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Trials and Temptations - Oh Joy! (James 1:2-4)
A Belgian proverb says that experience is the comb
that Nature gives us when we are bald. Miguel de Cervantes said that a
proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. You will appreciate
this example, which is a German proverb that says He who has burned his
mouth blows his soup.
More seriously, Henry Ford said, "Life is a series
of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes
it is hard to realise". That is what James
is saying here when he urges us to consider it pure joy whenever we face
trials of many kinds. The word translated 'trials' here has the same root
as 'tempted' in v.13. There it refers to inner moral trials, temptation
to sin. In our text it refers to difficulties that come from the outside.
We are living in an age when people only want good experiences and James
reminds us that if you want to live the full life, be the real thing,
and be mature, complete, not lacking in anything there are no shortcuts.
What the world would find bizarre is that James' words command us to make
a definitive decision to count it joy in the face of trials "of all kinds".
That can include illness, financial setbacks, persecutions, etc. This
is not taking joy in the situation but counting it joy in the face of
trials and our joy is to be unalloyed with other emotions.
The testing here has the same meaning as in 1 Peter 1:7:
"These [trials] have come so that your
faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes, even though refined
by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour
when Jesus Christ is revealed"
The idea here is not that the trials of our faith determine whether we
have faith or not. Rather they strengthen the faith we already have. If
we want to grow in faith we must count it joy when that faith grows through
trials.
The perseverance James refers to is not a passive patience, which we might
show towards people, but a robust, challenging response to circumstances
that proves the practical realities of the Christian principles we believe
in. It is something that produces a good crop (Luke 8:15). Paul expresses
the same ideas when he writes:
"We also rejoice in our sufferings, because
we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character;
and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured
out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us"
(Ro.5:3-5)
Sometimes Christians find themselves wondering if they are truly saved.
It is popular in some circles even to think that trials and difficulties
are a sign of waning, or weak faith. If we truly believed, the thinking
goes we would be soaring as on eagle's wings. James begs to differ, insisting
that:
"The testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish
its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything"
Note that the perseverance that trials develop is doing a work in you;
a work that produces maturity, completeness as a Christian believer, lacking
nothing. If that is where we want to be this is what we must do, "Consider
it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds". Press on!