“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…” (James 1:2 NIV)
James, the half-brother of our Lord, wrote a letter to the Jewish
Christians //who had been scattered /when persecution broke out /against the
church in Jerusalem. It makes sense, then, that in this letter, he
would address the trouble //that Christians face in life; and it’s
important for us to understand the nature of this trouble as well, so
that we can be victorious in our walk with the Lord.
James speaks of
this trouble /coming in two different forms, but he uses the same Greek
word for both; namely, “peirasmós.” “Peirasmós” can mean temptation,
which is sent by the enemy to try to get us to sin against God; but the
good news is that temptation in itself is not sin unless the will gives
consent and we act on the thought /presented by Satan to our minds.
Also, the Bible says that God will not allow us to be tempted /beyond
what we can bear, and that he always provides us /with a way of escape /so
that we might be able to bear it.
Finally, if we do fall into sin, we
have the assurance //that if we confess our sins, God is faithful to
forgive us. James also uses the Greek word “peirasmós” for the trials
//that God permits /in our lives.
God sends us trials, because there’s a divine program for our lives.
He’s got more planned for us than just living out our lives /as
Christians /in a nice apartment or house, or driving a nice car. His aim
is to develop in us those invisible qualities //that the car and the
house could never give us.
Unless we understand [what God is after] and
the plan () he has for our lives, however, we will find [what James says in
the beginning of his letter] to be completely crazy. [What he exhorts
Christians to do] is to “consider it pure joy” /when we encounter all kinds of
trials.
James’ use of the word “encounter” or “face” or “fall into” in
the Greek means that the trials catch us by surprise, so that we’re
suddenly face to face with them.
Have you ever heard of someone calling
up a friend and breathlessly saying, “I can’t believe this… I’m so
happy! I just got blindsided by a trial on my job: they’re talking
/about cutting my department in half,
so I could be axed. Praise the
Lord!”? Who does that?! Yet James tells us to count it pure joy /when
we run /into trials of all kinds.
[The fact //that this is hard
for us to understand] shows how shallow we can be. Generally, if [what
we’re experiencing] feels good, we say, “Thank you, Lord!” but if it
feels bad, we say, “Satan, we rebuke you!” That’s so simplistic, and it
shows how little spiritual understanding we sometimes have.
What most of us don’t realize, and what James is trying to communicate,
is that when trials of all sizes and shapes come, God is the one //who
has planned and permitted those trials /for the purpose of building /in us
[something //that comes only through difficulty].
He’s trying our faith,
which is more precious than silver or gold. He’s building perseverance,
because the Bible says that "he that shall endure unto the end, the
same shall be saved" (Matthew 24:13 KJV).
To be continued...
Read James 1:1-3.