A Faith that Works in Trials

Open up to James chapter 1:2-18

Last week summary – James the Lord’s brother writes to Jewish believers who have been scattered due to persecution – James was their leader and writes to them this letter of encouragement and instruction. The letter is filled with imperatives. The book of James will do you no good unless you obey.

Here’s a summary from last week:

James is best understood as a brief sermon sent to James’ dispersed parishioners in the form of a letter. His earnest desire is that Christians leave behind an unstable and inconsistent halfway faith and progress towards a whole-hearted, unvarying commitment to God in thought, word and deed.

Douglas Moo, James, An Introduction and Commentary

He will address several issues that can lead us to compromise our faith or short circuit our faith. He will make the argument that faith works, but there are many things that keep faith from working.

He will jump into one problem we have that short circuits our faith – trials.

Does anyone here have trials? Struggles? Difficulties in life? Is life hard for anyone here? If you are not struggling with something today or if you don’t expect to have any trials the rest of your life you are dismissed. You can go home to your carefree life. But if you do have trials, James has a word for you.

You have a faith that works even in trials. If not, what kind of faith is it?

His audience obviously were having a hard time and it’s understandable. They were uprooted from their homes. They were strangers in town. Add to that, being a Christian may be bringing additional hardships to their lives.

James may have heard about the trials they were going through – maybe letters, maybe family members who stayed behind. He was probably inundated with prayer requests.

James 1:2–4 (NIV) — 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

This is quite shocking – joy in trials. And note the term “consider” is an imperative. Not a suggestion. Not a maybe try this. James commands them to consider. That’s an important word. Don’t just react but “consider”. Don’t just let emotion take over – consider.

How do you react to trials – anger, frustration, despair, revenge?

That may always be or initial reaction but James commands us to consider. To welcome these trials with joy and gives the rationale. These trials are tests of your faith that will make you stronger – somehow, someway. They will produce the virtue of perseverance and perseverance makes us more mature.

This is not unlike other teachings in the NT

1 Peter 1:6–7 (NIV) — 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Romans 5:3–5 (NIV) — 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

If we can see that every trial has a potential positive outcome then you can find joy. Note: it’s not the trial that gives us joy it is that potential positive outcome.

And with God there is always a potential positive outcome.

Paul speaks to this truth as he writes to a group of believers who are likewise experiencing suffering associated with their commitment to Christ. He confidently declares,

Romans 8:28, NIV “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

But this is not easy, is it. Those potential positive outcomes are sometimes hard to see. Not what James says next.

James 1:5-8 (NIV) 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

We need to be able to see trials through the wise eyes of God.

And believe whole-heartedly that God will answer that prayer. He is a wisdom giving God who gives without attacking you for your struggle.

To ask for “wisdom” is almost to ask for an ability to “endure” with the ethic of Jesus (justice, love, and peace) when pressure is put on people to live otherwise.

McKnight, S. (2011). The Letter of James (p. 86). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Jeremiah 29:12–13 (NIV) — 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

James is not, then, here claiming that prayers will never be answered where any degree of doubt exists—for some degree of doubt on at least some occasions is probably inevitable in our present state of weakness. Rather, he wants us to understand that God responds to us only when our lives reflect a basic consistency of purpose and intent: a spiritual integrity.

Moo, D. J. (2000). The letter of James (p. 61). Eerdmans; Apollos.

You have to believe that God can use that trial because if you don’t you will never be able to find that potential positive outcome and you will never experience the joy that James says needs to be associated with all these trials we go through.

Trails can produce perseverance and lead you into a more mature perfect life.

James is going to address a particular trial – finances. Money. Not having it and having it Wealth and poverty. One source of trial in our lives is money. He’s going to give advice to two groups – those who are poor and those who are rich:

James 1:9-11 (NIV) 9 Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. 10 But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. 11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.

How much money you have is not a direct indication of God’s approval of your life. If you are poor, thank God that you have a heightened awareness of your need for Christ and perhaps a greater appreciation for what is in store for you. Your identity is not caught up in your bank account it is based in tour relationship with Christ. If you are rich hear the many warnings is Scripture about how money can distract us from whole-hearted devotion to God. Remind yourself every day that all that you own will one day be worth absolutely nothing. James will say more about this later on so I’ll save some teaching on wealth for later sermon.

He exhorts each of them to look toward their spiritual identity as the measure of their ultimate significance. To the poor believer, tempted to feel insignificant and powerless because the world judges a person on the basis of money and status, James says: take pride in your exalted status in the spiritual realm as one seated in the heavenlies with Jesus Christ himself. To the rich believer, tempted to think too much of himself because the world holds him in high esteem, James says: take pride not in your money or in your social position—things that are doomed all too soon to fade away forever—but, paradoxically, in your humble status as a person who identifies with one who was “despised and rejected” by the world. The point of the passage is, then, that Christians must always evaluate themselves by spiritual and not material standards.

Moo, D. J. (2000). The letter of James (p. 61). Eerdmans; Apollos.

James will revert back to his reason why we can have joy in trials and this time is not just what they can do for us now but to focus our eyes on the reward for those who persevere.

James 1:12 (NIV) 12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Sounds like his brother:

Matthew 5:11–12 (NIV) — 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

James now addresses a serious issue – these trials don’t always lead to positive outcomes. Sometimes they lead us to doubting God and even denying his goodness:

James 1:13-18 (NIV) 13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. 16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Every trial, every external difficulty, carries with it a temptation, an inner enticement to sin. God may bring, or allow, trials; but he is not, James insists, the author of temptation (v. 13). Enticement to sin comes from our own sinful natures, not from God (vv. 14–15).

Moo, D. J. (2000). The letter of James (p. 72). Eerdmans; Apollos.

Only when desire “conceives”—is allowed to produce offspring—does sin come into being. The point is an important one, for some extremely sensitive Christians may feel that the fact of their continuing to experience temptation demonstrates that they are out of fellowship with the Lord. To be sure, as one develops more and more of a Christian “mind,” the frequency and power of temptation should grow less. But temptation will be part of our experience, as it was the experience of the Lord himself (Heb. 2:18), throughout our time on earth. Christian maturity is not indicated by the infrequency of temptation but by the infrequency of succumbing to temptation.

Moo, D. J. (2000). The letter of James (p. 72). Eerdmans; Apollos.

Tests can also become temptations

When we are tempted and sin it is not God’s fault

God gives good gifts and this trial can be a good gift from God

This trial can birth within us new fruit in our lives – that’s the goal

Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies – September 7

God give me wisdom to see through this trial to ways I am being formed and find joy in that positive outcome

God give me the strength to prevent this trial from becoming a temptation that I yield to and brings death into my life

Help me not to blame you for these trials but to know you as the giver of all good gifts and to know that you are always wanting and willing the very best for me

God give me the eyes to see that as I persevere through this trial there is a victor’s crown waiting for me at that finish line. And if I have to limp or crawl or even be carried over that finish line, help me now to feel that incomparable joy of having a faith that works even in trials.