2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
After introducing himself in verse 1, James starts the letter mentioning trials. If you read my posts regularly, you may notice I reference this verse a lot. The reason is because it supports so many other verses in books of the Bible; books written from many other authors at many other times. This verse edifies the body because it trains the body to be prepared for the pains that the body experiences. A big problem in Christianity is false prophets who don’t preach Christ Alone, They preach works alone. Or they preach Christ + works. Some “prophets” do well as motivational speakers, but they miss the point of the Gospel. The point is that we need Jesus to be our savior. We need his works to justify us. We can do great things on our own, when we put our minds to it. But one thing we can’t do is save ourselves from our sins. False prophets ignore that basic fact of Christianity. The reason they do this because they don’t preach scripture. They abandon sound doctrine. They don’t use scripture to support their claims. This leads to another major problem with false prophets. They make promises that aren’t in the Bible. Promises of health, prosperity, and comfort. Those teachings feel and seem good at the time you hear them, but many times the claims go beyond the results. By making big claims without Scripture to back them, these false prophets fail to prepare their followers for trials. But James starts his letter with suffering. This topic is common in scripture, not just in the book of James, but also in Hebrews 12.
“7 Endure hardship as discipline;” 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
James writes about perseverance in trials, the author of Hebrews here writes about hardship and discipline, Paul writes about rejoicing in suffering in Romans 5:3-5.
We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
These verses all say roughly the same or similar things. We that see here and MANY other places. And the Bible often reminds us that things aren’t easy. False Prophets and teachers will lead us to believe that life should be easy. False prophets tell us that God doesn’t want things to get hard for us. But the Bible tells us to be prepared for trials. Even if we are in the faith. We don’t want to search out suffering, but we also don’t want to ignore it because if we ignore it, we avoid being trained by trials. Trials end up serving us and teaching us and growing us in perseverance. According to Reformed doctrine, and more importantly scripture itself, we believe that as God’s saints, we will persevere. We will continue in our faith until the end. People argue about whether salvation is once saved, always saved, versus a doctrine where you can lose your salvation. But the Bible says if you are elect, you will persevere. If you were called, you are saved and you will make it. If you don’t make it, you weren’t saved, and were not called. So since we’re talking about perseverance, and James mentions it later, let’s Jump ahead to James 1:12-15
12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
This is NIV translation, but other versions don’t say quite the same thing. One says if you persevere under trial, you pass a test. Others says if one resists temptation he exits it as one who has been approved. There is a small difference between a few things here. It’s a matter of terminology, but it’s worth breaking down a little bit.. We’re told in Hebrews to endure hardship as discipline because God disciplines those he loves. That means if we are loved, we are receiving discipline from God. God’s discipline can come to us in the form of hardship and suffering. Persevering under trial is something that NIV in English can be attributed to God. We can’t persevere without God’s blessing. And God can provide trials, as a God who loves and disciplines us. But in other translations, if you look at each word, it talks about resisting temptation. Temptation is not and cannot be from God as we will see later. Reading King James English and other English translations, it seems like latter is more correct. We are talking about Temptation. Not trials. So let’s read ahead and explain the difference.
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
So first thing, we need to remember that God doesn’t and can not tempt anyone. Temptation doesn’t come from God. But God’s discipline can come to us in the form of trials and suffering. So how does that make sense?
God is sovereign and he allows conditions to exist that we find unfavorable. From our perspective that is a trial. From God’s perspective, it is the universe that He created functioning the way that He ordained in order to ultimately Glorify Him and His kingdom and His people. The conditions and the situation come from God. Now, temptation happens when those conditions and situations are not what we want or what we desire. When our desires are for what we are not experiencing it takes away our feelings of being content. Our reaction to the situation is what causes us to pay more attention to our own evil desires. We are dragged away by our evil desires. And when those evil desires come to fruition it is sin. Now Romans tells us that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to His purpose. This starts to sound very “zen”. Whatever happens, happens. God is sovereign, and He doesn’t change, and God works in all things. “in All things” means God even works in sufferings and hardships. What makes those times of hardship different isn’t God. The difference is at those times, we are tempted by our evil desires to not trust God. We are tempted to disobey his commands, because our desire is to do what we know to be wrong. We are tempted to covet someone else’s position who isn’t going through whatever struggle we are. We are tempted towards anger or impatience because the conditions that God is currently working in aren’t up to our expectations or standards or timetables. Our evil desires are so bad that we could be on the path to getting exactly what we want, but we’re dissatisfied because it’s happening not quickly enough. Sometimes we are angry at others or even God, when He allows for us to reap the things we’ve sown and experience the consequences of our actions.
In English we use the word “Temptations” to mean things that cause us to see our evil desires. That candy bar is a temptation. That beautiful person with a nice body is a temptation. That unwatched cash register is a temptation. But that isn’t really correct. Those are all just things. Those are all just external stimuli. Temptation in the Biblical sense comes from you. My temptations come from within my heart and mind. Temptation is when you experience or come to be aware of your desires and are enticed by them to do something that is not according to God’s laws.
When we fall into temptation, we disobey God and obey our own desires. All these bad things are sins. And they come not from God, but from within. They come from our sinful and disobedient nature. And if unchecked and ignored, they lead to death. Now is a good point to remind everyone. We should all know that if we have Christ, we will conquer death. We conquer death because Jesus did. We conquer death because he conquered sin. Jesus died on the cross to pay the wages of our sins. If we have Christ, we also have the Holy Spirit, the holy counselor. That means that we can resist temptation. We can resist the desire before that causes the sins that would have caused the death without Jesus.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. 19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
When we resist temptation, it’s actually not because of our worthiness, and it isn’t our works. When we choose contentment and resist temptation, it’s a Gift from God. Every good thing every perfect gift is from above, so that should keep us in a place of thanksgiving and worship to God. Verse 18 says that God chose to give us birth through the word of truth. It’s not our works, but God’s choice. Every good and perfect gift is from above. Romans 5:3 Suffering produces perseverance. James 1:3 Testing of our faith develops perseverance. And Perseverance is a good and perfect gift, not coming from our works and efforts, but from above. Verse 19 reiterates that we should be a people that are quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. We should try and understand before either talking or disagreeing. We should first learn before we teach, and we should remain content in the situations we are in before becoming angry. Verse 20. Anger doesn’t produce righteousness that God Desires. What anger does is illustrate when our heart and our desires doesn’t agree with what is happening. Verse 21. We should strive to be humble and “humbly accept the word”. He doesn’t say the word that we rushed out and searched for because we were smart people. James says “humbly accept the word” that was planted in us. by someone who wasn’t us. A sower, who planted a seed that grew in us by the spirit. It’s not a word that we can boast in attaining on our own.
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
James is very practical. Don’t just listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone can listen to the word. Anyone can agree it’s good advice. But actually applying it is where your faith is going to matter. Where the rubber hits the road. Preparation or Action is proof of the belief. It’s easy to say you believe or trust in something, but unless you actually act in accordance with it, you are showing your disbelief. James is telling us that we should put our belief into practice. In chapter 2 he is going to explain that Faith without works or deeds is dead. It’s in another post. But right now he is saying instead of just listening to the word, we should try to really hear it and live it and translate that into actions. Verse 25 says we should look intently into the perfect law, which gives freedom and we should continue in that. In a different post I explained how John wrote that to love God means to obey his commands. We should look intently into the perfect law. It’s the same thing that we learned from John. How do we look intently? We study. We don’t just read passively, but we should be engaged by scripture. Not just the New Testament, but the Old Testament .The perfect law, who’s completion is Jesus Christ on the Cross, paying the penalty for the debts and sins that we’ve accrued. We should look at scripture and search scripture and know the Perfect Law. How do we do this? Intently. That means carefully. Hebrews 2 says we are to pay the most careful attention. I wrote an entire post about that. But it means we should read scripture critically, with focus. That means with Intention! He says, “Not forgetting”. And I know personally how quickly I forget things. So we should do it, regularly at a time where we are awake and alert. What’s the result? We will be blessed in what we do, as long as we are following God’s word.
What happens if we don’t do those things. If we don’t put our beliefs into practice? James doesn’t condemn us to Hell. He says if we don’t look intently on the Perfect law? Well verse 24 says we are like someone who looks in the mirror and forgets what we look like. It’s an interesting analogy. The Bible tells us who we were. It illuminates our shortfalls, our sins, our disobedience. It shines a light on our dark places and our hidden vices. Our lusts for money, sex, power, control, possessions, fame, recognition. All of the above.. But it also shows us how God responded to that rebellion in Love, how he sent His Son to die for us. How we are forgiven. How we are now adopted. How we are now His people. It tells us that now God looks at us and sees Christ’s righteousness. The Bible tells it like it is. The ugly stuff is ugly, and the beautiful stuff is beautiful.. Our old disobedience, our new spirit. Our new birth and our new identity. The word of God shows us who we were, who we are now, and who we will be when God looks at us face to face. If we don’t follow the Word and do what it says, we are like a person who has seen himself and finally for once knows and understands who he is. Why we are all here. What it’s all about. He has a Eureka moment of enlightenment and insight about his very identity, but then sadly walks away and forgets the whole experience. So let’s finish up with the last two verses of chapter 1.
26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
What does James say about following the word? We should not allow ourselves to be angry. We should be quick to listen and slow to speak. If we do not keep a tight reign on our tongues, our religion is worthless. He will discuss this at greater length in chapter 3. More importantly than following rituals or festivals or observing special dietary restrictions is to control our anger and our tongues. That control over our anger and our tongues will do more to help us honor and love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This religion is something that God sees pure and faultless. We should look after orphans and widows. These two groups are people that need to be watched after and looked upon in their distress. They are people that have lost loved ones. Orphans and widows are vulnerable. They are people who don’t have someone looking after them and are more prone to be taken advantage of or manipulated. They are also people who aren’t in a position of power to pay back your help. Orphans and widows are people who are in a place where they will appreciate and acknowledge God’s goodness when we demonstrate it as His ambassadors.
His last instruction in chapter 1 is to keep yourself from being polluted by the world. We should remember that our citizenship is not of this earth. We are people of God’s Kingdom, and we need to act as ambassadors to that Kingdom here. That means understand that our final home isn’t this earth. We are a spiritual people with a heavenly home. We might live here IN the world, but we are not OF the world. We play by God’s rules, not the norms or customs of this world. Our job isn’t to fit in here, but to show care and love to people in the name of our God and King. So our main goals and objectives aren’t fitting in, or succeeding in business or popularity in social settings. Our goals aren’t primarily weight loss or financial independence or the latest gadget, car, watch. Our goal isn’t even our best day today or self improvement in some area like time management. Those things aren’t terrible, but our hearts should be on caring for people that are hurting and seeking out ways to glorifying our Heavenly Father God. When we study God’s word, and the book of James we come away realizing that we identify more God’s Kingdom than this world’s.