Irreligion: Tempting God

To tempt a person is to put him to a test. To tempt Godis to try, by word or deed, to test God’s knowledge or power. Sometimes, indeed, the effort is not so much to test God, as apresumptuous reliance on God to supply what a man can readily do for himself. Thus a man who refuses to take medicine when he is seriously sick, and expects God to cure him, is guilty, in some measure, of tempting God. To expect miracles when no human means are at hand to meet an extreme situation, is not to tempt God. Butto expect miracles to supply for one’s own lack of effort, or for the sake of enjoying a kind of spectacular exhibition, is tempting God.

Therefore, tempting God is a sin. It usually involves a doubt of God’s knowledge and power, and seeks to be sure about these-it puts God to the test. It is manifest that there is a wildinordinateness in this spectacle of a creature setting himself upto test and judge the infinite Creator upon whom the creature essentially depends. But one must not too quickly assume that what seems at first sight to be the sin of tempting God is actually sucha sin. When, for instance, the apostles asked God to confirm their words with signs (that is, with miracles) they were not tempting God; they had no doubt of his knowledge and power; they sought no proof for themselves; they wished God to make manifest his truth tounbelievers, and to accredit his messengers. The apostles’petition came from full faith, and loving reliance on God; it didnot spring from ignorance, doubt, or arrogance, as the sin of tempting God always does.

Tempting God is a sin against the virtue of religion because it is a direct act of irreverence towards God.

It does not seem that tempting God is so grievous anirreverence as superstition. The person who tempts God manifests a doubt of God’s knowledge and power, and this may be a passing and temporary thing. But a person given to superstition is usuallysteeped and confirmed in irreligious error. As lasting irreverenterror is worse than passing irreverent doubt, so superstition is worse than tempting God.