12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. 13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
This section discusses temptation and whether it can be attributed to God. James begins with a beatitude: blessed are those able to bear up under whatever test life gives them. They will receive the “crown of life”. He then turns from external sources of testing (such as the persecution many Christians are experiencing) to internal temptation and announces very clearly that God is not responsible for our temptations. This certainly relates to debates then (as now) about what the passage in the Lord’s Prayer “lead us not into temptation” really means. Indeed, a few years ago, the words were changed in French to “do not let us enter into temptation” in order to move closer to what James says here.
James insists that God is never the origin of any temptation we may feel. Undoubtedly, the Old Testament, especially its earliest texts, presents God as testing his chosen people, (for example, during their wanderings in the desert or the sacrifice of Isaac). However, over time a different view of God emerged. In Job, for example, God does not do the testing himself but allows Satan to do so. James goes further for, being entirely good, God cannot be tempted by evil himself nor does he tempt anyone. God has no link with evil and no experience of sin and therefore cannot tempt others in that direction.
For James, people themselves are the source of the temptation they feel. We desire things that we should not and this can lead us to sin. James uses the imagery of giving birth to describe what happens: a wish for something bad grows within ourselves and, if we give into it, it gives birth to sin. And sin gives birth to death (compare this to Paul’s meditations on the relationship between sin and death in Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul and James have often been put in opposition to each other but here they both agree: sin comes from putting our own selfish desires first and so we alone are responsible for it. God seeks to save us and lead us to eternal joy with him. To refuse God’s gift and continue to sin only leads us to death.
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