Word of Salvation – Vol. 20 No.40 – July 1974
Trials For Joy
Sermon by Rev. K. J. Campbell, B.A., B.D. on James 1:2-4
Scripture Reading: 1Peter 1:1-9; James 1:1-8
Psalter Hymnal: 264; 184 Opening; 95:1,2 Law;
188:6,7 Praise; 368; 463; 490 Doxology
We turn to the letter of James at this time for our meditation. James, as verse one tells us, was writing to the Church of Jesus Christ in general, to the various congregations scattered throughout the Roman world of that time. His letter is one of encouragement and practical instruction for the living of the Christian life.
James starts off his letter in a rather surprising way. As you can well imagine the Christian Church was not having an easy time; it had to suffer ridicule and persecution at the hand of both Jew and Pagan. James himself, not long after the writing of this letter, suffered the death of a martyr because of his faith in Jesus Christ. But, in starting off his letter, James does not commiserate with his fellow Christians. That is, he does not give them reason for self-pity. He does not say that they should feel sorry for themselves because of the numerous and various trials that had come upon them. Instead he says: ‘My fellow believers, count it all joy that various trials have come upon you.’ Count it all joy that you are being sorely tried and tested by all these great and many difficulties you are facing.’
James considered that joy was the proper and the Christian response to the trials of faith. This was his God given instruction to his fellow Christians. And, he did not just say to them ‘count it worthy of joy’ or ‘count it partly joy that you are suffering under such trials and troubles.’ No! He says, ‘count it ALL joy’. The WHOLE reaction of these Christians was to be a joyous reaction! Their whole attitude towards the trials they were undergoing was to be an attitude of joy.
“My brethren,” he says, “count it all joy, when you fall into diverse temptations.” That is, various trials and testings. Joy in such situations?
Is this your reaction when things are not going your way? Is this your reaction when a load of seeming trouble comes upon your shoulders? Well, according to our text, to this portion of God’s Word, the Christian attitude towards the trials of life is to be an attitude of joy.
Let us consider why this is to be the attitude of the Christian and let each of us consider whether we each give expression to this attitude of joy when faced with the trials of life.
“The diverse temptations” spoken of in verse 2 are the same as the manifold temptations” that Peter speaks about in chapter 1 verse 6 of his first letter. The better translation is “various trials” and these diverse temptations or various trials amount to all the afflictions and difficulties that come upon us. We don’t have to do much thinking to recall the various difficulties and trials that we have had to face in this life. Even at this very moment, there would be very few of us here who are not burdened with some trial or other that has come upon us. We naturally would prefer not to have these afflictions or difficulties, and yet James tells us that we are to count it all joy that we have such problems. We are to consider these trials that come upon us as occasions of utmost joy, occasions for great joy!
James is not alone in this attitude. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7 verse 4 “I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.” That is to say, “I superabound or overflow in joy.” He even goes further than that when he says in Romans 5 verse 3 “We glory in tribulations.”
Is this your attitude towards the troubles that come upon you in your Christian life? Or has your reaction to the trials that you face in life been so different to the reaction called for here, that it seems strange to you, or a little odd in fact, that joy is to be your proper response?
Peter says in 1Peter 4 verse 16 that “if any man suffer as a Christian, let him glorify God on this behalf”. The response to suffering by a Christian is not to accuse God by murmuring and questioning thoughts, but to glorify God. How far short, it would seem, some of us, if not most of us, fall from this required attitude of joy in the face of trials. Acts 5 verse 41 tells us that the very small band of Christians, the very beginnings of the Christian Church, consisting of the original disciples and their first converts, following imprisonment and attempts to suppress them by the Jewish Council went away rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ.” Joy was their reaction to their difficulties!
Our Lord Jesus Christ himself said in Matthew 5 verse 12: “When men say all manner of evil against you falsely, and for My name’s sake, rejoice, and be exceeding glad.” Paul, writing to the Thessalonian Christians, commending them for their steadfastness of faith, says to them in 1Thessalonians 1 verse 6: “Ye received the Word with much affliction, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Affliction! And yet joy! And as Paul puts it in 2Corinthians 6 verse 10: “as sorrowful yet always rejoicing.”
Well, it is very clear then, is it not, that our proper Christian response to the trials that come upon us is a response of joy, and are we not all compelled to confess that joy has not always been our response? Do we not all have to confess that, in fact, very often our reactions to trials in life have been most unchristian?
The question we must ask now is: Why the response of joy, why the attitude of joy, why the counting it all joy when we undergo various trials? The answer we find in these words of our text: “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, and let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
The reason we are to rejoice in tribulation and afflictions and difficulties, the reason we are to count it all joy when trouble and trial come upon us is because these various trials are trying our faith, that is,
they are testing our faith,
they are proving the genuineness of our faith,
they are moulding and strengthening our faith.
The various troubles we face in life as Christians are not without purpose. They all have a God given purpose and that purpose is to test our faith, to try it, to strengthen it. Remember Job – the great afflictions he suffered
the loss of his wealth,
the loss of his possessions,
the loss of his children,
the ridicule of his friends,
the undergoing of great physical pain.
Who could suffer any greater distress than Job? Yet was not all this for the purpose of testing Job’s faith… testing his endurance and the steadfastness of his faith? Was he not able to say in the midst of his affliction “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Was not that proof as to the genuineness of his faith?
We are to rejoice then in our trials because they have the God-given purpose of testing our faith – proving the genuineness of it. As 1Peter 1 verse 7 says: that numerous trials and testings come upon you as Christians for this reason,
“that the trial of your faith,
that the proof of your faith,
that the genuineness of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold, though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honour and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”
You are tested in your faith by various trials so that you may be certain that your faith is genuine, that you may have the assurance and the comfort that having gone through the fire of trials, your faith will be found to be true and be found to the honour and praise and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
This then is the reason for joy in tribulation – for such trials will show to you, both the strength and the weakness of your faith. They test your faith, they show you your shortcomings; they therefore drive you to greater reliance and greater dependence upon the Lord. These trials drive you to greater faith as it were, or, as our text puts it, the trying or testing of your faith worketh patience. That is, if your faith is genuine, then, as it is tried and tested by various trials it will thrust itself more and more upon Christ. “Worketh patience” means to produce endurance or steadfastness, so the trials that come upon you produce within you a greater endurance and steadfastness in the Lord. As we have said, they cause you to hold on more and more to Jesus Christ as your only hope in this life. To your great comfort and joy, your faith in Christ becomes more enduring. Undergoing difficulty, you have to realise that your only help and strength can be from the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Peter and John were cast into prison, was there murmuring by them against the Lord? No! There was that confidence and that joy that He was with them and the Lord was the very cause of their boldness before the Jewish Council. Was Paul cast down and miserable when he too was imprisoned? It was then that he gloried in tribulation. He rejoiced that Christ would so privilege him to suffer this way for the very cause of Christ and for the strengthening of his own faith. And what about the martyrs we read about in Church History? When they faced the highest test of their faith when they were tied to the stake, did they murmur against the Lord? No! Invariably their witness was to a joyful endurance to the end praising Jesus Christ as Saviour and as Lord and even then seeking of the Lord’s forgiveness upon those who were putting them to death.
Do we have a similar attitude towards the trials of life that have the purpose of testing the genuineness of our faith and the producing of endurance and steadfastness in our Christian character? Once we realise that all our trials have a God given purpose to them, once we realise that the purpose is to test our faith, to show whether indeed we have true faith or not, and if these testings consistently show a lack of faith, then is not God graciously calling and even driving that person to the only hope in this life? Isn’t that person being driven to Jesus Christ? Once we realise that the trials that come upon us are for the purpose of proving, then the genuineness of our faith, and once we realise that such testing trials produce endurance and steadfastness of faith in Jesus Christ. Isn’t this your reaction when trials come your way?
Don’t you flee to Christ, don’t you cry out for his help, don’t you hold on to Him more and more, doesn’t your trust in Him exercise itself more greatly at these times of trial? Don’t you become more and more dependent upon Him? This is the reaction of true faith to all trials and therefore should be your reaction if you are what you profess to be. Now once we realise the purposes of these trials that come upon us, then we can surely do nothing else but to rejoice in the wisdom and love of God. We should realise that when trials do come upon us, then God is dealing with us in a very personal way. God permits you, as an individual, to undergo various difficulties and sore troubles so that He might mould you into that character He wants you to be. It is like a refining process which gets rid of all the dross and leaves the pure element exposed in all its beauty. A part of your growing in holiness is undergoing trials. So now, when you see that this is the ultimate purpose of your trials as a Christian, then you can rejoice and should count it all joy – for something for your eternal good is being done to you in a very personal way. Endurance and steadfastness of faith in Jesus Christ is being fully established in your heart.
Some of you say you would like to have some form of tangible experience with God – – a sort of conversion experience that you can look back on and say – well, I know I have been converted. But surely you should realise that your whole life lived as a Christian is a tangible experience with God. Just think of the trials that may be upon you now – that is God working in your life in a very tangible way! He is allowing you to be tested. Why? So that by His Holy Spirit he might mould you to be more and more like Jesus Christ the very rock of our salvation – oh, what joy is that…! And what is produced in your life through these trials is steadfastness and endurance of faith in Jesus Christ. This steadfastness of faith is necessary for the development of all the other Christian virtues we should give expression to in our lives. This is why James goes on to say in verse 4 and let patience or steadfastness have her perfect work or result, that ye may be perfect and entire or complete, wanting in nothing.”
Steadfastness of faith in Jesus Christ is the Basis on which the whole Christian character is built and made complete. If there is no endurance in faith then, of course, there can be no building up of the Christian character, there can be no growing in holiness, there can be no being made like Jesus Christ. In other words, if there is no endurance of faith, then ultimately, the case is that there is no faith at all. But with the endurance of faith, with steadfastness of faith, then there will most surely be that complete perfecting of the Christian. Being steadfast in faith in Jesus Christ you can then look forward with confidence, to that great day when Jesus Christ returns and you are made perfect in holiness, perfect in being, you can look confidently forward to being glorified. You can look forward to that time when you will have want of nothing.
Now ALL OF THIS comes out of the trials and tribulations, you may face in this life and so you can see the reason why we are called upon to count it all joy that we are so tested in this life by trials of faith. Because for the true Christian, no matter the nature or the severity of the trials that come upon us, they have this purpose: to prove the genuineness of our faith – for our own personal comfort and assurance. They have the result of producing steadfastness of faith, endurance of faith in Christ in us, which means that so, persevering and enduring in faith in Jesus Christ, we will be made to grow in holiness, made to express the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, made to be more like our Saviour Jesus Christ, and thus finally to be made perfect to dwell with Jesus Christ eternally in the new heavens and the new earth.
What is your response to the trials that come upon you? Is it joy? Do you consider it to be your chief joy as God’s Word so calls you to consider it?
Oh! that each one of us here might count it all joy when we find ourselves in the midst of various trials, knowing that through this means God is dealing with us in a very personal way, preparing us for eternal fellowship with Him and with His Son Jesus Christ our Saviour. May each of us be conscious of a steadfast faith in Jesus Christ. May our desire be ever to have the Christian attitude of joy in our hearts, rejoicing in the trials that have produced a steadfastness of faith in a gracious and loving Saviour. Rejoicing that God, by His all wise and wonderful means is bringing us to “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” – making us complete and perfect in the only saviour our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.