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Writer's pictureBible Brian

Can God be tempted?


Some Muslims argue that since God cannot be tempted by evil (James 1:13), but Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus cannot have been God, thus the Holy Trinity is an invalid doctrine. This objection, as with many objections, can be solved by reading to the very next verse. James 1:14 defines temptation for us. It is when we are drawn away by our own desires and enticed.


Any man can tempt God in one sense. In fact, scripture records a very specific example in Deuteronomy 6:16, which reads "Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah." (emphasis mine). Will Muslims now argue that God is not God because He was tempted? Surely not. No one could take that seriously!


We see, then, that there is a distinction between tempting God and God actually being tempted. You can be tempted in the sense that someone is trying to motivate you to do something, which is exactly what Satan did to Jesus, and you can be tempted in the sense that you actually want to do that thing. If temptation is about being drawn away by our own desires, then God cannot be tempted to evil precisely because His desires are 100% pure.


Thus, while Satan did tempt Jesus in the sense that he tried to motivate Him to do evil, Satan failed to tempt Jesus, because Jesus did not desire to do as Satan wanted. He stood His ground against Satan, and eventually cast him away. Therefore, this attempt to undermine Jesus’ divinity fails. I would even go as far as to say James 1:13-14 is further proof of Jesus’ divinity, because Jesus’ inability to be tempted is an inherently divine trait. James talks about resisting temptation, but gives no indication that we can completely avoid temptation as Jesus did. An inability to be tempted is a purely divine trait, therefore leading us to conclude the opposite to what Muslims would like us to conclude.

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