Count It All Joy
Tom Shrader introduces a new expository study through the book of James, noting its practical, action-oriented character and its deep connections to the Sermon on the Mount. Drawing on James 1:1-3, he establishes that trials are not occasional possibilities but inevitable realities for every believer, and that James calls his readers to consider them joy not as an emotional reflex but as a deliberate act of faith rooted in what they know to be true. The testing of faith produces endurance, and Shrader closes by connecting this principle to Paul's autobiographical suffering in 2 Corinthians 11, arguing that the giants of faith are almost always those who have been most deeply tested.
“When you take this book, this scripture, and you use it as a basis for your evaluation of your life, I want you to be able to come to the conclusion that your faith is the genuine article — it's the real thing, and therefore it's the most precious gift and valuable commodity that you own.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Blue Jean Theology (2006)
Recorded: 2006 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 46 min
Themes: trials, joy, suffering, faith, endurance, perseverance, testing, practical christian living, going through hardship, struggling with doubt, feeling overwhelmed, new believer, young adult, pastor, long-term suffering, navigating loss
Scripture: James 1:1-3, James 1:16, James 1:19, James 1:22, James 2:1, James 2:5, James 2:14, James 3:1, James 3:10, James 3:12, James 4:11, James 5:7, James 5:9, James 5:10, James 5:12, James 5:19, Psalm 17:3, Psalm 26:2, Psalm 22:11, Psalm 139:23, Lamentations 3:40, Galatians 6:4, Galatians 1:19, 2 Corinthians 13:5, 2 Corinthians 4:8, 2 Corinthians 11:24-28, Matthew 1:25, Matthew 5:12, Matthew 13, John 7:5, John 15:20, John 16:33, Job 5:7, Job 14:1, Ecclesiastes 2:17, 2 Timothy 3:12, 2 Timothy 4
Theological Themes: soteriology, sanctification, book of james, epistemology of faith, general epistle, sermon on the mount, theodicy, perseverance of the saints
Full Transcript
Introducing the Book of James
If you have your Bibles, please turn to the book of James. If you are here for the first time or haven't been here in a while, you picked a perfect day to join us because we are starting a brand new study. For the last almost two years we have been studying the life of Christ. My plan was, on a couple of occasions, to stop, do another study, and then come back to it, but I got so swept away in it that we just kept going.
At an elders' meeting a month or two ago, they asked what our timing looked like. We are in the last week of the life of Christ, but there is still real study ahead — John 14, 15, 16, and 17 — so it is probably another six months to a year of material. They said this is the time to pause and take a book study, a New Testament book, but nothing by the Apostle Paul. We looked at 1 Peter, which has a lot on suffering, and one of the elders said he didn't really want us to do 1 John right now, so we landed quickly on the book of James. It covers all of those themes, and it's interesting that though we didn't choose 1 Peter or 1 John, those themes are really contained in this study here this morning.
By way of quick introduction, I have taught the book of James before in a priority living study. I titled it "Blue Gene Theology" because it was rugged, durable, and practical — and that is really what this book is. I did not go back or even look at those notes for this study. I wanted to come at James fresh, because my assumption is that it has been four or five years and God is doing different things in my life, so I wanted to approach this, even though I am very familiar with it, with a fresh set of eyes.
A General Epistle Rooted in the Teaching of Jesus
One commentator writes this: "Few books of the New Testament are better known or more often quoted than James. It is probably one of the two or three most popular books of the New Testament." I think that is because, as we said, it is so filled with practicality. It is a general epistle, meaning it is not directed toward a specific local church or an individual. If you go through the New Testament you see books like Romans, written to the church at Rome, or Galatians to the church at Galatia, or Ephesians to the church at Ephesus. But along with 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, and Jude, James is a general epistle.
John Stott writes this: "James depends more than any other New Testament author on the teaching of Jesus. It's not that he quotes Jesus directly, although James 5:12 is virtually a quotation of Jesus' teaching about oaths in Matthew 5. It's rather that he weaves Jesus' teaching into the very fabric of his instruction. Again and again, the closest parallels to James' wording are found in the teaching of Jesus, especially as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. The topics he addresses, as well as the particular slant he takes on these topics, mimic Jesus' own emphasis. The author of the letter seems to have been soaked in an atmosphere of specific teachings of Jesus and he can reflect them almost unconsciously."
One of the commentators places the book of James directly alongside the Sermon on the Mount and points out the comparisons. I am going to post that on the website for you to look at, because it is too detailed to work through on screen this morning.
Authorship, Dating, and Purpose
The author of the book is indeed someone named James — I will come back and talk about that in a moment. The dating of the book would be somewhere between 44 and 49 AD, which would probably make this the first of the New Testament books to have been written. There is a little bit of controversy around that, but it would be early. If we were to set the New Testament up chronologically, the book of James would be toward the front.
Remember that I said this is a practical book. Look at James chapter 1, verse 22: "Approve yourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves." James is saying he wants us to be more than just students of the Word, more than hearers of the teaching — there should be action that follows. That becomes something really important for us throughout this study.
One more quote before we start. One author writes: "The letter of James contains a higher frequency of imperative verbs than any other book of the New Testament. James' purpose is clearly not so much to inform us as to chastise, exhort, and encourage. It is not that James is unconcerned with theology or that he does not have a solid theological basis for his comments. It is, rather, that he touches only briefly and elusively on theology while concentrating on the practical outworking of theology." The book itself lends itself to introduction through its opening verses, and that is exactly what we are going to look at this morning.
James 1:1–3 — The Opening Verses
We are going to look at James chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. Let me read them to you, and then we will come back and break them apart.
"James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."
The Call to Self-Examination
"The testing of your faith produces endurance." Those are the first three verses of James, and those are the verses we are going to look at. My first reaction when I read these is that we go from zero to one hundred very quickly. James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. He is not mincing words here. There is not a lot of flowery language to get us started. He goes right for it.
There is a lot of conversation in this book about testing — about you and me being tested, and about us looking at the testing of our faith. This is not a concept unique to James; it is throughout Scripture. Psalm 17:3, "Thou hast tried my heart, thou hast tested me." Psalm 26:2, "Examine me, O Lord, test me, test my mind, test my heart." Psalm 139:23, "Search me, O God, know my heart." Lamentations 3:40, "Let us examine and probe our ways." And the Lord says, "Consider your ways."
So here we are saying, God, You examine me — and at the same time we are saying we need to examine ourselves. There is this thought of introspection. Paul writes in Galatians 6:4, "Let each one examine his own work." In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul writes, "Test yourself to see if you're in the faith. Examine yourselves." A paraphrase of that reads: Check up on yourselves. Are you really a Christian? Do you pass the test? Do you feel Christ's presence and power more and more within you, or are you just pretending to be a Christian when actually you aren't at all?
What Paul is really saying is, look at your life. Take a hard look at your life. James, as we said in our introduction, is clearly theological — but from a practical perspective, James is saying, listen, I want you to take your life and throw it under the microscope to see if it is real.
The Antiques Roadshow Illustration
There is a television show that a great many people watch, and it shocks me that people watch it — not because it is a bad show, I just did not think it was a particularly interesting show. It is called the Antiques Roadshow. People bring in old items — things they found in a closet, things their grandfather gave them, or things they purchased from some unknowing antique dealer for a hundred dollars. The anticipation is always: oh, but it is worth so much more.
I have watched the show. Last year, or the year before, they featured the most valuable item they had ever appraised. A man brought in a blanket — just a white blanket with blue stripes on it. If you had walked past it at Walmart, you would not have paid five dollars for it. But the appraiser said, "This is a Navajo blanket," and valued it at $500,000. The man said, "Really? We just have it on our couch. We cover up with it while we watch TV."
You also see all sorts of other things — a little jewelry box, a one-of-a-kind piece worth fifty thousand dollars. What you do on that show is bring in an article, ask an expert to evaluate and inspect it, establish its authenticity, and determine its value. And sometimes, very quickly, the expert says, "That's a fake." My personal favorites are not the $500,000 finds — mine is when the expert says it is worth $1.99. Those are the ones I like.
There was a man who came in with a Civil War sword. The appraiser picked it up, asked where he got it very courteously, and then said, "I have to tell you, these are frauds. If this were a real Civil War soldier's sword, it would not have this, and it would have this. It is a nice fraud, but it is a fraud." Other times the appraiser says, "When I first saw this, I thought it might be genuine, but once I examined it closely, I could see it was not the real thing — it is a very crafty, clever forgery." And then there are times where he says, "This is the real thing, but you have painted it. Unpainted, this is worth about $400,000. Painted, it is worth about a dollar." The lesson there is, do not paint this stuff.
Faith as the Genuine Article
What I want you to do — and this is our goal for this study in the book of James — is to approach your own life the way those appraisers approach an artifact. They do not simply glance at it and give a verdict. They study it, take it back, consult experts, go to their catalogs and books. In the same way, when you take this Scripture and use it as the basis for your evaluation of your life, I want you to be able to come to the conclusion that your faith is the genuine article. It is the real thing.
Who Wrote the Book of James?
It is the most precious gift and valuable commodity that you own. That is what we are doing in this process. We are asking God to test us. We are asking Him to open our eyes to see this.
John MacArthur has done an outline of the book of James where he uses the theme of testing all the way through. I will post this on the website for you, but let me read it to you now. He talks about the test of perseverance and suffering, the test of blame and temptation, the test of response to the Word, the test of impartial love, and the test of righteous works. In chapter 3, he addresses the test of the tongue, the test of humble wisdom, the test of worldly indulgence, the test of dependence, the test of patient endurance, the test of truthfulness, the test of prayerfulness, and the test of true faith. We will look at all of those. We will give you the chapter and verse breakdowns on the website.
Now let us jump in and begin to break it apart. The first question we need to answer is: who is this James? There are four men named James that we find in the New Testament, and as scholars try to establish the authorship, they quickly eliminate the first two. One is known as James the Less, the son of Alphaeus, and the other is James the father of Judas — not Judas Iscariot.
That leaves two candidates. One is James, one of the sons of Zebedee — the brother of John. He receives some consideration, but as scholars study and coordinate times and dates, they quickly reach a conclusion. The James who wrote this letter is James, the oldest half-brother of Jesus.
The Question of Mary's Perpetual Virginity
For some of you, that is no big deal. For others, a bomb just went off in your brain, and we need to acknowledge that. We spend a good deal of time on this every time we come to it, especially for those from a Catholic background, because the Catholic Church teaches that Mary was forever a virgin. If Jesus has a half-brother, that creates a problem.
I want you to see clearly where the problem lies. The problem is not in Scripture — the problem is in the teaching of the Catholic Church. When Scripture says one thing, and someone else, no matter who it is, says something contrary, Scripture trumps it.
We actually had a version of that kind of discussion in the news this week. A man wrote a book, Oprah put it on her book list, called it the most incredible book she had ever read, and it turned out that much of what was in the book was fabrication, exaggeration, or outright falsehood. When confronted on Larry King, the author was pressed on the matter, Oprah called in to defend him, and eventually a public discussion about truth unfolded. Oprah later had him back on her show along with his editor and others who had written about the controversy. At the very end of that show, Oprah said that what is really at stake is the truth, and that we have to know the truth.
What was striking is that people were calling in — even members of Oprah's studio audience — saying they did not really care whether the book was true, because it had helped them through their addiction or through whatever struggle they faced. We have to be very careful about that kind of thinking, and we have to be especially careful about it in the area of faith. When you share your faith with someone and they respond by saying, "I'm glad you found something that works for you," you know you have a problem, because the question we must answer is: what is true?
This is also why, on one point, I respectfully disagree with my absolute human hero, Larry Wright. Larry used to say, "I know Christianity is real because I put it in the test tube of my life and it works." That is not sufficient. It works because it is true — and there are people who will tell you they put Zen, or any number of other things, in the test tube of their lives, and those things "work" as well. We have to talk about what is actually true.
What Scripture Says About Mary and Jesus' Brothers
So when we come to a question like whether Mary was perpetually a virgin, we can deal with it fairly simply by going to Scripture. In Matthew chapter 1, verse 25, Matthew tells us that Joseph kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son. There was a defined period — they were married and did not have sexual relations — but once Jesus was born, that changed.
We know that they were intimate on at least six occasions, because Scripture tells us that Jesus had brothers and sisters. In Matthew chapter 13, when people in His hometown are trying to figure out who Jesus is, they ask: "Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And are not His brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?" He also had sisters — at least two — which brings us to a minimum of six siblings. That is an important matter to get settled.
Throughout Scripture we are introduced to the fact that Jesus' brothers were present in His life. We also see this in John chapter 7, verse 5 —
James the Humble Servant
His brothers did not even believe him. In Galatians 1, verse 19, Paul identifies one of the apostles as James, the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph and Mary had at least six other children, and we have four of the boys named in Scripture. One of them, this James, grew up to not only believe in Christ, but he saw the resurrected Christ, and at the first crisis moment of the early church, it was James who presided over the council of Jerusalem. He, along with Peter and John, became the pillars of the early church. This is a significant man.
That makes what we find in his introduction all the more striking, because he must have been a humble man. How do we know? Look at how he introduces himself: "James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." Everything in me would have wanted to say, "I'm James — you may not know me, but you know my brother. You may not know me, but you know my mother. You may not know me, but if you're part of the church, I'm one of its pillars." That is how we do it. James doesn't go down that road. He doesn't drop names. He doesn't try to prosper from his brother's success.
He identifies himself instead as a bondservant — a slave, somebody who has set aside personal freedom and is under the control of a master. In the Greek, James had a couple of words available to describe a slave. One refers to someone who is made a slave. He chooses the word that speaks of a slave born into that condition. His new birth placed him under the control of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is in good company. From both the Old and New Testaments, here are just a few who accepted this same description: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, David, Isaiah, Daniel, Timothy, Paul, Peter, Jude, and John — all bore the title slave. A slave is someone totally dependent upon his master for provision, for food, clothing, shelter, for everything. You and I are slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ, dependent upon Him for everything. James simply said, "That's me. That's my job description — I am a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ."
The Audience: Dispersed Refugees
James then identifies his audience: "To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad." In the New Testament, the term "twelve tribes" refers to the nation of Israel, and James is using it in an even narrower sense, referring to those Jews who had converted and become Christians. He calls them brothers, and in a moment we will see just how often he uses that phrase.
John MacArthur speaks to this point: James' audience was primarily those Jews who had fled because of persecution and were still suffering trials because of their faith. To give them confidence, hope, and strength to endure those trials, James gave them a series of tests by which they could determine the genuineness of their faith. He writes to those believers who were dispersed.
Another word we might use for them is refugees. When you picture a typical refugee, you picture someone who is very needy and very poor, someone desperate, someone who has probably endured suffering, hardship, and difficulty — perhaps at the hands of a dictator, perhaps through an act of God like a hurricane or a flood. They are needy people, desperate people. James writes to encourage these folks. He says, "Greetings" — rejoice, be glad.
That background explains why he moves immediately, without delay, into verse 2 and 3. If you are a refugee, if you are someone who has experienced persecution, nothing could be sweeter to your ears than these words: "Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance."
Count It All Joy
Consider it joy. This is not a natural response, and it is not a matter of feeling — it is a matter of determination. James is saying, "I want you to consider, to analyze, all of this in your life as joy. Consider it joy in the midst of trials." That does not compute naturally, does it? It is not your natural reflex to say, "Praise the Lord, the deal fell through. I didn't get the job. I lost my job. I have a sickness. My marriage is falling apart." This is not some superficial sentiment. He is saying, count it all joy, consider it all joy, when you encounter various trials.
The Word "Brethren" Throughout James
Notice how he opens verse 2: "Consider it all joy, my brethren." Let's work through the book of James and observe how often he uses this word. When I see a series of repeated words like this in my Bible, I try to mark them with a square, a triangle, or a circle — something that catches my eye when I open the book so I can immediately see that there was a point, a series, something worth tracking.
In this case, the word is "brethren." It appears first in chapter 1, verse 2. Then look at chapter 1, verse 16: "Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren." In chapter 1, verses 16 and 19, and in chapter 2, verse 5, he uses the word "beloved" before "brethren." Chapter 1, verse 19: "This you know, my beloved brethren." Chapter 2, verse 1: "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord with an attitude of personal favoritism." Verse 5: "Listen, my beloved brethren." Verse 14: "What use is it, my brethren?" Chapter 3, verse 1: "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren." Chapter 3, verse 10: "My brethren, these things ought not to be this way."
The Language of Brotherhood
James uses the word "brethren" repeatedly throughout his letter. In chapter 3, verse 12, he writes, "Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives or a vine produce figs?" Chapter 4, verse 11: "Do not speak against one another, brethren." Chapter 5, verse 7: "Be patient therefore, brethren." Verse 9: "Do not complain, brethren." Verse 10: "As an example, brethren." Verse 12: "But above all, brethren." And verse 19: "My brethren, if any of you strays from the truth, then one turns him back."
James is identifying with these people. He is demonstrating a desire that a shepherd would have — to love them, nurture them, and care for them. He is saying, in effect, I am coming to you as one who loves you, to share this truth with you. And that truth begins with these words: "Consider it all joy, my brethren."
When, Not If
The next word is important: *when*. There is a sense here not of possibility, but of inevitability. James is not saying, "Consider it all joy *if* you have trials." He is saying, "Consider it all joy *when* you have trials."
So if you are sitting there today saying you cannot really relate to this — that there are no trials in your life — then consider this fair warning: this too shall pass. Duck, get out of the way, because here they come. You cannot get through life without them.
You may be looking for uplifting Bible verses. Here are a few. Job 5:7: "For man is born for trouble." Job 14:1: "Man who is born of women is short-lived and full of turmoil." Psalm 22:11: "Be not far from me, for trouble is near." Solomon surveys his life in Ecclesiastes 2:17 and writes, "So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me, because everything is futile in striving after the wind," and he adds that "all his days, his task is painful and grievous."
Jesus Himself says in John 16:33, "In this world, you will have tribulation." He quickly adds, "But take courage. Take courage, I have overcome the world." Paul describes his own life in 2 Corinthians 4:8: "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing."
Trials Are Part of the Life of Faith
Part of our faith brings with it a specific series of trials and tribulations. Jesus said in John 15:20, "A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:12, "And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."
So trials exist. The counsel is not to consider it all joy in spite of this reality — or, said another way, do not be surprised when you encounter them. The word James uses literally means to "fall into" trials — many of these encounters are unexpected. The word carries the idea of testing, and it is neutral in its nature.
In its verb form, the same word appears down in verse 13, translated as "is tempted" — the idea of being induced to do evil. That is not from God. But there are tests that come into our lives, and those tests are designed to allow us to see who we really are, to find out what we are truly made of. Is our faith genuine? And if it is genuine, just how deep does it go?
Multicolored Trials
Notice what else James says: "When you encounter *various* trials." The word translated "various" literally means multicolored. These trials come in different shapes and sizes. There is no one-size-fits-all set of trials. Some are tried most acutely in the area of physical suffering. Others face relational pain. Some seem to always be struggling financially. Some are tested with pride, others with patience and love.
Consider it all joy when you encounter these inevitable, multicolored trials — this testing of your faith.
Because I Know Something
After verse 2, one word demands an answer: *why*? Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials — why? Or perhaps the question is *how*? How would anyone count various trials as joy?
Verse 3 gives the answer: "Because I know something." The word *know* is critical here. This is not a reflex feeling — it is something understood. It is absolutely certain. This matters enormously, because our feelings can deceive us.
Consider the Star Wars ride at Disneyland when it first opened. You stand in line, you sit down inside this enclosed car, and when you come out, you would describe the experience this way: it felt like you were moving at Mach three, dumping and diving, dropping fifty feet, shooting over here ninety feet, moving back a hundred feet, turning, being fired upon — you could *feel* all of it. In reality, you were sitting in a box that moved about this much in one direction and this much to the side. What you *know* trumps what you *feel*.
When various trials come, all sorts of feelings arise. There is no instinctive welcome for them. But that instinct is exactly the opposite of what James tells us to do. One paraphrase puts it this way: welcome these trials as friendly intruders. How can anyone do that? Because of what is known.
The Testing That Produces Endurance
James says: "I know that the testing of my faith produces endurance." He is not saying that when trials come, you should simply sit there and absorb whatever they dish out. No — you have instruments available to you. You have God's Word. You have His promises. You have His Spirit living in you. You have fellow believers. This is not a matter of whistling through difficulty or insisting everything will be fine. Rather, in the moment of trial, it demonstrates who you really are and what you are truly about.
The idea behind "knowing" here is full understanding based on personal experience. At the end of the day, faith is not merely theory. Faith becomes reality the more it is tested. James says, consider it all joy when you encounter various trials — because the testing of your faith produces endurance.
What the Bible teaches is this: everything that comes into your life is either caused by or allowed by God.
Suffering Has Meaning and Purpose
When something like suffering comes into your life, there is a purpose with it. I can understand coming into a hard, difficult time of life and saying, "I don't need this," if I believed that everything was an accident — that some cosmic force threw it all together and there is no meaning or purpose behind it. But God says there is meaning and purpose. He uses suffering to produce maturity, to teach us, to force us to look at our own lives and see if there is sin there. It gives us a story. It gives us a way to relate to somebody else.
All of a sudden, you can look at somebody and say, "I've been there. I know right now it doesn't look like there's any hope. I know right now it looks like you're in a hole so deep you'll never get out of it. But let me tell you something — God is good. God is faithful." So in the midst of this, He wants you to be obedient. He wants you to follow Him. He is going to teach you. You are going to learn.
This week, I started bleeding in two places — just out of nowhere. That is what getting old looks like. By the way, several of you asked how my grandson is doing. He and I have something in common: in the last two months, we have both doubled our body weight. I started at a higher baseline than he did. But all of a sudden in life, especially toward the end, there are all sorts of physical suffering and pain and hardship. If I did not know there was meaning and purpose behind it, I would not want any part of it.
Paul's Catalog of Suffering
Let me give you a role model of suffering endured with purpose, and then we will stop. Open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. As you turn there, I want to read to you a passage that is very familiar. In fact, I think we looked at this somewhere in the last month or so. At the end of Paul's writing in 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul wrote this: "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering. The time of my departure has come. I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith." There is Paul at the end of his life in a glorious moment — something we would all envy, something we would all strive for: to be at the end of life and say, "I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith."
Well, it was not just easy sailing for the apostle. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 24. Paul speaks autobiographically: "Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned." We need to stop there for a moment. Words change meaning over time. What Paul means here is that they took rocks and tried to kill him. "Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers and dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers in the sea, dangers among false brethren. I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, and in cold and exposure."
That is great suffering — but look at the next verse. "Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure upon me of the concern for all the churches." So it is not just those external things. It is also the weight of worry about his brothers, the responsibility he carries as their shepherd. I believe those experiences were crucial building blocks that allowed Paul to one day say, "I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith." God builds upon those things.
The Connection Between Trials and Perseverance
It seems to me — and I think next week we are going to spend a little more time on this as we move ahead — that James is saying there is a correlation between the trials and our perseverance. Some translations may say "steadfastness," others may say "patience." The testing of my faith produces patience, perseverance, the ability to hang in there.
A Woman Who Learned to Keep Moving
Years ago I was teaching down in Tucson on the subject of suffering. I was on a really tight schedule — a couple of services in the morning, then I had to be back up here for an early afternoon teaching. After the service closed, I went to change into something comfortable for the drive home and was making my way out through the back. I came around a corner and met a lady, and then another lady who was in a wheelchair. They were coming out of the service, and there was simply no way around them — not that I wanted to avoid them, but I could not get past them or through the door any other way.
So I walked up to them and said, "Hey, how are you doing?" — which was probably a stupid question. I asked if they had just been in the service, and they said yes. It was clear to me that the lady in the wheelchair had no mobility from her neck down whatsoever. She was not moving at all. I told her I felt a little self-conscious talking to her about suffering. She said, "No, no, you shouldn't at all. Everything you talked about was true."
Then the woman with her said, "Show him what you can do. Show him what you learned this week." The lady had a stick — longer than this — with a flat metal piece and a hole in it at the end. The other woman had to pick it up and place it in the wheelchair-bound lady's mouth. With the stick in her mouth, she could drop the hole over her joystick and move the wheelchair. It was very cumbersome, but she could do it. And she was thrilled with that, and I was genuinely happy for her.
The Testing That Produces Endurance
All my life, I've been the most impatient person I know. She said she had prayed and prayed and prayed that God would give her patience. And she said, I am now a very patient person.
We are to consider it all joy when we encounter various trials because we know the testing of our faith produces endurance. As those physical trials come, those relational trials, those economic trials, they potentially produce a crisis of faith. It is the testing of our faith that is being tested.
When I hang in there — and even that gets complicated, because it is me hanging in there through the power of the Holy Spirit — He did it, but I do it. My obedience to Him, and yet He gives me the strength. Here is what I know: the testing of my faith produces endurance.
So when I pray, "God, here is what I want to be — I want to be able to say at the end of my life, I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith, I endured. God, I want to persevere" — He says, all right, Tom, here we go, because it is going to take some testing, some proving.
Trials That Never Fully End
These trials never go away. It is not as though you pass the test, you graduate, and you are done. Your graduation is a transition from this planet to heaven, and until that time, this testing, it seems to me, is more refined and more intense.
That is how I grow, and that is how my faith becomes real. I will guarantee this: almost always, when you see someone who is a giant of the faith, you will find suffering in their past. That is what has produced it.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for this truth. God, though it is counterintuitive, we thank You for these inevitable, multicolored trials that arrive unexpectedly in our life, that test our faith, that develop perseverance. God, we pray right now for those who are right in the midst of this, whose circumstances are coming together, and who, like Paul, feel crushed and perplexed — but God, not despairing, because You are at work in their life.
We pray that in the middle of these tests, we have the appropriate response — a joyful response that produces fruit. God, we pray that You would prepare us for the tests, and that in the midst of all of this, we would give glory and honor to You, that our life would be a testimony of Your faithfulness to us. Father, we thank You that this is true, and we pray to You in Jesus' name, amen.