knowing that the proving of your faith works endurance.
Trials come uninvited, and James tells his readers to meet them with joy. This verse gives his reason: testing works on faith, and what it produces is endurance.
Joy Rests on Knowledge
How can anyone rejoice while in trouble? Only one thing makes it possible: knowing what the trouble is for.
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.
The same knowledge turns up in Romans. One writer shows why faith is what makes the difference:
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.
What "Testing" Means
What is God testing for? He is not running an experiment to find out whether faith exists.
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.
Patience Is Endurance
Where the ESV says "steadfastness," older translations say "patience." One writer explains what the word carries:
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.
Another writer draws on a scholar's definition to show the courage packed into the word:
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."
How the Work Gets Done
How does a test turn into endurance? One writer points to what the trial takes away: our own will and our own timing.
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.
The Order Matters
Order matters. When patience comes first, the trial teaches something different — and Job is the example.
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.
Summary
- Knowing. Joy in trial rests on a fact, not a feeling: you know what the testing is for.
- Proving. The fire does not ask whether gold is gold. It brings out qualities that only pressure makes visible.
- Enduring. The patience God works is not resignation. It is brave perseverance under pressure.
- Breaking. Trial breaks our will. We wait for God to work instead of rushing the result ourselves.
- Completing. Let endurance finish its work, and you are carried to completion, lacking nothing.