No Tempter

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one (James 1:13).

Sometimes in our lives our suffering is very great. It feels impossible to bear. We feel like we might explode or go crazy. In these times, for some people, we might want to blame God and accuse him of sending something into our lives to cause us to sin against him.

James’ first audience was feeling this way. They were under severe pressure from different people who hated Jesus and his mission in the world. They hated these new Christians and sought to make their lives very difficult and sometimes they even tried to physically harm them. This was not an easy or comfortable situation for these new believers in Christ.

James knew that it was easy for them to think that God might be against them or luring them into sin so he reminds them that God is NOT evil, nor could he ever do evil. Evil cannot stand in his presence and he will have no part in it.

So if we are suffering a trial we can never blame God if we are tempted to sin as a result of it. God could bring a trial into your life where you were persecuted at school for your faith. Maybe some of your “friends” make fun of you because of your faithfulness to God. Maybe you choose to not join them in an activity that you know God hates. If you feel like this is too much to bear, you can’t blame God for your sin, if you decide to join them after they make fun of you. God didn’t tempt you to give in. You did that all on your own.

God is wholly pure, perfect, and sinless. We can never charge him with anything other than that.

Read 1 Cor. 10:13
• What is the promise(s) in this verse?
• Is there a way you are being tempted to sin right now due to suffering?
• How can we pray for each other?

Prayer
Our Father, we know that you love us and bring trials into our lives for our good. May we remember this fatherly affection that you have for us when we are tempted to think that you don’t love us and that our suffering is too challenging. We know that you never would lead us into sin and please grant us the power to endure when our lives are really hard. In Jesus’ name, Amen.