Loving God When Tempted (James 1.12)

This week we look at the first half of James 1.12. This verse is loaded with meaning and deserves more than one session.

Loving God when tempted (James 1.12)

12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures (James 1.12-18)

I regularly say that I get more out of these studies than anyone else, and from my perspective, tonight is one of those nights. I set out last Monday with the intention of covering verses 12-18, but couldn’t get beyond verse 12 – so that is what we will spend our time on tonight. Even then, it took me several days to organize my thought and material. We will in the course of our discussion on verse 12 look at the context, both earlier and later in chapter 1. As usual, we will look at other passages from other books of scripture which I pray will help illuminate what James is saying to us in verse 12.

Before we begin our passage tonight, there are several reminders that I want to set before you. Just as Peter wrote the following words “[t]o those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” 2 Peter 1:1)

12 For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. 13 Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you,  14 knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. 15 Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. (2 Peter 1:12-15)

Like Peter, I desire to remind you this evening of things that you have heard before. The difference is, Lord willing, that I am not aware that I am about “to put off my tent”, as Peter puts it, and go to be with our Lord.

Remember that what you hear from me tonight is just “food for thought,” something to stimulate you to do some wholesome thinking (2 Peter 3:1-3). Take whatever you hear from me with a shaker full of salt. Pray about what I say, check my words against scripture, and believe always what God reveals to you through His Holy Spirit. Remember that God’s thoughts are not man’s thoughts nor are His ways our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). There are things in God’s word that we will not understand, nor be able to reconcile, but nevertheless we are called to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Remember too the constancy of God, “with whom”, James tells us, “there is no variation or shadow of turning.” God is faithful to confirm the things He reveals to us, so that whatever He reveals will agree with what He has already shown us and what He has preserved in His Word. And finally, remember that we should not be too hasty to speak for God, and that when we do, we should strive to take into account the whole counsel of God, the verses which convict together with the verses that comfort, and not just turn to our favorite verse.

At first inspection, you might not think that there is that much here…. After all it’s just one verse. In a nutshell, James 1:12 tells us that believers are blessed through enduring temptation. When they have been approved, God will give them the crown of life. I want especially to delve into two aspects of this one verse:

• How do we get this blessing?
• What is the nature of this blessing?

Obtaining the blessing

Verse 12 continues the theme of the believer’s need for endurance in the face of trials which began in verse 2. There James told believers to count it a cause for joy when you encounter trials in your life, because the testing of your faith produces patience or endurance. Thus even if the trial is such that you cannot rejoice as you go through it, you can at least be comforted by the knowledge that good things are happening, namely that endurance is working to perfect you into a mature and complete believer, who lacks nothing. Endurance is a critical component of our sanctification, the process through which we become more like Jesus, who alone was perfectly obedient to the will of God. Suffering we saw in Romans 5:3-5 produces perseverance or endurance; endurance, proven character; proven character, certain hope; and certain hope never fails. (Romans 5:3-5)

Here in verse 12 James tells us that the believer who endures temptation will receive a blessing, for when they have been approved (i.e., endured the temptation or passed the test), they will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Looking closely at verse 12, we can see that there are three prerequisites for receiving this crown of life:

1. Enduring temptation
2. Being approved
3. Loving God

Let us look at each of these in turn.

1 - Enduring temptation

The first component in receiving the crown of life is to endure temptation. In previous studies in the first 12 verses of James 1 we talked briefly about the idea of endurance in conjunction with trials. The Greek noun translated in the NKJV as “temptation” in our verse tonight is the same word, peirasmos, which was rendered as “trials” in verse 3. The noun has a range of meanings, including “trial, proving, temptation to sin, or adversity.” In an earlier study, we said that one convenient way to look at a trial is that it is something that could cause us to be double-minded about God. In James 2 peirasmos probably has the sense of an “adversity, affliction, trouble (cf. our trial), sent [or allowed] by God and serving to test or prove one's faith, holiness, character.” (From Thayer's Greek Lexicon, PC Study Bible formatted Electronic Database. Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.) In our passage tonight, it probably carries more the sense of an enticement to sin, thus the use the word “temptation”.

The distinction is subtle and hard to grasp but is important I believe, especially for an understanding of verses 13-15 which directly follow our passage tonight. As I am able to understand it, the underlying issue is the sovereignty of God. Since everything in our lives passes through God’s hands, He either causes to happen or permits everything that we experience. Isaiah 46:9-11 says whatever God has spoken or purposed in His heart will come to pass:

9 Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, 'My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,'
11 Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it;
I will also do it.

And Lamentations 3:37-38 puts it like this:

37 Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass,
When the Lord has not commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That woe and well-being proceed?

There is no detail of what happens in our lives that escapes God’s notice. God is involved in some way in everything that happens. We see this also in Jesus’ reassuring words to His twelve disciples as He sends them out to preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand:

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will.  30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  (Matthew 10:29-31)

Sometimes we can see God working directly, for example when He does miracles, but other times He works indirectly and behind the scenes, in ways and for reasons that are not readily apparent to us.

A direct correlation of this is that believers should see that trials and temptations are caused or allowed by God. And this in turn raises the obvious question, why would God allow trials and temptations to occur in our lives? And also the question, if God causes or allows the trials and temptations in my life, then He isn’t He responsible for stumbling a believer? After all, Paul plainly tell us that we should not exercise our liberty in Christ, for example in being able to eat all foods, in a way that causes a “weaker” brother or sister to stumble (1 Corinthians 8:9-13). Indeed, Paul tells us that when we so stumble a weaker brother in this way we sin against Christ. But isn’t that what God is doing when He places in our path a trial or temptation that causes us to sin?

As I have already mentioned, God’s testing or tempting of believers will be the next subject to which James turns, in verses 13-15. We will cover these in more detail in a latter study, but for now we need to examine what James writes in verse 13:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”

The Greek verb that James uses here, peirazo, has two main definitions: 1. To attempt or try whether a thing can be done and 2. To test or make a trial of. In my opinion, it is this second definition that James is using here. Within that second definition, there are several further shades of meaning: a. to test in a positive sense; b. to test maliciously or craftily; c. to tempt or entice to sin; and d. to inflict evils upon one in order to prove his character and the steadfastness of his faith (From Thayer's Greek Lexicon, PC Study Bible formatted Electronic Database. Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.).

Although James 1:12 does not state that it is God who placed the temptation in the path of the believer who must endures it, I believe that we can say that whatever the source, God at least permitted it to occur. Furthermore, I believe that scripture plainly shows that God often does test or make a trial of man. To give only two examples that occur in scripture, consider Genesis 22:1:

 “Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."

And consider also Exodus 20:20, where Moses addresses the Children of Israel, who are gathered at the base of Mount Sinai, where the Law has just been given, with these words:

"Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin."

The question becomes not whether God tests man but why He does so. Or, to ask in another way, what is God’s motive for the trials and temptations He causes or allows in believers’ lives? How does He feel toward His creations? Does God test man for good or for evil purposes, to build him up or to tear him down?

Maybe it just seems strange when we ask a questions like this about God. How would you go about finding out what kind of a person anyone was? Suppose you have a new neighbor who just moved in next door. You’d probably try to get to know them by spending time with them, maybe over a cup of coffee or a meal, by doing different things with them or talking to them. You’d probably try to find what things were important to them, ask them about their past, what they were doing now, what their plans for the future were, their hopes and dreams. Then based on what you found out, you’d form an initial opinion about your new neighbor, whether they seemed trustworthy or untrustworthy, careful or careless, organized or disorganized, generous or selfish, outgoing or introverted, and so on and so forth. And most likely, as you got to know them better, perhaps even talked with other people who knew them, you might continue to refine your first impression, based on what you now knew.

But what if you wanted to form an opinion about the character of someone you couldn’t spend time with or talk to, what would you do then? What if, for example, you wanted to find out what sort of person Abraham Lincoln was? You might try to read any letters, journals, or diaries Lincoln kept or  read an autobiography or memoirs, if he wrote one. Perhaps you might read biographies written about Abraham Lincoln. And again, based on what you’d read, you would form an initial impression about what kind of person Lincoln was. And in the same way, as you continued to learn more about Lincoln, you might adjust your initial impression.

I think that we learn about the character of God in these same ways. Depending on how comfortable we are, we can interact with God directly, or we can ask other believers about Him, we can read what He to say about Himself in scripture, or we can read books others have written about Him. For me, the best ways to get to know God and His character is to interact with Him directly, through praise and worship, prayer, and thanksgiving, and to read His autobiography, the Bible, to see what God says about Himself. Although I am often blessed and encouraged by the oral and written testimonies of other believers, I am most comfortable seeking God directly, by interacting with Him or His Word. And since we are in the context of a Bible study, let us see what scripture has to say about the character of God, and His ability to do evil.

We could, but will not, spend months on such a study because at one level, all scripture is a revelation of who God is and what His plan for man is. We see God’s character in almost every verse of His word. But some passages address the topic more directly than others, and it to a handful of these that we will now turn.

Perhaps the clearest and best-known statement of how God feels towards man is found in John 3:16:

 ”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Jesus tells us that there is no greater love than to sacrifice one’s life for a friend (John 15:13, 1 John 4:9-11). This helps us to grasp how much love God and Jesus had for us, that the Father would sacrifice for us His only begotten Son, to make a way for us to be in relationship with God.

One of my favorite verses which speaks of God’s heart toward man is found Jeremiah 29:11-13. These verses are part of a letter which God wrote through His prophet to those of Israel whom the Lord had recently caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon in captivity To these Children of Israel, who found themselves in the midst of a severe trial, one which had the potential to shake their faith in God, the Lord wrote these tender words:

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

Looking at Numbers 23:19, Deuteronomy 32:4; Malachi 3:6, James 1:18, and 1 John 1:5, we can conclude the following about the Lord:

• that God is light (good) and in Him there is no darkness (evil) [1 John 1:5];
• that His work is perfect, His ways just, and
• He is a God of truth, righteous, and upright, without injustice [Deuteronomy 32:4];
• that God is source of every good and perfect gift and has no variation or shifting shadows [James 1:18];
• that God does not lie, repent, or fail to do what He has said [Numbers 23:19]; and
• that God does not change [Malachi 3:6].

We can, I believe, also get insight from God’s Word into God’s motive for testing man by looking at the Hebrew verb rendered as “test” in Genesis 21:1 and Exodus 20:20. The word is nacah, which means to “test, try, prove, tempt, assay, put to the proof, put to the test”, but without any connotation of enticing one to sin or to do wrong (From Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Copyright © 1980 by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. All rights reserved. Used by permission.). Interestingly, in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the Greek verb used for “test” in both passages is peirazo, the same word that we find in James employs in 1:13. To conform closely to the meaning of the original Hebrew, either of the two positive senses of peirazo would be required.

Lest there be some concern about too small a sample size, there are other Old Testament passages where God tests an individual or people group. Without an exhaustive search I was able to locate 30 OT passages and I suspect there are may be more.

1.  Genesis 22:1 [nacah OT:974]
2.  Exodus 15:25 [nacah]
3.  Exodus 16:4 [nacah]
4.  Exodus 20:20 [nacah]
5.  Deuteronomy 8:2 [nacah]
6.  Deuteronomy 8:16 [nacah]
7.  Deuteronomy 13:3 [nacah]
8.  Judges 2:22 [nacah]
9.  Judges 3:1 [nacah]
10.  Judges 3:4 [nacah]
11.  Judges 7:4 [tsaraph OT:6884]
12.  1 Chronicles 29:17 [bachan OT:974]
13.  2 Chronicles 32:31 [nacah]
14.  Job 23:10 [bachan]
15.  Psalms 11:4 [bachan]
16.  Psalms 17:3 [bachan]
17.  Psalms 26:2 [bachan]
18.  Psalms 66:10 [bachan]
19.  Psalms 81:7 [bachan]
20.  Psalms 105:19 [tsaraph]
21.  Psalms 139:23 [bachan]
22.  Isaiah 48:10 [tsaraph]
23.  Jeremiah 9:7 [tsaraph]
24.  Jeremiah 11:20 [bachan]
25.  Jeremiah 12:3 [bachan]
26.  Jeremiah 17:10 [bachan]
27.  Jeremiah 20:12 [bachan]
28.  Ezekiel 17:20 [shaphat OT:8199]
29.  Ezekiel 21:13 [bachan]
30.  Zechariah 13:9 [bachan]

Three Hebrew verbs account for 29 of these 30 passages: 14 use bachan [OT:974], 11 use nacah [OT:974], and 4 use tsaraph [OT:6884]. We have already discussed meaning of the Hebrew verb nacah. The verb bachan means “to examine, try, or prove”, most often in the sense of an examination to determine essential qualities, especially integrity. The verb tsaraph means “to smelt, test, or refine” and is used most frequently in the context of refining metals. Its connotation here is that impurities or undesirable elements are being refined out of the object being tested. Neither bachan nor tsaraph appear to carry any connotation of a negative testing, for example involving an enticement to sin.

So, returning to our question about what are God’s motives for the trials and temptations that He permits believers to endure, what can we by way of summary? I believe that based on what God’s word says about His character and His feelings towards man, as well as the linguistic evidence from the Hebrew, that when God puts individuals or people groups to the test, He does so only for their good, to better them, to help them understand their limitations and failures so that they might lean more heavily on Him. God uses trials and temptations to help conform us to the image of His Son, to refine us, if you will. In an earlier study in James 1 we quoted Psalm 66:10-12; because it so appropriate for our context, permit me to do so again:

10 For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
11 You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
12 You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.

We have talked at length about temptation. But we need a word or two here about endurance. The Greek verb here, hupomeno, which is translated in the NKJV as “endure,” is closely related to the Greek noun for “patience,” hupomone, which we already encountered in James 1:3 & 4. The verb hupomeno means “to remain, abide, endure, or bear bravely and calmly.” The implication seems to be not just getting through the temptation but getting through it with a particular attitude - an attitude that does not seek to flee but stands fast; that is not fearful but brave and calm.

This kind of endurance in a believer, I would assert, is founded on an experiential knowledge of the character of God. If you have trusted and relied on God, and have found Him faithful each and every time, you will know with certainty that He will never leave you or forsake you, even though you may walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It takes faith in God to endure temptation with such an attitude and each time you endure temptation, it turn sustains and further strengthens the faith in Him you already have. The words of the Apostle Paul, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13), begin to take on a new significance. I repeat: suffering has produced perseverance; perseverance, approved character; approved character, certain hope; and certain hope never fails.

2 - Being Approved

The second component of receiving the blessing of the crown of life is being approved. The Greek word for “approved” is dokimos, which is frequently used in conjunction with coins or metals to mean “tested, genuine, or valuable”. As applied to believers, dokimos implies being approved or commended as genuine by God.

Having asserted that God does indeed test us, in a positive way, it is only to Our Lord that we should look for approval. Only God is qualified to judge whether we have passed the test, and endured the trial with the right spirit. Only is God omniscient, only God knows the beginning from the end, and only God can judge the believer’s heart (1 Samuel 16:7, Hebrews 4:12-13), their thoughts and intentions. Believers are warned not to judge others, lest they themselves be judged by God, so we should be hesitant to declare judgment on how well or poorly a brother or sister is enduring a trial (Matthew 7:1-3, Romans 14:4, James 4:11-12). Furthermore, it is difficult for us to evaluate ourselves correctly. Proverbs 16:2 warns us that

2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
But the Lord weighs the spirits.

No wonder that in 2 Corinthians 10:17-18 Paul writes to the believers in Corinth “17 But "he who glories, let him glory in the Lord."  18 For not he who commends himself is approved [dokimos], but whom the Lord commends.” God is the one who has – and deserves to have - the last word.

3 - Loving God

The third component of the blessing that James refers to in verse 12 is loving God. Loving God was the first of the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) and the commandment that Jesus designated as the most important (Matt 22:35-40). Indeed Jesus tells us that by loving God and loving your neighbor you could fulfill the Law and the Prophets. It was important to love God completely – with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. As I examined the concept of loving God for this study I believe that scripture makes a close association between the idea of loving God and the idea of being obedient to His commandments.

Within the Old Testament, we are see this close association in Deuteronomy 7:9-10:

 “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; 10 and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them.”

In Deuteronomy 11:1-2:

 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.”

In Joshua 22:5:

“But take careful heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

And again in Daniel 9:4-6:

4 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.

Within the New Testament Jesus repeatedly stresses the association between loving Him and keeping His commandments to His disciples on the eve of His Passion. First in John 14:15 we read “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Then a few verses later, in John 14:21, Jesus tells them, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Two verses later, in John 14:23-24, Jesus continues:

23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.

Then finally, in John 15:10, we read, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.”

In addition to recording Jesus’ words on the connection between love and obedience, the Apostle John also stressed this to his brethren. In 1 John 5:3, he writes, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” and again in 2 John 6, “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.”

The measure of our love for God, I have heard it said, is the measure of our obedience to Him. In this regard, Jesus loved the Father perfectly, because He kept His commandments and everything He did was in agreement with the Father’s will. In John 4:34, Jesus told His disciples “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” And in John 6:38 He told the crowds that followed Him, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Being obedient to the Father and doing His will is a conscious decision. Jesus decided that He would keep the will of His Father, no matter how it might cost Him. Even in the face of shame, humiliation, and torment associated with crucifixion, Jesus chose to endure the trial, for the joy that was set before Him.

In summary this then is how we can receive the blessing of the crown of life that James 12 promises: by enduring temptation without being shaken and by demonstrating our love for God by being obedient to God, so that we pass the test that God has allowed us to face. Next time we will look at the second component of James 12 – the nature of the blessing we receive.