Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE END OF TRIALS”
James 1.2-4
This message will deal with a passage from the epistle written by James. A word that is frequently new to people who have not been raised in Church is the word epistle. Epistle is just another word for letter. In the New Testament, there are generally two kinds of epistles. There are Pauline Epistles, letters written by the Apostle Paul, and General Epistles, also called Other Epistles, which include letters written by James, Peter, John, Jude, and whoever wrote the letter to the Hebrews. A subdivision of the Pauline Epistles would be the Prison Epistles, letters Paul wrote from Roman imprisonment to both congregations and individuals; Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.
It may very well be that James was the first of the New Testament epistles, with the first verse providing insight into both the author and the timing of the letter, based upon who the letter was addressed to. Read the first verse with me:
“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”
Notice what information and conclusions we can draw from this first verse. Like most first-century letters, James begins with a salutation. Modern letters in Western civilization frequently end with salutations, but letters in the first century began with salutations. This lets us know at the very beginning who wrote the letter and to whom.
In English, the author’s name is James. People known as Jim are usually named James by their parents, with Jim being the diminutive or familiar form of the name. James, the Greek name ἸάkwboV, is a translation from the Hebrew name bqey. Translated from Hebrew, the name comes to us as the English name Jacob. However, when the Hebrew name bqey is translated into the Greek name ἸάkwboV, and then into English, it comes to us as James. In any event, James, Jacob, ἸάkwboV, and bqey are all the same names in three different languages.
Whoever this man was, he described himself in a very interesting way. Your Bible reads his self-description as “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” But the Greek New Testament word order is quite different. It is “James, a God and Lord Jesus Christ servant,” or “James, a God and Lord Jesus Christ slave,” since the Greek word doῦloV is broad enough to cover both meanings, servant and slave.
If you are familiar with the New Testament, you may recognize what appears to be a paradox in this opening sentence of the letter. In Matthew 6.24, the Savior clearly and pointedly established the impossibility of faithfully serving two masters at once. He said,
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”
However, John 10.30 immediately clears up the apparent paradox, where the Lord Jesus there declared,
“I and my Father are one.”
Thus, the only way James could faithfully and correctly serve both God and the Lord Jesus Christ is for God and the Lord Jesus Christ to be of one essence, with unity and complete harmony. And They are of one essence, being two of the three Persons of the triune Godhead. This is born out by examining the three words, Lord - Jesus - Christ. Lord (kurίou, in Greek) is hwhy (the Hebrew name of God) in the LXX translation. Jesus (Ἰhsoῦ, in Greek, comes from ewvwhy in Hebrew) means “hwhy is salvation,” and comes directly into English from Hebrew as Joshua. And Christ (cristoῦ, in Greek) means “anointed” or “Messiah.”
The author, then, is a man named James who claimed to serve as a slave to both God and the Lord Jesus Christ, without any of the inconsistency or conflict that could only be the case if the Savior is, Himself, God. Thus, God and the Son of God are one in essence and nature. So, who is this writer who makes such a claim? The Apostle Paul identified him as “the Lord’s brother” in Galatians 1.19. This should surprise no one since there is no doubt that Mary delivered at least four sons and two daughters following the Savior’s virgin birth, Matthew 13.55-56 and Mark 6.3:
55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?
56 And his sisters, are they not all with us?
But he was not only the Lord’s biological brother, born of the same mother, who became a believer following the Savior’s resurrection. He was also the prominent senior pastor of the Jerusalem Church, as a reading of Acts chapters 12-21 will show. Thus, we have conclusive evidence of the author’s identity and relationships to God and Christ.
We now want to note who he wrote to, which will give us a good idea of when the letter was written. The phrase reads,
“to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.”
With this phrase, we are provided two pieces of evidence, and we can draw a third conclusion. The words “the twelve tribes” narrowly describe Jewish people. Since it is a Christian author who wrote a Christian letter with an extraordinary devotion to God and Christ, it had to be written during the early years of Christianity when the overwhelming majority of believers were of Jewish heritage.
But the subject matter the letter deals with includes suffering, so it was also likely written after the general persecution in Jerusalem had begun that scattered the Jewish Christians in what James identifies as a Diaspora, translated “scattered abroad.”[1] That suggests James wrote his letter after Saul of Tarsus began persecuting Jewish Christians who had scattered.
That James addresses only Jewish believers in this letter makes it also likely he wrote before the conference that convened in Jerusalem, Acts 15, to deal with relations between Jewish believers and the influx of Gentile believers into the Christian faith. This would place the letter’s writing somewhere between 35 and 52 AD.[2]
With this background information in mind, imagine you are a first-century Jewish believer in Jesus Christ. It is likely you were not one of the original 120 disciples gathered for prayer leading up to the Day of Pentecost, who had suffered through the discouragement and despondency of the Savior’s crucifixion and the elation of his resurrection. You are one of the Jewish people who had come to Christ on the Day of Pentecost or after the Day of Pentecost, who sought God’s forgiveness for the national shame and your responsibility as a sinner for Christ’s death. Jesus was innocent, and you all knew it and bore the corporate guilt for His crucifixion at the hands of the Romans.
Convicted by the Spirit of God for your personal sins, you also found enormous relief from the forgiveness that can be found only through faith in Christ. Your life became the exhilaration of a soul set free, and a conscience finally liberated. You gloried in your communion with God due to your union with Christ and the consecrating presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. The challenge of poverty brought on by vast numbers of newly converted people who could not support themselves in Jerusalem was difficult. You were stressed by the discrimination experienced by the Greek-speaking old women receiving less food. But that problem was eventually addressed to your satisfaction.
It rocked your world when Ananias and Sapphira lied and then died for lying to the Holy Spirit of God. But that, too, was overcome, and you once more thrived. Then came the persecution. Those who opposed you were so illogical, irrational, hate-filled, and demonstrably wrong in their beliefs, some even members of your own family. You tried again to show them Scripture, but they were blind to the truth and deaf to your reasoning. Their hatred prevailed, many Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ were martyred by their fellow unbelieving Jews, and most of your number fled for their lives. As many as could returned to your places of birth. However, so many of you were so impoverished you could only go so far and no farther. Wherever you settled, the persecutors continued to hound you like bloodthirsty packs of wild dogs.
You had no illusions when you came to Christ. Life has always been challenging. You recognized that even the Christian life could be very challenging. You had already experienced poverty, and near starvation and had even observed with disappointment believers betraying the cause of Christ and other Christians. But it was the intensity of the trials and the relentless severity of the persecutions that weighed very heavily on you.
“Why, Lord?” That had been your frequent prayer as you put your babies to sleep. “I don’t understand what is happening to us” was the question of your mind and heart to God, day after day and night after night. Then came the day this letter from James arrived to address this and other pressing issues you were facing.
We know the just shall live by faith. Every Jewish person remembered that truth from the prophet Habakkuk in 2.4. James revealed to those first-century Jewish Christians, and to every generation of believers in Christ who have suffered in our faith from then to now the good purpose God has in testing our faith in varied ways. Oh, yes! Make no mistake about it. God, Who gives faith to His children by which to live our lives, Ephesians 2.8, always tests and tries the faith of His children with challenging experiences, trials, and difficulties of various types. What we will see today, in the text we will examine, is the explanation provided by James of the purpose of God’s testing of His children’s faith.
My text is James 1.2-4. Please locate that passage and stand for the reading of God’s Word:
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Two points for your consideration, reflection, encouragement, and personal growth as a believer in Christ:
First, THE ATTITUDE THAT IS PROPER FOR YOUR PERSONAL BENEFIT
The Christian’s proper attitude, or mindset, to best address the matter of trials, tribulations, challenges, and difficulties that come your way is stated in verses 2 and 3:
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
We know that Bible students should be all over a passage under consideration, initially with such questions as Who? What? and Why? among other lines of inquiry. That isn’t everything the Bible student does, but it is a marvelous and reliable way to begin any consideration of a passage of Scripture. Three lines of inquiry:
First, we ask the question Who? We already know who the human author of this letter is. It is James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, the senior pastor of the Church at Jerusalem. As well, we already know who James is writing to. The reason we ask the question Who? at this point is to determine something about the relationship that exists between James and those to whom he is writing, something about his attitude toward them.
“My brethren.”
This reflects the consideration James had for his readers. I am not reading anything into his words when I suggest the warmth of his description of his readers. The New Testament knows no elevated status that spiritual leaders occupy, be they apostles, prophets, evangelists, or pastor-teachers. Unlike many today who pretend to be spiritual leaders while they are inaccessible and present themselves as spiritually lofty, supposedly living their Christian lives on a higher plane, apparently too busy serving God to have time for Christ’s flock, James is a peer of his readers. He is not their spiritual or moral superior. They are his brethren.
We next ask the question What?
“count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.”
There are two phrases and two words to briefly consider concerning what is to be done:
First, the phrase “count it all joy,” whereby James directs his readers, his brethren, using an imperative form of ἠgέomai, “to consider, to deem as, to reckon as.”[3] The command of James reveals that this response is not optional. This is the proper, God-authorized, Spirit-enabled, Christ-honoring response that is called for. How can James issue this directive while, at the same time, be their spiritual equal before God? Remember, before he is their brother in Christ, he is the servant of God and Christ. As a servant of God, he prescribes this medicine for what ails them.
Second, “when ye fall.” Ὅtan means “whenever.”[4] James refers to situations that might be unanticipated, unavoidable, spontaneous, and not your fault. He refers to situations that are not chastisement or punitive. This is stuff that just happens because God wants it to happen, because God makes it happen to fulfill His plan and purpose for your life. So, how do these things happen? You fall into them, peripέshte, either inwardly or outwardly.[5] Thus, James does not here refer to that which might be anticipated and avoided. No. He refers to what you should do when the unanticipated and unavoidable occurs in your life.
Third, the word is “diverse,” from poikίloV, varied.[6] In other words, it isn’t your fault. Things, heartbreaking experiences, and painful episodes, just take place. There is nothing to be done to stop such events.
And what are these events, these experiences, these occurrences? Fourth, they are “temptations,” peirasmόV, referring to either trials or temptations.[7] Whether inner feeling or outer experience, whether trial or temptation, we will see in the next verse that your faith is put to the test, challenged, stressed, stretched.
Who? What? Now, Why? Why should you decide ahead of time to adopt a certain attitude, to decide ahead to count it all joy? Can I answer that question in two ways?
Not found in this passage at all, we are to decide ahead of time to count it all joy because most spiritual behavior is planned. So you plan to count it all joy when an unpleasantness occurs. It is likely that if you don’t plan to adopt the right attitude, you will naturally fall into the wrong attitude. This is the worst thing to do because it denies that God is sovereignly superintending the details of your life.
Directly responding to the Why? question with our text, we take note of the candor of James, verse 3:
“Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”
Want to know why you should adopt the attitude of joy when stressful, challenging, unpleasant, enticing, painful, uncomfortable, profoundly disappointing things happen, either in your mind and heart or with experiences that befall you? Because (and you already know this), when these experiences test, stretch, twist, contort, pull, torque, squash, disappoint, savagely attack, or otherwise stress your faith ... patience is wrought in you. Patience is such an important part of a Christian’s life, so closely tied to our hope in Christ.
When you realize that God is using the pain, suffering, torment, discomfort, inconvenience, disappointments, and discouragements to produce in you the Christian character trait of patience, it will be much easier to “count it all joy.”
Then, THE ACTION THAT IS PROPER FOR YOUR PERSONAL BENEFIT
Verse 4:
“But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
Please take note that the action called for by James is the activity of being passive. Not that your mind and heart are inactive, but that you forsake the wrestling and struggling against the circumstance you find yourself in so that you can derive benefit from the experience rather than knowing only frustration and disappointment. That said, take note of two things:
First, take note of the commitment sought by James from each of his readers:
“But let patience have her perfect work.”
Again, James uses the imperative form of the Greek verb translated “let have.” “Patience” refers to abiding under a burden that you could get out from under, but you don’t. Why not? Because you recognize what God is accomplishing in your life. And James is urging you to go along with what God is working to accomplish in your life. Do you recognize that this is a process of actively doing nothing? It is intentionally, knowingly, going with what you recognize to be a sometimes painful and always uncomfortable process that God employs to work in your life. How opposite this is from the life of ease and comfort the unsaved seek after and promises the Prosperity Theology pretend Christians offer their gullible audiences.
Why should the Christian comply with the directive delivered by James? Why bow to his solicitation to commit to this process without complaint or resistance? What in the world does God seek to accomplish through this?
“that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
Three words, “perfect,” “entire,” “wanting.” “Perfect” has to do with a right relationship with God, expressed as obedience and a clean life.[8] “Entire” refers to being complete in all your parts.[9] “Wanting” is lacking anything.[10] No one comes up short by denying self and yielding to God’s will in growing you by stretching your faith with circumstances.
I illustrate the process described here by likening you to a block of Swiss cheese. When you come to Jesus Christ, you are created a block of cheese of a certain height, width, and depth. But, being like Swiss cheese, you have lots of voids in your personality and spiritual composition. What does God do with these traits and characteristics that exist with you? He makes use of the varied and unanticipated challenges of life you fall into, be they temptations or trials, to produce the patience in your life that figuratively fills in the holes of your Swiss cheese.
It is much like a man installing drywall and using a trowel to apply the joint compound that fills in the voids and smoothes the wall’s surface. Only with you it hurts. It is frustrating. It can be disappointing. It is oftentimes puzzling to those who are not aware of God’s dealings in their life. That was the problem with the Jewish Christians James was writing to. Once they received his letter they understood what God was doing and the best way to achieve good results from the experiences. Count it all joy.
Christian, do you see what care God takes with your life? Bought with the precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, you are of immense value to God because of the enormity of your cost to Him. You cost Him the precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
How could He not love you?
How could He not care for you?
How could He not preserve you?
How could He not engage in the patient process of conforming you to the image of His dear Son?
It is the process we have just seen James describe in our text. Though you will experience pain, banish the thought of grumbling and complaining forever. Though you know disappointment, put out of your mind any wrong notion that God is not exercising watch care over you.
Embrace the reality that God is sovereign, in complete control of every circumstance of your life, and that all things work together for good to them that who love Him, who are the called according to His purpose. Take that by faith because it is true. Live that truth with joy because that is how faith is trained to behave. Count it all joy! Do you feel it? Not always. But do you believe it? Yes!
I close with comments to those of you who are lost. Will you experience pain in your life? Yes! Will you know disappointment and betrayal? To be sure! Will unanticipated and unavoidable heartaches, tragedies, and loss be your lot in life? To be sure. Such things happen to everyone. And what will the experiences of your life serve to accomplish when all is said and done? To what end will you wreck other’s lives, mis-parent your children, betray and disappoint your spouse, and will you utterly waste the boundless potential given to you by God?
You see, unless God works to make your life’s various temptations and testings meaningful, they count for nothing, accomplish nothing, and are utterly without meaning. So sad. Yet so unnecessary. Christ makes the difference. Christ saves. Christ provides meaning. Christ is everything.
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[1] The Jewish people had experienced a number of such dispersions, such as the Assyrian and the Babylonian captivities. What James refers to is likely referenced in Acts 8.1-4.
[2] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of The Epistle To The Hebrews And The Epistle Of James, (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1966), pages 503-504.
[3] Rogers, Jr., Cleon L. and Rogers III, Cleon L., The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key To The Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1998), page 552.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
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