James addresses the twelve tribes in the dispersion. This designation has from ancient times referred to the Jewish people, but should we understand that James is addressing only Christians from among the Jews? Since the content of the letter concerns all Christians, by the twelve tribes we are entitled to understand the brothers who make up the Church, the people of God of the New Covenant.

The call to rejoice in temptations initially makes a strange impression. One can, of course, find a reason for joy in the fact that if the powers of darkness attack you, this means that you do not belong to them. But such awareness can lead to self-satisfaction, then to self-deception and proud self-exaltation, and that is itself a satanic trap.

So it is not temptations themselves that we should rejoice in, but the fact that the Lord gives us strength to cope with them, to stand firm against enticements. We should not fear them and lose our heads out of fear, but we should recognize them in time and be ready to receive help from above.

At times, the very encounter with the word "temptation" in the Bible becomes a temptation. Many times Scripture speaks of certain temptations that God sends to a person, beginning perhaps with Gen. 22:1. At the same time, we read in the Lord's Prayer: "Lead us not into temptation." And today's verse says something else as well. So does God tempt us or not?

The point is that the word has two different meanings, which in modern language can be described as "testing" and "provocation." The difference lies in the goal of the event. Tests can be given to us, and in a certain sense all our life is a test, so that we pass through them and acquire the experience necessary for our maturing and growth in our relationship with God. It is not fitting for us to run away from such "temptations."

The goal of evil provocations is different. It is that we fall, move away from God, and take the path of self-will, lovelessness, and violence. "Temptations" of that kind never come from God; we ask God to deliver us from them. And, as the Lord Jesus says, when you ask, believe that you receive. Then only the tests sent by God will remain in our life, tests for which we can only thank Him.