If you were to take a survey of every person in this room, and perhaps every person in this city, and ask them, "What is your main goal in life?" you would get a lot of different answers. Some would say to be successful, to provide for their family. Others might say to be healthy, to travel, to be happy. But I guarantee you, almost no one would say, "My goal is to face hardship. My goal is to run headfirst into trouble."
Our entire culture, our very human nature, is engineered to seek comfort and avoid pain. We buy insurance to protect us from disaster. We go to doctors to shield us from sickness. We build financial plans to guard against poverty. We construct our lives like a fortress, with the goal of keeping difficulty on the outside.
And then we open our Bibles. We turn to this intensely practical, no-nonsense letter from James, and in the very first few verses, we are hit with one of the most counter-intuitive, upside-down commands in all of Scripture.
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, writing to the scattered believers, says this in verse two: "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations."
Let that sink in. He doesn't say, "Grit your teeth and bear it when you face trials." He doesn't say, "Try to find a silver lining." He issues a command: Make a conscious decision, as an act of will and faith, to consider your trials a matter of pure joy. Not just some joy, but all joy.
When you receive the diagnosis you were dreading... count it all joy.
When your business faces a downturn and the bills are piling up... count it all joy.
When a relationship you cherished falls apart... count it all joy.
When you are wrestling in the darkness with a temptation that won't leave you alone... count it all joy.
Our immediate, honest human reaction is to say, "James, that's impossible. It's irrational." And if the trial itself were the point, we would be right. But James is pulling back the curtain on a divine process. He wants to show us that God uses the inevitable trials of life not to defeat us, but to develop us. He is about to reveal the unexpected pathway to our own spiritual perfection.
I. The Test of Your Faith (Verse 3a)
1. The first thing James tells us is what is actually happening in the trial.
Look at the beginning of verse 3: "...Knowing this, that the trying of your faith..."
Notice what is being tested. It’s not your strength. It's not your emotional fortitude or your intellectual capacity. It is your faith. The Greek word used here for "trying" is dokimion. It’s a goldsmith’s term. When a goldsmith wanted to know if a lump of ore was truly gold, he would put it into a crucible and heat it in a furnace. The intense heat wouldn't harm the gold. In fact, the fire would cause all the impurities—the dross, the slag, the worthless bits of rock and dirt—to bubble up to the surface where they could be scraped away. The fire didn't destroy the gold; it proved its genuineness and purified its substance.
2. That is what God is doing in your trial.
The heat is on, not to destroy you, but to prove and to purify your faith. Your trial is God's crucible. It reveals what your faith is truly made of. When everything is going well, it's easy to say, "I trust in God." But when the bottom falls out, the trial reveals what we actually trust in. Do we trust in our bank account? Our health? Our reputation? Our own strength? The trial brings the dross of our self-reliance, our hidden idols, and our love for comfort to the surface, so that God, the master refiner, can lovingly skim it away.
He isn't punishing you; He is preparing you. He is not breaking you; He is building you. The trial is a divine diagnostic, showing you—and showing God what He already knows—the true condition of your heart so that you can learn to depend on Him more completely. Understanding this divine purpose is the very first step to being able to "count it all joy."
II. The Product of the Test: Patience (Verse 3b)
1. This fiery test of faith produces something.
It has a result. Look at the rest of verse 3: "...the trying of your faith worketh patience."
Now, when we hear the word "patience," we often think of something passive. We think of waiting in a long line at the grocery store or sitting in traffic. It's a grit-your-teeth-and-do-nothing kind of word. But the biblical word here is so much more powerful. The Greek is hupomone, and it means steadfast, triumphant endurance. It's not the picture of a man passively waiting for a storm to end. It's the picture of a soldier standing his ground in the thick of the battle, holding the line, refusing to retreat under enemy fire. It is active, persevering, unconquerable endurance.
2. This kind of character, this spiritual fortitude, is not something you can just pray for and receive instantly.
It cannot be developed in a life of ease. A man who wants to run a marathon cannot gain endurance by sitting on his couch. He gains it by pounding the pavement, by pushing through the pain, by straining his muscles and lungs day after day. The stress itself is what creates the strength.
3. In the same way, the spiritual muscle of hupomone, of endurance, only grows when it is put under the strain of a real-life trial.
God allows us to feel the weight so we can develop the strength to carry it. Every time you face a difficulty and you make the choice to continue trusting God, to continue worshiping Him in the storm, to continue obeying His Word when it's hard—you are forging steadfastness in your soul.
4. We often pray, "Lord, give me patience," but then we complain about the very situations God sends to answer that prayer!
James is telling us to rejoice because we can see the product. We can know with certainty that this hardship is not meaningless. It is God's divine gym, and He is making us spiritually strong. He is producing in us the character of Christ, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross.
III. The Ultimate Goal: Perfection (Verse 4)
1. James reveals the grand purpose, the ultimate goal of this entire process.
Developing endurance is not the end of the journey; it is the path to the final destination. Look at verse 4: "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
"Let patience have her perfect work." In other words, don't try to short-circuit the process. Don’t bail out early. Our first instinct in a trial is to find the escape hatch. We cry out, "God, get me out of this, now!" And sometimes, in His mercy, He does. But often, His higher purpose is to take us through it. James says to let the process run its full course. Endure. Stand firm. Why? So that you may reach God’s intended goal for you.
2. And what is that goal? He describes it in three breathtaking ways.
First, that you may be "perfect."
The Greek word is teleios. It doesn’t mean sinless or flawless. It means mature, complete, having reached the intended goal. It’s the word used for a finished product. God’s goal for you is not to leave you as a half-finished project, but to shape you into a masterpiece of His grace.
Second, that you may be "entire."
This means whole, with all the necessary parts, sound and complete. It speaks of spiritual and emotional wholeness, a person of integrity, someone who isn't fragmented by the pressures of life.
And finally, the beautiful summary: "wanting nothing."
This doesn’t mean you’ll have every material thing you desire. It means you will be lacking in no essential spiritual quality. It describes a state of profound spiritual contentment and sufficiency in Christ. It’s the person whose joy doesn't depend on their circumstances, whose peace isn't stolen by the headlines, and whose hope is firmly anchored beyond this world. They are not easily shaken because their character has been forged and proven in the fires of adversity.
This is God's loving vision for your life. The trial that feels so destructive today is actually the very tool God is using to construct something beautiful and eternal in you. He is not wasting your pain. He is investing it for the glorious return of your spiritual maturity.
Conclusion: Reframing Your Troubles
So, how do we live this out? How do we leave here today and actually begin to "count it all joy"?
This is not a call to deny your pain or to put on a fake smile in the middle of tragedy. Godly joy is not the absence of sorrow. It is the presence of a deep, abiding trust in the goodness and sovereignty of God, even when life hurts. It is the ability to look beyond the immediate pain of the trial and see the eternal purpose of the God who is orchestrating it.
Today, I want to challenge you to reframe your troubles through the lens of James 1.
First, identify your trial. What is the fire you are in right now? Name it before God.
Second, change your question. Instead of asking "God, why is this happening to me?" start asking, "God, what are you seeking to produce in me?"
Finally, make the choice. As an act of faith-filled worship, look at that trial and say, "I will count this joy. Not because I enjoy the pain, but because I trust the Refiner. I will let patience have its perfect work, because I believe in the beautiful, complete, and mature person God has promised to make me on the other side."
The pathway to Christian maturity is not a detour around the valley of suffering. It leads right through the middle of it. But we walk that path with joy, knowing that our good and loving Father is with us, and He is using every single step to make us perfect and entire, wanting nothing, fully conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
