Articles
Keep It in Perspective
How can we view our trials as “all joy” (James 1:2)? Part of the answer is to consider the good that may come from them (vv. 3-5). Another part of the answer is to pray for wisdom (vv. 6-8). Verses 9-11 present another component. "But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away."
Bible students typically take one of two approaches to this paragraph.
The first approach envisions a time when present circumstances will be reversed. The brother of humble circumstances—James’s kind way of saying he is poor— will one day be exalted to a high position, whereas the rich man will one day be humiliated (perhaps that was already happening if the trial in view was persecution). Any time we suffer a major financial loss, it is just a reminder of what will inevitably occur anyway, as surely as grass and flowers wilting under a scorching sun. When that occurs before death, we may better learn the lesson of the uncertainty of material things.
The second approach is that James is describing the spiritual counterparts to our monetary status. One who is poor financially may nevertheless be richly blessed in Christ, and that is far more valuable. Likewise, even the wealthiest man must bow before God as a lost sinner and humbly accept Jesus’ atonement for him if he is to have eternal life. He can glory in that humiliation because it is for his own good, keeping him from trusting in his own resources, a course that will surely fail (1 Timothy 6:17).
Either way we view it, the practical application of James’s point comes out the same. Our outward circumstances per se do not matter; what matters is how we view them, how we react to them. Don’t make too much of your wealth or lack of it. Prosperity is not proof of divine approval. Money cannot buy happiness. And remember, even if your economic status lasts a lifetime, that isn’t very long compared to eternity. The fact is, everyone in Christ is both rich and poor, depending on how you look at it.
