Sermon Tone Analysis

Last Sunday morning we looked at the [[opening 12 verses|bible:James 1:1-12]] of James’ letter, and saw that the theme there was *Even trials are good for us*.

This seems counter-intuitive, as James well knows, but he gave us five reasons to explain what he was saying.

He told us first of all that *trials lead to maturity*, because the grimness of today forces us to place our hope in the future, and by striving towards the future rather than languishing in the present, we develop maturity.

But the Christian’s hope was not simply that /things/ would become better, because they may not.

Rather, the Christians hope was that /he/ would become better, and therefore more able to deal with the trials he was facing.

The second reason James told us that trials could be good for us, was because *Trials lead us to God*.

Trials expose our needs, and the only place the Christian knows to go when he is in need, is to go straight to God.

Not only that, but *trials lead us to a stronger faith*.

Just as a climber has more confidence in his safety equipment /after/ it has saved him, so a Christian has more confidence, more faith in God, /after/ God has brought him through trials.

*Trials also lead to contentment*, says James, because when we’ve come through a difficult trial we know that what we have must be sufficient, even if it doesn’t seem like very much.

And finally, James told us that *trials* lead to glory.

Trials are an inevitable part of life, but they won’t be part of eternity, of heaven.

So as every trial passes, we know that we’re one step close to being free from trials and difficulties and pain, one step close to being forever with the Lord.

So it’s easy to see why James said that *even trials are good for us*.

But he wants to sound a cautionary note, because in the section that we’re looking at this morning, he wants to address a problem that every one of us has faced.

This morning, in [[verses 12 to 18|bible:James 1:12-18]], James is going to look at *When trials become temptations*.

James spend the [[first twelve verses|bible:James 1:1-12]] explaining how trials can build us up.

But James is just like you and I, and he knows that sometimes that just doesn’t happen.

Sometimes trials don’t build us up, trials drag us down.

Why is that?

If trials are given us by God, does that mean it’s God’s fault when the trial becomes too much, and we fail?

That’s exactly the problem that James is going to address today.

He does it by giving us three points.

Firstly, in [[verses 12 and 13|bible:James 1:12-13]], he tells us that *Steadfastness in trials brings life*.

Then in [[verses 14 and 15|bible:James 1:14-15]], he warns us that *Succumbing to temptations brings death*.

Finally, in [[verses 16 through 18|bible:James 1:16-18]], he tells us that *Security in trials is brought by God* .

Firstly then:

!! Steadfastness in trials brings life ([[vv 12-13|bible:James 1:12-13]])

You’ll remember that we dealt briefly with [[verse 12|bible:James 1:12]] at the end of last week.

We’re returning to it today, because it serves double-duty in the letter.

It brings to a close everything that James wanted to say about trials being good for us, but also leads us into this new section that explains how trials become temptations.

But before we can understand this section completely, I need to teach you a little bit of Greek.

Don’t worry, it’s very simple, and I promise you it will be helpful.

In English, we think of a trial and something different from a temptation, don’t we?

If you look up ‘trial’ in a thesaurus (at least in the thesaurus that I checked), it won’t say ‘temptation’.

They’re two different things.

We normally think of a trial as something that we have to do, that is particularly difficult.

And a temptation is something that we’d like to do, but probably shouldn’t!

They’re quite different things.

But in Greek in the first-century, they didn’t have two different words, as we do.

They had just one: /peirasmos/.

And this one word had two different meanings.

I looked it up in the best Greek dictionary I have, and it said that its first meaning was “an attempt to learn the character of something”, but that its second meaning was “an attempt to make one do something wrong”.

So you can see in the first case /peirasmos/ would be translated as /trial/, and in the second case it would be translated as /temptation/.

The problem is that James uses this word right throughout chapter one.

He uses it in [[verse 2|bible:James 1:12]] when he says “count it all joy when you fall into various trials”, and he uses the equivalent verb /peiraso/ throughout [[verses 13 and 14|bible:James 1:13-14]] when he says that God tempts no-one.

So we have to be very careful how we interpret these verses, to make sure that we’re using the correct translation of /peirasmos/.

Actually, though, I think the Greeks had it about right, by using the same word for both things.

Let me tell you about Dave.

Dave is a bit overweight, and is thinking of going on a diet.

His wife, Deborah, thinks this is a wonderful idea, and because she works for Children in Need, suggests that he makes it a sponsored diet for that cause.

Dave agrees, and sets off to find sponsors.

It seems not many people have too much confidence in Dave, because if his diet works, he’s going to raise hundreds of pounds.

One lady, Linda, has sponsored him £1 for every pound of weight he loses.

His diet starts of quite well for the first few weeks, and he begins to lose weight.

His wife Deborah is very careful to buy lots of low-calorie food, and to hide the biscuits!

Then, one evening there’s a dinner-party at Dave’s house, and of course – for the first time in weeks – a really fattening pudding is on offer.

And it happens to be Dave’s favourite – Triple Chocolate Cake.

Just before she brings out the cake, Deborah thinks to herself, “This is going to be a real test for Dave.

We’ll see whether he’s really committed to this diet.”

I won’t tell you whether Dave ate the cake.

But I will tell you that a few weeks later he and Deborah found themselves at Linda’s house for a meal.

Linda takes one look at Dave and sees that he’s already lost an awful lot of weight.

At this rate, Dave’s diet is going to cost her a fortune.

So when it’s time for pudding, she says to herself, “Now let’s see if I can tempt Dave here”, and brings out his favourite pudding, a Triple Chocolate Cake.

Now what’s the point of that story, other than to make you all feel very hungry!

Simply this, from Dave’s point of view, exactly the same thing happened at both dinner-parties – a great big Triple Chocolate Cake was put in front of him.

But on one occasion he was being tested, on the other he was being tempted!

What’s the difference?

Well, when his wife brought out the cake, she wanted him to pass the test.

But when Linda brought out the cake, she wanted him to succumb to the temptation.

So let’s read the first part of [[verse 13|bible:James 1:13]] again.

Let no-one say when he is tempted or tested, “I am tempted by God”.

Do you see what James is saying?

God will send us all kinds of trials in life, but God always wants us to pass the test, he never wants us to succumb to temptation.

God never encourages us to sin.

Now I hope that illustration helps us to see how God never tempts us, because he always wants us to pass the test.

But perhaps some of you see a problem.

We know from our own experience that often we fail tests.

So if God wants us to pass, why is it that we seem so often to fail.

Does that mean it’s God’s fault when we fail?

Perhaps another illustration will go some way to answering that question.

Imagine a teacher in school, preparing her pupils for an exam.

Let’s call her Mrs Jones.

Mrs Jones teaches her class diligently, doing the very best she can to ensure that all of them know what’s required of them, and understand the subject.

Soon, she knows, it’s important that she tests each of them to see how much they’ve learned.

Mrs Jones has the job that none of the other teachers want.

She’s teaching the bottom set.

She has the class where everyone is used to failing.

But Mrs Jones has worked hard, and she knows that with her help, each one of them would be able to pass.

But despite that, she is concerned that one or two, might not pass the test.

So, in the weeks leading up to the test, she uses her class time for revision, she gives up her lunch-break in order to run tutorials, and she even offers individual tuition to those pupils are really struggling.

There really is nothing Mrs Jones isn’t doing to help her class pass the test.

The day of the test comes.

Mrs Jones is confident that her hard work will pay off.

She’s confident that her class will pass the test.

Confident of everybody, that is, apart from little Jonny.

Jonny, you see, has always struggled.

It’s not that he’s thick, it’s that he doesn’t put the effort in.

His grades were poor, but Mrs Jones is not convinced he’s been revising, and he certainly hasn’t been to her tutorials, or come for one-to-one tuition.