1 Jacob a slave of God and of Lord Savior Anointed, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion
Greetings.
2 You must consider for yourselves my Brothers a complete delight, inasmuch as you might have been surrounded with trials of a varied kind. 3 You understand that the method of testing your faith itself is achieving endurance. 4 Yet, the endurance must hold a blameless work, so that you might be blameless and perfectly sound with nothing being uncompleted.
5 But if any of you is left behind of wisdom, he must ask for all things sincerely from the One
giving, from God, and not from casting in
one’s teeth, and it will be given to you. 6 But he must ask in
assurance/faithfulness, not one who is separated from others,
for the one separated from others was like a washing
of sea, being agitated and being tossed, 7 (for he, the man himself,
must not suppose that he himself will receive anything from the Lord?)
8 A double-minded unstable man in all of his ways.
9 But the lowly brother must speak up in his dignity, 10 but the
wealthy one in his loss of rank, for this way a grass' flower will
perish. 11 For the sun has risen with the heat and it has parched the
grass and its flower has fallen out and the gracefulness of its
appearance has been destroyed and the wealthy with their careers will
be extinguished.
12 A happy man that is enduring testing,
because he having become a tested one, he will receive the crown of
life which has been promised to them for loving Him. 13 No one while
being tried must say, (in that from God he is being tested)
“therefore the temptation proof God is evil, He is tempting, Himself by
no one!”
14 But everyone being tested, by the one's own
longing, being dragged out, even being baited, 15 next the longing
having been conceived gives birth to sin, but the sin having brought
forth young, bearing death. 16 You must not be caused to go astray, my
beloved brothers. 17 All good giving and all blameless gifts are from
above descending from the Father of fires from whom there is not a
fickleness neither from turning a shadow.
18 Having been willing He gave birth to you by a word of truth, the one to be
their entrance fee, anyone from the one of Himself from a created one.
19 You must be known brothers, my beloved, but he must be a whole man a
quick one to have heard, a slow one to have spoken, a slow one to
anger. 20 For anger of a man a righteousness of God is not itself
working.
21 For this reason having put them away (all sordidness and superabundance of
malignity) for a humble one you yourselves have received the implanted
word (itself being strong enough to have saved your soul). 22 But you
must yourselves become a performer of a word and not alone hearers
deluding yourselves. 23 Because if any one is a hearer of the word and
not one who performs, this one is like a man observing the aspect of
his nature in a mirror, 24 for he has observed well himself and having
understood and departs and immediately has neglected himself, what sort
is he being? 25 But the one having peered into a blameless law the one
of liberty and he having remained not a hearer from negligence, on the
other hand a performer of work this one a blessed one by his
performance himself is.
26 If anyone thinks a religious one to be, not bridling his language but on
the other hand cheating a heart of himself of this vain one the
religious one. 27 A religion, a clean one and undefiled one from the
God and Father, this one being itself to visit/relieve orphaned ones
and widowed ones in persecution themselves, itself a spotless one to
guard from the world.
Jacob--This gives us a clue on how to choose whether God tempts or not. Jacob is Hebrew. He is very well versed in God's activities in the Torah-Old Testament.
Exodus 15:25 Then he cried out to the
LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters,
and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and
regulation, and there He tested them. (NASB)
This is only one example of God testing, trying, tempting someone. The question is-would James/Jacob have directly contradicted this portion of Holy Scripture?
No!
The translation of James 1:13 hinges on one tiny word--hoti--that, so that, for, because. Moule wrote "...the interpretation of a passage turns upon deciding with
which word the hoti is to be logically connected."
I choose to translate 1:13
" No one while being tried must say, (in that from of God he is being
tested) “therefore the temptation proof God is evil, He is tempting,
Himself by no one!”
It was a temptation to say that it was evil of God to tempt people when He in turn said that "You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah."
Why was it fair for God to tempt and He not to be tempted?
The quick response to that is God is always faithful but man fails
often. God's testing of man is to prove what is in doubt. The next
question that arises is, "did God make me sin when He tempted me? The
answer is no! See James 1:14.
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