God and Testing

Et tentavit Deus Abraham. Quaeri solet quomodo hoc verum sit, cum dicat in Epistola sua Jacobus quod Deus neminem tentat: nisi quia locutione Scripturarum solet dici, tentat, pro eo quod est probat. Tentatio vero illa de qua Jacobus dicit, non intelligitur nisi qua quisque peccato implicatur. Unde Apostolus dicit: Ne forte tentaverit vos is qui tentat. Nam et alibi scriptum est, Tentat vos Dominus Deus vester, ut sciat si diligitis eum: etiam hoc genere locutionis, ut sciat, dictum, ac si diceretur, ut scire vos faciat; quoniam vires dilectionis suae hominem latent, nisi divino experimento etiam eidem innotescant. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Quaestionum in Heptateuchum, Liber I, Cap LVII

'And God tested Abraham.' 1 It is often asked how this may be true, when James says in his Epistle that God tempts no one, 2 unless that by this locution Scripture is accustomed to use 'test' when what is meant is 'prove'. For that testing which James speaks of is not to be understood unless some sort of sin is involved. Whence the Apostle says, 'Lest perhaps he had been tempting you, the one who tempts.' 3 For even elsewhere it is written, 'The Lord our God tests you that He might know if you love him.' 4 and even with this locution, 'that He might know' it is as if it is said, 'that He might make you know', because the strength of a man's love is hidden from a man, unless by Divine trial it is made known to him.  Saint Augustine of Hippo, Questions on the Heptateuch, Book 1, Chap 57 1 Gen 22.1 2 Jam 1.13 3 1 Thes 3.5 4 Deut 13.3