Joyful Patience During Trials
James 1:2-4
I have a confession to make: I don’t like tests. Tests were always something you had to take in order to get something else. You take tests in school to graduate to the next level. You take a driving test to get a license. You take a blood test to (hopefully) get a clean bill of health. You take an IQ test to feel humiliated. At every phase of life, tests are just a necessary hassle to get something else.
As much as I don’t like tests, I do like joy. Go figure! One of the fundamental truths of the Christian faith is that God has a purpose for His people and for His creation; that purpose will ultimately bring joy to His people and glory to Himself. Those who have faith see this through-out God’s Word and therefore we draw strength from it. Christians don’t believe this simply because it makes us feel better; we don’t believe this because we’re un-intellectual simpletons; or because we can’t handle the “real world” with its man-centered fatalistic view of the world. Christians believe that God is in control of His creation and that He has a purpose for what happens in this world… even when that purpose seems inexplicable. When faith reads the Word of God, it draws strength from His sovereign goodness and finds joy in what is true about God.
In 1981, Rabbi Harold Kushner published the book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Kushner took the position that bad things were unfortunate, but that God was not able to prevent them. He believed that God wanted to heal and to stop evil, but couldn’t. In others words, God is good, but He’s powerless. For many people, the problem of evil is the main obstacle to their belief in the sovereignty of God. I have heard countless ministers say much the same thing in the face of inscrutable tragedy: “God did not intend for this to happen.” And I know why they say those things. They usually say those things because they want to absolve God of the supposed guilt of being responsible for unexplainable tragedy in a fallen world. But in their attempts to absolve God of this guilt (as they see it), they only absolve Him of His sovereignty.
The biblical view is that God is both supremely good and supremely sovereign. There is much that we can’t explain and don’t understand in life… but God is still in control—and He has a purpose. The good purpose of God should give you hope when life’s circumstances often cannot. James tells us in the very beginning of his letter that trials are part of God’s curriculum to build His people’s faith. James will list several typical trials and tests that all people will face. For believers, the end result of the test will reveal a genuine faith and great joy. Look at James 1, verses 2-4. In honor of God and His Word, let’s stand for the reading of these verses.
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. [NKJV]
[Prayer] In verses 2-4, James sets his readers up for his main argument. His main argument is this: Trials and tests are God’s way of preparing believers for eternity with Him. Like the fires of a goldsmith or a silversmith, the fires of affliction are necessary to remove the impurities from our lives. It hurts and we don’t enjoy it, but it produces in us a purity that enables us to know and enjoy God forever. Purity in the presence of God is an unending source of joy. But that’s our problem… we’re not pure. We need to be tested in our faith to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. This testing is a necessary part of your sanctification. The process is painful, but the product is joyful. Look at verse 2 and then the first point…
2“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials…” That may sound like a non-sequitur, but here’s the point:
I. Various trials promote joy when faith governs your life (2).
When someone reads verse two for the first time, it almost sounds like James is being cynical or even sarcastic: “When life is really falling apart at the seams, that’s the time to be joyful.” But James knows something that those without faith cannot imagine. He knows that behind the pain and struggle of various trials in the Christian life, there is the building of spiritual muscle. And in verse two, he’s telling his readers that the way to see this spiritual muscle is in the attitude of the one who’s afflicted with various trials. He says those who are growing strong in the Christian faith will have a deeper joy in the hidden purpose of God than those who have weak faith.
It’s quite possible that James heard his half-brother, Jesus teaching the beatitudes when He said things like: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” [Mt. 5:11-12, NKJV]. So Jesus said things that only make sense if you have faith in Him and are confident in the world to come.
When James says, “My brethren”, we know he’s talking to fellow believers in Christ. When he says, “count it all joy”, he uses a word that means to consider or to reckon like an accountant, for all times sake, beginning right this minute. So when you fall into various trials, your immediate Christian response should be—joy! Now James knows that our immediate natural response will not be joy. He knows our nature is to panic and worry and fret and grieve when bad things start to happen in life. But if we mature in faith, the Christian response begins to take control.
The Christians who first read this letter from James needed to hear this. They were grieving under the intense persecution that was sweeping over them after the stoning of Stephen. Some of them were beginning to think that being a Christian is worthless if it doesn’t protect you from the evil of wicked men and painful circumstances. Sound familiar? So James is correcting their misunderstanding of the nature of faith and the purpose of trials. James is telling these poor, afflicted Christians that when they persecute you for being a Christian, think of your coming joy. When they spread false rumors about you because you stay loyal to Jesus, think of your coming joy. When they burn your house down and arrest you because you follow Jesus and will not deny Him, think of your coming joy! He says, “Reckon it! Count on it!” because these trials in your life are producing something that comfort and ease cannot. Look at the second point…
II. Tested faith produces patience when time has run its course (3).
Verses two and three say: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” Again, James knows the natural response to hard times. Unbelief will always say, “Forget eternity! Forget joy in Jesus after I get to heaven! I want my house back; I want my reputation back; I want my friends and family to like me again…” Even genuine faith, when it’s weak and immature, can sometimes look like unbelief. We’re like the busy executive who said, “Lord, give me patience… and give it right this minute!”
James spent the first half of his life as an unbeliever. He grew up with Jesus and knew Him in the flesh, but didn’t believe. He watched Jesus get up in the morning. He listened to Jesus pray to the Father. He watched Jesus chew His food at the table and wipe the crumbs off of His beard, but seeing Jesus in the flesh and hearing Jesus in the flesh is meaningless. James now knows that only faith can receive what is true about God. Only faith can embrace affliction with joy in God’s purpose. So he gives these fellow Christians a new way to view their trials. These are God’s faith-building exercises to test your faith and to cultivate joy in Jesus.
In verse 3 he tells the readers something they already know: “knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” The testing of your faith is ongoing throughout the Christian life. Even when you aren’t being overtly tempted; just your attitude toward the members of your household is in some measure a test of your faith. James is not saying that patience is a special gift that only some privileged class of believers receive. He’s telling us that patience is the result of being broken by repeated tests over and over again when you don’t get your way and things don’t happen on your time plan. Instead of coping with anger or alcohol or some other narcotic, the patient have learned to turn to God as their reason for joy when life is painful and frustrating.
But we have to allow the patience to take root by not short-circuiting the process with a quick fix. In this context, impatience becomes a synonym for unbelief. Even true believers can act in unbelief when they yield to impatience during the testing time. We have all encountered this unbelief in our lives when the test seemed too long and too painful. That’s why he wrote verse 4:
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“But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” Here’s the third principle…
III. Mature patience provides completion when the perfect work is done (4).
The word “perfect” here is not speaking of moral perfection, but rather of maturity or complete-ness. Let patience have its complete work, its full work. I vaguely remember having a test conducted on me when I was little at a doctor’s office. It was one of those tests where I was required to lay perfectly still until the test was over because if I moved or wiggled, they would have to start the test all over again. I can remember being paranoid about the slightest move for fear they’d have to start that wretched test all over again. I think that’s what James is saying about patience. He’s telling us to lay still and wait for it to pass. We might expect him to say this about trials, but he’s talking about patience having its perfect work. So patience is not just the goal of the testing, it’s part of the test itself.
Patience is a picture of what faith in God looks like when it doesn’t have what it really wants to have. Patience believes that God is able to abundantly compensate us for whatever we are denied in pursuit of God’s glory through obedience.
I don’t like tests. Most of us don’t… but tests ordained by God are designed to build spiritual muscle and strengthen our faith that results in unshakable joy in God.
When you’re going through trials and tests this week, here are five things to remember:
(1) Don’t mistake the presence of pain for the absence of God in your life.
(2) Godly joy, which is ultimate joy, is always produced through trials, not in spite of them.
(3) Genuine faith is always tested by God because He loves you and is preparing you for eternity.
(4) When you short-circuit the work of patience by yielding to sin, you also diminish the production of joy.
(5) When you’re at the end of your rope and you don’t think life will ever be good again, lie still in the presence of God and wait for the storm to pass. No matter how dark your circumstances are right now, God will make His Son to shine again in your life.
[Tell the John Newton/William Cowper story – then quote the hymn]
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable minds
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His gracious will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding ev’ry hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow’r.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
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(c) Charles Kevin Grant
2005