James 1:1-18 January 12, 2003
Trials - God’s Hard Gifts
Last week we looked at the Man James, brother of Jesus. Today, we begin to look at the letter that he left us in the New Testament.
Jesus was prophesied to be a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief; his brother James also had his share of grief and sorrow.
James became a leader in the church in Jerusalem early on, but almost immediately he begins to experience very difficult times. In Acts 5 the Apostles were imprisoned for their faith, and James may have been in prison with them. The stoning of Stephen in Acts 7 instigates a time of persecution that is so terrible that the whole Christian community except for the Apostles and Elders left Jerusalem to escape imprisonment and possibly death. In Acts 12, Herod has James, Brother of John killed by the sword, and when he sees that this pleases the Jewish officials, he imprisons Peter to have him killed as well. In Acts 11 a there is a prophesy that a famine would come through the land, James and the church live through that famine, and they are likely doubly hungry since they would have been excluded from the economic system. They were so poor that Paul was always collecting money to send to them from the other churches around the region. He was there in Jerusalem to see the great missionary Paul of Tarsus arrested for his faith.
Often times when we read the New Testament, we imagine that it was written in a situation much like our own except for style of dress, and the absence of cars and the Internet. We forget the New Testament was written by a suffering church. Hugh Kirkegard, a friend of mine who is a prison chaplain loves to point out that the majority of the New Testament was written by someone in Jail, some one coming out of jail, or someone just about to go into jail.
When Paul says that he is in chains for the Lord, they are not metaphorical chains.
James is not in jail when he writes this letter, but he is about to be killed for his faith within a few years of writing. And as you see in 1:1, he is writing to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations by which he means the Jewish Christian who had to escape Jerusalem and Judea for fear of their lives. He writes this pastoral letter to the refugee church. They have left their homes, their businesses, their families to live in a land that is not theirs.
This is what he writes to them.
Read James 1:1-18
Consider it pure joy (2-8)
If you didn’t know what James himself had gone through, and would go though, you might think him insensitive in the extreme! But he writes out of suffering to a group of people who are suffering. He is not the only one who speaks this way about suffering.
Jesus himself says it in Matthew 5:11-12: "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Paul says it in Romans 5:3-5
…we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
"I’ve got enough character thank-you very much!"
Peter says it in1 Peter 1:6-7
In this (hope of the resurrection) you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These 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.
The writer to the Hebrews in 12:7-11
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as children. For what child is not disciplined by their father? … 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Often times we think that when we become a Christian, everything should go just fine – it is the end of our troubles – the reality is that the Bible teaches the opposite – that as Christians we should not be surprised if we experience more than the average
Love is not shelter from pain – Mr. Bennett
What the hard times do for us.
They refine us – as Peter says, and James infers, the trials in our life can make us a better person, a better Christian.
The way that gold was refined in ancient days, was the ore was placed in a great cauldron with fire underneath it, as it heated up, the ore would melt, and all the impurities would rise to the surface. The smelter would then skim off the impurities, the dross. But he wasn’t finished there, he would stoke the fire more and more impurities would rise to the top. He would skim those off, and heat it up more. He would continue this process until the gold was pure. And it is said that he knew that the gold was pure when he could see his reflection in the gold.
God does the same thing. He heats things up in our life so that the dross rises to the top – when we go through hard times, things in our lives are brought to the surface: sins, things that we are holding on to that we need to let go of, pride etc. These things can become real obvious when we go through hard times, and it gives God the chance to skim them of and purify us. He knows when he is done when he can see his reflection in us.
It actually amazed me that we used to sing the song “Refiners Fire” – we are actually asking God to turn up the heart!
James says that the quality that is produced when we go through hard times is perseverance.
My running habits are sporadic at best, so I am constantly rebuilding my endurance. When I am out of shape and just beginning, the short distances that I run hurt like crazy, but as I get into better shape, and run longer distances, the short distances feel like nothing, and I actually enjoy them.
In the same way, as we endure larger and larger trials, we are able to weather the smaller ones even more. We are training our faith to endure, flexing our faith muscles as it were, so that we can trust God for more and more.
James says that perseverance is not an end in itself, but the perseverance that we build up enables us to endure the refining process, so that he can bring us to perfection as Christians. (4)
How we are to regard hard times
We are to count them as joy – yippee!
No, not “yippee!” – joy is a much deeper and abiding thing than excitement or even happiness.
The way that we regard the trials that we go through makes all the difference – I was taught as a teenager that difficult times can either make you bitter, or better. In many ways it is up to you to decide which they will do.
Lance Armstrong doesn’t profess to be a Christian, but the way that he came through cancer and went on to win the Tour de France 4 times in a row is a great example of how hardship works to refine us. Lance is this year’s Sport’s Illustrated Athlete of The Year.
This is what he says in Forbes Magazine in 2001
I become a happier man each time I suffer.
Suffering is as essential to a good life, and as inextricable, as bliss. The old saying that you should live each day as if it’s your last is a nice sentiment, but it doesn’t work. Take it from me. I tried it once, and here’s what I learned: If I pursued only happiness, and lived just for the moment, I’d be a no-account with a perpetual three-day growth on my chin. Cancer taught me that.
Before cancer, whatever I imagined happiness to be, pretty soon I wore it out, took it for granted, or threw it away. A portfolio, a Porsche, a coffee machine--these things were important to me. So was my hair. Then I lost them, including the hair. When I was 25, I was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer, which had metastasized into my lungs and brain. I sold the car, gave up my career as a world-class cyclist, lost a good deal of money, and barely hung on to my life.
When I went into remission, I thought happiness would mean being self-indulgent. Not knowing how much time I had left, I did not intend to ever suffer again. I had suffered months of fear, chemotherapy so strong it left burn marks under my skin, and surgery to remove two tumors. Happiness to me then was waking up.
I ate Mexican food, played golf, and lay on the couch. The pursuit of happiness meant going to my favorite restaurant and pursuing a plate of enchiladas with tomatillo sauce.
But one day my wife, Kristin, put down her fork and said, "You need to decide something: Are you going to be a golf-playing, beer-drinking, Mexican-food-eating slob for the rest of your life? If you are, I’ll still love you. But I need to know, because if so, I’ll go get a job. I’m not going to sit at home while you play golf."
I stared at her.
"I’m so bored," she said.
Suddenly, I understood that I was bored, too. The idleness was forced; I was purposeless, with nothing to pursue. That conversation changed everything. I realized that responsibility, the routines and habits of shaving in the morning with a purpose, a job to do, a wife to love, and a child to raise--these were the things that tied my days together and gave them a pattern deserving of the term living.
Within days I was back on my bicycle. For the first time in my life, I rode with real strength and stamina and purpose. Without cancer, I never would have won a single Tour de France. Cancer taught me a plan for more purposeful living, and that in turn taught me how to train and to win more purposefully. It taught me that pain has a reason, and that sometimes the experience of losing things--whether health or a car or an old sense of self--has its own value in the scheme of life. Pain and loss are great enhancers.
People ask me why I ride my bike for six hours a day; what is the pleasure? The answer is that I don’t do it for the pleasure. I do it for the pain. In my most painful moments on the bike, I am at my most self-aware and self-defining. There is a point in every race when a rider encounters the real opponent and realizes that it’s...himself. You might say pain is my chosen way of exploring the human heart.
That pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it subsides. And when it does, something else takes its place, and that thing might be called a greater space for happiness. We have unrealized capacities that only emerge in crisis--capacities for enduring, for living, for hoping, for caring, for enjoying. Each time we overcome pain, I believe that we grow.
Cancer was the making of me: Through it I became a more compassionate, complete, and intelligent man, and therefore a more alive one. So that’s why I ride, and why I ride hard. Because it makes me hurt, and so it makes me happy.
SOURCE: "Back in the Saddle" by Lance Armstrong, Forbes ASAP, 12.03.01.
When we are in a difficult situation, when we go through grief, loss, or other trials, we want to hope that this difficulty is for the greater good – that somehow good will come of it. We often look for a change in the world around us that God has orchestrated through our suffering. There are times when this happens. But what the scriptures tell us is that most times God does not use our suffering to make the world a better place, he uses it to make us a better person.
We might not be able to get all excited about pain in our lives, but we might be able to receive trials as a gift – with the knowledge that God is shaping us through them. As Hebrews says “No discipline seems pleasant at the time.” Or, as my old Cross Country Running coach used to say, “Cross country running is best enjoyed after the race.” While we are in the midst of trials it is very difficult to see the good in them.
If you don’t have this wisdom, ask for it. (5-8)
Ask God to show you the joy in trials, the good that they are doing you, the refining process that is going on. He will answer your prayers.
But believe that he will answer you – believe that God is good. If we constantly go back and forth on whether God answers our prayers, we are not going to receive anything. Don’t ask if you think that God won’t answer – when we do that we are only testing God, and expecting him to fail!
When I was at Humber Blvd. Baptist Church, we have would various students and people come to help in the ministry. One time we had this seminary student who had come from a very successful business background to this church that never had more than 35 members in its 80 year history. I really appreciated his help, his talents as a business person, and his gifts, but he would get frustrated at times when this little church didn’t look much like a successful business.
One of these times I asked him a hard question. I told him how much I appreciated that God had sent him to us – his abilities and gifts had helped us a great deal. I also told him that I was sure that he knew why we needed him – he saw the holes he could fill. Now God could have sent any number of people who could have fit the bill – but he sent you. You are sure of what God is doing in Humber through you, but have you thought about what God is doing in you through Humber?
This is the wisdom of trials – what is God doing in me through this trial?
Take pride in your position (9-11)
James, then, exhorts both the poor and the rich Christian to remember that the sole basis for their confidence is their identification with Jesus Christ. The poor believer, insignificant and of no account in the eyes of the world, is to rejoice in their relationship with the Lord who has been exalted to the highest position in the universe. The rich believer, well-off and secure in his possessions, with great status in the eyes of the world, is to remember that their only lasting security comes through their relationship with the “man of sorrows”, “despised and rejected by men”. Both Christians, in other words, must look at their lives from a heavenly, not an earthly, perspective.
Persevering under trial (12)
For those who decide to become better rather than bitter in hard times, Jesus promises a reward. This is what the risen Christ says to the angel of the church in Smyrna inRevelation 2
These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9I know your afflictions and your poverty - yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.
The Unchangeableness of God (13-18)
God Doesn’t temp us
There are times when we use the hardships that we are going through to excuse our bad behavior. We even like to blame other people for our sin. Alcoholics blame a fight with a spouse for their latest drinking spree, those who struggle with violent anger will tell you that they would have blown up if you hadn’t been so insolent, frustrating, jerk-like. We would all like to Blame someone or something else for our bad behavior.
When we go through trials, we can at times be tempted to do sinful things that we thought that we had gotten rid of along time ago. But when the heart gets turned up, the impurities of our life rise to the surface.
I remember talking with someone who deals with people with addictions, and he uses the acronym H.A.L.T. It is about the times when we can be tempted back into our addictions or sin.
When we are
Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired
These are dangerous times, and it is good to be aware that we are susceptible.
There are times when we go through trials that we in our weakness, fall into sin. It might be tempting to say to God, “If you hadn’t allowed that trial in my life, I never would have sinned – my sin is all your fault!
Not, “The devil made me do it”, but, “God made me do it!”
James says God did not make you sin – sin does not come from what is outside you, it comes from what is inside you – the selfish desires and lust that you harbor. The only one who is to blame for my bad behavior is me – not any extenuating circumstances, not God, not the devil, not my wife or my kids. I am the only one responsible.
If you do fall in to sin when you are experiencing trials – recognize it as the dross God is bringing to the surface – take it to him and let him skim it off through repentance and forgiveness.
God is Good – all the time
Eugene Peterson translate this passage by beginning in verse 2:
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith—life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well—developed, not deficient in any way.
He concludes in 16-18 this way:
So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two—faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.
This is what James says – God is always good, he created the heavenly lights – the sun, moon and stars, but he is not even as fickle as they are, rising and setting, going through fazes, twinkling in the night sky, no there is no shadow, no turning in him. He is always the same, and always good.
He is the giver of every good thing, and everything he gives is good. Sometimes the gift that he gives is a trial, a hardship, and while it hurts, it is still a good gift. It is good because he knows us better that we do, and he knows how good we can be, so he gives us this gift, to help get us there. Like any gift, you have to use it right – you need to allow it to work so that it will have its desired effect – that effect is you closer to God in character and in relationship.
God does not change – even in the bad times. I think that is why Matt Redman writes that he is going to choose to say “Blessed be your name”
Blessed be Your name,
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s "all as it should be"
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name,
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
… You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name
God’s Gifts are always good – and sometimes they hurt.
Are you going through trials right now? Do you need to ask for the wisdom to see the gift in them? Lets pray that way right now.
