James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.
Did you notice that James calls himself a servant of God and Jesus? The word translated servant means "bond slave". He is saying that he no longer owns his own life. Instead of determining his own future, he now belongs to God who bought him as His slave when He died for him on the cross.
2 Corinthians 5:15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So James doesn't just consider himself as God's slave. This isn't some special position that only the disciples and apostles filled. Instead, it's a position that all who have been saved are in. You and I are servants of God. Our lives are not our own. We hear that all the time and even say it, but do we really understand what that means??? This is the kind of attitude we're all to have every day, yet it's rare of any of us to even consider what God might want us to do that day. Most of us just continue to do whatever it was we normally do without giving it another thought. So this is for sure something we should reflect on and integrate into our daily lives.
James is writing this to his fellow Jews who have once again been scattered all over the world. This is still very relevant to us though because he's not writing it to just "regular Jews", he's writing it to Jew's who have been saved, just like him. These Jews are now Christians; they're "followers of the Way".
Acts 24:14 However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect.
So don't think this book isn't written to us, it is! Now comes his most astounding sentence:
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
This is just amazing! We are to consider it "pure joy" when we're going through trials! He had to have known that every person reading his letter was going to say, "What???" "How????" so that's what he deals with next. But first I want us to notice that he addresses this sentence to his "brothers". He doesn't put himself above them in any way nor is is talking down to them or even lecturing them. He's talking to them about a common experience they've all had and that he himself has had. Notice after he tells them that we should consider it pure joy, he says, "because you know". In other words, he's not telling them something new, he's just reminding them of what they've already learned through experience as has he.
So he tells them to consider it "pure joy", not partly joy and a bunch of hassle, not something to complain about, not something distasteful that we have to get through whether we like it or not, but instead, to consider it "pure joy". This is just about incomprehensible to most folks now I think. At least it sure was to me! I mean no matter how you look at it, like when you have to get a shot to protect you from a virus, you may have to do it, but you sure don't look forward to it with pure joy! So how in the world can we do that??? Why in the world would we do that???? Let's look and see.
James 1:3-4 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Ahhh! So that's it! We should consider it pure joy because we know that the trials will lead to our spiritual maturity, and as we become spiritually mature we become "complete, not lacking anything"! So we're not to see our trials as a calamity, or as something "bad" or as a punishment from God or curse of some kind etc. We're to see them instead as a test of our faith. One thing to keep in mind about this is that God doesn't test us to see if we'll fail, He tests us to help us succeed! One thing I have learned from experience with the Lord is that He will keep on testing you in an area over and over and over, until you DO succeed! He never gives up on us and He never leaves us.
If you'll recall when my husband first got laid off we were doing another study that had something to do with trials and I mentioned that I knew that it was a test for me and that I was determined to pass it because I didn't ever want to have to go through another test on that particular subject again!
At the time I said that, I knew that the trials we were going through was a test for me, but I didn't realize that all our trials are tests. So I'm just learning this too.
Most kids in school don't like tests and I think that hangs onto us even as adults. We often even view tests themselves as trials and now God's telling us to view the trials we're going through as a test, which reads "trial" to us, with pure joy!
But He tells us that when we've passed each trial we become more mature and when we have finally become spiritually mature we will lack nothing and be complete. Now THAT, I agree, is something to look forward to! And you know when we'll be totally "complete"? At the rapture!!!! The rapture is the completion of our salvation!
Peter mentions this too and compares our faith with gold:
1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
So now we know that our trials will produce spiritual maturity in us by refining our faith, and that it will then bring praise, glory and honor at the rapture! Did you notice I underlined the words "proved genuine"? That's because the word that's translated that way actually means "to test for the purpose of approving"! So the Lord is going to keep testing us till we all come out with straight A's!
You see, we have a 'living hope". Our hope isn't in some dead words on paper, but rather in a living God who loves us and wants what's best for us. He has lots of plans for our time in eternity with Him and in order for us to enjoy it to the fullest extent, He needs to get us all through our schooling here. I've always looked at life on earth like a school, and the more I study God's word, the more I see that it really is! Because we have a living hope though, we are responsible to respond to the things that happen in our lives with faith. When we do that, we're basically putting our faith into practice. So a sound faith built on a firm foundation is going to result in sound practice. This is the kind of faith, or living hope if you will, that enables us to face our trials with joy because the trials refine our faith and prove it's reality, it's value.
1 John 5:3-4 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Then when the unsaved see us living our faith and facing our trials with joy, they want what we have, and so we bring others to Christ as well. It's all because the focus of our faith isn't in some abstract thing, but is instead in the person of Jesus, who is very much alive and who speaks to us through His Word, who guides us and never leaves us, who loves us, that we can have this "pure joy" even during trials.
Let's look again at how Peter puts it, but this time let's look at it in context:
1 Peter 1:3-9 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
I wanted to share this with you again because I just love how one of my commentaries explains this and wanted you to see it too:
Believers can rejoice because they are (pres. tense) receiving (komizomenoi, “to receive as a reward”) what was promised, namely salvation, the goal or culmination (telos, “end”) of . . . faith. For those who love and believe in Jesus Christ, salvation is past (“He has given us new birth,” v. 3), present (“through faith are shielded by God’s power,” v. 5), and future (it is their “inheritance,” v. 4, which will “be revealed in the last time,” v. 5, and is “the goal of your faith,” v. 9). Since each day brings believers closer to that final day, they are now “receiving” it. All of this—in spite of persecution which deepens and demonstrates one’s faith—is certainly cause for “inexpressible and glorious joy”! (v. 8)
The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures I really wanted to cover more today but I can see this is getting pretty long so I'll stop for now and pick it up again tomorrow. Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials
