James the Just
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“Count it all JOY”
“Count it all JOY”
James 1:2–12 (KJV 1900)
James 1:2–12 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.
*opening prayer*
I wanted to read at least these verses so we can establish some context, but tonight, we are going to spend a lot of time in verse 2-4.
Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament Faith and Obedience (1:2–2:26)
The overarching theme of this section is that Christians must trust God and obey him. God is a generous giver, yet he is treated as the source of temptation by doubters and those who lack humility and self-control (1:2–18).
We start off verse 2 with James telling us to consider it “all joy” when we fall into diverse temptations.
Last week we focused in on the word servant.
We talked about having a servant mindset. This week, I know we are only in verse 2, but we alright onto another attribute, and that is “joy”.
There is just a lot of information packed in each verse. So we are going to take our time going through them.
First, lets define a couple of words
Joy- to be excited.
JOY. The biblical words are: Heb. śimḥâ, verb śāmēaḥ, which imply also its outward expression (cf. the Arab. cognate, meaning ‘to be excited’), (from Hebrew words usually meaning intense joy). In both OT and NT joy is consistently the mark both individually of the believer and corporately of the church. It is a quality, and not simply an emotion, grounded upon God himself and indeed derived from him
We are going to run some verses talking about “joy” and even “rejoice”.
(Ps. 16:11; Phil. 4:4; Rom. 15:13), (1 Pet. 1:8), (cf. Rev. 19:7).
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
We can see joy characterizes the Christian’s life on earth,
Think about the joy of being with Christ for ever in the kingdom of heaven
But verse 2 doesn’t just say count it joy, it says count it “all joy”
all joy—cause for the highest joy [GROTIUS]. Nothing but joy [PISCATOR]. Count all “divers temptations” to be each matter of joy [BENGEL].
It also says the phrase “fall into”
fall into—unexpectedly, so as to be encompassed by them (so the original Greek)
Diverse- simply means “several”
Temptations- not in sense of allurements to sin, but as of trials and distresses of any kind
Even in sickness or affliction.
Every possible trial to the child of God is a masterpiece of strategy of the Captain of his salvation for his good.
So not only are we to have a servant mindset, but also we are to count it “all joy” when we are suddenly encompassed with several trials and distresses of any kind.
Wow, being a “good” Christian is hard!
One could argue, its not hard, its impossible. Impossible without God that is.
I think we often get the idea that being Christ-like is something that it is not.
What it actually is is a commitment to Christ.
A repentance of my ways and a commitment to God’s way.
It is a sacrifice of self. Look at what John 3:30 says.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
Christ is not to be treated like a convenience store, yet that is exactly how He and His church are treated today.
Let’s take a look now at verse 3 again.
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
There is a lot going on here, so let’s break it down.
The trying- the testing or proving of your faith.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Chapter 1)
patience—The original implies more; persevering endurance and continuance (compare Lu 8:15).
But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
We should expect, in fact this verse literally says we should know, that these trials of our faith build up our endurance.
Now let’s take a look at verse 4.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
So we should let patience (our endurance) have its perfect work. It is good for us to bear trials.
So we can have the most perfect joy in bearing the cross.
The context of being “perfect” as we see here simply means fully developed in all the attributes of the Christian character.
Remember: Attribute- a quality or feature.
The word “entire” here means all of us. Trials develop our spirit, soul, and body.
We need to keep watch for this in our lives.
The attributes of Christian character are not just a part of what we do, it is who we are.
Next week we will dive deeper into the book of James. There are lots of good stuff here, so if you enjoy this lesson make sure you come out and see us, or follow us on one of our multiple online platforms.
*Closing prayer*