Bible Synapse
Should Christians count temptation a joy, or pray not to be led into it?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 2 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
“Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations”, because the testing of faith produces patience.
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Blessed is the one who endures; yet God tempts no one to evil, and each is tempted by his own desire.
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. 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: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation”.
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
The objection
James tells Christians to count it all joy when they fall into various temptations. Jesus taught them to pray, “lead us not into temptation”, and in Gethsemane told them to pray that they would not enter into it. Is temptation something to welcome or to avoid?
The answer
The Greek word behind ‘temptation’ in both places, peirasmos, means a test or trial. It can be hardship that tests faith, or enticement to sin, and in 1611 the English word ‘temptation’ also meant ‘trial’. James means hardships: he goes on, “the trying of your faith worketh patience” (1:3), and the BSB renders 1:2 “trials of many kinds”. A few verses later he turns to the other sense, the pull of one’s own desires, and says plainly that God tempts no one to evil (1:13–14).
So the two sayings fit together. A Christian does not go looking for trials; he prays to be kept from situations where he might fall, as Jesus urged in Gethsemane: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). But when trials come anyway, as they will, he can meet them with joy, because God uses them to make faith strong and complete (James 1:3–4; 1 Peter 1:6–7). Humility asks to be spared; faith rejoices in what God does when it is not.
Other answers Christians give
Not drawn in by our own will
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown read ‘lead us not into temptation’ as a prayer not to be drawn, by our own choice, into the place of temptation, as Peter was when he pressed into the high priest’s courtyard. Others read it as a prayer to be kept from yielding when tempted.
From the classic commentators
not the temptations of Satan, or temptations to sin; for these cannot be matter of joy, but grief … but afflictions and persecutions for the sake of the Gospel, which are so called here and elsewhere, because they are trials of the faith of God's peopleJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on James 1:2 (1746–1763)
We incline to take it as a prayer against being drawn or sucked, of our own will, into temptationJamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary, on Matthew 6:13 (1871)
Sources
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: James 1 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary: Matthew 6 (1871), at Bible Hub