James 1:13

Let no man say. The idea that the gods were responsible for man’s temptations and ensuing sins was especially prevalent among the Greeks of James’s day and apparently, in some degree, permeated the thinking of Christians also. It was this type of accusation that our first parents made against God following their sin (Gen. 3:12, 13). Adam blamed God for creating Eve as his wife and Eve, in turn, blamed Him for placing the serpent in the Garden of Eden. James’s caution is timely in every age, lest a man indirectly, and possibly unwittingly, charge his Maker with causing the enticements to sin that he faces daily.

Tempted. Gr. peirazo, “to try,” “to test,” here used in a bad sense of inducement to evil (see on vs. 2, 3). James makes clear that the sufferings, trials, and problems that every Christian faces should never be understood as permitted by God for the purpose of enticing men to sin. God will permit men to face trials, but never with the intent that any man should fail. God’s purpose is like that of the refiner, who casts his ore into the crucible with the hope that a purer metal will be the result — not with the intention of piling up dross. Satan, however, tempts with the intention of causing defeat and never of strengthening a man’s character (see on Matt. 4:1). “Suffering is inflicted by Satan, and is overruled by God for purposes of mercy” (DA 471).

Cannot be tempted. Gr. apeirastos, “untemptable,” “untempted.” James shows that it is inconceivable that God would tempt men to sin. He cannot be tempted with the desire to tempt men to do evil. Though God grants to every man the power of free choice, He must not be charged with the evil deeds this freedom makes it possible for man to commit. James categorically absolves God from being the source of any man’s enticements to sin.