You must consider it the purest joy, my brothers, when you are involved in various trials, for you surely know that what is genuine in your faith produces the patient mind that endures; but you must let your endurance come to its perfect product, so that you may be fully developed and perfectly equipped without any defects.
James 1:2-4 Williams’ Translation
Understand it’s a bit unclear as to who these ‘dispersed’ people were that James is writing to but they are all individuals finding themselves in the midst of various adverse, pressing, situations.
Before I go any further I want to draw your attention to two other scriptures, both quoting from the Williams' translation.
First, Hebrews 13:20-21 May God, who gives us peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, who through the blood by which He ratified the everlasting covenant, is now the Great Shepherd of the sheep, perfectly fit you to do His will, He Himself, through Jesus Christ, accomplishing through you what is pleasing to Him”.
Next ~
Philippians 2:12 So, my dearly loved friends, as you have always been obedient, so now with reverence and awe keep on working clear down to the finishing point of your salvation…13. For it is God Himself who is at work in you to help you desire it as well as to do it.
My thought for today is our phrase, various trials, which the KJV translates as ‘divers temptations.’ I want to highlight from BARCLAY DAILY WORD STUDY BIBLE a larger understanding of just exactly what these ‘divers temptations’ actually are.
The word temptation is peirasmos ( G3986) , whose meaning we must fully understand, if we are to see the very essence of the Christian life. Peirasmos ( G3986) is not temptation in our sense of the term; it is testing (trial in the Revised Standard Version). Peirasmos ( G3986) is trial or testing directed towards an end, and the end is that he who is tested should emerge stronger and purer from the testing. The corresponding verb peirazein ( G3985) , which the King James Version usually translates to tempt, has the same meaning. The idea is not that of seduction into sin but of strengthening and purifying. For instance, a young bird is said to test (peirazein, G3985) its wings. The Queen of Sheba was said to come to test (peirazein, G3985) the wisdom of Solomon. God was said to test (peirazein, G3985) Abraham, when he appeared to be demanding the sacrifice of Isaac ( Genesis 22:1). When Israel came into the Promised Land, God did not remove the people who were already there. He left them so that Israel might be tested (peirazein, G3985) in the struggle against them ( Judges 2:22; Judges 3:1; Judges 3:4). The experiences in Israel were tests which went to the making of the people of Israel ( Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 7:19).
If we meet this testing in the right way, it will produce unswerving constancy (or steadfastness as the Revised Standard Version translates it). The word is hupomone ( G5281) , which the King James Version translates as patience; but patience is far too passive. Hupomone ( G5281) is not simply the ability to bear things; it is the ability to turn them to greatness and to glory.
This 'unswerving constancy’ produces in us three things. Again from Barclay Study Notes we learn ~
(i) It makes him perfect. The Greek is teleios ( G5046) which usually has the meaning of perfection towards a given end. A sacrificial animal is teleios ( G5046) if it is fit to offer to God. A scholar is teleios ( G5046) if he is mature. A person is teleios (G5046) if he is full grown. This constancy born of testing, well met, makes a man teleios ( G5046) in the sense of being fit for the task he was sent into the world to do. Here is a great thought. By the way in which we meet every experience in life we are either fitting or unfitting ourselves for the task which God meant us to do.
(ii) It makes him complete. The Greek is holokleros ( G3648) which means entire, perfect in every part. It is used of the animal which is fit to be offered to God and of the priest who is fit to serve him. It means that the animal or the person has no disfiguring and disqualifying blemishes. Gradually this unswerving constancy removes the weaknesses and the imperfections from a man's character. Daily it enables him to conquer old sins, to shed old blemishes and to gain new virtues, until in the end he becomes entirely fit for the service of God and of his fellow-men.
(iii) It makes him deficient in nothing. The Greek is leipesthai ( G3007) and it is used of the defeat of an army, of the giving up of a struggle, of the failure to reach a standard that should have been reached. If a man meets his testing in the right way, if day by day he develops this unswerving constancy, day by day he will live more victoriously and reach nearer to the standard of Jesus Christ himself.
Now, to tie off the additional scriptures from Hebrews and Philippians, we find that this is actually the work of God. He works to make us vessels of glory fit for his use, 2 Timothy 2:21. Thus we find the exhortation to count it all joy.
I particularly like the phrase from Williams’ translation, ‘you surely know that what is genuine in your faith produces the patient mind that endures’. The Apostle Paul reminds us from 2 Cor. 4:17 ‘A momentary light affliction works a far greater weight of glory.’
We are of those who are pressing in for a greater weight of glory so we must embrace the press that will enable us be fully developed and perfectly equipped without any defects. So, count it all joy…..
…to be continued.