Jam 1:13-17 | JFB | STEP | 13. 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 ( ). Therefore do not sink under the pressure of evils ( ). of God —by agency proceeding from God. The Greek is not "tempted by, " but, "from," implying indirect agency. cannot be tempted with evil, &c.—"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, , " 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 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.

James 1:13-17

13. 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 (Jas 1:16, 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, &c.—"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, Jas 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 Ge 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.

14. Every man, when tempted, is so through being drawn away of (again here, as in Jas 1:13, the Greek for "of" expresses the actual source, rather than the agent of temptation) his own lust. The cause of sin is in ourselves. Even Satan's suggestions do not endanger us before they are made our own. Each one has his own peculiar (so the Greek) lust, arising from his own temperament and habit. Lust flows from the original birth-sin in man, inherited from Adam.

drawn away—the beginning step in temptation: drawn away from truth and virtue.

enticed—literally, "taken with a bait," as fish are. The further progress: the man allowing himself (as the Greek middle voice implies) to be enticed to evil [BENGEL]. "Lust" is here personified as the harlot that allures the man.

15. The guilty union is committed by the will embracing the temptress. "Lust," the harlot, then, "brings forth sin," namely, of that kind to which the temptation inclines. Then the particular sin (so the Greek implies), "when it is completed, brings forth death," with which it was all along pregnant [ALFORD]. This "death" stands in striking contrast to the "crown of life" (Jas 1:12) which "patience" or endurance ends in, when it has its "perfect work" (Jas 1:4). He who will fight Satan with Satan's own weapons, must not wonder if he finds himself overmatched. Nip sin in the bud of lust.

16. Do not err in attributing to God temptation to evil; nay (as he proceeds to show), "every good," all that is good on earth, comes from God.

17. gift . . . gift—not the same words in Greek: the first, the act of giving, or the gift in its initiatory stage; the second, the thing given, the boon, when perfected. As the "good gift" stands in contrast to "sin" in its initiatory stage (Jas 1:15), so the "perfect boon" is in contrast to "sin when it is finished," bringing forth death (2Pe 1:3).

from above—(Compare Jas 3:15).

Father of lights—Creator of the lights in heaven (compare Job 38:28 [ALFORD]; Ge 4:20, 21; Heb 12:9). This accords with the reference to the changes in the light of the heavenly bodies alluded to in the end of the verse. Also, Father of the spiritual lights in the kingdom of grace and glory [BENGEL]. These were typified by the supernatural lights on the breastplate of the high priest, the Urim. As "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1Jo 1:5), He cannot in any way be the Author of sin (Jas 1:13), which is darkness (Joh 3:19).

no variableness . . . shadow of turning— (Mal 3:6). None of the alternations of light and shadow which the physical "lights" undergo, and which even the spiritual lights are liable to, as compared with God. "Shadow of turning," literally, the dark "shadow-mark" cast from one of the heavenly bodies, arising from its "turning" or revolution, for example, when the moon is eclipsed by the shadow of the earth, and the sun by the body of the moon. BENGEL makes a climax, "no variation—not even the shadow of a turning"; the former denoting a change in the understanding; the latter, in the will.