THE BOOK OF JAMES
LESSONS FOR THE MATERIALIZING CHURCH -- PART 1
James 1:1-8 -- TRIALS
In order to attain Christian maturity and holy conduct it is essential to have a firm foundation. The believer must be able to stand with confidence. He dare not be pushed down by trials. He must not be pulled over by temptation. This kind of stamina can be achieved by pursuing, perceiving, and practicing the Word of God. Trials from without and temptations from within are no match for a Christian who stands in the truth from above.
I. THE CONTENT OF JOY – vs. 1-3
1. Joy Is A Choice
a. Joy is not allowing ourselves to drift through life experiences. All this does is put us at the mercy of our experiences and the interactions and activities of others.
b. Joy is not pretending to be happy. All this is, is a pretending – a putting up of a good front, no matter what the circumstances
c. Pure Joy is a calculated response to trials
i. Trials are essential elements of Christian pilgrimage.
ii. Trials are providential and not fated.
1. They are natural outcome of the adversarial behavior of the hostile world toward God’s people.
2. They are designed tools in the hands of a sovereign God Who employs them to refine faith, enhance godly fellowship, and augment the Christian journey.
John 15:18-20 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ’No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
1 Peter 1:6-9 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
iii. It is possible to experience real victory over such circumstances.
iv. We are admonished by James to respond to difficult circumstances with the fruit of the Spirit, starting with joy.
v. Christians are to allow the Holy Spirit to generate joy from within as the dominant attitude of their spirit when they face life’s trials.
2. Faith Is Tested
a. There is no doubt about the testing of our faith
i. The word “Whenever” does not mean if, but when
b. The question is, how do we respond to this testing? The answer is found in another word; “consider”
i. The word “consider” is a command. In fact it is a command with official authority.
ii. It is the biblical equivalent of when your older brother or sister told you to clean your room. And you said “Why do I hafta?” And they said, “Cause mom said so.”
iii. The first part was command without official authority, and the second was command with official authority
c. James is saying (with authority), “Hey chalk this up.”
i. Trials are meant to be faced with joy
1. Not joy for the trial
2. Joy in the trial
ii. Joy in trials keeps the struggle from
1. Removing new growth in my life
2. Removing new insights I may have
3. Removing new depth in my Christian walk
4. Removing new dependency on my Lord
d. Now, trials are not things we bring on ourselves
i. The word face means to fall into something that is around us.
ii. It is used of the man who “fell into robbers” and was helped by the Good Samaritan.
iii. Nobody goes out looking for someone to rob them.
iv. These are trials external to us and diverse
KEY THOUGHT: REJOICE IN THE TRIALS THAT WE FACE, NOT LETTING THEM DESTROY WHAT WILL COME OUT OF THEM.
II. THE COURSE OF PERSEVERANCE – vs. 3-4
3. Faith Develops Perseverance
a. James tells us that this is something already know
i. We have already experienced the pain of a problem and the profit of our persistence through it.
b. James is now asking us to understand and appreciate the spiritual significance trials have in our lives.
i. We are on a journey of faith
ii. We are living under the Lordship of a sovereign God
c. James expects us to weather the trials we face
i. He uses the word “testing”
ii. It is a word that has a positive meaning
1. In our world today we have both kinds of tests
2. Tests that show our readiness for a task
3. Tests that show the horizon of failure
4. Many tests incorporate both – we tests bridges both to see there safety and to know their limits (weight restriction signs on bridges)
iii. So, the real meaning of “testing” is trustworthiness, or proved
iv. It is the same word we read earlier in 1 Peter 6:7
1 Peter 1:7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
v. The word also carries with it the meaning of value – A value of our faith is that it has the ability to carry us through the trials that we fall into
4. Perseverance Perfects Our Walk
a. First, there is a little play on words here. The words “finish” and “mature” are the same Greek word
i. So, as our perseverance is “finished” or “matured”, so also is our life as a believer
1. My character as a believer is advanced
2. My Christ-likeness is also advanced
b. A perfect walk has three parts
i. A perfect walk permits me to be mature.
1. Maturity is to be seasoned, experienced, well-developed.
2. Fit for the tasks God sent us into the world to do.
3. Maturity in this sense is not related to age.
4. It is a quality developed by how much we have learned from the trials we have experienced.
5. Experience as the ability to recognize a mistake when we make it again.
6. Maturity is the ability to recognize a mistake before we make it again.
ii. A perfect walk permits me to be complete.
1. Complete means to be fully trained.
2. Weaknesses and imperfections are being removed from our character.
3. We are gaining victory over old sins.
4. This completeness relates to the breadth of our experience.
5. We have passed through trials of many kinds.
6. To be complete means that we have become mature in many areas of life. God does not want cheap substitutes, but thoroughly developed Christians.
iii. A perfect walk permits me to lack nothing
1. We will not be lacking anything when we are mature and complete in all the essential areas of our Christian life.
2. Although this last quality is stated in the negative, it describes a security or contentment that comes from:
a. Knowing that God has what we need, when we need it.
b. Believing in God’s faithfulness.
KEY THOUGHT: WE ARE EXPECTED TO WEATHER OUR TRIALS, AND IN THE PROCESS OF WEATHERING THEM, WE GROWING IN OUR CHRISTIAN MATURITY, EXPERIENCE, AND FAITHFULNESS
III. THE CONFIDENCE OF REQUEST – vs. 5-8
5. God’s Assistance In Our Need
a. Every believer comes across a time when they are moving into new spiritual territory and do not have a clue as to how to get through it.
b. We are traveling off our spiritual map and into uncharted territory.
c. What we have done up to this point has prepared us to walk faithfully forward.
d. The word “if” really means “since”
i. Since there will come a time when you do not have the wisdom
ii. Since there will come a time when wisdom leaves you
e. We need to ask God for wisdom
i. I like the way the Amplified version translates this verse. It catches the literalness of the text.
James 1:5 (AMP) If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.
1. God’s wisdom is practical – we are asking so we can get overcome our trials and have a mature, complete and lacking nothing walk.
2. God’s wisdom is divine. It goes beyond common sense, often confounding the wisest of people.
3. God’s wisdom is Christ-like. Asking for wisdom is really asking to be like Christ. Because Christ is the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 2:1-7 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.
4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. 6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
f. God will give generously (bountifully)
g. God will not find fault in our asking (God will not complain that we have asked)
i. Word ask means to desire, beg, and crave
6. Our Responsibility With God’s Generosity
a. Is to believe God when He gives us the wisdom we asked for!
b. We must be careful that we do not doubt. To doubt means to hesitate, withdraw, or vacillate. These are dangerous for the believer.
7. The Danger Of Doubt
a. Doubts are like the wave of the sea – the surge of the sea – THEY ARE DESTRUCTIVE
b. We are blown by doubts – THEY HAVE A NEGATIVE EFFECT ON US HORIZONTALLY
c. We are tossed by doubts – THEY HAVE A NEGATIVE EFFECT ON US VERTICALLY
d. We become double minded because of doubts – WE LACK FOCUS
e. We become unstable because of doubts – LIKE A STAGGERING DRUNK
f. And then there is verse 7 – “that man should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord;” – GOD’S WISDOM IS OF NO PROFIT TO SOMEONE WHO DOUBTS
KEY THOUGHT: God will respond to our need for wisdom in the face of trials. Our danger is that we will not receive His wisdom with the faith it deserves.
So, there you have it! As believers, trials are a certainty. They are also survivable, and, according to God, will be times of significant growth in our lives. We do not go through them alone. God Himself desires to assist us, and is waiting for us to ask. And even in the asking, we are becoming more Christ like. Our concern is to keep the doubts away.
