James 1:2-18: November 8—Celebrate your trials

Oct 20, 2009
WILEY RICHARDS

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

Popular expressions can be boring. However, one phrase we use is still serviceable. I refer to the words, “It’s a God thing.” We invoke the concept when our circumstances may defy an easy explanation but which show evidence that God is somehow bringing about His will in our lives. When we “celebrate” our “trials,” we can whole-heartedly say, “It’s a God thing!”

Trials can be understood as a God thing if we realize they have a divine process (vv. 2-4). James was writing (v. 1) to Christian Jews who were scattered across the Roman empire. No other letters, with the possible exception of First Thessalonians, existed to give them guidance. They depended on the Word read in the synagogues. To assist them, James relied on two external sources, the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus, especially the Sermon on the Mount.

How were they to interpret their trials? James advised them to rejoice in them. The trials initiate God’s way of leading them into a broader expression of the Christian life. The trials were not evidence of God’s rejection of them, but rather occasions for the believers to learn patient endurance. Endurance in turn, leads to a fine-tuning of their spiritual growth, developing perfection, that is, maturity. Jesus set the example. The Bible says He learned obedience through suffering (Heb. 5:8), thereby “being made perfect” (v. 9). Perfect does not mean sinless because Jesus was always sinless. It means He became perfectly suited to accomplish the purpose for which He came, death on the cross for sin.

To celebrate our trials entails suffering as a part of the divine purpose (vv. 5-8). Since God does not reveal His will for each daily activity, we live by two principles. The first is faith, without which nobody can please God. Job, for example, endured great suffering and personal loss, but his faith remained the same. Because God knows our future, we need not worry about it. The second quality available to us is wisdom, the ability to view all the options of life and choose the course best pleasing to God. Having chosen one course of action while rejecting the others, one needs to stick with the decision without looking back over the shoulder, wondering about the decision. Such action is dubbed “double-minded,” one who is unstable in all of his ways (v. 8). The wisdom to make such important choices is based on faith in God (v. 6).

Celebrating trials in the local church often revolves around divine relationships (vv. 9-11). Role reversals are commonplace in the local fellowship, as James pointed out. A brother of low degree finds himself thrust into a fellowship to serve alongside of a rich person. Each has to learn to adjust. In a local church, one deacon was the picture of culture and social graces. Another deacon in the same church was illiterate. The group of deacons served in marvelous harmony. In a church near a military base, the deacon chair was an enlisted man; a general served with him. God’s grace is sufficient.

We gladly celebrate our trials when we look to our Lord’s soon return and contemplate the coming divine glory (vv. 12-15). Those who pass the test posed by temptations can look forward to receiving the crown of life at our Lord’s return. In the meanwhile believers are taught to realize God tests faith but never with the intention of leading His children astray. Temptations arise from within us, having been given an opening through the desire of lust. If lust issues into sin, destruction lies at the door.

Finally, we celebrate trials through God’s divine gifts (vv. 16-18). All the talk about trials and temptations had been given enough coverage. The Holy spirit lifted James to a higher plane as he turned attention to God’s gifts to fill believers. No person can glory in what he or she has received because those accounts of giving are kept on God’s holy debit sheet. The Father of Lights who put the stars in place never changes in His love for us. By His own power He gave us the new birth to put us on display to the world as the firstfruits, showing them what He can do with anyone willing to trust Him.

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