What does it mean that the genuineness of faith is more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7)?

But Peter speaks not here of faith (in Christ as the object of faith) as reckoned for righteousness, but of the believer's faith after righteousness is reckoned, of faith as the power of divine life in the believer, wherein is manifested the power of the Holy Spirit Who works in us, so that we overcome the world, and all temptation. Such faith becomes more precious than gold proved with fire. The believer has to show the genuineness of his faith by his works; for as James says (James 2:14. etc.), faith without works is dead. Indeed, the power of the Spirit of God is needed at the first to enable the contrite soul to believe in Christ in Whom is redemption, even the forgiveness of sins. And so interwoven are the two principles that His power is absolutely requisite for faith and consequent peace through the work of Christ for us, as it is for holiness of life in us after we have believed in Him. Peter says the trial (proof) of your faith, i.e. of you believers. The believer is identified with his faith, his victory is commensurate with his faith; and the fiercer the fires that try, the higher the praise that redounds to Christ. Faith untried is like ore containing gold; it must be put into the furnace that the dross may be consumed. There may be any quantity of unsuspected unbelief, and therefore unholiness: all must be purged that faith unalloyed may be found unto His praise and glory and honour at His appearing. The fires which try faith sometimes expose much that we did not suspect. But God, Who gives the faith, guides the trial, and sustains the believer all through. There is the obedience of faith, and the confidence of faith; the dependence, endurance, and trust of faith. In glory we shall sing its victory to His praise. A foretaste of victory is given now; but it is known only to Him Who gives and to him who receives.

Secondly, we are reminded that there is a need for these sorrows, for these trials are for “a season, if need be”. The Father does not cause His children a needless tear. The needs be is to prove our faith. This does not mean to prove whether we have faith, but rather to make manifest 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 upon God in the trial, leads to submission to what God allows: faith in God enables the soul to wait in patience (James 1:3). Faith in God enables the believer to be steadfast against the attacks of the enemy (1 Peter 5:9). The soul may have true faith, but when the trial comes these blessed qualities of faith — submission, patience, steadfastness, confidence and dependence upon God — become manifest.

Thirdly, we learn that trials have a blessed answer in the coming day of glory. The manifestation of these qualities in the day of trial will lead to praise and honour and glory in the day of Jesus Christ. We are apt to think that a time of deep trial, which may prevent us from taking part in active service for the Lord, is all lost time. No, says God, it will be “found to praise” at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Verse 7 speaks of faith again, and every word of the verse is full of meaning. The trial of your faith is like the refining of gold; and, you observe it says, "of gold that perishes." Gold does not perish very easily. No. When they dug up poor old Tutankhamen, with all his splendid surroundings, there were things of papyrus and fine linen of Egypt, brown with age and at a touch crumbling to pieces. But there were things of gold, and they were not much affected compared with all the other objects in that famous tomb. Gold is an enduring thing but it perishes; the inference evidently being that faith does not. Faith is much more precious than gold that perishes. God treasures your faith, and that is the adjective He applies to it. In the sight of God faith is something of very, very great price.

Why does that goldsmith take all the pains and spend time over his crucible in which gold is being refined? Because it is such a valuable thing he wants to remove the dross and have it of the finest quality. God permits His people to be put into the crucible and tries them, even by fire, but it is because faith in His estimation is a thing of exceeding value. So we are going to look at our testings in the light of this, God is dealing with us for the refining of faith, and to strengthen it. The fact of the matter is, if we Christians suffer no testings we shall never be anything but weaklings in a spiritual sense: It is the very testings that make us spiritually strong.

Now I am going back for a moment to verse 6. There are two main clauses here. You greatly rejoice in the coming salvation though now "for a season" and "if need be" you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. It is a fact that we shall never be in heaviness through manifold temptations except there is a "needs be" for it. God does not test us capriciously. It is not that He delights in our testings and our heavinesss or even in chastening or rebuking or scourging; we are assured of that in Hebrews 12. So we each have to say to ourselves, If God did not see some spiritual need to be met I should not be face to face with, and under the heavy pressure of, this trial.

(Vv. 6, 7). To be kept guarded by the power of God from the dangers of the way does not mean that we shall have no trials to meet. In the prospect of the heavenly inheritance we can greatly rejoice, though in the present we may be put to grief through manifold trials. These trials are for the testing of our faith. In the sight of man gold is counted most precious: in the sight of God the faith of His people is much more precious than gold. If men try their gold in the fire to purify it from dross, shall not God prove the faith of His people by fiery trials in order to manifest the reality of their faith as well as to purify and strengthen faith?

Well do we exult in the contemplation of the salvation for which we wait; but during the waiting period there is the trial of faith. God finds delight in the faith of those who please Him, for "Without faith it is impossible to please Him.' The reality of faith is proved in testing, and God delights to see our confidence in Him; this is the reason He puts us through the various trials. Very soon it will be the inheritance with all its blessedness, but while we wait for it, there is the work of purification: that which separates in us the flesh from the work of God. But this work has the coming day in view, "That the proving of your faith … be found to praise and glory and honour in the revelation of Jesus Christ." We should realise that there is a day coming when all that God is working out now in His saints will be manifested. When Scripture speaks of Christ's coming, it is more grace that is in view, when it is His appearing it is more connected with our responsible course. (The word "appearing" in verse 7 is another Greek word, better translated "revelation" and compares the Lord's coming out publicly with His being hidden in heaven at the present time). In the path of trial and sorrow the fruits of righteousness are being borne, and the day of their display will surely come (Phil. 1:11; Heb. 12:11: James 3:18). God's glory and praise are secured through the present trials, but those who thus bring glory to God will have praise and glory and honour in that day.

He now goes on to speak of the contrast which must needs abide between the present time and the blessed end to which they are looking. The joy they have is not lessened, but in some sense heightened even, by the trial — this itself, while being only for a time, having its own necessity in the proving of their faith. This involves, indeed, the trial being felt as trial. Christians are not ordained to float over everything, as it were, without feeling it. It would have no meaning or purpose if this were so. The trial worketh, as the apostle has told us in Hebrews, "the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby." The exercise, therefore, is necessary; — it may be the being left for a while to wonder, therefore, what the trial means, — sometimes only to learn in it the patience which belongs to those who are under the Father's hand, and for whom every cup they drain is mixed by a Father's love. It is not discipline that the apostle speaks of here so much, but rather the opportunity that faith has to show itself, and to find recognition of God in the time when everything will be made manifest — a faith which is, as he observes here, "more precious than the gold that perisheth, even though it be proved by fire." The fire would not prove that the gold was not gold. It would only bring that out more certainly; and if it were not gold in the estimation of the Prover, there would be no good in the proving. God proves, that He may draw from us that which He sees is there, and which He desires to be able to put to our account; and in the joy as well as in the trial faith has to be in constant activity, Christ as the object of the heart being One in whom faith alone finds deliverance from the power of things around; "whom," says the apostle, "having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." "Glorified," the last word is — already entering into that which is to come. The joy of eternity is the joy of the present, and we receive in due time the end of faith, the soul's deliverance from all that here assails and afflicts. If we always regarded trials as the apostle teaches us here to regard them, how different oftentimes would they seem to us! The enemy would use them to create distrust of the perfect wisdom or the perfect love which is employed about us, or to fix our minds even unhealthily, it may be, upon ourselves. For, as the apostle's thorn in the flesh reminds us, even that which is true discipline for us by the way is not necessarily the result of actual failure on our part, although it does show us needs we have, to which the discipline is meant to minister. But self-occupation is never God's design in it. If we have learnt how God has already proclaimed the hopelessness of the flesh, and given us deliverance from it, the end of self-judgment itself is only to turn us from ourselves, and to occupy us with this one unfailing Object of which the apostle has been speaking — with the brightness and not with the darkness — with the glory of God already revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ, the light shining more and more upon the road which leads to Himself.

Along with the rejoicing, however, at the present time, there is something quite different: “Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold trials (or temptations).” It was so in the earliest days, and it is so now as the Lord’s return draws nigh. Great rejoicing and manifold trials are still the experience of numbers of those who are saved by grace, who are being “kept by the power of God through faith.”

Thank God it does not say the rejoicing is only for a while; but it does say “for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness” through the trials. Seasons run their appointed time, and they are necessary. The autumn and the cold of winter pass. The spring and summer follow; and the results of deepened rooting and vitality appear. The season of heaviness or of being put to grief is necessary. “If needed,” for “a little while,” says the apostle, “ye are put to grief by various trials.” They are not all the same, they are varied; and there is a reason for them all. That reason is given by the Spirit of God, and answers our second question—Why allowed?—“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

God sets such value upon faith, He allows its quality to be evidenced. Gold perishes, though valued by men so highly. The proving of our faith is much more precious. Gold is for present use, and fire purifies it. The trial of our faith yields for the future something that will not perish, that is abiding. In a coming day the full answer to one question—Why these manifold trials?—will be displayed in glorious splendour: “found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” Not one pang will be regretted then. Not one sorrow will be repented of then. Not one tear or trial—passed for ever—will be considered useless then. Shall not the exceeding joy, peace and beauty of those longed-for scenes cheer us on through this season of trials, as we remember that the present proving of our faith shall yield such riches of praise, honour and glory for our Saviour’s day?—for the day of the One who loves us above all else? for the day of Jesus Christ, our Lord, when He appears? With Himself and His worthiness before us, steadfastness will mark us, and goodness and mercy will follow us.

In this the children of God greatly rejoice, that is, the assured prospect of matchless blessing In view, and this in spite of the fact that for a brief time first, God sees a need of their being in heaviness through many trials. How good to see here that deep sorrow might yet be accompanied by great joy, a Joy that is known only by faith in what God has revealed. Not that the sorrow is minimized for it is said to be the grief of many trials of various kinds; but It is transcended by the certainty and blessedness of that salvation, which is near.

More than this, the very trial of faith is in God's account much more precious than the refining process of gold, that which is of so great value to men, and endurable but which God says perishes. But though the trial may be as severe as fire, yet it will pass, while the precious results of it will not only remain, but "be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." This is surely the result d, but that which gives Him praise and honor and glory will certainly fill our own hearts with exultant joy. At Christ's manifestation in glory this too will be manifested in Its splendor.

We get light as to what the need is in a general way in the seventh verse of 1 Peter 1. "The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes." Faith is much more precious than gold, though it be tried with fire, referring to the most intense form of testing. Faith is never lost. How often it has happened that a devoted missionary has gone forth, filled with love to Christ and souls. He has been like a shining lamp for a brief hour, and has been called home. We say there must have been some mistake. Here was that devoted man, who went to China and had just begun to acquire a command of the language; it looked as if he would be greatly used of God, but he has died. All that is lost.

No, not lost; it is going to be found! It says, it "shall be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." The thing that seemed to be lost is going to be found. What a finding it will be when that hour is reached! It will be found to praise and honour and glory. Whose? That of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the hour when He appears in glory, though He will have His own glory, and the glory of the Father, and the glory of the holy angels, He will not be too great to wear a little glory that has been brought to Him by these things which we imagined were lost.