“When Facing Trials”—Part 2
(James 1:1-4)
Series: Living the Faith (James)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
•I invite you to take your Bibles and join me in the Book of James (page 812; YV).
Last week we began a new series of messages through the Book of James, a very practical book, just 5 chapters and 108 verses, a short book that is action-packed with wisdom and challenge to the church.
We noted last time that one of the more interesting characteristics of this little book is that it contains over 50 imperatives in its 108 verses, 54 uses of the imperative mood, the mood of command, commands to Christians such as, “Do this,” or “See to that.” They are not suggestions, but commands.
So we noted that James is about “Living the Faith,” a book not about becoming Christians, but about behaving as Christians. It is principles put into practice. It is doctrine on display. In fact, you might say that James sounds like he’s from Missouri, the “Show Me State.” James is like, “I don’t want to hear so much about your talking about your Christian faith, show me your Christian faith.”
We look again at these first four verses of James.
•Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
1 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
•Pray.
Introduction:
This morning we return to these first four verses in “Part 2” now of our two-part message on facing trials. Last week I began our study by stressing my conviction that I really believe what we’re reading here and that the Word of God can really help us when we are facing trials. My desire as your pastor is to be of help to you and I just firmly believe in the power and the sufficiency of Scripture to help us in our daily lives.
Many of you learned last week about the so-called, “Boy Who Came Back From Heaven.” That is the same title of a wildly popular book by this boy and his father. Well, the boy who came back from heaven, as it turns out, actually didn’t. In other words, it was a lie. The boy—who was only six-years-old at the time—and now a teenager says, “I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention.” To his credit, he has come clean and urges others to find their strength and ultimate truth in the sufficiency of Scripture. He says, “When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough…”
Well, I couldn’t agree more. As your pastor, I want to help and so I will recommend only good books to read—not all books in the popular section of the Christian bookstore are good books. One of the reasons we meet in our weekly theology group on Wednesdays is to expose false teachings and insufficient understandings and views of the world, teaching good theology, good and solid biblical doctrine that guides us in living out our lives.
And so, when we read in James chapter 1 these four verses about facing trials, I really believe that these verses will help us if we will go back to them time and again, read them, reflect upon them, meditate upon them and live them out for the glory of God.
So with your Bibles open to James 1, let’s return to our study of this book.
1 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.
We noted last time that the “James” mentioned here is James the brother of Jesus; one of the pillars of the church in Jerusalem (Galatians 2:9). Paul talks about going up to Jerusalem and seeing James, whose he calls, “the Lord’s brother (Galatians 1:19).”
And James is writing to “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,” a reference to Jewish Christians meeting in house churches outside of Palestine. And of course what James says to these Christians of that time is true of Christians in our time.
So here are the main points, reminders about trials. When Christians face trials, various trials, difficulties, hardships, and so on, number one, remember this:
I. Trials are Inevitable [1-2]
They are inevitable. Again, verse 2:
2 My brethren, count it all joy when (not “if”) you fall into various trials,
James does not say, “Count it all joy if you fall into various trials,” but he says, “when you fall into various trials.”
So we noted first that trials are inevitable. Now, the King James Version translates verse 2 as, “Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.” Divers temptation. It Sounds like something that happens to sailors at sea, diver’s temptations! “Divers” is the old English word for diverse or various.
Our English word “temptation” derives from the Latin and originally meant trials either good or bad. And it’s the same in the Greek New Testament. This original Greek word (peirasmo/ß; peirasmos) can have either one sense or the other, depending on the context. If God is immediately behind the action then the word is translated “trial” or “test,” But if Satan is immediately behind the action then the word is translated “temptation.”
When God tests us it is for a good result, He tests that He may bring about good. When Satan tempts us, however, it is for a bad result, he tempts that he may bring about evil.
So, for example, the same Greek word is translated later down in verse 13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”
We’ll get to that text at a future time, but I just note it here in passing, especially as it is helpful if you are reading from the King James Version. Verse 2 is best translated as “trials,” count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Trials are inevitable.
John 16:33, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
2 Timothy 3:12, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”
1 Peter 4:12, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.”
Trials are inevitable. And while other contexts may have in mind more the idea of persecution for one’s faith, the word here in verse 2 that is translated, “various” connotes the idea of any kind of trial. It is a word that means “variegated,” many colored, or many kinds. It’s the same word used to describe the many kinds of diseases folks suffered before they were healed by our Lord Jesus (Matthew 4:24).”
So what kind of trial qualifies here? Any trial. Any hardship. Whatever you are going through in your Christian life, you can come to these verses and find peace and solace. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials.
So this passage encourages us to stay tough, to continue onward, to keep going.
I head about a father who was trying to motivate his son to keep from quitting so easily. The father said to his son, “Son, you’ve got to hang in there and not quit. Look at Abraham Lincoln. He did not quit. Look at Thomas Edison. He did not quit, either. Look at Douglas MacArthur. He did not quit.” Then he said, “Look at Elmo McCringle.” His son said, “Wait a minute, Dad. Who is Elmo McCringle?” His dad said, “See. He quit.” So don’t quit! Persevere in your trials by remembering this passage.
Remember from last time: It’s not count trials joy. He says, “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials,” why?—because—reading on now into verse 3, “knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience (or perseverance).”
So I offered the translation: “Consider the fact that you are undergoing trials—painful as they may be—consider them an opportunity to grow in faith and become strong and, for that reason, you may have joy in the midst of your trials.”
So this is the second important reminder. We said, “Trials are inevitable,” secondly:
II. Trials are Beneficial [3-4]
Consider the fact that you are undergoing trials—painful as they may be—as an opportunity to grow in faith and become strong. So there is this benefit. Good comes through the midst of what seems so bad.
Most of you know about oysters and how pearls are developed. Oysters suffer a kind of affliction when a grain of sand gets lodged inside the oyster’s shell. It agitates and irritates the oyster. So the oyster secretes a mineral substance that coats the grain of sand. And it does this over and over again. So the agitation is there, the difficulty is there, and the oyster perseveres until finally the pain of it all has produced a beautiful pearl, a costly and precious pearl. But the pearl didn’t come apart from the difficulty. Pain produces the pearl.
So God allows us to suffer and experience agitation and irritation from life’s battles and difficulties to bring about something good and precious in our lives, to bring about something beautiful. Pain produces the pearl.
Trials are beneficial. Trials strengthen us. That’s the first sub-point from verse 3:
A) They Strengthen You (3)
I spoke briefly last time about going to the gym and that this is how we build our muscles. We have to work them out. And getting strong takes time and the process is often painful and difficult. But if you want to get strong, then you’ve got to go to the gym. And the same is true spiritually.
So Tony Evans says, “God figures that we will not voluntarily go to a spiritual gym so He brings the gym to us.” And He does. God brings the spiritual gymnasium of trials and difficulties to us. He brings the gym to us so that we may be tested and tried, getting stronger and stronger until we are able to stand in the midst of every trial and affliction. And this is why we can count it all joy because we are learning to stand.
This is a different way of thinking. Christians should think differently than non-Christians, differently than the world thinks. We must think from the standpoint of those who know the Word of God and have received God’s grace. See, often it is during difficulties and trials that a person may cry out, “God, why are You doing this to me?!” And the implication of this cry is, “What did I do to deserve this?” As if we deserve…anything at all.
Seldom do we think to ask the same question, “What did I do to deserve this,” seldom do we ask this same question on a good day. “What did I do to deserve this? God, why are you allowing me this day, why are you doing this (allowing this undeserved good) to come to me? What did I do to deserve this?”
It’s a different way of thinking, isn’t it? But it makes sense. We deserve nothing. That we are even breathing right now is an undeserved gift that comes from God to sinners. So we trust God, believing that He knows what He is doing and always does what is right. So we take Him at His word when He teaches that trials and hardships actually serve not to harm us, but to help us.
Trials strengthen us. Verse 3:
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
The word “patience” there is better translated “endurance,” or, “the ability to stand,” literally remember the word is to “hyper-stand,” or super-stand.
This is counterintuitive to what we normally think. We normally think joy comes only in the absence of trials; in the absence of conflict. But James is not saying that joy comes in the absence of trials. He doesn’t say, “Count it all joy when you escape various trials.” He says, “Count it all joy when you fall into trials,” and here’s why—verse 3—“knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance or the ability to stand.”
It is not always God’s will to deliver us immediately from the trial of affliction. So it is wrong for us to just assume that we are to escape various trials and hardships. It is not always God’s will to deliver us immediately from one trial or another. Christians must think differently here than non-Christians.
We must not think as the world thinks. The world defines joy as the absence of conflict. The Christian, however, can have joy in the presence of conflict, joy in the midst of the storm.
John Piper brings this sort of clarity of thinking in his book, Don’t Waste Your Cancer. Piper was himself diagnosed with prostate cancer and wrote the book in an effort to help others. He mentions that praying for healing of course is biblical and a right thing to do, but he also notes the joy that can come in the midst of cancer, a joy that may be lost or wasted if Christians don’t experience it.
Some of the points he brings out in the book, for example are, “You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ,” and, “You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God,” and finally, “You will waste your cancer if you think that ‘beating’ cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.” That’s an especially good point, isn’t it? Our tendency is to think of “beating cancer” as the best goal, but the best goal is to cherish Christ and to be conformed into His image. So Piper states:
Satan’s and God’s designs in your cancer are not the same. Satan designs to destroy your love for Christ. God designs to deepen your love for Christ. Cancer does not win if you die. It (only) wins if you fail to cherish Christ. God’s design is to wean you off the breast of the world and feast you on the sufficiency of Christ. It is meant to help you say and feel, ‘I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord.’ And to know that therefore, ‘To live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 3:8; Philippians 1:21).’”
Cancer doesn’t win, nor does any trial or affliction win, unless we value our temporary human existence over and above cherishing Christ, and growing in Christ, becoming more complete in Christ Jesus. This is the second sub-point. We have noted the benefit of trials is that they serve to strengthen you and now, secondly trials:
B) They Complete You (4)
Look again at verse 4:
4 But let patience (or endurance) have its perfect work (or let endurance have its full effect), that you may be perfect (or mature) and complete, lacking nothing.
That you may be “mature” and “complete.” In other words, apart from trials, we are “immature” and “incomplete.” That’s why you can count it all joy when you fall into various trials because they present to you and opportunity to grow, to grow up in your faith and to become more like Jesus Christ. You can’t become mature and complete if you never suffer. Trials strengthen us and trials complete us.
You really can’t become like Christ apart from suffering.
Without trials we could never really learn humility or genuine love.
Couples who have been married for years have a deeper love for one another precisely because they have been through difficult times together. We talked a bit about this Wednesday in the theology group, how love is a verb and not merely a feeling. We choose to love. There are times during a disagreement Michele says to me, “I don’t like you right now!” That’s just being honest. We love one another. That is constant. But genuine love matures and is known more deeply through trials. A young couple who thinks they’re ready to marry and have only known each other a short time hasn’t even had time to have a fight yet! It is through difficulties and challenges that love really matures and grows.
Without trials we could never really learn patience, or wisdom. “God works all things together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose, for whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29),” God works all things together for the good of completing us, conforming us more greatly to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Without trials we are less like Christ. Without trials we are immature, underdeveloped. Without trials we are incomplete. Without trials we could never really learn compassion or empathy.
Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, for example, that God comforts us in our trials and difficulties so that we may be in a position to comfort others in their trials and difficulties with the same comfort that we ourselves have received from God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). That’s compassion; that’s empathy.
Paul wrote as one who had faced numerous hardships and difficulties of many kinds, variegated and multi-colored difficulties. Remember his “thorn in the flesh?” Paul had some kind of affliction. Nobody knows exactly what it was, but he refers to it later in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 as a “thorn in the flesh.” So he is able to see that his trial and affliction serves to strengthen him and complete him, to make him more like Jesus, and to equip him with the ability to bless others in their trials and afflictions.
I mentioned before the help that comes through thinking rightly, theologically, Christianly, as a result of correct doctrine. One of the points we’ve discussed recently in our Wednesday group, discussing our reading of Wayne Grudem’s, Systematic Theology has to do with this matter of thinking rightly about difficulties and hardships. And by the way, if you are not presently attending on Wednesdays, I invite you to come to this study. I wish every single member of Henderson’s First Baptist were in this group because we cover so many things necessary to Christian living.
Grudem defines God’s wisdom as “God’s always choosing the best goals and the best means to those goals.” And so he adds this:
It should be our great confidence and a source of peace day by day to know that God causes all things to move us toward the ultimate goal He has for our lives, namely, that we might be like Christ and thereby giving glory to Him. Such confidence enabled Paul to accept his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7) as something that, though painful, God in His wisdom had chosen not to remove (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).
God in His wisdom knows what He is doing. Small wonder that James goes on to say in the very next verse, verse 5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God…” But to that we will return next time.
•Stand for prayer.
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