James did not want us to draw the conclusion that because God permits us to experience trials He is the source of temptation. That deduction might encourage us to give in to sin.
1:13 God is never the source of temptation. He does not try to get us to sin. He Himself is not even subject to temptation because He is totally separate from sin and not susceptible to evil.49The only sense in which God is responsible for sin is that He permits other things to tempt us, namely, the world, the flesh, and the devil (cf. Job 1-2). James did not mention this here.
Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Lead us not into temptation"(Matt. 6:13; Luke 11:4). Jesus used a figure of speech (i.e., litotes) in which He expressed a positive idea by negating the contrary.50He did not imply that God does lead us into temptation. His point was that He can help us stay away from it. Essentially Jesus meant we should ask God to allow us to experience as little temptation as possible. James was not contradicting Jesus' teaching.
"We all know only too many people who have ceased to walk with God under the pressure of trouble or tragedy . . ."51
1:14 Rather than blaming God we need to recognize that we are responsible when we yield to temptation, not God. There is nothing in God that responds positively to sin, but there is much in us that does.
"Desire (epithymia) does not always have a negative meaning (cf. Lk. 22:15; Phil. 1:23), but here, as most often in the New Testament, it refers to fleshly, selfish, illicit desire. While the word often describes specifically sexual passions, the use of the singular here suggests a broader conception."52
What practical difference does it make if God tempts us or if He allows us to experience temptation? Perhaps we can appreciate the difference if we think of God as our Father. No good earthly father would deliberately seduce his child into sin trying to make him or her fall. However every good father will deliberately allow his child to enter situations in life in which the child must make moral choices. We realize that sending a child to school or into the community, at the proper age, is good for a child because it matures him or her. Likewise God grows us up by allowing certain experiences to assail us, though He Himself only gives good gifts to His children (Luke 11:13).
