter is allowed;
but so far, and no further. God Himself is “unversed of evils,” and no possibility of
temptation remains with Him. Into the unseen splendour of His fulness no thought
of wrong can E TER; no foul thing wing its silent FLIGHT. It were blasphemy,
perilously near that of the Pharisees (Matthew 12:22-37) to think God’s kingdom
could be so divided against itself, that He, directly or indirectly, should seduce His
subjects into the revolt of sin. o; if we have one golden clue by which we may feel
our erring way out of the labyrinth of this lower world into the belief and trust in
God our Father for the life to come, it is this: trials and temptations are permitted to
strengthen us—if we will—for His mightier service. And, as compulsory homage
would be worthless to the loving Lord of all, voluntary must be found instead, and
proved and perfected. Herein is the Christian conflict, and the secret of God’s ways
with man.

13. AUTHOR U K OW , "The beatitude sounds good and lives good, but James knows
the human heart. In times of temptation it is a natural human tendency to blame God.
Putting the blame elsewhere is popular in our culture.
It is popular to blame God for all kinds of things that go wrong. Great catastrophes are
called acts of God. Nobody else can cause them, and so it is assumed that God is behind
the terrible events that kill people by the thousands.
We are prone to blame God for our failure to endure, when suffering comes and we sin
because of it we are inclined to attribute the fault to God. But James says we cannot
blame God for failure in our life. God is never the author of sin. God may test people with
a view to approval; he never tempts people to sin. He is not that kind of Lord. Now, we
need to distinguish between a test and a temptation, because the Scripture makes that
distinction. A test is an experience that God brings into our life in order to build us. A
temptation comes from Satan. It is designed to cause us to sin. But the amazing thing is
that any circumstance can be either a test or a temptation, depending upon our response
Will Rogers once remarked that there are two eras in American History - "the passing of
the buffalo and the passing of the buck."
We look for anything and everything to blame our troubles on. If it is not Mom & Dad,
circumstances, or "The Devil Made Me Do It", then it has to be God! It surely can't be
me!
THE BLAMI G GOD THEOLOGY REJECTED.
Pastor Thomas E. Miles
When Adam violated God's instruction and was confronted, he was quick to point fingers
at his wife. But, instructively, God did not absolve him of responsibility. So, Adam was
as much responsible for his actions, as we are today accountable for ours. Why, because
we are free moral agents, capable of making independent decisions.
God wants you to know something today. He wants you to know something about
Himself and His love. He wants to show you His mercy. He wants to rain down on you
with love, blessings, and victories so abundant that you cannot contain them all. God
wants you to know that it is time to stop blaming Him for all your problems.
He is not a God that should be blamed every time a child dies, every time a man and
woman divorce, or every time a son or daughter gets hurt. He is not a God that should be
blamed for having caused a car accident. He is a God that should be given praise, thanks
and love for He created us to have all things and have them more abundantly then what
we could ever know what to do with them. “Exodus 34:6 And the LORD passed by
before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-
suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,”
If you will read the Word of God, you will find that in every instance where it speaks of
God’s wrath, or the punishment of God, the hand of God in revenge, you will find that it
is in relation to God’s people turning from Him and going into the wickedness and ways
of the world. You will see that it is the wickedness and evils of the world that has

14. captured the heart and soul of the people, and it is this world of decadence creating this
hurt, sickness, and feeling of being let down by God, or hurt by God.
God said in the very beginning that because of Adam’s fall that He would put Satan in
charge of this world and those that chose to live in this world, live according to it’s
principles and lies, would also suffer the consequences of the falsehoods and
destructiveness of Satan and his imps. God is not giving the pain and the hurt to the
people, Satan is doing it...and yes, God is allowing it to happen, but only because He said
to man, I will give you the freedom of choice. I will allow you to make the decision as to
whom you will follow. Moreover, it is this decision that is OURS--not God’s; He loves us
so much that He allows us to choose life or death. He does not force us to choose Him.
We are so willing to put the “I” out front every time reward or praise is due, but, when
blame is to be found, we pull the “I” so quickly back and look for someone else to blame
for the troubles that have come upon us. No one else is to blame other than us. No one
else can make us do anything that we do not want to do. We may not always like the
things that we have to do, or that we do, but we are the ones that make those decisions. I
cannot make a decision for you; you make the decision for you. I may say things, or
introduce something that might sway or change your way of thinking. Alternatively, I may
do something that helps you to decide to do something, but that is still your decision, not
mine, you are the only one to blame or to praise for the outcome.
It isn’t difficult to see a connection between adversity and temptation. In the midst of
adversity, we may be tempted to think or act in a sinful manner. Many folks wrongly
conclude that times of stress somehow justify ungodly responses. There is a sinister
dimension to the words, “I am tempted by God.” It is one thing to say, “The devil made
me do it;” it is quite another to lay the blame on God. You can see how one could twist
reality to come to such a conclusion. Their distorted logic would go something like this:
God is sovereign; He is in control of everything.
God is the One who brings adversity into the lives of His people.
God has brought adversity into my life.
In such times of adversity, I am tempted to act in an ungodly manner.
If I yield to this temptation, I sin.
Therefore, God is the source of my temptation.
If I fail, it must be God’s fault, because He led me into temptation.
It seems to me that verses 13-18 take up the subject of the double-minded man,
mentioned in verse 8. The double-minded person wavers between humble submission to
God and prideful disobedience. It is that proud disobedience which seems to underlie the
logic that blames God for our sin and names Him as the source of our temptation.
James speaks in very absolute terms in verses 13-18. He says that one should never blame
God for the temptation we face. He also says that God cannot ever be tempted by evil,
and that He never tempts anyone with evil. God tests us, but He never tempts us.1
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "Let no man say,… I am tempted of God
The temptation not from God
I.

15. THE CHARACTER GIVEN OF GOD.
1. “God cannot be tempted of evil.”
(1) The absolute and infinite self-sufficiency of His blessedness. That blessedness
is altogether independent of every other being whatever besides Himself. It is
full: incapable of either diminution or increase: springing as it does from the
infinite perfection of His own immutable nature. He can never have anything for
which to hope; and never anything to fear.
(2) He is placed beyond all such possibility by the absolute perfection of His
moral nature. “God cannot be tempted with evil.” His nature is necessarily and
infinitely opposed to everything of the kind; and to such a nature what is sinful or
impure never can present aught capable of exerting even the remotest influence.
2. “Neither tempteth He any man.”
(1) God tempts no man, by presenting to him inducements, motives, persuasives,
to sin.
(2) God tempts no man by any direct inward influence; by infusing evil thoughts,
inclinations, and desires.
(3) God “tempteth not any man” by placing him in circumstances in which he is
laid under a natural necessity of stoning.
II. Proceed we now to THE ADMONITION FOUNDED ON WHAT IS SAID OF GOD
“Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God”; “for God tempteth no man:
“or to put it according to the order of thought we have chosen to follow—“God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man: let no man therefore say, when he is
tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth
He any man.” It is because every such thought of God is impious, that the saying is
condemned as impious. The delusion before us is one of the most fearful palliations of
sin, and opiates to the conscience, that the deceitful heart of man has ever suggested.
But, if conscience is allowed to speak in sincerity, its utterance will be—“I am a voluntary
sinner. No extraneous force has kept me back from good; no such force has compelled
me to evil. I have followed my own inclinations. My heart and my will have been in all
the evil I have done. It is all my own.”
1. Let the unbelieving sinner beware of imagining that the guilt of his rejecting the
gospel lies anywhere else than with himself.
2. There is one view in which you would do well to remember God “cannot be
tempted with evil.” He can never be induced to act, in any step of His procedure,
inconsistently with any attribute of His character, or, in a single jot or tittle, to
sacrifice the claims of the purest moral rectitude.
III. THE TRUE NATURE OF TEMPTATION. “But every man is tempted, when he is
drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” In this description temptation is to be
understood as relating to the state of the mind between the moment of the first entrance
of the sinful thought, and the actual commission of the evil;—the state of the mind while
the enticement is working within among the hidden desires and appetencies of the heart,
exerting there its seductive influence. “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of
his own lust.” This is evidently meant to be emphatic. It refers back to the preceding
verse—“Let no man say, I am tempted of God”: God “tempteth not any man.” The “lust”
by which he is tempted, is not of God: it is “his own lust.” And all evil that is in man is his

16. own. Within our own hearts are seated many evil desires. The devil needs not introduce
them. There they are. He acts upon them, no doubt, in his own mysterious and insidious
way. But the extraneous operations of a tempter are not at all required to stir up their
evil exercise. They work of themselves. From all the objects around us, that are fitted to
gratify those desires, our senses are so many inlets of temptation to our hearts. Nor are
even our senses necessary to the admission of temptation. The imagination can work
independently of them, And both in waking and in sleeping hours, many a time is it busy
in summoning tempting scenes before them. The principle of the words before us may
be applied alike to prosperity and adversity. In adversity, “our own lusts” may tempt us
to “charge God foolishly,” and that too both in our hearts and with our lips; and thus to
give sinful indulgence to ungodly tempers of mind. Then again, in the time of prosperity;
“our own lust” may often tempt us to the abuse of it. We may be led to forget God, at the
very time when His accumulated kindnesses give Him the stronger claim on our grateful
and devout remembrance. We may give, in our hearts, the place of the Giver to His gifts.
IV. THE FEARFUL CONSEQUENCES OF YIELDING TO TEMPTATION. “When lust
hath conceived.” The obvious meaning of the figurative allusion is, that when the evil
desire is admitted into the mind, and, instead of being resisted, prayed against, and
driven out, is retained, fostered, indulged, and through dwelling upon the object of it,
grows in strength, and at length is fully matured, it will come forth in action; as after the
period of gestation and growth, the child in the womb comes to the birth. The lust,
having thus conceived, “bringeth forth sin”; that is, produces practical transgression—
sin in the life—actual departure from the way of God’s commandments. “And sin, when
it is finished, bringeth forth death.” That God’s righteousness may not only condemn
justly, but appear as condemning justly, the sentence is thus connected with the act—
with the effect and manifestation of the evil principle. But the very language implies that
the sin did not begin with the act: it is finished in the act; and the evil of the act
concentrates in it all the previous evil of the thoughts, desires, and motives from which it
arose, and by which it was ultimately matured into action. The “death”—that death
which is “the wages of sin”—follows on the commission of it, as surely as, in nature, the
birth follows the conception.
V. THE IMPORTANCE OF FORMING AND CHERISHING RIGHT, AND OF
AVOIDING WRONG, CONCEPTIONS ON THIS SUBJECT. “Do not err, my beloved
brethren.” It is as if the apostle had said—“Beware of mistakes here.” And certainly there
are few subjects on which it is of more essential consequence to have correct ideas, or on
which misapprehensions are more perilous. The thought that is specially reprobated in
the passage which has been under review is one which cannot fail to affect all the
principles, and feelings, and practices of the Christian life. It affects our views of God:
and these lie at the foundation of all religion. According as they are right or wrong, must
our religion be right or wrong, it must equally affect our views of ourselves—of ourselves
as sinners; inasmuch as all the penitential humiliation, all the contrite broken-
heartedness, on account of our sins, which we ever ought to feel, lose entirely their
ground, and are inevitably gone, the moment we say, or think, that “we are tempted of
God”—that in any way our sin and guilt are attributable to Him. It must, in the same
way, affect our conceptions of sin itself; of its “exceeding sinfulness” and unutterable
guilt. And thus it will affect our views of our need of a Saviour; and especially of such a
Saviour, and such a salvation, as the gospel reveals.
1. Let believers be impressed with the necessity of unceasing vigilance over their own
hearts. Their worst enemies are in their own bosoms.
2. Let all consider the necessity of the heart being right with God. It is only in a holy

17. heart, a heart renewed by the Spirit, a heart of which the lusts are laid under arrest,
and crucified, that He can dwell.
3. Ponder seriously the certain consequences of unrepented and unforgiven sin: and
by immediate recourse to the Cross, and to the blood there shed for the remission of
sins, shun the fearful end which otherwise awaits you. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)
The workings of sin
I. IT REMINDS US OF THE DEPRAVITY OF HUMAN NATURE.
II. WE ARE TAUGHT HOW SURELY THE EVIL PRINCIPLE WILL WORK IN THE
HEART, IF UNCHECKED AND UNRESTRAINED, TILL IT HAS BROUGHT FORTH
FRUIT UNTO DEATH. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust,
and enticed. It is the internal desire which gives temptation its power over man. Were
there no appetite for the intoxicating liquor, the cup which contains it would be offered
in vain. Were there no covetous desire, the prospect of gain would be no temptation to
deviate from the path of rectitude. In every case it is the state of the heart which gives to
temptation its power to subdue. Its suddenness may surprise into transgression, but
when its success is owing entirely to this circumstance, repentance may be expected
quickly to arise. The case supposed in the text is not of this nature. The temptation is
embraced and followed. The sinner is “drawn away of his own lust and enticed” to his
ruin. The stronger the sinful propensity has become by indulgence, the greater is the
power which every corresponding temptation has to overcome him. He is the less
disposed, and therefore the less able to resist. Pleasure in some form is the bait that
hides the hook by which he is drawn and enticed. The death which is the end of sin will
therefore be of as long duration as the life which is the fruit of holiness. It will not be an
arbitrary undeserved punishment, but the wages of sin, its proper desert. Such is the
death which sic, when it is finished, bringeth forth.
III. WE LEARN HOW EASILY GOD CAN BRING SIN TO LIGHT. Should sin escape
detection in this life, we know that nothing can be concealed from the eye of God, who
will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of all
hearts. The day shall declare every man’s work of what sort it is. Every one must give an
account of himself to God, must narrate his own proceedings, and unfold his own
character, before an assembled universe.
IV. THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPPRESSING THE FIRST RISINGS OF EVIL IN THE
HEART, AND GUARDING AGAINST THE FIRST STEP IN A WRONG COURSE.
V. WE LEARN THAT NOTHING CAN BE MORE WRONG THAN FOR ANY MAN TO
THROW THE BLAME OF HIS SINS UPON GOD. “Let no man say when he is tempted, I
am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man.”
The all-wise, pure, perfect, self-sufficient, almighty Creator and Ruler of the universe can
be under no temptation to evil, neither can He place temptation in the way of any one to
induce him to sin. This would be to act in direct contrariety to His own nature. A wicked
man may say, “If God has given me such passions how can I help being led astray by
them?” God has not given you such passions; you have given them to yourself. The
desires He gave you were needful to the great purposes of human existence. Without
them the powers of man could not be called into action. You have perverted them, and
allowed them to gain the mastery over reason, conscience, and religion. Suppose a friend
recommended to you a servant whom he had uniformly found, after a long trial, faithful
and obedient, and you had spoiled that servant, after taking him into your service, by

18. every unwarrantable indulgence, till he had tyrannised over you, and wasted your
property, would you have any right to complain of your friend for recommending him,
would not the blame rest entirely with yourself? Everything becomes a temptation to a
depraved heart—prosperity or adversity; wealth or poverty; success or disappointment.
On the other hand, “All things work together for good to them that love God, and are the
called according to His purpose.”
VI. Finally, WE LEARN, THAT SUCH BEING THE DEPRAVITY OF MAN, THERE IS
NO SECURITY FROM THE RUIN WHICH SIN WILL INEVITABLY BITING UPON
THE TRANSGRESSOR, BUT IN THAT COMPLETE RENOVATION OF OUR NATURE
WHICH IN SCRIPTURE IS CALLED REGENERATION—A NEW CREATION. “That
which is born of the flesh is flesh”—corrupt in its tendencies. But, “whosoever is born of
God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin because he
is born of God.” (Essex Remembrancer.)
The sinner’s progress
Archbishop Trench points out that many words, which when first used bad an innocent
and even commendable meaning, have come by use to carry a doubtful or malignant
sense; and in this degradation of our words he sees a proof and illustration of human
depravity. The word “temptation,” both in Greek and English, is a case in point.
According to its derivation and original use, the word simply means “test,” whatever
tends to excite, to draw out and bring to the surface, the hidden contents of the heart,
whatever serves to indicate the ruling bent. But in process of time the word has come to
have a darker significance. For if there is much that is good in us, there is also much that
is evil. And because, in their intercourse with each other, men are too often bent on
provoking that which is evil in each other, rather than on eliciting and strengthening
that which is good, the word “temptation” has sunk from its original plane, and has
come to signify mainly such testings and trials of character as are designed to draw out
the evil that is in us; trials and tests skilfully adapted to our besetting infirmities, and
likely to develop the lower and baser qualities of our nature. It is because of this double
meaning of the word that we meet in Scripture such apparently contradictory phrases as,
“Lead us not into temptation,” and, ‘ “Count it all joy when ye fall into divers
temptations.” It is in this double meaning of the word, moreover, that we find the key to
the apparently contradictory statements that God does tempt men, and that He does not
tempt them. He does tempt us all in the sense that He puts us all to the proof, and
compels us at times to see what manner of men we are. But if, in this sense, God tempts
every man, there is a sense in which “He tempts no man.” For it is never the design of
the trials to which He puts us to bring out and confirm that which is evil in us. It is
always His purpose to bring out and confirm that which is good in us; or, if He show us
wherein we are weak, it is not that we may remain weak and foolish, but that we may
seek and find strength and wisdom in Him. When we have fallen into “temptation,” in
the bad sense of that word—when, that is, we have yielded to an evil influence, and have
suffered our baser passions to be excited—we are apt to say, “I am tempted of God,” to
plead: “Well, after all, He made me what I am. Am I to blame for my passionate
temperament, or for the strength and fierceness of my desires?” Or, again, we say:
“Circumstances were against me. The opportunity was too tempting, my need or my
craving was too importunate, to be resisted. And are not our circumstances and
condition appointed by Him?” Thus we charge God foolishly, knowing and feeling all the
while that it is we ourselves who are to blame whenever the lower part of our nature is

19. permitted a supremacy against which the higher part protests. God tempts no man,
affirms St. James, and assigns as a reason, “for God is unversed in evil,” or, “God is
incapable of evil,” or, “God is untemptable with evil”; for in these three several ways this
one word is translated. His implied argument is sufficiently clear, however we may
render his words. What he assumes is, “Every one who tempts another to do evil must
have some evil in his own nature. But there is no shadow or taint of evil in God, and
therefore it is impossible that God should tempt any man.” But if the evil temptations we
have to encounter do not come from God, whence do they come? St. James replies,
“Every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust, and enticed”—the man’s
lust being here conceived of as a harlot who lavishes her blandishments upon him; “then
the lust, having conceived, bringeth forth sin; and the sin, when it is mature, bringeth
forth death.” The origin of sin is in man’s own breast, in his own hot and extravagant
desires for any kind of temporal or sensual good; and the apostle traces the sinner’s
career through the successive steps that lead down to death.
1. First, the man is drawn aside. James conceives of him as occupied with his daily
task, busily discharging the duties of his daily calling. While be is thus engaged, a
craving for some unlawful or excessive gratification, for a gain that cannot be
honestly secured, or an indulgence which cannot be taken soberly and in the fear of
God, springs up within his mind. The craving haunts his mind, and takes form in it.
He bends his regards on it, and is drawn towards it. At first, perhaps, his will is firm,
and he refuses to yield to its attraction. But the craving is very strong; it touches him
at his weak point. And when it comes back to him again and again, it swells and
grows into what St. James calls a “lust.” It is “his own lust,” the passion most native
to him, and most potent with such as he—the love of gain, or the love of rule, or the
love of distinction, or some affection of a baser strain. For a time tie may resist its
fascination; but ere long his work is laid aside, the claims of duty are neglected, the
warnings of conscience unheeded. All he means is to get a nearer view of this strange,
alluring visitor, to lift its veil, to see what it is like and for what intent it beckons him
away. And so he takes his first step: he is drawn aside from the clear and beaten path
of duty.
2. Then he is enticed, “allured,” as the Greek word implies, “with pleasant baits.” His
craving waxes stronger, the object of desire more attractive, as he advances. All
specious excuses—all that moralists have allowed or bold transgressors have
claimed—are urged upon him, until at last his scruples are overborne, and he yields
himself a willing captive to his lust.
3. Then lust” conceives.” The will consents to the wish ‘ the evil desire grows toward
an evil deed. He can know no rest till his craving be gratified. The good work in
which he was occupied looks tame and wearisome to him. He is fevered by passion,
and absorbed in 2:4. Having conceived, “lust bringeth forth sin.” The bad purpose
has become a bad deed, and the bad deed is followed by its natural results. Coming
to the light, his evil deeds may be reproved. When the sin is born, the man may
recognise his guilt. He may repent, and be forgiven and restored.
5. But if he do not turn and repent, the last step will be taken, and sin, being
matured, will bring forth death. Action will grow into habit, the sinful action into a
habit of sinning. As sin grows and matures, it will rob him of his energy. He will no
longer make a stand against temptation. He will wholly surrender himself to his lust,
until all that makes him man dies out of him, and only the fierce, brutal craving
remains. Hogarth has left us a familiar series of pictures entitled “The Rake’s
Progress,” in which the career of a profligate spendthrift is sketched from its

20. commencement to its close. Were I an artist, I would paint you a similar series on a
kindred but wider theme—the Sinner’s Progress. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Temptations to evil not from God
Now, affliction is an evil of which God Himself is the author, very consistently with the
perfect purity of His nature, and with the tenderest compassion for His servants:
“Whom He loveth, He rebuketh and chasteneth”; and the design is worthy of supreme
goodness as well as rectitude, for it is to try the virtues of the afflicted in order to
strengthen them, that they may be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the
appearing of Jesus Christ (1Pe_1:7). But there is another kind of temptation here spoken
of, of which God is not the author or cause. The meaning of this, certainly, is a
solicitation to sin; when the intention is not to prove the sincerity of feeble virtue in
order to confirm and increase it, but to subvert and destroy it; to draw the weak and
unwary into wickedness which leadeth to their ruin. This is what the perfectly holy and
good God is not capable of.
I. THAT GOD IN ALL HIS WORKS AND WAYS, THE WHOLE OF HIS
ADMINISTRATION TOWARDS MANKIND, STANDETH PERFECTLY CLEAR OF
TEMPTING THEM TO MORAL EVIL. He is not in the least degree, or by a fair
construction, in any part of His conduct, accessary to any one of their offences. But all
religion resteth upon this principle, utterly inconsistent with His tempting any man or
any creature, that God is only pleased with rational” agents doing that which is right,
and displeased with their doing what is wrong in a moral sense: if that be denied, piety is
entirely subverted, and all practice of virtue on the foundation of piety. A being who is
wholly incapable of any moral turpitude, cannot solicit any others to it, nor give them
the least countenance in it, which must always necessarily suppose a corrupt affection.
Another of the Divine attributes is goodness, equally essential to his character, but if
God be good, He cannot tempt any man.
2. Let us proceed to consider the works of God which relate to man, and we shall be
convinced that far from having a tendency, or showing a design, to draw him into
sin, which is tempting him, on the contrary, they provide against it in the best
manner. And, first, if we look into the human constitution, which is the work of God,
this sense of right and wrong discovereth itself early; it is not the result of mature
reflection, close reasoning, and long study, but it plainly appeareth that the gracious
author of our being intended to prevent us with it, that we should not be ‘led astray
before our arriving at the full exercise of our understanding. To this sense of good
and evil, there is added in our constitution a strong enforcement of the choice, and
the practice of the former, in that high pleasure of self-approbation which is
naturally and inseparably annexed to it. Must it not be acknowledged, then, that the
frame of our nature prompteth to the practice of virtue at its proper end, and that the
designing cause of it did not intend to tempt us to evil, but to provide against our
being tempted? It is true that liberty is a part of the constitution, which importeth a
power of doing evil, and by which it is that we are rendered capable of it. This, as well
as the other capacities of our nature, is derived from God; but there is no rational
profence for alleging that gift to be a temptation, because liberty is not an inclination
to evil, but merely the mind’s power of determining itself to that, or the contrary,
according as the motives to the one or the other should appear strongest; and that
the author of the constitution hath cast the balance on the side of virtue, we may see
from what hath been already said, since tie hath given us virtuous instincts, with a

21. sense of moral obligations, and added a very powerful sanction to them. Besides,
liberty is absolutely necessary to the practice of virtue, as well as to the being of
moral evil; nor could we without it have been capable of rational happiness.
3. Again, if we consider the administration of providence, and the Divine conduct
towards all men, we shall find that the same design is regularly pursued by methods
becoming the wisdom of God, and best suited to our condition; the design, I mean,
not of tempting us to sin, but preserving us from it. As God sent men into the world,
a species of rational beings, fitted by the excellent faculties wherewith He endued
them for rendering Him very important service, and enjoying a great measure of
happiness, so He constantly careth for that favourite workmanship of His hands. Of
all the nations of men who are made to dwell on the face of the earth, none are
without witness of their Maker’s mercies, for He continually doth them good,
“sending them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, and filling their hearts with
food and gladness.” Now if such kindness be the character of the Divine
administration, what is the tendency of it? Is it to tempt men, to lead them to sin,
which is rebellion against Himself, and against their own reason? But when men had
wilfully corrupted their ways, and turned the bounty of God into lasciviousness,
Providence hath sometimes interposed in a different manner, that is, by awful
judgments suddenly spread over nations or cities.
4. And, lastly, if we consider the revelation of the gospel, and that whole Divine
scheme contained in it, which God in love to mankind hath formed for our salvation,
we must see that the whole design of it is directly opposite to the design of tempting;
it is to turn every one of us from our iniquities. But for the general tenor of the
Divine administration towards men, it designedly favoureth their escape from
temptations, and directeth them to the paths of virtue (1Co_10:13). Some, indeed, to
shun the dangerous mistake of imputing sin and temptation to God as in any respect
its cause, have run into the opposite equally absurd extreme of withdrawing moral
evil altogether from under God’s government of the world, and deriving it from an
original independent evil principle; which scheme, as it destroyeth the true notion of
vice representing it not as the voluntary act of imperfect intelligent beings, but as
flowing from an independent necessity of nature. The generality of Christians,
owning the unity of God, do also acknowledge His perfect purity and goodness, and
in words, at least, deny Him to be the author of sin: but I am afraid the opinions
received among some of them are not perfectly consistent with these true principles.
For instance, to represent the nature of men as so corrupted, without any personal
fault of theirs, that they are under a fatal necessity of sinning, and that it is utterly
impossible for them to do anything which is good. What thoughts can a man have of
this, but that it is the appointed condition of his being, to be resolved ultimately into
the will of his Maker, just like the shortness of his understanding, the imperfection of
his senses, or even the frailty of his body?
The counsels of God concerning men’s sins, and the agency of His providence about
them, not in overruling the issue, but in ascertaining and by its influence determining
them, as intending events, ought also to be considered with the utmost caution.
1. And, first of all, that God is not tempted with evil, neither tempteth any man,
tendeth to preserve in our minds the highest esteem and reverence for Him. It is not
possible for us to have a veneration for a tempter.
2. This doctrine tendeth to beget and confirm in us an utter abhorrence of sin,
because it is the thing God hateth, and will have nothing to do, no kind of

22. communication with it.
II. The second instruction relating to temptations, now to be considered, amounteth to
this, that the true and most useful account of the origin of sin to every particular person,
that which really is the spring of prevailing temptation, Is HIS OWN LUST; but every
man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.
1. Wbat is meant by lust. To understand this we must look into the
inferior part of the human constitution. Since it pleased God to form
man as he is, compounded of flesh and spirit, it was necessary there
should be in his nature affections suitable to both. This leadeth us to a
true notion of what the apostle calleth lust; it signifieth the whole of
those affections and passions which take their rise from the body and the
animal part of our nature, and which terminate in the enjoyments and
conveniences of our present state, as distinguished from the moral
powers and pleasures of the mind, and the perfection of them, which
requireth our chief application as being our principal concern and
ultimate happiness. That inferior part of our constitution, in itself
innocent and necessary for such beings, yet giveth the occasion whereby
we, abusing our liberty, are drawn away and enticed to evil by various
ways; such as, vehement desires beyond the real value of the objects; an
immoderate indulgence in the gratification of those desires, either in
instances which are prohibited by reason and the laws of God, or even
within the licensed kinds, above the proper limits which the end of such
gratification hath fixed; all tending to weaken the devout and virtuous
affections which are the glory of our nature and the distinguishing
excellence of man. Other affections also tempt us, as sorrow, which often
through our weakness exceedeth in proportion the event which is the
occasion of it. 2. To consider how men are tempted by lust, being drawn
away and enticed. And here what I would principally observe is, that
lusts are only the occasions or temptations to moral evil, not
necessitating causes. The mind is free, and voluntarily determineth itself upon the
suggestions of appetites and passions, not irresistibly governed by them; to say
otherwise, is to reproach the constitution and the author of it; and for men to lay
upon Him the blame of their own faults, which yet their consciences cannot help
taking to themselves. Let us reflect on what passeth in our own heart on such
occasions, to which none of us can be strangers; and we shall be convinced that we
have the power of controlling the inclinations and tendencies which arise in our
mind, or not consenting to them, and a power of suspending our consent till we have
farther considered the motives of action, and that this is a power often exerted by us.
The most vehement desires of meat and drink are resisted upon an apprehension of
danger; the love of money and the love of honour are checked, and their strongest
solicitations sometimes utterly denied, through the superior force of contrary
passions, or upon motives of conscience.
3. To show, that in the account which the text giveth, we may rest our inquiry, as to
all the valuable purposes of it, concerning the origin of sin in ourselves. The true end
of such inquiry is our preservation and deliverance from sin, that we may know how
to avoid it, or repent of it when committed; excepting so far as they contribute to
those ends, speculations about it are curious but unprofitable.
What I have just now hinted directeth us to the proper application of this subject.
1. And, first, upon a review of the whole progress of temptation from the first

23. occasion of it to the last unhappy effect, the finishing of sin, which, I suppose, we are
all agreed is the just object of our deepest concern, we may see what judgment is to
be made, and where we ought to lay the blame.
2. From this doctrine of the apostle which I have endeavoured to explain, we see
where our greatest danger is of being led into sin, and whence the most powerful and
prevailing temptations arise, that is, from the lusts of the heart.
3. And therefore, thirdly, if we would maintain our integrity, let us keep the strictest
watch over our own appetites and passions, and here place our strongest, for it will
be the most effectual defence. (J. Abernethy, D. D.)
The sins of men not chargeable upon God, but upon themselves
Next to the belief of a God, and His providence, there is nothing more fundamentally
necessary to the practice of a good life than the belief of these two principles. First, that
God is not the author of sin, that He is in no way accessary to our faults, either by
tempting or forcing us to the commission of them. For if He were, they would not
properly be sins, for sin is a contradiction to the will of God; but supposing men to be
either tempted or necessitated thereto, that which we call sin would either be a mere
passive obedience to the will of God, or an active compliance with it, but neither way a
contradiction to it. Nor could these actions be justly punished; for all punishment
supposeth a fault, and a fault supposeth liberty and freedom from force and necessity; so
that no man can be justly punished for that which he cannot help, and no man can help
that which he is necessitated to. And though there were no force in the case, but only
temptation, yet it would be unreasonable for the same person to tempt and punish.
Secondly, that every man’s fault lies at his own door, and he has reason enough to blame
himself for all the evil that he does. And this is that which makes men properly guilty,
that when they have done amiss, they are conscious to themselves it was their own act.
I. THAT GOD DOTH NOT TEMPT ANY MAN TO SIN.
1. The proposition which the apostle here rejects, and that is, that God tempts men,
“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.” Now, that we may the
more distinctly understand the meaning of the proposition, which the apostle here
rejects, it will be very requisite to consider what temptation is, and the several sorts
and kinds of it. Temptation does always imply something of danger. And men are
thus tempted, either from themselves, or by others; by others, chiefly these two
ways. First, By direct and downright persuasion to sin. And to be sure God tempts no
man this way. He offers no arguments to man to persuade him to sin; He nowhere
proposeth either reward or impunity to sinners; but, on the contrary, gives all
imaginable encouragement to obedience, and threatens the transgression of His law
with most dreadful punishments. Secondly, men are likewise tempted, by being
brought into such circumstances, as will greatly endanger their falling into sin,
though none persuade them to it. The allurements of the world are strong
temptations; riches, honours, and pleasures are the occasions and incentives to
many lusts. And, on the other hand, the evils and calamities of this world, especially
if they threaten or fall upon men in any degree of extremity, are strong temptations
to human nature. That the providence of God does order, or at least permit, men to
be brought into these circumstances which are such dangerous temptations to sin,
no man can doubt, that believes His providence to be concerned in the affairs of the
world. All the difficulty is, how far the apostle does here intend to exempt God from a

24. hand in these temptations. Now, for the clearer understanding of this it will be
requsiite to consider the several ends which those who tempt others may have in
tempting them; and all temptation is for one of these three reasons. First, for the
exercise and improvement of men’s graces and virtues. And this is the end which
God always aims at, in bringing good men, or permitting them to be brought, into
dangerous temptations. And this certainly is no disparagement to the providence of
God, to permit men to be thus tempted, when He permits it for no other end but to
make them better men, and thereby to prepare them for a greater reward. And this
happy issue of temptations to good men the providence of God secures to them
either by proportioning the temptation to their strength; or if it exceed that, by
ministering new strength and support to them, by the secret aids of His Holy Spirit.
And where God doth secure men against temptations, or support them under them,
it is no reflection at all upon the goodness or justice of His providence to permit
them to be thus tempted. Secondly, God permits others to be thus tempted, by way
of judgement and punishment, for some former great sins and provocations which
they have been guilty of (Isa_6:10). So likewise (Rom_1:24) God is said to have given
up the idolatrous heathen “to uncleanness, to vile and unnatural lusts” (Rom_1:28;
2Th_2:11). But it is observable, that, in all these places which I have mentioned, God
is said to give men up to the power of temptation, as a punishment of some former
great crimes and provocations. And it is not unjust with God thus to deal with men,
to leave them to the power of temptation, when they had first wilfully forsaken Him;
and in this case God doth not tempt men to sin, but leaves them to themselves, to be
tempted by their own hearts’ lusts; and if they yield and are conquered, it is their
own fault. Thirdly, the last end of temptation which I mentioned is to try men, with a
direct purpose and intention to seduce men to sin. Thus wicked men tempt others,
and thus the devil tempts men. But thus God tempts no man; and in this sense it is
that the apostle means that “no man when he is tempted, is tempted of God.” God
hath no design to seduce any man to sin.
2. I now proceed to the second thing which I propounded to consider, viz., the
manner in which the apostle rejects this proposition, “Let no man say, when he is
tempted, I am tempted of God.” By which manner of speaking he insinuates two
things. First, that men are apt to lay their faults upon God. For when he says, “Let no
man say” so, he intimates that men were apt to say thus. It is not unlikely that men
might lay the fault upon God’s providence, which exposed them to these difficult
trials, and thereby tempted them to forsake their religion. But however this be, we
find it very natural to men to transfer their faults upon others. They think it is a
mitigation of their faults, if they did not proceed only from themselves, but from the
violence and instigation of others. But, especially, men are very glad to lay their
faults upon God, because He is a full and sufficient excuse, nothing being to be
blamed that comes from Him. Secondly, this manner of speech, which the apostle
here useth, doth insinuate further to us, that it is not only a false, but an impious
assertion, to say that God tempts men to sin.
3. Third thing I propounded to consider; namely, The reason or argument which the
apostle brings against this impious suggestion; that “God cannot be tempted with
evil”; and therefore no man can imagine that He should tempt any man to it.
First, consider the strength and force of this argument: and—First, we will consider the
proposition upon which this argument is built, and that in, that “God cannot be tempted
by evil.” He is out of the reach of any temptation to evil. For, first, He hath no temptation
to it from His own inclination. The holy and pure nature of God is at the greatest
distance from evil, and at the greatest contrariety to it. He is so far from having any

25. inclination to evil, that it is the only thing in the world to which He hath an
irreconcilable antipathy (Psa_5:4; Hab_1:13). Secondly, there is no allurement in the
object to stir up any inclination to Him towards it. Thirdly, neither are there external
motives and considerations that can be imagined to tempt God to it. All arguments that
have any temptation are founded either in the hope of gaining some benefit, or in the
fear of falling into some mischief or inconvenience. Now the Divine nature, being
perfectly happy, and perfectly secured in its own happiness, is out of the reach of any of
these temptations.
2. Consider the consequences that clearly follow from it, that because
God cannot be tempted with evil, therefore He cannot tempt any man to
it. For why should He desire to draw men into that which He Himself
abhors, and which is so contrary to His own nature and disposition? Bad
men tempt others to sin, to make them like themselves, and that with
one of these two designs; either for the comfort or pleasure of company,
or for the countenance of it, that there may be some kind of apology and
excuse for them. And when the devil tempts men to sin, it is either out of
direct malice to God, or out of envy to men. But the Divine nature is full
of goodness, and delights in the happiness of all His creatures. His own
incomparable felicity has placed Him as much above any temptation to envying
others as above any occasion of being contemned by them. Now, in this method of
arguing, the apostle teacheth us one of the surest ways of reasoning in religion;
namely, from the natural notions which men have of God. Inferences: First, let us
beware of all such doctrines as do any ways tend to make God the author of sin;
either by laying a necessity upon men of sinning, or by laying secret design to tempt
and seduce men to sin. We find that the holy men in Scripture are very careful to
remove all thought and suspicion of this from God. Elihu (Job_36:3), before he
would argue about God’s providence with Job, he resolves, in the first place, to
attribute nothing to God that is unworthy of Him. “I will (says he) ascribe
righteousness to my Maker.” So likewise St. Paul “What shall we say then? Is the law
sin? God forbid” (Rom_7:7). “Is the law sin?” that is, hath God given men a law to
this end, that He might draw them into sin? Far be it from Him. “Is Christ the
minister of sin? God forbid” (Gal_2:17). Secondly, let not us tempt any man to sin.
All piety pretends to be an imitation of God; therefore let us endeavour to be like
Him in this. Thirdly, since God tempts no man, let us not tempt Him. There is
frequent mention in Scripture of men’s tempting God, i.e., trying Him, as it were,
whether He will do anything for their sakes that is misbecoming His goodness, and
wisdom, and faithfulness, or any other of His perfections. Thus the Israelites are said
to have “tempted God in the wilderness forty years together,” and, in that space,
more remarkably ten times. So likewise if we be negligent in our callings, whereby we
should provide for our families, if we lavish away that which we should lay up for
them, and then depend upon the providence of God to supply them, and take, care of
them, we tempt God to that which is unworthy of Him; which is to give approbation
to our folly, and countenance our sloth and carelessness.
II. THAT EVERY MAN IS HIS OWN GREATEST TEMPTER. “BUut every man is
tempted, when he is drawn aside of his own lust, and enticed.” In which words the
apostle gives us a true account of the prevalency of temptation upon men. It is not
because God has any design to ensnare men in sin; but their own vicious inclinations
seduce them to that which is evil. To instance in the particular temptations the apostle
was speaking of, persecution and suffering for the cause of religion, to avoid which many
did then forsake the truth, and apostatise from their Christian profession. They had an

26. inordinate affection for the ease and pleasure of this life, and their unwillingness to part
with these was a great temptation to them to quit their religion; by this bait they were
caught, when it came to the trial. And thus it is proportionably in all other sorts of
temptations. Men are betrayed by themselves. First, that as the apostle doth here acquit
God from any hand in tempting men to sin, so he does not ascribe the prevalency and
efficacy of temptation to the devil. I shall here consider how far the devil by his
temptations is the cause of the sins which men, by compliance with those temptations,
are drawn into. First, it is certain that the devil is very active and busy to minister to
them the occasion of sin, and temptations to it. Secondly, the devil does not only present
to men the temptations and occasions of sin; but when he is permitted to make nearer
approaches to them, does excite and stir them up to comply with these temptations, and
to yield to them. And there is reason, from what is said in Scripture, to believe that the
devil, in some cases, hath a more immediate power and influence upon the minds of
men, to excite them to sin, and, where he discovers a very bad inclination or resolution,
to help it forward (John Act_5:3). Thirdly, but for all this the devil can force no man to
sin; his temptations may move and excite men to sin, but that they were prevalent and
effectual proceeds from our own will and consent; it is our own lusts closing with his
temptations that produce sin. Fourthly, from what hath been said it appears that though
the devil be frequently accessary to the sins of men, yet we ourselves are the authors of
them; he tempts us many times to sin, but it is we that commit it. I am far from thinking
that the devil tempts men to all the evil that they do. I rather think that the greatest part
of the wickedness that is committed in the world springs from the evil motions of men’s
own minds. Men’s own lusts are generally to them the worst devil of the two, and do
more strongly incline them to sin than any devil without them can tempt them to it.
Others, after he has made them sure, and put them into the way of it, will go on of
themselves, and are as mad of sinning, as forward to destroy themselves, as the devil
himself could wish; so that he can hardly tempt men to any wickedness which he does
not find them inclined to of themselves. So that we may reasonably conclude that there
is a great deal of wickedness committed in the world which the devil hath no immediate
hand in. Second observation, that he ascribes the efficacy and success of temptation to
the lusts and vicious inclinations of men, which seduce them to a consent and
compliance with the temptations which are afforded to them. “Every man is tempted
when he is drawn aside of his own lust, and enticed.” Lay the blame of men’s sins chiefly
upon themselves, and that chiefly upon these two accounts: First, the lusts of men are in
a great measure voluntary. By the lusts of men I mean their irregular and vicious
inclinations. Nay, and after this it is still our own fault if we do not mortify our lusts; for
if we would hearken to-the counsel of God, and obey His calls to repentance, and
sincerely beg His grace and Holy Spirit to this purpose, we might yet recover ourselves,
and “by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh.” Secondly, God hath put it in our power
to resist these temptations, and overcome them; so that it is our own fault if we yield to
them, and be overcome by them. First, it is naturally in our power to resist many sorts of
temptations. If we do but make use of our natural reason, and those considerations
which are common and obvious to men, we may easily resist the temptations to a great
many sins. Secondly, the grace of God puts it into our power, if we do not neglect it, and
be not wanting to ourselves, to resist any temptation that may happen to us; and what
the grace of God puts into our power, is as truly in our power as what we can do
ourselves. Learn: First, not to think to excuse ourselves by laying the blame of our sins
upon the temptation of the devil. Secondly, from hence we learn what reason we have to
pray to God, that He would “not lead us into temptation,” i.e., not permit us to fall into
it; for, in the phrase of the Scripture, God is many times said to do these things which
His providence permits to be done. Thirdly, from hence we may learn the best way to

27. disarm temptations, and to take away the power of them; and that is by mortifying our
lusts and subduing our vicious inclinations. (Abp. Tillotson.)
Transferring the blame of sin
1. Man is apt to transfer the guilt of his own miscarriages.
(1):Beware of these vain pretences. Silence and owning of guilt is far more
becoming; God is most glorified when the creatures lay aside their shifts.
(2) Learn that all these excuses are vain and frivolous, they will not hold with
God.
2. Creatures, rather than not transfer their guilt, will cast it upon God Himself.
(1) Partly because by casting it upon God the soul is most secure. When He that
is to punish sin beareth the guilt of it, the soul is relieved from much horror and
bondage; therefore, in the way of faith, God’s transacting our sin upon Christ is
most satisfying to the spirit (Isa_53:6).
(2) Partly through a wicked desire that is in men to blemish the being of God.
Man naturally hateth God; and our spite is shown by profaning His glory, and
making it become vile in our thoughts; for since we cannot raze out the sense of
the Deity, we would destroy the dread and reverence of it. We charge God with
our evils and sins divers ways—
(a) When we blame His providence, the state of things, the times, the
persons about us, the circumstances of Providence, as the laying of tempting
objects in our way, our condition, &c., as if God’s disposing of our interests
were a calling us to sin: thus Adam (Gen_3:12).
(b) By ascribing sin to the defect and faint operation of the Divine grace. Men
will say they could do no otherwise; they had no more grace given them by
God (Pro_19:3).
(c) When men lay all their miscarriages upon their fate, and the unhappy
stars that shone at their birth, these are but blind flings at God Himself veiled
under reflections upon the creature.
(d) When men are angry they know not why.
(e) Most grossly, when you think God useth any suggestion to the soul to
persuade and incline it to evil.
(f) When you have an ill understanding and conceit of His decrees, as if they
did necessitate you to sin. Men will say, “Who can help it? God would have it
so”—as if that were an excuse for all.
3. God is so immutably good and holy that He is above the power of a temptation.
Men soon warp and vary, but He cannot be tempted. And generally, we deal with
God as if He could be tempted and wrought to a compliance with our corrupt ends,
as Solomon speaketh of sacrifice offered with an evil mind (Pro_21:27); that is, to
gain the favour of heaven in some evil undertaking and design.
4. The Author of all good cannot be the author of sin. (T. Manton.)

28. God tempts no man
I. THERE IS A TENDENCY IN THE MIND OF TRANSGRESSORS TO TRACE THEIR
ERRORS AND INIQUITIES TO TEMPTATIONS PLACED IN THEIR WAY BY THE
MORAL RULER OF THE WORLD.
II. TO EVINCE THE UTTER ABSURDITY AND INCONSISTENCY OF ASCRIBING, IN
ANY MANNER OR TO ANY EXTENT, THE MORAL DELINQUENCIES OF MEN TO
THE AUTHOR OF THEIR BEING, THE APOSTLE REMINDS US OF THE MORAL
RECTITUDE OF THE DIVINE CHARACTER. He cannot be imagined as making any
arrangements of the natural, or forming any plans in the moral world, of which the
direct and necessary effect would be to lead His creatures into that which He has so
solemnly declared that He cannot look upon but with abhorrence. Since He views with
unmixed complacence the progress of His rational offspring in holiness and
benevolence, can we imagine that He should either endow them with capacities, or place
them in circumstances, the direct tendency of which should be to lead them into the
paths of malevolence and impurity?
III. Having shown from the holiness of the Divine character that God is not the author
of human temptations, he next grounds this assertion on THE DIVINE CONDUCT TO
THE HUMAN FAMILY.
1. Examine, O man! the moral constitution of thy nature, and see if thou canst detect
there any arrangement for thy departure from the path of holiness and peace. God
has so formed the human mind that the perception of virtue awakens a sentiment of
pleasure, and the presence or discovery of vice a feeling of disapprobation and
disgust.
2. Look next into the history of Divine providence. Why has He been so mindful of
man, and so careful of his comfort? Not, surely, to tempt him to ingratitude against
his bountiful Benefactor, or to encourage him in rebellion against His authority and
law. No! the goodness of God is designed to lead them who are the objects of it unto
repentance.
3. Turn, now, to the revelation of the gospel, and see if there be any statements or
provisions there that tend to countenance or confirm the strange delusion with
which sinners seek to allay the alarms of conscience. Was not the Son of God
manifested to destroy the works of the devil? Vegas He not sent to bless us, in
turning every one of us from our iniquities? (John Johnston.)
Temptation to sin not from God
I. In support of the first, or negative part of the proposition—THAT GOD IS NOT THE
AUTHOR OF SIN OR TEMPTATION., I confine myself entirely to the argument
suggested by the text, “God cannot be tempted with evil.” There must be a certain
analogy, or congenial resemblance, between every cause and its effect. We cannot find in
the effect any attribute or quality which was not first inherent in the cause by which it
was produced. How then can evil, moral evil, flow from the Divine nature, from which it
is not only excluded, but to which it is directly opposite and contradictory?
II. In the text, TEMPTATIONS ARE POSITIVELY ASCRIBED TO THE LUSTS OF MEN;
and therefore the guilt and misery arising from them must centre entirely in the person

29. of the offender. Reflect upon that fatal hour when temptation assailed, and at last
prevailed against you. What did you then feel? Why did you hesitate for a moment about
gratifying the favourite passion? Did not another principle within you suggest danger,
and hold you in suspense? Was not every concession to the tempting object extorted
against the most earnest remonstrances, and the most awful forebodings of conscience?
Lessons:
1. The doctrine, now illustrated, affords the strongest consolation and
encouragement under the manifold dangers and trials to which we are exposed in the
present state of probation and discipline. God tempts no man to sin. Omnipotent
power and goodness are ever ready to interpose in the defence of struggling virtue.
2. From the doctrine of the text we may discern not only the weakness and folly, but
the arrogance and impiety of those subterfuges and apologies to which sinners have
recourse in order to extenuate or cancel their personal guilt.
3. Let us abhor every sentiment and expression tending so much as to insinuate that
God is the author of temptation. Some errors may be set on foot while yet no more
than the outworks of religion are attacked. But whatever misrepresents the
perfections and moral government of God is immediately levelled against the
foundation which supports the whole fabric of our faith. (T. Somerville, D. D.)
Man not tempted by God
Even a Christian master is especially careful not to throw temptations in the way, for
instance, of his servants. He would not leave sums of money about, because it would be
throwing temptation in their way. If he did it through accident, then the honest servant
would preserve the money, and put it into the master’s hands when he returned. If he
purposely did it to try his servant, then he would be guilty if the servant took it; and if
the man left it about for the very purpose, we know whose servant that master would be.
It was nothing less than devilish to place the helmet and broadsword in sight of the
imprisoned Joan of Arc, expecting that the sudden impulse of old and dear associations,
the sudden spring of reviving habit, would lead her to put them on, and so break her
word and forfeit her life. To think, then, that what a Christian master would not
knowingly do, God would do, were blasphemy. (W. W. Champneys.)
Drawn away of his own lust
Sin’s beginning, progress, and end
I. How SIN BEGINS. NOW here is a point on which a most profane idea is often held,
which our text begins with contradicting. Sin, saws an old proverbial saying, is a child
that nobody will own. Men are forward to commit it, but they are backward to
acknowledge that they gave it birth. But “drawn away of his own lust,” does the apostle
say? Why does he not rather say” Drawn away by Satan”? Because the Lord is evidently
aiming in this place to make men see that sin is their own doing—and that they are
inexcusable in doing it. As some men are profane enough even to charge their sins upon
the Lord, so many are glad, however, to lay all the blame of their transgressions at the
door of Satan. “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” But no, says the doctrine of our
text—you are self-tempters. It is your own lust that is to blame. However busy Satan is to
ensnare you he has an active fellow-worker in your own ungodly bosom. God made man