You shall not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
All Commentaries on Deuteronomy 13:3 Go To Deuteronomy 13
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Take, for instance, the text “God tempts no one”: it cannot be understood as meaning every kind of temptation but only of a particular kind which God doesn’t tempt anyone with. Otherwise that other text, “the Lord your God is tempting you,” would be false. Otherwise too we might be denying that Christ is God or that the gospel is not telling the truth when we read that he questioned one of the disciples, “tempting him, but he himself knew what he was going to do.” You see, there is a temptation that leads to sin, and in that way God tempts no one. Then there is a temptation or testing that proves the quality of faith, and that way even God is prepared to tempt people. In the same sort of way, when we hear “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit,” we shouldn’t take it as meaning every kind of blaspheming, just as in the other case we don’t understand every kind of tempting.
