Hi Jeff,<\/p>\n
Is there any difference between trials, temptations, and persecution?<\/p>\n
Thanks.<\/p>\n\t
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 is when others make life hard for you because of who you are.<\/p>\n
In Greek,\u00a0peirasmos<\/em> refers to a hardship that proves something. Thus, temptation is a hardship that proves you can resist the offer to break God’s law. But hardships may not be just about resisting sin and they prove we can endure. Thus, one Greek word covers both trials and temptations. That can cause some difficulties as it would be the context that determines whether we are talking about a trial or temptation.<\/p>\n Thus, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone<\/em>” (James 1:13), means that God doesn’t try to make a person fail and break His laws. God tested Abraham (Genesis 22:1) by asking him to offer up his son. God was not attempting to get Abraham to sin but to prove the strength of Abraham’s faith.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 is when others make life…<\/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_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[572,185,76,188],"class_list":["post-52380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-persecution","tag-temptation","tag-terminology","tag-trials"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57080,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-to-defeat-temptation\/","url_meta":{"origin":52380,"position":0},"title":"How to Defeat Temptation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kent Heaton Whenever we think of something as a temptation we consider it evil. The original Latin could suggest something good or bad but the evil sense has taken a predominant role in its definition. The idea of temptation is rooted in the challenge of character. Trials rightly faced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32895,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/james-on-trials\/","url_meta":{"origin":52380,"position":1},"title":"James on Trials","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: James 1:1-27 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The book of James is written to Jewish Christians who were scattered by persecution - Acts 8:1-4 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This is one indication that James is one of the first books written \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is that persecution that sets up the theme for the first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88083,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-lead-us-into-temptation\/","url_meta":{"origin":52380,"position":2},"title":"Does God lead us into temptation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Matthew 6:13, \"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen,\" seems to imply that God might lead us into temptation. But James 1:13 says God doesn't tempt people with evil. Could you\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":10927,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/questions-about-james-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":52380,"position":3},"title":"Questions about James 1","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read the first chapter, it was only a page so I hope its the right one.\u00a0 I think I got most of it. It talks about being joyful for the trials because they give you patience. the more you face things the easier it gets?\u00a0 Then it says\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":15233,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-didnt-god-destroy-satan-earlier\/","url_meta":{"origin":52380,"position":4},"title":"Why didn’t God destroy Satan earlier?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother, I tried searching for an answer from your questions collection for the question: Why God did not destroy Satan and allowed him to live to this date? Can you please clarify? Thank you. Answer: \"Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been\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":33471,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/there-will-be-difficult-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":52380,"position":5},"title":"There Will Be Difficult Times","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 21, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Warfel","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52380","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=52380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}