The Threefold Aim of Trials

In verses 2-4, James begs us to view the trials we face in a threefold manner: joy (v.2), perseverance (v.3), and perfection (v.4). I have heard it said that trials apply to the Christian in three ways, you are about to go into a trial, you are in a trial, or you are just coming out of a trial. It does not take long in the Christian life to experience being in one of these places.

What comes to mind when you think of a trial?

As we consider this subject, let us forsake our own personal thoughts about the matter. It is easy to say that people in other countries go through trial because of persecution. And this is true, but persecution shows its head in a variety of ways. We cannot look over yonder and say that they go through trial and not look at our own lives and see the same. Satan and the forces of darkness do not care what your social or financial status are. What he cares about is that you follow Christ, and he will seek to hinder and stop that at all costs.

With this in mind, let us look at how the Bible tells us to face trials.

Ø Joy (v.2)

The first is joy. Let me ask you a question. Is joy the first thing that comes to mind when you think of going through a trial? Further, do you praise and worship God for the trial that you are going through?

The word joy, in the Greek, means gladness, or an occasion of rejoicing (Mounce). James encourages the dispersed brothers to think about trials in this way. Why would he have ushered them in this way? Because much like you and me, they were discouraged at the trials that they were facing as any person would be. And they were not alone. When Paul is making his defense before Agrippa in Acts 26, he embraces the persecution of the Jews and wants all who hear the message to repent and believe. But Paul was a human too and he did was not thrilled that he was bound. He wishes that all men would “become such as I am, except these chains” (Acts 26:29).

You and I need to recognize that as much joy as we can take from trials and persecution (Acts 5:41), they are not a fun experience to go through. I have not heard of a person who was flogged and said, “do that again, that felt good.” Similarly, as Kent Hughes writes, “James was not commanding that we (rejoice) upon hearing that our career position has been given to our secretary, or that the neighbor’s children have leukemia, or that one’s spouse is adulterous. Rather, James is commending the conscious embrace of a Christian understanding of life which brings joy into the trials that come because of our Christianity.”

But as we take persecution with joy, we remember the words of our Lord Jesus. “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). Again, this verse in Matthew does not promote the belief that greater blessing is given for greater persecution and lesser blessing for lesser. At the end of the day, all those who suffer persecution will be blessed (Romans 8:17, 1 Peter 4:13, 16).

You will notice that James is specific in how trials come about. It is by an encounter. Again, the Greek is helpful for us here. The Greek defines this kind of encounter as “something that is fallen into” (Mounce). In other words, you and I are not hunting out our own trials. They come from outside of ourselves. Consider any medical condition. We could eat and drink poorly all our lives in hope to die and yet continue to live. How many people have we heard of that have attempted to commit suicide one way or another and yet still live?

You and I cannot put ourselves into a trial. It is impossible. We can put ourselves into a bad situation as in spending frivolously and getting into lots of debt. This is not a trial. It is the consequence of a lack of financial stewardship and an effect of sin.

On the other hand, this tells us that trials are intentional. Such that, when a trial comes upon “those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). In other words, the trials that you and I experience are for our good. What is most amazing is that no trial is wasted and that no matter the severity, this promise from Romans 8:28 applies! Therefore, you and I can take joy this evening and every day God gives to us because even in the most difficult we can take joy in it.

Ø Perseverance (v.3)

The second aim we take at trials is perseverance. In connection with the first point, we go through trials with joy because we know that at the end perseverance is the result. In other words, we do not go through trials in vain. We do so persevering until the end.

We see this most clearly in the life of Christ. Christ did not invoke the trials that He went through because of poor decision making, but because of the will of God and the hatred of men. >>>Consider Isaiah 53:10. Did you catch the will of God? It pleased Yahweh to crush His Son and as He went through that humiliation a people would be redeemed unto Himself.

As Jesus went through trials and hardship, He continually denied Himself for that which was greater. Matthew 16:24 is the verse that Jesus says to take up your cross and follow Him. He can say this because He had been doing this up until this point. He had every power as God in the flesh to overcome and dominate every trial, and yet, He did not use it. Jesus never sought to get out of a trial the fast and easy way. The same must be said of us as we follow Him! You and I should not seek to get out of a trial quick, but to, instead, persevere through the trial, for we see this modeled by our Lord.

>>>2 Corinthians 4:11-17 is, perhaps, the greatest summary of the Christian life when it pertains to trials, suffering, and hardship. At this time in Paul and Timothy’s lives they had endured much trial because they faithfully preached the word. The cost was not an issue for them, the trials were not too difficult, the suffering an afterthought. Why? Because they both looked ahead to their perseverance in Christ.

I want you to know this, that when you are tested based on what you believe about the perfect work of Christ and the sinners desperate need for it, you WILL persevere. Any time we see a promise or guarantee in Scripture, we must highlight it! Why? Because when we are asked why we suffer the way that we do, why we go through trials with joy and not a depressed scowl on our face, or why we preach that trials will come, and this life is not a blissful dream of nothing ever going wrong, we can confidently say that this is what we are assured of in Scripture. That is what we see in verse 3. James wants to drill into our brains that we do not go through trial in vain. God is not cruel and puts us in trials to merely watch how we will do through it. We go through them with the promise already assured that we will make it through.

But this does not mean that the trial will be easy. Perseverance means having “the power to withstand hardship or stress” (BSL). This could be easily equated with physical persecution. But what about the daily mental stress trials can cause? How about sharing your faith with a co-worker and you get mocked. How about the days that ensue? The days of continued mocking because of what you believe. That is mental and spiritual stress. Or what if you lose a job because of your faith in Christ? I cannot imagine the stress that the bakers were under a few years ago when they were intentionally sought after to make cakes for homosexual weddings and the like. That’s hard! The possibility of having what you have worked hard to glorify God in and having it all taken away!

So, are you tested because of your faith? Notice that is the element of trial and persevering. You and I go through this same reality that one commentator notes, “James’s hearers were undergoing trials in the permissive will of God to prove the genuineness of their faith” (Kurt A. Richardson). Next time you are faced with a trial, be encouraged because it is in that moment that your faith is being tested, not to see if you are a follower of Christ or not, for God knows your heart. But the testing is to refine you and bring you closer to Christ as you persevere the way that He did.

Ø Perfection (v.4)

As you and I persevere through a variety of trials we see the work of God in us throughout the duration of our lives. We don’t go through them unchanged just waiting for heaven. Verse 4 would take us far from that way of thinking.

Perseverance leads us to a perfect work or a full effect (ESV). Both leads to the Greek rendering it simply as “maturity.” You could reread verse 4 to say, “let perseverance have its maturing work, so that you may be mature and complete.” Just as joy leads us to perseverance during trial, so perseverance leads us to maturity and completion. This for the sake of not lacking anything.

In Luke 21:17-19, Jesus tells his disciples that they will hated because of Christ and upon perseverance their lives will be saved. Now this doesn’t mean that their lives will be saved, and they live forever, but that upon persevering and maturing through these trials, they will gain their lives in a spiritual and eternal sense. Remember, Christ always had the spiritual and eternal things in mind because “the world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).

What this perfect work is telling us is that it is something to be built up to. In other words, the first time that you and I persevere through a trial we will not be mature. As we continue, faithfully, through trials and other subsequent hard times, we are building up for ourselves, by the grace of God, a maturity that is perfected in Christ. If it is God who allows us to fall into the trial, then it is God who carries us through the trial and gets the glory and praise for delivering us from it. We must never think that it is in our strength that we go through a trial.

You and I strive for perfection, but not the way that the world does. The perfection we strive for is a perfection that is bathed in maturity that leads to completeness. No money can purchase this, no makeup can achieve this, no status can attain this. James is speaking according to heavenly things here. He has his eyes fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

Galatians 6:1 offers up the antidote for any one of us who might think that we can do these things in our own power. We are not to look at others who fall and point the finger. No! “Each of you (are to look) to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). In other words, maturity requires humility. As we strive for maturity, we still wrestle with the temptation and trial. We come to verse 4 with James writing to a people that are beat up physically, emotionally, and spiritually. At some point they may have been tempted to throw in the towel because of the difficulty they were facing. Is the trial worth it? Is this struggle between good and evil worth my time? Is the investment into maturity of any value if it is this hard? These are very real questions that can be asked when tempted.

If God allows His own Son to be tempted (not that God tempted His Son with evil, let’s be clear) by the evil one, what makes you think that you will not be permitted to be tempted either?!

Are you discouraged at the trial you are facing today? >>>Listen to Proverbs 4:18. Here, as we live out our faith day by day our light shines brighter as we approach the day when Jesus takes us home into perfect glory. That is the fullness of the day in verse 18. It is our faith turned to sight. It is seeing the maturing work come to completion in Christ. Brothers, this is what you and I have to look forward to!

This is what was behind Paul’s famous words in Philippians 3:12-17. These words we know so well, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” In other words, Paul sought maturity in Christ to its fullest completion and that was what he strived after.

Conclusion

Is this said of you? Do you seek the Lord in the midst of your trial? Are you encouraged by knowing that whatever trial you are facing is for your good? Do you strive more and more, year after year, trial after trial, seeking perfection in Christ?

May what I conclude with be written upon our hearts. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).