James 1:2–4

We have to remember that a believer meets two kinds of temptation. One kind comes from trials outside us. The other comes from sin within. James puts both before us. First he says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds." These are trials from outside. Through them the enemy tries to turn us away from our heavenly calling, and to stop us from pressing on to the rest God promises. Then James speaks of a very different kind. He says, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." That is temptation from sin within.

The temptations he speaks of are the things that try us and put us to proof. Sometimes they take the form of enticements that spring from our own desires, as verse 14 shows. Sometimes they do not. God never entices us. But He does allow, and even send, many testings from outside. These work "the testing of your faith" — they put faith to the proof. Anything of value has to be tested, and God sets great value on faith.

In this world of sin and ruin, God works in grace. He also disciplines souls. He turns trials of every sort into an occasion of blessing for all who acknowledge Him and seek His guidance. Self-will hardens itself against each trial, or gives way to discouragement and even despair. Faith recognises the love that never changes. It judges the self that resists His will or despises His word. As faith bows, it gains, and it grows by knowing Him.

Christians are not spared sorrow — far from it. Nor should we stop feeling that sorrow, any more than we should forget God's grace. So the trial throws us back on Him. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without Him, and He has numbered the very hairs of our head.

People are meeting these hard times, we believe, with real courage. But that could be said of anyone. Is our courage Christian in character? Does it come from knowing the riches we have in Christ? We are thankful to say we have not heard grumbling and discontent: there has been quiet resignation and acceptance of what God has permitted. This is good, but it is not what James speaks of. So often we are resigned and quiet and even trustful; yet not marked by JOY.

The goal in view is that we may be "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." That is worth wanting. Keeping it in view we shall be able to rejoice in some measure. James is not satisfied with some measure of rejoicing. He says, "Count it ALL joy." It would be no small thing to count it fifty percent joy. But he calls us to count it one hundred percent joy! That is a high standard — but the faith of Christ always sets perfection before us.

James urges his readers to count persecution as all joy, as Paul had done in Romans 5, and for the same reason Paul gave. The testing of faith works patience. It breaks a man's will. He has to wait for God to act. He feels how much he depends on God. He learns that he lives in a world where God alone can bring about what is needed, and God alone can overcome and stop the power of Satan.

We turn to Paul's letters. Romans 5 says in other words very much what James says here. Turn to Peter, and his first letter has more about suffering than any other letter. "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." Peter speaks of sufferings, Paul talks about tribulation, James talks about temptations — but note, they all tell us of the great value that lies in these things.

What will enable us under such circumstances to rejoice? Only those things James goes on to speak of. We are to know that all these things are meant to test our faith, and that the testing is going to work out endurance, a quality God prizes very highly.

Here, too, James explains the ground of joy in sorrow: we know that the proving of our faith works out endurance. The apostle speaks the same way in Romans 5:4 about the saints "knowing that tribulation works out endurance." Both are equally true. But tribulation plainly could produce no such effect unless there was the faith that stood the test.

The need is to prove our faith. This does not mean to prove whether we have faith, but rather to make clear the preciousness of the faith we have. Gold is not put into the fire to prove that it is gold, but to bring out the precious qualities of the metal. So God proves our faith by various trials to bring out the precious qualities of our faith. Faith, counting on God in the trial, leads to submission to what God allows: faith in God enables the soul to wait in patience.

James tells us that the trying of our faith "works patience," and patience, as you know, has in it the thought of endurance. It is the testing of your faith that works endurance. God permits the trials to come upon us so that we may be tested. Then, when patience has done its perfect work, we may be perfect — that is, carried to completion — and entire, wanting nothing.

Bishop Ellicott says: "In the noble word for endurance there is always, in the New Testament, a background of manly courage. It marks not merely the endurance, but the perseverance — the brave patience with which the Christian fights the many obstacles, persecutions and temptations that meet him in his conflict with the world within and the world outside."

The trial of faith works patience. It breaks the will of man. He has to wait for God to work. He feels his dependence on God. He feels that he lives in a scene where God alone can produce the result desired, overcoming and stopping the power of Satan. Often, when we are busy with what is good, we may wish the work would go faster, the difficulties would disappear, and the persecution would stop. But the will of God — not ours — is good and wise.

I was struck by the order in Romans 5: "patience" before "experience." Take away the patience, and the tribulation would only be the experience of Satan's power. But with "patience" in its proper place, the experience becomes the experience of God's goodness, and tribulation works patience. So in James 1:3 and 5:11 Job's case was a wonderful example. His very failure served to bring God's faithful goodness out more clearly.

Patience holds a person steady, so that he waits in God's way for the outcome of the trial. It refuses the shortest way that the flesh teaches. Saul, for example, could not wait patiently.

When the love of God is known, and the will broken, there is confidence in God. But patience must have her perfect work. Otherwise the will revives, and confidence in self comes back instead of confidence in God. We act without God, apart from His will; we do not wait on Him, or else impatience and the flesh show themselves in us. Job was submissive for a long time, but patience did not have her perfect work. Saul waited long for Samuel, but he could not wait quietly until Samuel came, and he lost the kingdom.

It is the testing of your faith that works endurance. God permits trials to come upon us so that we may be tested. Then, when patience has done her perfect work, we may be perfect — that is, carried to completion — and entire, wanting nothing.

Affliction is God's dealing with us. It acts on us outwardly, and inwardly too by His grace, and it puts patience to the proof. When this work is finished, we are wholly subject to God and desire nothing apart from His will. Then we are perfect and entire, lacking nothing. This does not mean we have nothing more to learn about His will; verse 5, which follows, says the opposite. But the state of soul is perfect as to the will, and as to our relations with God. He can reveal His will to us, because it is the only thing we desire.

Patience is a wonderful thing, and it is a great thing to have patience that does not give way. You must wait until God has worked things out in people's souls. James insists on it: "Let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." But this does not touch the perfection of the work of grace. People imagine they reach holiness by weakening the work of grace. They talk about being justified and then made fit; but you will never find that in Scripture. Scripture says plenty about progress. But none of it is connected with our being made fit for the inheritance of the saints in light.

Let patience, then, dear friends, have its perfect work. There is not one of our souls that does not need this. If trouble or conflict wears on us, let us ask whether it is because our own wills have been crossed. We have to be patient with circumstances, no doubt, but also patient with God's perfect work.

We may prove the grace and sufficiency of God, by the Holy Spirit, in these difficult circumstances. We may discover the infinite resources in Christ in the middle of these circumstances. We may come to know Him closely, in a way we will never gain in heaven if we do not gain it on earth.