A BELIEVER’S TEMPTATIONS, TESTS, And TRIALS

James 1:2-5; 12-15 - My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 
3) Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4)  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 
5)  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.   
12)  Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. 
13) Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 
14) But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 
15)  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

We’re now going to take a look at a subject that I happen to think is very important and even vital to the Body of Christ.  How we understand  this subject will have a direct impact on our joy and on our ability to be effective with our God-given ministry.  The subject I'm alluding to is "TEMPTATION – TESTS – AND TRIALS." 

UNCERTAINITY AMOUNG THE TROOPS:

Today there seems to be an uncertainty among numerous believers as to why so many  of them are having an inordinate amount of problems -  financial  problems – physical problems – spiritual problems - and even mental problems.  Why is this happening? 

Some believe it's just mere coincidence.  Others seem to think that God is the author of  it all and is orchestrating it for the believer’s benefit.  In other words, God knows that in the long run His people will be better off because of it.  Then there are some who simply attribute it to something called, "bad luck."  Question:  If Jesus came so that we might have the abundant life, a life of peace and joy, then why are so many Christians having such a difficult time?  What's the real truth here and who has the right answer? 

FOUR AREAS TO BE INVESTIGATED:

To help us better understand this subject and the meaning of the above verses, it will be to our advantage when we investigate four basic areas.  The first area that we probably ought to investigate is:  #1The Biblical Meaning of four key words of the above scriptures - - “Tempt (Tempted)," "Patience", "Wisdom", and "Lust".   If we fail to have a good understanding of the Biblical and contextual meaning of these words, then our ability to understand this entire subject will be greatly handicapped!

The second area we will need to look at is: #2 What is the source of temptation, Tests, and Trials?  From whom does it come?  Who's the author of it - who's orchestrating it?  If we can determine its source, then we should also be able to identify the motive and purpose.  

The third general area to be investigated is: #3 Who (or what) is subject to be tested?  This is another area that is usually misunderstood by a lot of believers.                        

And the fourth basic area to focus on is:  #4 How is "Temptation" activated?  In other words, who or what initiates the act of temptation?  Do believers have any say in this matter?  Is there anything believers can do, as individuals, to avoid temptation or eliminate it - that is, assuming that it's not of God.  You see, if we can determine from the Scriptures that “temptation, tests, and  trials ” are because God wills it, then we'd better not try to stop it because we'd be going against God, wouldn’t  we?  If it’s God’s will, then there's nothing that we, as believers, can do about it.

So let’s begin this study by first taking a close look at the Biblical meaning of those four key words, "temptation (Tempted)", "patience", "wisdom", and "lust".  And let’s go back to the Greek because it’s more explicit and more descriptive than English when it comes to dealing with the meaning of New Testament words.  The Greek language has more shades of descriptive meaning than English does.  So let’s look into the Greek to see which particular shade of meaning these scriptures are trying to convey here in the first chapter of the Book of James. 

SCRIPTURAL MEANING OF “TEMPTATION  (TEMPTED)”:

Looking in The Complete New Testament Word Study Dictionary by Spiros Zodhiates Th.D., we find that the Greek word for “temptation” is “peirasmos”, which means, “to make trial of, try, tempt.  Trial, temptation, a putting to the test, spoken of persons only.  When God is the agent, peirasmos is for the purpose of proving someone, never for the purpose of causing him to fall.  When the devil is the agent, then it’s for the purpose of causing one to fall.”   At any rate, the best English rendering of this word seems to be  “Temptations, Tests, and Trials, hence the title of this teaching.

SCRIPTURAL MEANING OF “PATIENCE”:

The second key word that we need to look at is "patience" as found in Verses 3 and Verse 4.   It’s the Greek word, “hupomone”.  W.E. Vine's definition of "patience" is: "The quality that does not surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial.  It is the opposite of despondency, and is associated with hope."   The New International Version of the Bible substitutes the word "perseverance" for "patience" in both of those two verses.  "Perseverance", in my way of thinking, is a better choice than "patience" as rendered by the King James Version.   Strong’s definition of hupomone is:  “hopeful constant endurance” which I think is good. 

SCRIPTURAL MEANING OF “WISDOM”:

The third key word is "wisdom" (Verse 5).  There are actually two Greek words, or shades of meaning, for "wisdom".  One is “phronesis” which means, "the ability to discern modes of action with a view of the end result."   Phronesis is the practical side of what we call wisdom.  When we apply phronesis to a particular situation of ours then we'll also know how it's going to turn out for us.  Most Christians have erroneously applied this shade of meaning to Verse 5.

It's the second shade of meaning, however, that should be applied to Verse 5.  That Greek word is "sophia".   W. E. Vine tells us that "sophia" is the correct word for "wisdom" as used in Verse 5.  "Sophia" simply means, "insight into the true nature of things."   It's the theoretical way of looking at things.  We might say it's "getting the big picture of what’s happening".  In other words, it's getting a broader picture of what's happening to us and why it’s happening.  So the true contextual understanding of Verse 2 through Verse 5 is this:  "When our faith is being tested by various tests and trials, we should consider it joy.  Why?  Because it helps develop our ability to gain insight into the true nature of situations.  And if we should also desire wisdom or insight as to why our faith is being tested, then we should ask God, in faith, and trust Him to help us to understand why. 

Now we need to realize that it's OK  to ask God for the  phronesis type of wisdom, but, at the same time, we need to understand that the context of Verse 5 is not talking about the phronesis type of wisdom.  It's talking about the “sophia” type of wisdom.

SCRIPTURAL MEANING  OF “LUST”:

The fourth key word that we should look at is the word "lust."  Most people have a rather narrow concept of what this word means.   To most people "lust" is associated with  things of a sexual nature.  And it’s true, "lust" does pertain to sexual things, but  it has a much broader meaning in the Greek.  Actually there are five different shades of meaning for the word "lust" in the New Testament!  But we're only concerned here with the shade of meaning that applies to Verses 14 and 15. 

The Greek word as used in these two verses is "epithumia".  This correct shade of meaning is:   "A longing for or a strong desire for something forbidden".  So a strong desire for something forbidden could be for any number of things other than those of a sexual nature. 

THE SOURCE OF “TEMPTATION”:

Now that we've defined those four key words, let's move on to the second area of our study:  “The source of temptation”.  I want to be very bold here and make a dogmatic statement.  So please understand me.  Here’s my statement:  God IS NOT the one who’s administering the tempting and testing.  Neither does He directly allow it.   OK, then who does administer the tempting and testing?

It's the devil, our adversary, who's creating it.  And if we find ourselves being tempted and submit to it, that makes us the guilty party - - that makes us directly responsible for giving the devil permission to continue with it’s enforcement.  Now I realize that today most people do not like to accept responsibility - - for anything!  That’s not a popular thing to do!  However, we need to grow up and mature, spiritually.   

I also realize this kind of thinking might sound somewhat foreign to some, and it probably doesn't agree with what most of us have been taught.  The reason that most believers have allowed themselves to be misled about this, is because human pride never wants to accept the blame.  That’s the World’s reaction.  It tends to agitate man’s pride.  The World always wants to place the blame on someone or something.  

Human nature never wants to accept the responsibility.  But, you see, on this side of the cross we still have a free will.  I truly believe that to be Truth.  To place the blame elsewhere is the natural response.  But as Christians we’re supposed to be living supernaturally - - not naturally.  Now that we’ve been saved and blessed with the ability to walk in harmony with the Spirit of God, we’re supposed to be walking in harmony with Him - - not with the World.  To do this, we must renew our minds with His Word

(Rom. 12:2). 

WHO OR WHAT IS BEING TEMPTED, TESTED, AND TRIED?

Now to help us understand our subject in a Biblical way, let's include the third area of our study along with this second area.  It should help us if we understand both the source of temptation and the motive for temptation at the same time.  This third area is:  “Who or what is being tempted, tested, and tried”.    

Let's go back now and re-read Verse 3 in light of what we've learned so far and use those more accurate word meanings as we do.  With what we now know and understand, Verse 3 should read like this:  "Knowing this, that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."  (Now skip on down to Verse 14)  "But every man is tempted when - - - -."   Verse 3 makes it plain that it's our  faith that's being tested and from Verse 14 we can easily see that the person who has the faith is the one who is on the receiving end of the temptation and testing. 

So in reality, the procedure normally goes like this:  Satan tempts the Child of God hoping to gain permission to test his or her faith.  Can you see that?  In other words, before one's faith can be tested by Satan, the believer must first be tempted to yield to the temptation.  If that believer yields and accepts the temptation, then his or her faith  becomes removed out from the protection of God and becomes “fair game” for Satan to test.

Let's just stop for a moment and get our logical thinking engaged.  Isn't God the author and finisher of our faith?  Isn't He is all-knowing?  Yes, He certainly is!  Then since those are true statements, then He must know all there is to know about our faith.  He has no need to test the faith of a believer.  It’s the enemy who wants to test our faith. 

And like I said, the reason the enemy comes against us with temptations is so that he might obtain permission to test our faith.  His ultimate goal and greatest desire is to see us give in to his temptation, surrender, and then throw our faith (weapon) down, fall away from God, and succumb to his bondage!  His ultimate goal is to get the believer   to commit the unforgivable sin (fall away from God) from which there is no return.  Now that's the motive behind temptation and that's why God's Word instructs us to “fight the good fight of faith” (I Tim. 6:12). 

That's what this whole warfare is about brothers and sisters!  And we don't need to go looking for it.  Every time we get in the flesh or fulfill the lusts of the flesh, it will seek us out!  The ultimate prize is not our faith - - we are!  Our faith is merely a tool the Devil uses to reach the desired end result.

Many believers think temptations, tests, and trials come upon them to help build their faith.  But the only way to build faith is by putting it to use - - to exercise it.  It’s like body building.  We might own the best set of barbells available, but they won’t help us one bit if we don’t put them to use!     

In Hosea 4:6 God says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."  Because of a deficiency of Bible understanding and because of the abundance of man's religious traditions, the majority of Christians are allowing the enemy to do a real number on themselves.  When temptations, tests, and trials come, they think, "Well, this could be from God, and if it is, I sure don't want to oppose it.  What if He’s trying to teach me something?  Maybe He just wants to develop my patience, or maybe He wants to build my faith through this bad situation.  There’s nothing I can do about it anyway." 

Since God often causes good to come out of bad and evil situations, many have falsely assumed that God must have been orchestrating the whole situation.  Well, we  Christians certainly don't want to oppose God for any reason.  No!  Certainly not.  We want to be in the center of His perfect will.  But when some believers find themselves in the middle of a particular bad situation which they can’t seem to handle, instead of going to God for the answer, they have a strong tendency to simply accept it - - lie down, roll over, and say, "God must be allowing this."  But that’s not according to His Will because it doesn't line up with His Word. 

James 4:7 instructs us to first submit ourselves to God, and then resist the devil, doesn't it?  But the lie that Satan has promoted, which many have accepted, is that God is the author of temptation or at least He allows it.  Either way, it's impossible for those who think like that to resist the devil when they don’t know he’s the source of it.  But here’s the bottom line:  God has given believers the authority to exercise their free will to either allow or disallow temptation.  God has given mankind the final say where temptations, tests, and trials are concerned.  But sadly, because of a lack of knowledge of God ways, precepts, and principles, some fall by the wayside, abandon their faith, and end up being destroyed.    

Rom 6:16 - Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

When a person submits to and receives temptation, the enemy will walk right in and make further inroads in their life.  The devil wants to destroy the very things in the believer’s life that God has accomplished.  The devil is “the destroyer” and he comes to kill, steal, and destroy the things of God (John 10:10).   Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it's impossible to please Him (meaning God)."  Brothers and sisters, that's what this warfare is all about.  God loves us.  He's for us and wants to see us become victorious.  He has given us everything we’ll ever need to be successful- - to overcome the darkness of this World - - to resist the devil - - and to walk out our Christian lives THROUGH FAITH!

God doesn’t send temptation to BUILD our faith - - The devil sends temptation to DESTROY our faith!  The devil is out to eliminate our faith.  Should we find ourselves in the middle of temptations, tests, and trials, then we had better understand its source. If, however, we plan on waiting until it comes before we search for spiritual knowledge, most likely we’ll have a rough time of it!  Amen?  We need to have a good understanding of God’s Kingdom authority we’ve been given and know how to operate in it.

Now we're still talking about the source of temptation.  So take a look at Verse 13 again. Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted of (by) God:"  for (because) God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man:"  Now Church, this is so plain we’d have to have a lot of help to misunderstand it!    We're not to be guilty of saying, “God is the One who’s tempting me”.  And we're not to promote, condone, or agree with anyone who says He does!  And in addition to that, this verse says that temptation is EVIL!.  Can you see that? - "God cannot be tempted with evil".  In both Matt. 4:3 and 1 Thess. 3:5, the devil is referred to as “the tempter”.

And since God has unlimited knowledge and power, It makes no sense at all to me that He would need or even want to employ any of the devil’s tactics in accomplishing His will for a believer!  I think we all know better than that!     

I Cor. 10:13 - “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man:  but God is faithful, who will not suffer (allow) you to be tempted above (more than) that ye are able (to withstand); but will with the temptation also make a way (for you) to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 

Not only is God not the author of a believer’s temptations, tests, and trials, He provides a way for us to escape so that we will not be overcome by it and fall away. Some get out into left field here because they misread this verse.  They profess, "See - God's the one who allows temptations - it says so right here!  The devil might do the tempting, but God's the one who allows it."  

But no - that's not what it says.  Look at it closely.  It says, that God will not allow us to be tempted (by the devil) more than we’ll be able to bear it.  And then it says that with the temptation He will provide a way to escape.  In other words, God doesn’t  destroy the temptation, He simply makes for a believer to escape.  Well, if God doesn’t want us to be tempted, then why doesn't He just simply destroy the temptation?  The answer is:  Because mankind has currently been given Earthly authority.  And mankind is the one with the authority to allow or disallow the devil to bring the temptation into existence.  The free will of mankind is still in operation folks, and God never over-rides mankind’s free will.  So He does the next best thing.  He creates a way of escape for those who undergo the devil’s temptation.  However, in order to overcome, the believer must recognize the way of escape and be wise enough to accept it!

Hebrews 11:17 -"By faith Abraham, when he was tried (tested), offered up Isaac:”  

This refers to Gen. 22:1 which says, "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, - - -."  Now if we take this just like it sounds, it makes what I've been saying sound like a bunch of lies, doesn't it?  But again, a word study will reveal the of the truth of the matter.  In Hebrews 11:17 the word, “tried” is better rendered as “tested” and in Gen. 22:1, the word "tempt" is better rendered as "prove."  In other words, it should read,  "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, - - -."  "And it came to pass after these things that God did prove Abraham, - - -." 

To prove something, it must first be established.  Amen?  Abraham had already made a covenant with God.  This was not a matter of God tempting, testing, and trying Abraham to see if he was going to uphold his part of the covenant.  Because God knows everything, He already knew exactly what Abraham would do.  The outcome was already a fact in the mind of God.  God was simply proving to Satan and the rest of the World what He already knew.  And He made certain that it would be recorded in His  Word for all generations to see!  Doing a word study can clear up so many scripture problems.

Along a similar line, from Matthew 4:1 we also know that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.  The difference here between us and Jesus is that Jesus was an "Adam" (A human possessing God’s blood.  For more on God’s blood, read “Is Jesus the Second Adam” on this web-site).  Jesus didn't have the sin nature as the rest of us do.   And again, the word here means "to prove."  God was proving to all the World that Jesus had no sin nature or lust of forbidden things within Him, and therefore He could and would stand approved as the Son of God.  So don't let these two scripture areas get you sidetracked into thinking wrongly.

In Luke 22:40, Jesus told the disciples, “Pray that ye enter not into temptation”.  

Does that sound like the Lord would willfully bring temptation to a believer?  I don’t think so. 

HOW IS TEMPTATION INITIATED?

Now let's quickly finish up our study by investigating the final area of our subject: "How is Temptation initiated?"   Verses 14-16 says, "But every man is tempted, when (1)he is drawn away of his own lust, and (2) enticed.  (3) Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin:  (4) and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.  Do not err, my beloved brethren."       

Before we conclude this lesson, let's talk about this for just a minute.  What initiates or sets temptation into motion?  Verse 14 tells us that temptation comes to a believer when he is drawn away.  Question:  “Drawn away from what?”  Ans.  Drawn away from God's protection.  And so how is a believer drawn away from God's protection?  By yielding to his own lusts (strong desires) for something forbidden instead of walking according to his own spirit which is indwelled and should be led  by the Holy Spirit.  

Remember what we found that lust meant?  "A strong desire for anything forbidden."  When a believer yields to temptation is he operating in the spirit or in the flesh?  Ans.  He’s operating in the flesh of course, - - "in the lust of the flesh and in the lust of the eyes, or in the pride of life."  Sound familiar?  In Gal. 5:16 the Apostle Paul wrote, "This I say then, Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."          

"But every man is tempted, when He is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed."  This word "enticed" is the Greek word deleazo which means, "to become entrapped."  So every man becomes “entrapped” when he is drawn away (from God’s protection) of his own lust.  Verse 15 says, "Then when lust hath conceived (by embracing that lust), it bringeth forth (or gives birth to) sin:  and sin, when it is finished (or consummated) bringeth forth death."  And then Verse 16 says:  "Do not err (i.e., roam away from the Truth), my beloved brethren."

1 John 2:16 - For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

GOD NORMALLY CONTACTS MAN ON THE INSIDE --- THROUGH MAN’S SPIRIT WHERE HIS WORD HAS BEEN ENGRAFTED;  BUT SATAN  ATTEMPTS TO CONTACT MAN FROM THE OUTSIDE --- BY OPERATING THROUGH THE  LUST OF THE EYES - - THE  LUST OF THE FLESH, - - OR THROUGH THE PRIDE OF LIFE.

2 Peter 2:9a - The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, ..."

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