Many moons ago I undertook to study and write about James. I started penning a Bible study I hoped to use in teaching my close group of fellow believers. Here's the first section. Any errors in grammar or spelling are attributable to this sitting on the shelf of a computer hard drive for over a decade.
JAMES 1:1-8
TESTED TO PERFECTION
OR
COFFEE BREAK’S OVER, BACK ON YOUR HEADS
After
a brief introduction, James gets right into the subject of trials, tests, and
temptations. James writes one of the
Christian’s favorite comfort verses right out of the gate in 1:2. This verse is also one of the most perplexing
verses we have today. “Consider it pure joy
my brother when you face trials of many kinds” (Jas 1:2 NIV, emphasis
mine). When I first read this passage as
a young Christian, I thought James must be mad.
How can anyone consider trials and tests to be joyful, much less pure
joy? These things aren’t joyful, they’re
painful, just ask Job. I don’t think he
really enjoyed scratching his oozing sores with a piece of broken pottery. When his idiot wife told him to curse God and
die, he probably didn’t leap up and down with his fevered body shouting
praises. I have been in tight spots
through no ill will of my own (rare though they are) and found no joy in the
experience. Praise God that He inspired
James to write down what should be our motivation in trials, and not just a
commandment to endure.
Let’s look at the text and answer a few questions
that will help us understand exactly what James is saying and what the presence
or absence of certain characteristics through trials tell us about our
beliefs. I am using the New English
Translation in this study to force us to read anew the things James is
writing. You may use the old familiar
NIV or NKJV, but I recommend getting a fresh perspective on the important
things said here.
1
From James, a slave of God and of Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed
abroad. Greetings!
2 My brothers and sisters, consider
it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, 3 because you know
that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect effect,
so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything. 5 But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he
should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will
be given to him. 6 But he must ask in
faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown
and tossed around by the wind. 7 For
that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8
since he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
(Jas
1:1-8 NET)
Here
are a few questions to help us understand what we should get form this text.
1.
Who did James write this to? Why does
that make a difference in how we read it?
2. What is the specific command James gives
us? What specific behaviors obey this
command, which ones fly in the face of James and our Lord? (include text
references if you have them)
3. Why does James think we all need a little
testing from time to time? What is the
one key thing we all seem to lack? Why?
How many of you thought
that losing a job through no fault of your own was the result of a need for
more wisdom? We can all name really
silly things that have happened in our lives that were placed there by God to
bone us up on some “wisdom”. The key to
understanding the trials and tests we go through is to understand who is
sovereign and who isn’t. We often times
question the intelligence of the omniscient God of heaven when our lives become
a little bit uncomfortable. Job went on
quite the tirade when he was tested. His
friends didn’t help much. They were
constantly accusing Job of sin, beating to death the theory of a cause and
effect relationship in our lives. They
were close to the truth, but they never understood that testing and punishment
often look the same. They weren’t let in
on the secret that Job was tested for being righteous, not for being
sinful. God disciplines the sinful, but
He tests the righteous. Job’s friends
did not know what the cause and what the effect was in Job’s affliction.
God
sees things much deeper than even our Hubble telescope can. He knows the heart and mind of each man and
woman in His creation. Being a loving
father, he wants the best for all of His children. Just like we human parents do with our
children, sometimes God gives us tests to show us our capabilities and our
limitations. When our infant daughters
were ready to walk, my wife and I put them to the test. We helped them upright between us with a few
feet of space in between. With much
coaxing and lots of falling, each one eventually made it from one parent to the
other. We did this because we knew they
are ready and capable of walking. They
learned this skill because we cared enough to let go. I don’t remember learning to walk, but I can
speculate at what goes through a baby’s mind the first time his “loving” father
lets go.
God
places all of us in tests. He “let’s go”
to give us the opportunity to prove to ourselves what we can do. None of what is accomplished has anything to
do with our own great skill, it has to do with whose children we are. My cat’s children don’t walk upright, but my
children do because they aren’t cats, they’re humans. Children of God live life righteously and
skillfully not because they are superior to others but because they are indwelt
with the Spirit of the Living God. God
gives us opportunities to live out our faith.
My natural parents were kind enough to put me through the walking test,
and I’ve been able to walk with moderate success ever since. After God gave Job the sovereignty test, Job
lived his life in the understanding he gained from a meeting with the Sovereign
of the universe. At the end of specific
tests in our lives, we also will discover wonderful things about ourselves and
our God.
Frequently
we are lacking at the beginning of trials and tests. God must do more than just show us what we’re
made of. Tests, then, serve the purpose
of equipping us with the wisdom we require.
Wisdom is the ability to live life skillfully (thanks Lynn), and we are
often quite short on that skill. Just as
babies lack the skill to walk, we lack the wisdom to live; just as the babies
are full of walking potential, we are full of the Spirit of God who gives us
unlimited wisdom potential. In trials
and test, we learn to trust God, act on our faith in God, and if necessary, cry
out to God for deliverance. Doing each
of those at the appropriate time is wise.
Like the babies of our oft used analogy, we learn when to step out, when
to fall, and we learn to always trust our loving parent for safety with either. We, of course, lag behind babies in the faith
department. They wouldn’t try to walk
without faith in us, and we are prone to just stew in our juices during a trial
instead of believing God to give us the skill to pass the test. In the end, we find that the very same test
can, and often does, serve the dual purposes of demonstrating who we are and
teaching us to rely on God for the rest.
Although we may be amazingly capable as children of God, our skills are
still miniscule compared to the Almighty.
In Him we move and breathe and have our being. We can never believe that too much.
Finding
that razor sharp edge of reality on which we live is not easy, but it is
absolutely necessary. We have to live as
who we are (blood bought, new creations of God), die to who we were (vile
sinners condemned to an eternity of torment), and stop trying to be what we are
not (sovereign deities). There are two
pitfalls we must avoid if we are to endure testing successfully. The first is forgetting who God is. The second is forgetting who we are. If we fall into the first trap, we are likely
to see no way out and thus never try. We
judge God by our circumstances instead of vice versa. We can forget our salvation and believe we
are just getting what we deserve. If the
pendulum swings the other way, we can become conceited after a test is
concluded. We somehow believe that by
our own majestic power we have accomplished the task. I hate to burst some people’s bubbles, but
pride is the mark of a failed test. Any
man (or woman) who finishes a test proud instead of humbled has utterly
failed. Scripture tells us God opposes
the proud but gives grace to the humble.
The end of a test in life should never be God opposing us. We have to continually remember why God tests
us. If the end result is not our
perfection, the something has gone awry.
If the test ends without the desired outcome, the test is a
failure. Funny thing about a failed
test, there always seems to be a re-test, and it is inevitably harder.
If
you believe a teacher will help you with an answer to a question on a test, you
ask for help and you pass the test. If
you don’t believe the teacher will be of any help, you sit in silence doing
nothing productive, or you try on your own and fail anyway. We behave the same way towards God. If we actually believe He will give us the
wisdom we lack to pass a test and thus move on to something different (like
another test), we ask. The problem we
usually run into is that we really don’t believe God will do anything for us,
and we don’t bother to ask (see pitfall #1 from before). God gives us everything we need in times of
trials and tests. He has given us the
latent ability through salvation, and He gives us the needed skill through the testing. We have numerous stories in the Bible and in
our own churches to attest to this fact.
God is trustworthy, He is a loving father. We can trust Him during those times to be our
Jehovah Jireh, our provider God. James
tells us to ask, and it will be given to us.
The only stipulation in the asking is that we must ask with faith, or we
are to expect nothing from God. If we
ask without faith, we are double minded.
We vacillate between believing God will provide and disbelieving. In the heat of the moment, we lean on our own
understanding instead of on our God. Our
first reaction to testing is fear not faith.
We have to be trained, through the tests and trials in our lives to
default to our knowledge of God and our faith in Him instead of the worldly
reaction of fear. This, I believe, is
part of the perfection God desires to form in us.
Our
faith does not exist in a vacuum. God
does not require us to have faith founded on fiction. What we believe about God is based on His
character and His impeccable record of being everything He claims to be,
without ever changing. In this text,
James proclaims several absolute facts about God on which we can build our
trust and our faith. If we practice
living in these principles, even outside of trials, faith can become our
default reaction when God chooses to grow us even more towards the perfection
He desires for us. Here is what James
assures us about our God:
1-
God is doing a good work in us! 1:3,4
2-
God is generous! 1:5
3-
God will not be harsh during these tests! 1:5
Here
is the point where we must rely on other scripture to fully understand the
assertions made in this text. Paul tells
us in Philippians that God, who began a good work in us, will perfect it. God didn’t save us and forget about us. No one will arrive in heaven
unannounced. The writer of Hebrews
assures us that God is the author and finisher of our faith. It doesn’t take a genius to look into the
Word of God and see that He continues to work in the lives of those He has
called. God’s plan for man includes not
just salvation, but also our sanctification, and ultimately our
glorification. Jesus teaches us that the
Holy Spirit is given to us to be our guide, our teacher, and our
counselor. All of these occupations
involve ongoing interaction with the Godhead, and they all result in our
perfection and God’s glory. In Romans
Paul lays out the plan God set for us before the foundations of the world. At no point in that plan are we ever left
idle. God’s good work in us is constant
from the point of salvation until we go home to Him who called us.
We
can see in our Lord’s teaching about the Father that He is indeed
generous. The teaching of Jesus in
Mathew 5 resounds with the goodness of God.
From studying Proverbs, Psalms, and the New Testament books, we find
that God is generous to all of creation, not just to the saved. If God causes the rain to fall on the just
and the unjust alike, how much more do we find the blessings of God for those
who are united with Him through the death of His Son? The only problem we have with God’s
generosity to us is we seldom open our eyes to what He has placed around
us. We seek the miraculous moments to
declare His goodness when the greater work of God is the sustenance and
provision given every day. The very
breath of life entering our lungs is a boon from the Gifting Giver, yet we
seldom take time to acknowledge, much less thank, the Almighty of Heaven who
gives to all without finding fault.
The
final point James makes is hard for many to swallow. In comparison to the comfort we desire, the
testing of God does appear to be very harsh.
My natural inclination is to lay on the couch and watch TV until it’s
time to do something less strenuous, like sleep. When my wife causes me to get up and take out
the trash, it seems like a laborious task compared to what I would be doing
otherwise. However, if I really stopped
to think about it, I could be left alone to do all the chores of living. I could do the endless dishes, change a
multitude of diapers, vacuum and sweep, and be forced to do all the other
things that come with living as a civilized human being. Compared to the possibility, the reality is
quite easy and comfortable. Being tried
and tested by God is much the same. When
my car dies to teach me patience, it’s much better than if my car were to catch
fire. If I deal with joblessness for a
season, it’s easier than moving my family into the street and begging for our
basic needs. Compared to all that God
could allow to try my faith, the things that come my way aren’t that bad. They appear horrible from close up, but when
some distance from them allows a better view, I see how gentle the Father
actually is.
Although
this is not an authoritative treatment of trials and tests in our lives, I hope
it is of some use to any who labor through reading it. Many more clever and insightful things can
probably be said about this passage of scripture. My only hope is that some believers (myself
included) will realize that we preach the gospel with our lives whether we
intend to or not. During tests of our
faith, it becomes imperative that we preach the truth of the gospel.
One
final note about how the testing of our faith develops perseverance, not all
the tests God allows in our lives are timed events. Some tests last only a short while, and other
tests may last until we are taken home to glory. There is no “faith equals comfort” formula in
this text. Don’t be led astray by those
who would have you believe that faith is the key to comfort on this world. Faith is the opposite. Having faith that God raised Jesus Christ
from the dead is a guarantee that we will face tests, trials, and even
persecution in this world. This type of
life is promised to us by our Lord Himself, but as Paul told us, these
temporary discomforts are not even worthy of comparison to the glory we will
receive in the end. Although not
specifically in this text, this fact must be recalled from other parts of the
Word to avoid heresy.
Now
onto the next section, the reality check.
Let’s look at the text and see what James has for us in this one.
9 Now the believer of
humble means should take pride in his high position. 10 But the rich person’s pride should be in
his humiliation, because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow. 11 For the sun rises with its heat and dries
up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost
forever. So also the rich person in the
midst of his pursuits will wither away.
12 Happy is the one who endures testing, because when he has proven to
be genuine, he will receive the crown of life that God promised to those who
love him. (Jas 1:9-12 NET)
I
had quite a bit of trouble understanding how these words followed what James
had just said about being double minded and enduring testing. I couldn’t really see why he would want to
start bringing money into a situation already confused by his unworldly
attitude towards trials and test. Until
I grasped this text, I thought I knew what a proper prospective was on the haves
and have nots. As always, God’s inspired
Word turned my thoughts upside down.
Common sense became nonsense.
We
should start with a few questions about this passage, then we can move on to
taking it apart to get at the meat of the message.
1. If pride
is always spoken of so poorly in the Bible, why does James tell poor people to
have it?
2. What can
possibly be the rich man’s humiliation?
Why go to such depths describing the decay of the wealthy?
3. How can
verse 12 ever tie into the other three verses here?
One
thought about this text finally brought me to an understanding of how it fits
with the verses immediately preceding it.
Life is the test. After we are
given instructions on how to deal with the situational trials, James expands
the subject to include every aspect of our lives. He goes about it differently than I would
have, but I’m not the one inspired by the Holy Spirit to pen the very words of
God. That being the case, we’ll have to
stick to the way James wrote it if we are to understand what God wants us to
understand about dealing with the test of life.
I
think money and life position are brought into this scenario because they are
common denominators between every human being.
All of us fit somewhere in the financial scheme of things. Since he is writing to the Jews of his day,
James also uses this example to correct some long held, but very incorrect,
beliefs. In the mind of a Jew back then,
piety equaled blessing. No wonder the
disciples asked Jesus if a blind man had sinned or if his parents were the
offenders. People even today seem to
think that if all is going well, then God must be pleased with you. In truth, if all is going too well, it could
be a sign that God is reserving His bitter wrath for you at the judgment seat
of Christ. Jesus told us that the world
loves its own and hates what belongs to God.
Comfort in this life is either a blessing from God (like recess between
classes) or a curse we induce upon ourselves as we serve the wrong master. We normally are not capable of determining
which one it is. The key is to behave
according to the perfect law of Christ, which will be harder to do if we’re
serving mammon. In the end we find that
money makes us all a lot like cats. If
we have it, it’s our biggest burden. If
we don’t have it, it’s our biggest burden.
Just like my cat, Max, I’m always on the wrong side of the door
concerning material wealth. One of the
worst experiences I ever had was when I received a bonus check for about
$16,000. The struggle over what to do
with it was terrible. I lost more sleep
over having some money than I ever lost from not having it.
I
could be treading very close to the edge of a high precipice with this
subject. Many wealthy people would get
outraged at hearing that their earthly possessions may have cost them eternity. Once again, context can save the day (and my
hide!) when dealing with this subject.
In the context of this particular book, attitude is everything. James never decries the possession of possessions,
but he does beat the tar out of those who lose perspective of why they have
them, who gave the stuff to them in the first place, and what the end of their
precious stuff is. This teaching squares
perfectly with Proverbs, the law, and our Lord’s own words. James doesn’t say you are a worthless cause
if you have stuff, but he does make it clear that your mammon could be the
hardest test you’ll be given. It is a
test that many fail, and they are judged accordingly. We will deal with this subject in much more
depth later in the study.
Now
we must get back to the questions at hand concerning this short passage of
scripture. Specifically, we must
discover what high position a poor man holds and what humiliation a rich man
glories in. I think that we can find the
answer to both questions in the final verse of this section. “Happy is the one who endures testing,
because when he has proven to be genuine, he will receive the crown of life
that God promised to those who love him.” (Jas 1:12) If life is the test, when will a man
be proven genuine? When does he turn in
his answer book and receive the score?
The obvious answer is death. In
the end of all things, the poor man is highly exalted when he enters into the
kingdom of the Living God. At the same
time, the rich man’s material wealth and all his possessions, those things that
were the very glory of the finite world, are instantaneously removed and
destroyed from him. To the world, this
is humiliation. To the Christian, it is
the very day he longs for.
In
either scenario, whether rich or poor, we are challenged by James to live life
skillfully. The person who has vast
wealth on this earth must give an account of every penny when he is
graded. I don’t envy this man’s
position. Where there is much
responsibility, much wisdom is required.
We’ve already discussed how God instills us with wisdom. Personally, I’m not too gung ho about
undertaking that much testing of my faith.
I have a hard enough time being wise with the small portion God has
allotted me. I do believe I would fail
miserably if He challenged me with more.
It is His grace that I occupy the life position that I have.
On
the flip side of the coin, we find a poor man who must give account for how he
spent himself when that was the only worldly possession God gifted him
with. I fall much closer to being in
this situation. Although the external
accountability may be less for this man, he must deal more frequently in the
commodity God really values. In the end
of all things, when heaven and earth are replaced, the only thing remaining
from the old system will be the people.
How we care for them (including ourselves) will be the single grade on
the report card. I guess this option
requires just as much, if not more, wisdom than having worldly wealth. It is a highly exalted position to have full
responsibility for the very objects of God’s affection, the ones for whom
Christ died.
After
looking more deeply into this passage, it becomes perfectly clear that James is
not changing subjects, he’s making the point he set out to make from the
beginning. He tells us in a very sharp
fashion that we must live our faith in both the small things of life and in
life itself. Paul tells us we are saved
for the good works God prepared for us to accomplish. James expounds on the theme by letting us
know that every moment of every day God is preparing us for the very works for
which He saved us. I don’t believe any
man is told what his work is before he enters glory. At that time, he will give an account for how
he handled the task. If that is the
case, then we would all do well to keep a keen eye for the guiding and teaching
hand of God. When we seek the grandiose
ways to serve, we can miss the mundane tasks that may be the whole of God’s
work for us. Therefore, we must strive
daily to accomplish each and every thing placed before us, whether pleasant or
painful, great or miniscule, seen or hidden, in a manner worthy of Christ. Whether we are entrusted with the wealth to
feed the nations or with love to lead the lost to Jesus, we are accountable to
God Almighty for how we use His resources.
We are stewards of what He was given us, and we will be judged for how
we have handled it. The trials in life
are merely perfecting us for the greater task of living our lives as children
of God. Let us live up to what we have
already attained.
Do we
believe in God? If we do, we will endure
trials and testing with nothing but joy because we know what the outcome
is. We know our loving God is perfecting
us to stand in His presence as saved, sanctified, and glorified members of His
own family. He is equipping us with what
we need and removing what we don’t need, to live the life He saved us for. Believing this gives us the ability to “grin
and bear it” when we are in tight spots.
Believing what we read in the Bible gives us the courage to step forward
when we see God let go while we’re standing on wobbly legs. Believing God has a very specific plan for
each person He saves will encourage us to look continually for how we may serve
Him with our lives. Believing the gospel
story that the just died for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous, the
perfect for the hideous, gives us the patience and motivation to endure any
test so we may bring glory to the One who loved us, even to death. But only if we have faith.
