It is easy to be happy and contented when things are going well, when there’s good news and obvious hope. How do we respond however, when things are not going so well?
A look at the text (read James 1:2-4)
James says that we aren’t only to find happiness in the good times. Instead, we are to be joyful when facing trials, or suffering. In fact, the language seems hyperbolic here. We are to “count it all/pure joy.” It’s not just that we find some reasons to be joyful in our suffering but the suffering itself is a fully joyful thing. The trials referred to are likely to be external opposition and struggles, particularly including economic hardship (v2).[1] The reason for this is because when we face these trials, they serve a purpose. Trials are designed to test or prove the state of our faith and the result of this is that this leads to patient endurance or steadfastness (v3). The result of endurance is completeness/perfection. In other words, if we are able to ensure through these trials, then we will learn to persevere to the end and see Jesus face to face when we will be like him (v4).
Digging deeper
We can see links here with what Paul says in Romans 5:2-5. There Paul talks in terms of boasting which has a similar sense to the “counting it all joy”, in James, when we suffer. For Paul, endurance leads to character and from there it produces hope. There’s a similar theme in 1 Peter 1:6-7 where tested and refined faith glorifies Christ at his appearing.
Each have in common an eschatological dimension. They look forward to what the result will be when Christ returns.[2] The result is a perfecting quality. This means that we can make sense of experiences now by looking forward. The experience may not in and of itself be good. However, the outcome is and this means that God’s purpose is good even when Satan and other human beings seek harm.
Suffering is used by God to produce sanctification in us. We endure, neither by trying harder in our own strength (legalism) or by just going with the flow of the world around us but by exercising real faith, by trusting God enough to keep living differently and so clinging more and more to Christ so that we bear his image. We become Christlike.
A look at ourselves
Today we are under pressure to conform in lots of ways to the word around us by accepting the values of our culture. Failing to tow the line may lead to you being singled out and could prove costly in different ways. This is particularly stark in some countries where a state religion is given prominence and those who confess Christ may find that their exam results are reversed or their qualifications count for nothing. I’ve met Christians in other countries where there is a real economic cost to saying yes to Christ. We too may find ourselves in situations where faith proves costly. Sticking close to Christ and living a different life however, even when mocked, isolated or subject to harm is how we grow in him, become more Christ like and learn to endure.
[1] McKnight, The Letter of James, 75.
[2] Davids, The Epistle of James, 66.
Faithroots 