Testing of Your Faith

Today I'd like to begin a journey with you through the New Testament book of James. James is a unique letter in the New Testament in that it is almost entirely comprised of very practical instruction for the Christian. Some have even called this letter the Proverbs of the New Testament because of all the the practical words of wisdom that it contains.

So let's begin a new series this morning. Please turn with me if you would to James chapter 1. We'll be looking at the first 11 verses today. James 1 verses 1 through 11. James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes in the dispersion.

Greetings. Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him but let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind for that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation because like a flower of the grass he will pass away for the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass.

Its flower falls and its beauty perishes so also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Let's pray. Father what we know not teach us what we have not give us what we are not make us we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Be seated. I've always had a fascination with the book of James. It's straightforward, it's clear, it's practical and so I'm looking forward to digging into this letter with you over the course of several sermons. Before we jump into the main body of this New Testament letter I want you to notice the greeting there in verse one.

This greeting gives us a quick lay of the land. It tells us who wrote the letter and it tells us to some extent I think why he wrote the letter. The author is identified as James a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there were several Jameses in the in the early church but the consensus among Reformed Bible scholars agree that this James is the half brother of Jesus. He was a man of prominence in the early church. In fact Acts 15 indicates that this James was the leader or the convener of the Jerusalem council. There is evidence then that the letter was written prior to the Jerusalem council which if that's the case would mean that the book of James is possibly the earliest book in the New Testament. Perhaps being written only about 10 years after the ascension of Christ. So in this letter here's a man who grew up with Jesus. He had his life transformed by Jesus. He was vested with great authority in the church by Jesus.

He wrote a letter of practical instruction to the church only a decade or so after the earthly ministry of Jesus. All that adds up to the fact that I want to sit up and listen when it comes to the book of James. Notice then James's audience he says it's to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. The 12 tribes it's obvious from the content of the letter itself that James's audience was predominantly Jewish. There are numerous references to Jewish things like the old testament laws and customs, old testament imagery and narratives from the old testament. He even mentions the synagogue at one point that was the the Jewish meeting place during the new testament era.

So it's very natural for him to address his audience as the 12 tribes. Certainly their early church would have been comprised predominantly of Jewish people. I realized that Paul had only just begun his extensive mission work among the Gentiles when James was writing. But we need to understand that this letter is not for Jews only. It's written to the church by virtue of the fact that it's coming from a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ who is writing these things under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

He calls them the 12 tribes in the sense that God's elect from every epoch, every dispensation, every age, God's elect is as Paul puts it the true Israel of God. Peter is going to use very similar language in his epistle but then he applies that similar language specifically to Gentile regions. So this letter isn't intended for Jewish Christians alone. It isn't for some sort of category of messianic Jew. It's for the church. It's for Christians.

It's for you and for me. More specifically it's for the church in the dispersion. The dispersion was the scattering that took place as far back as the days of Israel and Judah when they were forced out of the promised land.

They were taken into exile in Assyria and in Babylon. But other dispersions like that took place over the years. There were times of persecution that drove the covenant community away from their homeland, away from each other, away from stability and routine.

In a general sense dispersion is the spreading out of God's people often under duress, oftentimes as a result of the world's hatred of them. It's what happens to the people of God as we live as foreigners in a strange land waiting for our true homeland. So I think that's the backdrop behind this letter. It's a backdrop of oppression and hardship and trial. Now a quick word about the structure of the letter and then we'll jump into the the body of the letter.

James moves very quickly from topic to topic. If you've read through the these five chapters you know that. In fact it's very difficult to outline a linear train of thought throughout the letter. I wasted a whole lot of time in my study this week trying to come up with an outline of the book, a cohesive logical progression and it's just not there. Now that doesn't mean it wasn't there in James's mind when he wrote the letter.

He knew why he wrote what he wrote and he knew the order in which he wrote it but God hasn't necessarily preserved that rationale for us and so I don't think we need to try to make these chapters fit into a neat and tidy sermon outline. We need to just let the letter speak for itself. That's what I hope to do. I was thinking this letter sounds a whole lot like Laura and I sounded a few weeks ago when we were dropping our daughter off at college. As the time drew near for us to tell her goodbye we kind of just got into parent mode and started barraging her with advice and counsel. Don't forget to lock your doors at night.

Get in after dark. Don't drive too fast in the snow and all these words of advice all at once. James kind of reads like that. He knew the people he was writing to. He knew their problems. He knew their character flaws and strengths and he addresses those things no doubt systematically even if that order and structure is lost on us. But what we need to remember is that as with any book in the Bible there is a divine author behind the human author right and God knows who he is writing this letter to. God knows our problems. He knows our character flaws and strengths and so he has breathed out this short pithy letter for us his people.

We need to sit up and listen. With that said let's begin making our way through the letter. The very first point James makes is that trials perfect us. Trials perfect us and there's an implication beyond that because trials perfect us we should rejoice in those trials. We should rejoice in the midst of those trials.

Now I said this letter is very practical. Notice that James begins right out of the gate with a command. He says count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds. This command is primarily a command to the mind. It's a command to think differently than we are naturally inclined to think to consider or regard difficult things or hard things or things that we would put in the downers column as things that are ultimately good for us beneficial for us helpful for us. It's a command directed to the mind and aimed at changing the way we think about the the difficult circumstances in our life that stretches thin that tests our faith that pushes to the limit of our capacity to endure. So what kinds of difficult circumstances does James have in mind? Well various kinds.

He says so himself in verse 2. Trials come in different sizes. They are of different sorts. I remember in my early 20s as a as a single guy going through a painful breakup with a girl and I remember thinking that the pain of that situation was not really serious enough to qualify as a trial. I guess I had this idea that trials with a capital T meant a certain kind of struggle. It had to be spiritual not emotional or physical. It had to maybe be the consequence of persecution not the consequence of my own misjudgment or my own character flaws. And my particular trial at that time just didn't measure up to what I assumed James had in mind.

So it didn't count. I remember reasoning to myself Eugene you're just a wimpy Christian because you're you're not even able to to count these junior varsity trials as joy. During that time I read a very helpful book by Elizabeth Elliott in which she was pointing out that suffering of all sorts is a potential point of identification with Christ. Suffering of all sorts of various kinds is a potential source of identifying fellowshipping in the sufferings of Christ. Yes there are there are different kinds of suffering there are different causes of suffering but those qualifiers don't really matter in James 1 because he expressly says that it's trials of various kinds that are to be rejoiced in. Now that phrase various kinds translates the same Greek word that's used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to describe Joseph's many-colored coat.

You remember that story don't you? In this life we experience trials of many colors and stripes. So Christian whatever trial you're experiencing large or small spiritual or physical or emotional respectable or embarrassingly shaped or seemingly shameful God is able to harness that trial and use it for some good some benefit in your life. It may be sickness or loneliness it may be bereavement or disappointment we need to learn in each of these to count them as James says in verse 2 all joy. Let's look at that phrase all joy here in James 2 all joy is not a quantitative statement it's not a measure of how much rather it's a qualitative statement it's describing what kind. Some have suggested another translation might be pure joy counted as pure sincere joy.

So we're not being called here to put on some fake happy face and just pretend that everything's peachy when it's not. No we're being commanded to recognize to look for to think about the genuine joy that will result in an otherwise awful situation. I remember a drummer a friend of mine in high school he was a great drummer but he had a an odd view of pain.

He used to practice his drums all the time sometimes till his hands would start bleeding he said and then he would say I love the pain because it's making me a better drummer. Folks God isn't calling us in verse 2 to love the pain. He's calling us to have pure joy in the midst of the pain not in the pain itself and there's a huge difference. This leads us then to ask the question what is there to rejoice over when I'm suffering when I'm hurting. You see the answer in verses 3 & 4 these verses tell us that trials of various kinds or to put it another way the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. It produces endurance, staying power and that steadfastness of character in turn enables you to stay in the crucible long enough to see all sorts of growth in virtue and faith as a result even to the point of you becoming perfect and complete lacking nothing.

I want to be perfect and complete lacking nothing so how do I get there? I get there by learning to rejoice in trial. I was talking to Rachel McCullough a few days ago she's carrying a baby she's getting pretty close to her due date and I asked her that dumb question that non-pregnant people ask pregnant people you ready to have that baby? And she said something that struck me as kind of a metaphor of the very process that James describes here in verses 3 & 4. She said that early on in the pregnancy she was a little nervous maybe a bit fearful of what labor and delivery would be like this is her first child but she said as time goes on the pregnancy has a way of making you eager for labor and delivery.

They call it delivery for a reason right? The trials of carrying a baby for nine months gradually builds perseverance to the point that you are ready when it's time for delivery. Christians we long to see Christ face-to-face we long for the bliss of heaven that's coming but we have to die to get there. We have to die physically we have to die to ourselves we have to die to sin we have to die to the world and the truth that James is showing us is that the various trials of life are bringing about that death to self that death to sin that death to the world so that we will be prepared and eager for the joys of eternity. So James begins his letter with a command to rejoice because trials are given to us to perfect us but he then moves on to give us examples of the kinds of imperfections that we need that we often have the kinds of perfections we often have and the kinds of trials that we often experience. First we see an example of our imperfection in verses five through eight he says if any of you lacks wisdom and right there it is that's the imperfection we're prone to a lack of wisdom. I've already pointed out that James is steeped in Jewish life and culture he's steeped in the Old Testament so I think it's appropriate that we assume when he brings up a virtue like wisdom his his understanding of wisdom is shaped and defined by the ways in which the Old Testament understands and speaks of wisdom. Wisdom in the Old Testament is the ability to know and understand how life works.

It's distinct from mere knowledge of the facts it involves a comprehension of how those facts fit together and an ability to use that knowledge in a beneficial way. I shared this a while back I think it's appropriate here I heard someone say that knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit salad. That sums it up the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom ultimately then is not merely knowing the facts about life but rather it's the ability to see life from God's perspective. Proverbs 9 10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

So James here is pointing out an imperfection that is typical of us it's an inability to see life from God's perspective. The man or woman who lacks wisdom has very little capacity to rejoice in trial because when bad things happen to them all they can see is bad things happening to them. They lack God's perspective that trials are for our good and so they find themselves unable to rejoice in suffering. Now that's an interesting dilemma isn't it that that puts us in the very thing that enables us to count it all joy when we meet various trials is the sort of thing that trials themselves develop in us.

In other words we can't benefit from the trial until we attain what the trial is supposed to give. So checkmate the trial wins but no God says something very important. He says if you lack that wisdom if you if you lack that ability to see life and to see your trials from God's perspective all you have to do is ask me for it. Do you see what a sweet grace that is you see the provision of God at the very point of our need.

Interestingly though this exposes another imperfection in us not only do we fail to see life from God's perspective folks we fail to see God from God's perspective. You see we expect God to be annoyed by our lacking and asking because we are often annoyed by the lacking and asking of other people toward us. Think of parents helping their children bosses helping employees older siblings helping their younger siblings the needy child the incompetent employee the dependent friend these relationships bring us to our wits end and so we assume that God must also have a wits end but folks God is never annoyed by our lack or our asking he doesn't roll his eyes when we ask for help he is glad to give what we at what we lack he doesn't upbraid us for asking even though we often upbraid needy people who ask things of us. Look at the latter half of verse five it says that God gives generously and without reproach.

Verse six says so ask in faith with no doubting. Evidently there is a tendency in you and in me to doubt that God really wants to perfect us by giving us what we ask for by giving us what we lack. Evidently we are prone to unbelief because we don't see God as he truly is. James says God gives generously and that word again is is a qualitative word not a quantitative word it's not telling us how much God will give it's telling us what his motive is and giving.

He wants to give wisdom he delights in our asking and he delights to give what we're asking for. Folks when we doubt that generosity that that sweet disposition of God towards his children we demean that generosity we fail to perceive God as he truly is. Not only does our doubting misrepresent God it also exposes our own double-mindedness. James says if if we're double-minded in how we view God we will be double-minded in all areas of life unstable in all our ways.

One commentator called it spiritual schizophrenia wanting wisdom from God one day and the wisdom of the world the next. If we're ever going to learn to rejoice in trials we've got to learn to ask God for a correct perspective on life and for a correct perspective on God. We've got to believe that he is both able and willing to give good things to those who ask. Now before we move on to the last section of this passage let me just take a moment to point out an error that is is often defended from James 1 5. This verse tells us that if if we lack wisdom we can ask God for wisdom and he will give it. There are those who broaden the application of this verse to include the idea that anything you ask God for as long as you believe you'll get it will be granted and so there are false teachers claiming that God has given them jets and mansions and fame and power and health simply because they asked in faith.

The church faith isn't about seeing what you want and then claiming it from God. It's about seeing God as he is and then acting upon that knowledge. He is a gracious God who wants to give but he is also a wise God who knows what to give. When we approach him in prayer we're to approach him fully convinced that he is able to give exactly what we want what we what we ask for when it accords with his will and surely we understand that scripture interprets scripture. One passage will not contradict another passage and so the the let him ask and it will be given statement in verse 5 is qualified in a number of places in in scripture. In fact James himself will give us a qualification when we get to chapter 4 where he tells us that all of life ought to be lived under the caveat of if the Lord wills. But just to bring this back to what James is saying here he he's telling us that God requires joy in trial joy in trial requires wisdom wisdom to see life from God's perspective wisdom to see God from God's perspective and if we lack that wisdom God will generously give it to us.

John Calvin commenting on these verses said let us learn whenever the Lord commands anything to ask him the power to perform it. This brings us to the last section of our text in which we see examples of the kinds of trials we go through in this life. We've learned that trials fix our imperfections we've seen what kinds of imperfections they fix now we see what kinds of trials are typical of life in this world and for this illustration James goes to the world of wealth the trials that come with poverty and riches. Look at verse 9 let the lowly brother and in this context I think lowliness refers to socioeconomic lowliness let the lowly brother let the lowly brother boast ironically in his exaltation and the rich ironically boast in his humiliation. You'd expect lowliness to be associated with humiliation and riches to be associated with exaltation but the reverse is true it's counterintuitive as is often the case with God's wisdom. The world's measuring stick of value and success is radically different from God's measuring stick. The world says richness riches are the measure of a man. God says one's connection to Christ is the measure of a man and so God uses various trials such as poverty and wealth to wean us of this tendency to think and measure like the world. In verses 9 through 11 James addresses two kinds of Christians a poor one and a rich one and for both he shows them what rejoicing in the trial looks like. Let's consider first the trial of poverty in general you know this the world despises the poor for being poor a person who lacks means is always needy they're a burden to society they're dead weight they're an encumbrance the poor person himself often feels inferior and helpless and embarrassed by his poverty and yet James tells the lowly brother the poor Christian to boast to brag to be proud of something what is it he is to boast in his exaltation and so in what way is a financially poor Christian exalted I mean he has no wealth to speak of except of course the riches of grace he has no clout no prestige no status except the status of being a joint heir with Christ he has no redeeming qualities except the eternal redemption that's his in Christ no glory except the eternal weight of glory that awaits him at the second coming Christian if material poverty is your lot in life if if you feel tempted to to feel insignificant and powerless and despised because of your economic situation remember that in God's economy value is not measured by dollars and cents you are Christ's and Christ is yours your exaltation on judgment day is worth a million lives lived in luxury and ease boast then in your exaltation but there's a flip side to this coin not only is there the trial of poverty there is also the trial of riches the world esteem's a wealthy man for for his riches but riches are not what define the man because riches can be lost James says in verse 10 like a flower of the grass the rich man will pass away for the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass its flower falls and its beauty perishes so also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits whether poor or rich the measure of a man is not his wealth the measure of a man is his union to Christ so what is this this humiliation that a rich Christian ought to boast in well I think the key to understanding what is meant by humiliation lies in the parallelism that exists between verses 9 and and 10 in verse 9 the object of boasting has to do with the poor man's identification with Christ so it would stand to reason then that the object of boasting in verse 10 has to do with the rich man's identification with Christ so that leads us to the question in what sense is a rich man humiliated by his identification with Christ and I think that's simple the world is impressed with the materially wealthy person until that person lets it be known that his loyalty lies with Christ and not with his wealth that his identity is hidden in Christ let a man expose that and then the world will laugh and mock and despise and abandon such a fool if and when the rich find themselves despised for their association with Christ it is a humiliation to be boasted in because this humiliation is nothing less than an opportunity to fellowship with the sufferings of Christ so what does it look like to count it all joy when you encounter trials of poverty or the the trials of riches it looks like finding your value not in all the things you lack or in all the things you have but rather finding your value in Christ who loves you and who died for you and who is coming back for you what happens if you find yourself unable to see your trial through this lens of Christ and his work maybe because you're just too plagued with doubts or because you're too blinded by your own double-mindedness well you ask God for the wisdom to see life from the vantage point of eternity you ask God for the wisdom to see God from the vantage point of the cross how can we possibly learn to view life's trials as a source of pure joy we keep our eyes on Christ and when we find ourselves unable to keep our eyes on Christ we ask for God's help God commands us to do that which we cannot do to rejoice in trials and then he invites us to ask for the ability to do it and then he gives us that ability to rejoice because we are Christ's and Christ is ours let's pray God you are the giver of every good and perfect gift and sometimes those gifts are pain and suffering but thank you for the reassurance that even those gifts are good because they accomplish in us that which would never happen otherwise they make us cry out to you with a whole new fervency or they make us abandon our crutches and our idols and our doubt and make us long for what only you can give and then you turn around and give it to us so father son and holy spirit we thank you in jesus name amen