I Choose Joy
What Does James Teach Us about living Joyfully?
Every Circumstance demands a choice
all joy—cause for the highest joy [GROTIUS]. Nothing but joy [PISCATOR]. Count all “divers temptations” to be each matter of joy [BENGEL].
temptations—not in the limited sense of allurements to sin, but trials or distresses of any kind which test and purify the Christian character.
Every possible trial to the child of God is a masterpiece of strategy of the Captain of his salvation for his good.
all joy Or “nothing but joy,” or “supreme joy.” James refers to an extended state of well-being rather than an immediate feeling of happiness or pleasure.
various trials The Greek word here, peirasmos, refers to an unwelcome or unexpected experience. James may be referring to trials in general, or to specific hardships such as persecution (2:6, 7; 4:3, 13), sickness (5:14), and poverty (vv. 9–11; 2:1–7; 5:1–6).
The RSV renders more adequately, when you meet various trials. The word peirasmos (“trial”) has two meanings. Here it means “external adversities,” whereas in verses 13, 14 it means “inner impulse to evil,” “temptation.”
1:2 Trials are of outward circumstances—conflicts, sufferings, and troubles—encountered by all believers. Trials are not pleasant and may be extremely grievous, but believers are to consider them as opportunities for rejoicing. Troubles and difficulties are a tool that refines and purifies our faith, producing patience and endurance.
The words count it all joy are actually the opening words of v 2 (in Greek). They strike precisely the note of triumph that James wishes to sound for his Christian brothers. They should be joyful in trials because trials have a positive and highly beneficial purpose in the plan of God.
The phrase whenever you experience various trials assumes that trials are a normal part of the Christian life. In fact, trials are a given for a faithful disciple (2Tm 3:12). The Jewish wisdom tradition held that the experience of “trials” was proof of a person’s faithfulness.
Joy suggests an eschatological (end times) hope of deliverance from trials. The joy with which a believer endures trials in the present is a sign of their hope for future relief.
Notice James said “whenever,” not “if.” But regardless of the form your trials take (physical, emotional, relational, financial), God wants you to be joyful because one of the primary means he uses to make us like Christ is by sending trouble our way.
Hardships can transform us into something beautiful. That is cause for unspeakable joy—not because of the pain but because of the purpose behind it. In God’s providence, you have bad days on purpose. God uses trials to develop us spiritually.
Count. Or, “consider,” “deem,” “think.” It is the privilege and duty of the Christian to take an intelligent attitude toward the tests and trials that beset his pathway. He needs to study and understand God’s permissive relationship to such experiences (see on
To the mature Christian the trials and tests of life need bring no burden of disappointment or discouragement.
Christian joy and courage are based, not on external circumstances—which may often be most forbidding—but on faith in God’s overruling providence and an intelligent understanding of His dealings with men.
This exhortation about temptation implies: (1) That it is the normal accompaniment of the Christian course. It will constantly recur, and will attack the strong points in a character.
(2) That temptation is not sin (cf.
This does not suggest that we should seek out trials. Nor are we to pretend that enduring trials is pleasant. They cause pain and difficulty. Still, we should look at trials as an occasion for joy because of their potential for producing something good in us.
And, secondly, he issues a command: count it all joy. The command is categorical, suggesting the need for a definitive decision to take up a joyful attitude. The ‘all’ modifying ‘joy’ might suggest that the joy is to be unmixed with other emotions—‘count it only joy’ or ‘nothing but joy’—but probably emphasizes rather the quality of the joy (NEB ‘supremely happy’).
James is calling on believers to make a decisive personal choice about how they face their life situations. Knowing Christ changes everything! It is literally “add it all up!” In the ancient world sets of numbers were totaled at the top, not the bottom, as in our culture.
Joy comes through a relationship with Christ
3. the trying—the testing or proving of your faith, namely, by “divers temptations.”
Those who suffer can express joy (v. 2) during times of trial because of their confidence in the day in which Christ will vindicate them (
Faith is like gold; it stands in the test of fire. Without this approved standard of faith, trials would not yield perseverance. There would only be ashes. True faith, like pure gold, endures, no matter how hot the fire. True faith therefore develops, or more literally “works” (katergazetai), perseverance or staying power.
1:2 Trials are of outward circumstances—conflicts, sufferings, and troubles—encountered by all believers. Trials are not pleasant and may be extremely grievous, but believers are to consider them as opportunities for rejoicing. Troubles and difficulties are a tool that refines and purifies our faith, producing patience and endurance.
And that purpose is stated here as something known to the readers. God’s intention in allowing faith to be tested is to produce patience, more accurately, “endurance” or “perseverance.” God is in the business of building up strong Christian men and women who can persevere in hard times without fainting.
Because you know explains why they can have great joy amid various trials. Knowledge that the testing of your faith produces endurance is the basis for joy. Endurance is the ability to persevere through increasing levels of testing or suffering.
you may claim to believe and follow God, but how do you respond when he tests your faith and pushes your buttons? God is working to produce endurance in you, so let endurance have its full effect.
This word refers not only to the testing of a Christian’s faith but more precisely to that attribute of faith that makes it victorious over the problems of life.
James speaks of victorious faith that has successfully faced the varied problems of life, or “divers temptations.” Each conflict with “temptation” strengthens the faith of a victorious Christian. As a veteran of earthly warfare who has learned to face habitual danger confidently is more trustworthy than a raw recruit, so the victorious Christian is better prepared for the trials he must meet than the Christian whose faith is untried.
By faith we believe that God is working with us, and this conviction develops a hardy steadfastness that will not submit to defeat.
We are to realize that God intends the testing of our faith to produce perseverance. Without these trials, some character would be undeveloped. God also uses trials to purge and remove defects from immature faith.
It also includes staying power that believers can have because they trust their God. Tested faith becomes spiritually tough and rugged.
The reason that believers should react with joy when faced with various trials is that these trials are means of testing through which God works to perfect faith.
The word translated testing in RSV, dokimion, is rare, being found elsewhere in the New Testament only in
suffering is a means by which faith, tested in the fires of adversity, can be purified of any dross and thereby strengthened.
The believer is asked to respond to trials with joy, then, because he knows that they are working to produce a deeper, stronger, more certain faith.
The Greek term pistis may be translated in English as “trust,” “believe,” or “faith.” This term conveys two distinct aspects of our relationship with God: (1) we put our trust in the trustworthiness of God’s promises and Jesus’ finished work and (2) we believe the message about God, man, sin, Christ, salvation, etc.
“produces” This is a PRESENT MIDDLE (deponent) INDICATIVE. Notice that an ongoing process, not an instantaneous result, is being emphasized. A similar chain of growth stages is seen in
Joy completes (strengthens) the believer
ye may be perfect—fully developed in all the attributes of a Christian character. For this there is required “joy” [BENGEL], as part of the “perfect work” of probation. The work of God in a man is the man. If God’s teachings by patience have had a perfect work in you, you are perfect [ALFORD].
1:4 mature and complete Those who are suffering should have joy (
This endurance must be allowed to have its full scope (perfect work). It is a process that goes on in the life of a Christian, its goal being perfection (teleios is better rendered maturity). The writer may have had in mind the words of our Lord recorded in
Just as tested and true faith works to produce perseverance, so perseverance must be allowed to continue its perfect or finished work to produce the ultimate by-products of maturity and spiritual fulfillment.
1:4 If a believer endures a trial, he or she will be perfect, meaning “having reached the end,” and complete, meaning “whole.”
Immaturity and incompletion are not acceptable long-term states for the Christian disciple.
Don’t try to short-circuit a trial by illegitimately seeking to exit it. God is trying to make you spiritually mature and complete (1:4). The conflict you experience in the physical world is a means he uses to draw your attention to something in the spiritual world. God applies the iron of trials to the wrinkles of our lives so that Jesus Christ looks good wearing us.
The acquiring of patient endurance is actually the process of developing a Christlike character. To achieve the choice result of active endurance, which itself is a product of a cheerful faith, we must not limit, or weaken, our enduring power by murmuring, complaining, or rebelling.
Patient endurance will help us fulfill this task of reproducing the character of Christ, which is the “work” God has given us to do.
Complete pictures someone who possesses all the spiritual traits needed for moral completeness. People who endure trials with faith in God can develop every trait needed for spiritual victory.
mature Christians are the end-product of testing.
To be perfect and complete is the state that should result from a genuinely Christian response to trials. The perfection or wholeness of the Christian is a basic concern of James. He constantly stresses the need for a wholehearted, unreserved commitment to God and his will and highlights ‘double-mindedness’ as a root sin.
The goal specified in verse 4b, then, is an eschatological gift—something towards which the Christian is constantly to strive with all his power, but which will not in fact be attained until the culmination of the new age of salvation. Only then will Christians lack nothing in their panoply of virtues.
Greek word “perfect” (telos) means “fully equipped,” “mature,” or “ripe.” It is often linked to love (cf.
The second term “complete” (holoklēria) is used of the health and wholeness of the physical body (cf.
Trials are God’s means of producing maturity (cf.
