Full disclosure: this is edited from a message preached at First Baptist Church, Chamois, MO in August 2022
Introduction: Many of us think following Jesus is going to be a walk in the park, so to speak, but that isn’t always true. Certainly, as He promised, He’s there with us, but trials and tests are going to come our way. Think about it: if the Devil tempted Jesus Himself, putting Him to three different tests, he’s going to do it to us—that means you and me and everyone who is a believer in Jesus. But even though these are coming, there’s a promise and a reward for those who stay true to the Lord and don’t give in to these trials.
1 The problem: trials are coming
Text: James 1:2-12, KJV: 2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. 9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: 10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. 11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. 12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
James would know about “divers temptations” or various trials, for sure! Just think about growing up with the Son of God as your own half-brother (see the list of the boys in Joseph and Mary’s family in Mark 6). Mark Lowry, the Christian comedian and singer, had a sketch in one of his performances when he imagined the other children asking for help with, say, science—only to hear the parent say something like “Ask your brother—He wrote the book!”
But something that had to weigh heavily on the Lord’s heart is that none of His brothers believed He was the Messiah. John 7 has an account where the Lord’s own brothers, including James, said, “Why don’t You go to Judea so they can see all the good deeds You are doing here”—and I take that as kind of an insult. Even so, something happened in James’ heart as eventually he did believe in Jesus. James is also one of the few who ever saw Jesus after Jesus rose from the dead (see 1 Corinthians 15:3-11).
James did rise to become a leader in the early Church but even then, he had any number of trials and tests to go through. Remember, we don’t know when he became a believer in Jesus though we do know that at one time, he did believe. Surely James would have known or perhaps even experienced the various persecutions—by fellow Jews, of all people!—simply because they chose to believe (correctly) that Jesus was and is the Messiah and Savior of the world. The first several chapters of Acts document this clearly.
And the persecution of believers, nearly all Jewish-background or Messianic believers at this stage, caused many who had come to Jerusalem, and stayed, to leave. Some were probably running for dear life to escape who knew what at the hands of people like Saul of Tarsus (see Acts 9, for example). James, then, was led to write the Epistle or Letter, bearing his name, to these believers who were “scattered abroad” throughout the known world.
It didn’t take James long to mention “temptation (1:12)” and in view of what we know about Church history, he knew what he was talking about. The bad thing is that he knew trials (a different translation of the word “temptation”) were coming, but he also had good news because those who endured these would be blessed.
Again, he would know, if for nothing else remembering what had happened to Jesus! For 40 days He had been fasting and praying in desolate land, with wild beasts (Mark 1) and endured at least three different testings or temptations by the Devil. I confess, every time I read these passages in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, thinking how the Devil—a created being—is trying to get the Creator Himself to do this or that, even offering the whole world if Jesus would worship the Devil! Remember, if Satan did this to Jesus, he’ll do it to you and me. Just think about the various things we see these days, promising this or that if we do thus and so. It’s all temptations, and it’s all testing, and the purpose is to see how we’ll respond.
We could go back to Job and what happened to him, for example. God knew Job would not buckle under or give up and blame God for what happened even though Satan demanded, and got, permission to afflict Job. The test was to prove what Job would do and the temptation—by Job’s own wife!—was to “curse God and die” to avoid even more suffering. But we know the rest of the story, how Job did endure and received everything he had before.
To me, that was one thing James might have had in mind when he wrote to these relatively new believers, enduring persecution for maybe the first time, or maybe the worst time. Yes, he knew problems such as testings were coming, but he also knew God had made a provision!
And that provision was only a request away. See what James says next:
2 The provision: wisdom is available
Text, James 1:5-8, KJV: 5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
The provision is wisdom! Just a few verses before, James had given some of the most practical words of advice ever written: if you need wisdom, ask for it! Now, James didn’t state it in this way, but I think (and this is only my opinion) that he might say it like this: ask for wisdom how to endure, and for how to evaluate, when these tests or temptations come.
To put this another way, both “test” and “tempt” come from the same word in the original language. The difference is in perspective: God the Father allowed Jesus the Son of God to be put to the test when the Devil tempted Him. God the Father knew absolutely Jesus would not fall for any of the tests or temptations, but the Devil didn’t, and because the Lord Jesus Christ didn’t fall for any of these, we can be encouraged: we don’t have to fail either!
But James would later point out in his letter that there were some folks who were indeed failing these tests. In chapter 2, he wrote that there was a test of “respect of persons”. Some people were very well off, financially speaking, having nice clothes, jewelry and the like, and were getting preferred treatment as compared to those who were not so well off. There was the test, namely will you love your brother as yourself, or not—and many, sadly, did not.
You and I may not face anything like that, in today’s world, but there are still various trials and tests coming and wisdom is one of the best provisions to stand against these. Please remember that our Lord is with us every step of the way, right there in every test we face. He is not going to necessarily punish any of us if we’re walking in His Will and His Way. True, He may discipline any of us when (not if) we sin but that’s another message. And He is not going to delight in any of us struggling with these tests.
To illustrate this a little farther, please let me share this story. Before Dad joined the Air Force, he was briefly in the Navy Reserves and still kept a copy of a naval history book. That book was published just after World War 2 and gave a flavor of the military’s attitude of the time. One of the stories was about an incident in the early 1800’s when the United States was engaged in an armed conflict. The admiral in charge gave orders to a junior officer to capture, damage, or destroy as many enemy gunboats as possible.
The officer, as the story goes, completed the raid, capturing ten of the enemy’s gunboats, and reported this news to the admiral (high ranking officer). The admiral became very upset and spat out, “Why didn’t you bring me more!?” After a while, word came from the admiral to that junior officer (think: top manager to section chief) to report to the admiral’s office. He did, and seemed to disappear. One of the other men on board that ship knocked on the admiral’s door to see what the situation was, and found both men weeping. The admiral admitted he had made a mistake, and was man enough to admit it.
Our Lord is never going to be like that admiral. He will never get upset with us when trials come our way—although He may not be happy if we deliberately walk into a situation like this. But when He allows trials to come our way, He has made us a promised reward!
3 The promise: a reward is waiting
The promised reward is right there in verse 12! The reward is called “the crown of life” and it’s promised to those who endure the trials (temptation, KJV). Some other translations render this as “having been approved” or “passing the test”, for example. It’s also interesting that the ”crown of life” is not only mentioned here, but also in Revelation 2:10. John is there writing to the saints in Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey) of his days that they were going to endure persecution “ten days” but if they remained faithful “unto death”, they too would receive the crown of life.
As an aside, one of the saints in Smyrna who lived a little later than John’s day was Polycarp. He was told, “If you renounce this Jesus, we’ll set you free” but Polycarp said something along the lines of “I’ve served Jesus for 86 years and He’s never done anything wrong for me. Why would I give up now? (see “Martyrdom of Polycarp”)” Yes, he paid with his life, but he’ll receive the crown of life because he remained true.
Now, this section is shorter than the rest and that’s partly because James made it brief, too. He didn’t want to waste time or words on things that, apparently, the believers already knew. After all, these Jewish-background or Messianic believers had heard the apostles in Jerusalem, and had learned the new faith from them while there, and I’m sure they knew what the Lord Himself had said about being hated because they followed Him (see John 14-16).
They may have wondered why they were being tested. James didn’t condemn that. He just encouraged them to “count it all joy” because these tests produced endurance (“patience”, KJV). And he wanted them to remember that when the tests or trials came, there was a reward promised for those who passed the test.
This same promise is for us, too! Remember, trials are going to come and, I think, we believers are going to experience more, and worse, trials as we approach the end of this age. I mean, who would have thought we would see attacks on the Church and on believers, such as what’s taking place these days? But never forget, the Lord promised a reward for those who pass these tests.
May I share one final example with you? I remember driving when a downpour came up out of nowhere! The sky was so dark I literally couldn’t see anything even with the headlights on. To be safe, I pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the storm to pass by. It wasn’t long before the storm went by and the sunshine was there again.
The same Lord who brought me through that storm will be with me everywhere and every step of my journey. He’ll do the same for you. Be faithful, even in testing, because the reward our Lord promised will be worth it!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).
