It’s one thing to try to encourage someone to pray during tribulations
\nbut there goes James…”Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you
\nencounter various trials…” Why is he saying this? Does he have some
\nsick fascination with tribulations? What are you talking about James?
\n({{James 1:2}})<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After years of loving Spiderman and hoping to get bit by a
\n(radioactive) spider to attain marvelous powers I have recently
\ndiscovered a fear of the Brown Recluse—a small spider the size of a
\nquarter with a vicious bite. Although the initial chomp is miniscule,
\nthe poison eats away at the skin, killing the flesh until it sloughs
\noff the body. I view tribulation the same way I view this spider’s
\nbite. Something evil and deadly which I really don’t want to encounter
\nin some darkened corner but I fear that one day I just might feel its
\nsurprising bite.\n<\/p>\n
I’m horrible with tribulations. Sometimes I’m the whining type.
\nOther times I’m the stay up at night type, tossing and turning. Maybe
\nmy wife’s tribulation is living with a difficult man? Is she supposed
\nto “count it all joy” when she deals with a stubborn husband, realizing
\nthat the tribulation of a stubborn man produces patience? Is this the
\ntype of tribulation or trial James is talking about in this verse?\n<\/p>\n
James later on addresses those temptations (not of God) that
\narise out of our own desires ({{Jas 1:12-13}}). The trials in verse one
\nare completely different from those evil temptations in which we are
\nnever to “joy”. This tribulation for perseverance is something that
\nJames older brother spoke about. <\/p>\n
\nIf we remember, Jesus was sitting by the sea where large crowds began
\nto gather. Jesus started to speak to them in many parables, one of
\nwhich resonates with James’ words. ({{Matt 13:1-23}}; {{Lk 8:4-15}})\n<\/p>\n
The story was of a certain sower who as he sowed he threw his
\nseeds in various directions. Some fell beside the road and the birds
\ncame and ate them up. Others fell on rocky places, which didn’t have
\nmuch soil and less moisture, and they soon withered beneath the heat of
\nthe sun. Other seed fell among the thorns and as the weeds came up they
\nchoked the small growths in their bud. Lastly some fell on good ground
\nand brought up fruit some a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty—but
\nall brought fruit with perseverance!\n<\/p>\n
So we start to grasp the nature of this tribulation and
\nsubsequent perseverance. For as the Lord explains the parable to his
\ndisciples we may be able to hone in on what James is actually saying.\n<\/p>\n
The seed, says Christ, is the word of the God. The birds are
\nthe devil that snatches the word from the ears of men who do not
\nunderstand. Those typified as the seed with no root and moisture are
\nthose who received the word with joy and believed for a little but when
\nthe hot fire of tribulation came they stopped believing. Those who were
\nchoked by the thorns are those who are choked by the cares of the world
\nand are left unfruitful. The seed on the good ground, which brought
\nforth fruit with perseverance, are those who believed and brought forth
\nfruit.\n<\/p>\n
An example of those who received the word and believed for a
\nshort while can be found in {{John 8:31-59}}. These people had believed
\nthe Lord in some sense, joyfully listening to his words and seeing the
\nsigns. Jesus turned to these people and told them that if they would
\ncontinue in his word they would be his disciples indeed, and the truth
\nwould set them free. “What? Free? Whose slave are we? We’re the
\nchildren of Abraham, knowing who our parents are…who are YOUR parents?”
\nTheir rejection of the truth culminated in Christ pointing out that if
\nthey had known God they would have known him and that their father was
\nneither Abraham or God…but the devil. At the height of the encounter,
\nChrist revealing that God and Himself are one and the same, these
\nso-called believers took up stones to kill him.\n<\/p>\n
So when we read James’ “brothers count it all joy when you fall
\ninto various trials” we should understand it to be trials so as to
\nprove if we are true believers. How is this comforting at all? How is a
\nperson supposed to feel joy during this type of testing if it is most
\ndefinitely a trial that shakes the very foundation of faith?\n<\/p>\n
And it can happen at any point in one’s life. Look at old
\nAbraham who believed God and God credited it to Him in righteousness
\n({{Gen 15:6}}). After several years he received a very fierce
\ntesting…the sacrifice of his son ({{Gen 22:1-2}}). At the end of this
\ntesting (God of course staying Abraham’s hand) we hear the voice of the
\nLord saying “Now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld
\nyour son, your only son, from Me.” ({{Gen 22:12}})\n<\/p>\n
This type of endurance ultimately perfects us so we may be
\nlacking in nothing. How then are we to achieve the point of joy during
\ntrials? By relying on the Lord without variance and doubting but fully
\nexpecting the Lord to bring us through that severe shaking. We will
\npersevere and we will increase in the deep-rooted wisdom found in God
\nthat can only be learned through the Spirit. That’s our foundation for
\nincreasing our faith in trials—a foundation that Paul addresses just as
\ndirectly.\n<\/p>\n
In {{Romans 5:3}} that we can glory in tribulations for they
\nbring about perseverance. In {{Romans 5:1}} Paul tells us that those
\nwho are justified by faith, have now and forever, peace with God.
\nTherefore we can exult or glory and boast with joy in tribulations. We
\ncan joy by knowing the end result says James: it’s not that we “might”
\npersevere but “knowing” that the testing produces perseverance. We know
\nthe end results…we will pass.\n<\/p>\n
Look at the testing lab teeming with nervous teenagers about to
\ntake their SAT’s—some of them nervously joking and others quietly
\nanxious. They’re about to be tested but none of them really know how
\nthe test is going to turn out. We’re not like that, praise God. Those
\nwho have believed have been justified by faith and now have the answer
\nto testing. On other words, we will pass. The point is to make that
\ntesting a point of even more fruit bearing by facing it with joy and
\nrelying on the Lord for wisdom who gives to all liberally.\n<\/p>\n
-r-<\/em><\/p>\n Commentary:<\/strong> It’s one thing to try to encourage someone to pray during tribulations but there goes James…”Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials…” Why is he saying this? Does he have some sick fascination with tribulations? What are you talking about James? ({{James 1:2}})<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nJacob, an abject slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the
\ntwelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.
\nConsider it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials of
\ntesting, knowing that the testing of your faith produces an enduring
\nperseverance! And let this enduring perseverance have its full and
\nperfect result so that you may be whole and perfectly complete, lacking
\nin nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who
\ngives to all generously and without holding back out of anger…and it
\nwill be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any variance of
\ndoubting for the one who is variant in doubting is like the surf of the
\nsea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man shouldn’t expect that
\nhe will receive and lay hold of anything for he is being a
\ndouble-minded man, unstable in all his ways. But the brother of humble
\ncircumstances is to exult and glory in his high position and the rich
\nman is to glory in his humiliation, because like a flowering wild
\ngrass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and
\nwithers the wild grass and its flower falls off—and the beauty of its
\nappearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his
\npursuits will fade away. Blessed is the man then who actively endures
\nin perseverance while under a trial because once he has been approved
\nand tested, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has
\npromised to those who love Him. -{{James 1:1-12}}<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"