From Trials To Wisdom - James 1:4-6 Series

James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

Introduction

In your bulletin there is a sheet of paper with a line at the top, in the middle, and at the bottom.

I would like to begin by asking you to jot down on that bottom line some trial you are currently going through. Or it can be multiple trials – however many things that are causing you grief, sorrow, or pain. A little later I’ll explain why, but for now just write something on that bottom line.

Message of James

We are studying through the book of James – we just started; this is sermon number three, and I would like to begin today by drawing your attention to 1:4-5. Right off the bat, when James starts the book, he immediately brings up three topics: perseverance, wisdom, and prayer.

4 Perseverance must finish its work – that’s perseverance.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom – there’s wisdom.

5 … he should ask God – that’s prayer.

The reason I point that out is because those three topics are the three main themes of the book of James. Each one of those themes is emphasized in a different way. The way he emphasizes perseverance in trials is by devoting the very first section of the book to it, and then bringing it up again at the end of the book – like bookends. Everything James teaches us in this book is bookended and surrounded by showing us how to hang in there when suffering comes.

The way he emphasizes wisdom is by making that the focus of the entire body of the book, in between the bookends. The whole thing is all about living a wise life. If you look at James’ description of wisdom in chapter 4, there is a list of words describing wisdom, and for each one of those words you will find a section of the book devoted to that topic. So the book of James is basically a handbook on wisdom. It is like the Proverbs of the New Testament.

Then the third topic James emphasizes is prayer. He emphasizes that by putting a long section on prayer at the very end, at the climactic point of the book.

So those are the themes: perseverance in trials, wise living, and earnest prayer. Or if it is easier to remember: Hang in, Wise up, and Pray hard – that is the message of James. And here in the first half of chapter 1 we are studying that first topic – hanging in there when things get hard. Or to use James’ term – perseverance.

Review: Consider It Pure Joy

When hardships and disappointments happen, we need to hang in there. In fact, beyond just hang in there – James says consider it pure joy when trials come. A trial is any event in your life that causes, grief, sorrow, or pain. Consider it joy whenever something causes sorrow. Does that mean you have to enjoy the suffering? No, it means you need to anticipate enjoying the results of suffering. Our natural tendency is to completely misinterpret trials. We interpret them as a threat, an enemy, and something that takes away our happiness. And James says, “No, that’s a misinterpretation. You’re misreading the situation. Trials are gifts from God that you can celebrate because of the priceless benefits that can come from them – namely, perseverance and tested faith.

And that is a principle you can find everywhere in Scripture – including Paul’s writings. In case you think James and Paul taught different messages, compare this verse to what Paul wrote in Romans 5:3.

James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Now listen to Paul:

Romans 5:3 we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance 4 and perseverance produces tested character

He is saying exactly the same thing. Rejoice in trials because you get perseverance through them. Perseverance is the ability to outlast your trial. And we found last week that it is a priceless treasure. We all desperately need more perseverance. If you had more perseverance, your life would be much, much better. All your trials would be easier to handle, you wouldn’t sin as much, you wouldn’t do things you regret as much, your life would be more pleasing to God, and you would have a lot more joy. So take that paper where you wrote down your trial, and on that middle line, before the parenthesis, write “perseverance,” and draw an arrow from the trial to the perseverance. And then let that sink in for a moment. Think about those trials you wrote down. You can consider those good things, because look what they can do – they can give you perseverance.