The Bible says God tries men in Hebrews 11:17, but James 1:13 says God does not tempt us. Is there a contradiction?<\/p>\n\t
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son<\/em>” (Hebrews 11:17).<\/p>\n
“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<\/em>” (James 1:13).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Though the two verses use two different English words: “tested” and “tempted,” The same Greek word is being used in both places:\u00a0peirazo<\/em>, which means to test. The difference is with the kind of testing that is taking place.<\/p>\n
James is telling us that God cannot be encouraged to do evil and He does not, in turn, encourage others to sin. But many other passages do tell us that God does test people to see if they will do what is right. “And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 8:2-3). This is the type of testing that is mentioned in Hebrews concerning Abraham’s offering of Isaac. And it sets the stage for addressing the question of why Christians sometimes go through hard times. “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives’<\/em>” (Hebrews 12:5-6).<\/p>\n
There is no growth without challenges and God provides the challenges to us so that we might grow thereby. Sometimes, God allows Satan to tempt us as happened to Job. God did not tempt Job with evil, but He did allow Satan to tempt him with evil to prove Job’s character. But even here, the goal is not to cause sin, but to cause growth. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it<\/em>” (I Corinthians 10:13).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: The Bible says God tries men in Hebrews 11:17, but James 1:13 says God does not tempt us. Is there a contradiction? Answer: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son” (Hebrews 11:17). “Let no one say when he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[793,185,188],"class_list":["post-18737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-apparent-contradictions","tag-temptation","tag-trials"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19079,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-god-gave-us-free-will-why-is-it-satan-can-still-tempt-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":18737,"position":0},"title":"If God gave us free will, why is it Satan can still tempt us?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Okay, I don't really know how to put this so here goes: If God gave us free will, why is it Satan can still tempt us? Answer: A good question. Free will means that God allows you to make choices in your life. God decided before making the world\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52380,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-any-difference-between-trials-temptations-and-persecution\/","url_meta":{"origin":18737,"position":1},"title":"Is there any difference between trials, temptations, and persecution?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeff, Is there any difference between trials, temptations, and persecution? Thanks. Answer: In English, a trial is any difficult situation, including temptations and persecution. Temptation is when you desire something but realize that to get what you want, you would have to break a law of God. Persecution\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45722,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-all-temptations-come-from-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":18737,"position":2},"title":"Do all temptations come from Satan?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Although I've read it several times before, I was discussing James 1:13-15 with my mother. In many of your explanations of this verse, you explain that Satan uses our own desires against us to break God's laws. I explained to my mother that our desires lead us into temptations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9043,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-god-told-satan-to-lie-then-isnt-it-ok-for-us-to-lie\/","url_meta":{"origin":18737,"position":3},"title":"If God told Satan to lie, then isn’t it OK for us to lie?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If the Old Testament, even once, shows us that God told Satan to lie to a woman, would that be OK? If not, better read that book more closely. I'll bet that it shows that very clearly. Once, that should be OK, let's consider the original language, let's dance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51551,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-god-have-sent-a-married-man-to-be-my-husband\/","url_meta":{"origin":18737,"position":4},"title":"Could God have sent a married man to be my husband?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Could a man who is married be the husband God sent to me? The reason why I ask this question is that I have never felt this way about anyone, especially someone who is married. The shocking thing is that he feels the same way that I feel, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18683,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-cannot-be-tempted-but-jesus-was-tempted-so-is-jesus-not-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":18737,"position":5},"title":"God cannot be tempted, but Jesus was tempted; so, is Jesus not God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My friend, who is an Arian, gave me this puzzling logic:\u00a0 God can't be tempted, but Jesus was tempted; therefore, Jesus is not God.\u00a0 Is this true? Answer: For a Christian, it would be easy to spot this line of reasoning as a falsehood because it ends with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}