Articles
Joy in Trials
James’s opening instruction is to consider it all joy when we encounter trials (1:2). That is obviously not our natural response! Why should we do that? How can we do that?
“Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (vv. 3-4).
People tend to equate joy with fun, ease, comfort, and security. Bible writers present a radically different view. Genuine joy is not in one’s circumstances; it is in one’s relationship with God and therefore in one’s character. The more we are like Christ, the more joy we have.
Just as recliners do not build muscle, comfortable circumstances do not build character. Growth requires testing. Peter used this word of gold being tested by fire (1 Peter 1:7). In metallurgy, precious metals are heated to the melting point to remove impurities and produce a desired shape. James says fiery trials can do that for our character. That is why they should be viewed with joy.
Endurance or perseverance is the desired outcome. In a parallel passage, Paul wrote, “We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4). James reminds us, however, that the final outcome is not automatic: we must “let endurance have its perfect result.”
The “perfect result” of endurance is two-fold. Obviously, it includes faithfulness until the end of our journey. We want to be able to say with Paul, “I have finished the course” (2 Timothy 4:7). But James also notes that the “perfect result” of endurance is that we be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If we endure but do so with worry, sadness, or bitterness, we still have much room for improvement.
Too many people make trials an occasion for rebellion against God. They reason that a loving, caring God should not allow such. James takes the opposite view. Through our trials, God is graciously molding us into the kind of people we ought to be. Our joy is thus not some phony bravado but a satisfied acceptance of God’s will.
Gordon Poteat rightly observed, “Christians are not distinguished by their immunity from the trials which are common to mankind, but in the way they meet them and what they make out of them” (The Interpreter’s Bible).
None of this, of course, is easy. We must work at it. And we must pray about it, James’s next subject.
