“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”
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”;
Out of trials come temptations. Trials come from God, but temptations do not originate in Him.
We tend to cast blame on God for our sin. In this, we avoid taking the blame ourselves. This is an attempt to manipulate God. We love to blame our environment, our genes, our tradition, or even God Himself.
All of this is the problem of transference. We want to transfer our responsibility to someone else. There is nothing in the character of God, where we can cast blame.
Adam attempted to blame Eve for his sin. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. There is no place for “The Devil made me do it” attitude.
“Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’ And the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate’” (Genesis 3:12-13).
God did not design the tree in the garden as a point of solicitation to evil but as a point of testing or proving their faith. God is not the direct agent of temptation. The word “by” indicates that God is the indirect agent. God is not even indirectly accountable for soliciting us to evil. God tests us to approve us; He never tempts us to lure us into evil.
Principle:
There is a tendency in us to find excuses for our sin.
Application:
It is difficult for us to bear responsibility for our sin, so we try to shift the blame to someone else or even to God. We make excuses for sin because we want to justify ourselves in the face of the facts.
Christians should not blame heredity, circumstance, our genes, or the cultural situation. We take responsibility for our acts. We do not say, “God put me into these circumstances, so it is His fault that I am in this situation.” The first tendency of the spiritually minded Christian is not to exonerate self but to accept responsibility for sin. It is hard to say to God, “I was sinfully angry with my wife.”
