James 1:2–4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
If this paragraph wasn’t in the Bible, I wonder what we would make of it. Imagine a letter arriving for you one day in the mail. You open it up. It addresses you by name. And then comes the opening phrase:
“You need to consider the trials you are going through right now, in their entirety, as a cause of joy in your life!”
I wonder how much further we would get in reading that letter? We might expect that before long there will be a sales pitch and a special offer. Or we might dismiss the note on the basis that the writer can have no way of knowing how painful our trials are. To tell us to count them as “total joy” sounds idiotic! It reminds me of what my high school math teacher used to say when we complained about having to do yet another test - even if it was in January - “Cheer up - it’ll soon be Christmas!” A song from a Hollywood musical seems to offer the same kind of advice:
Gray skies are gonna clear up,
Put on a happy face;
Brush off the clouds and cheer up,
Put on a happy face.
Does the Apostle James belong to the “Hopeless Optimists’ Society”? Did a portion of his ministry consist in telling people to grin and bear it? No, not at all! Jesus told us that in this world we would have tribulation. As long as we are here, we have no real basis to conclude that uninterrupted good times are just around the corner.
Why does James open his letter with such an appeal, then? Why is he telling his readers not to put on an outward appearance of joy in the difficult times they happen upon but rather to honestly consider them as “all joy”? James is about to tell us, but before he does, note that this appeal comes to us in the case of various trials that we “meet.” The word carries with it the sense of something that happens “accidentally” from our perspective. In other words, we need to understand that we can’t go around behaving badly, deliberately provoking others to respond in a way that is a trial for us and then consider those trials to be “all joy”. He is talking about the difficulties and afflictions that come our way as we seek to live for Christ in a fallen world. These may be problems that are common to fallen man, or those that come particularly upon us when we live godly lives in Christ Jesus.
What is the reason for the trials, then? They are sent in order to test our faith, says James (and we should note that Peter agrees completely in Chapter 1 of his first letter). Of course, God already knows whether our faith is genuine - but we do not and it is really important that we should know! If we cannot endure under trial but turn back from following Christ, we will have pretty good grounds for believing that our faith isn’t the real thing. It is much better to find that out now, when there is time to repent and seek after God for true faith, than to discover when you die that you have been deceiving yourself.
But there is more to this testing than that, as James indicates. Where we have true faith and it is tested, the result is an increasing patient endurance and cleaving to God. We lean more and more on Him as the One Who will bring us through the valley and out into glory. The more we lean on God and not on our own understanding, the more we look to Him and not to ourselves, the more we surrender our wills to His, the more mature we will be - the more blameless and complete in His sight. And along with that, the more of His peace we will know (the peace that surpasses all understanding).
Another facet here is that this patient endurance of trials is only possible in the strength that God supplies and therefore is an attitude that brings glory to Him - think of Job and how God was magnified in his faithfulness!
It is as we realize what the result of the trials will be - both for us and for God - that we can come to regard them in a different light. They are not sent to hurt us but for our good. They are not accidents but come with infinitely perfect wisdom and design from our heavenly Father.
It is as we surrender to Him in the midst of these afflictions that we will agree with Paul’s assessment that God really is working
all things together for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
In the midst of this current global trial we are going through, can we consider it “all joy”? Can we see that God is working good in each of our lives, using the coronavirus with infinite skill to refine us, perfect us, complete us and fit us to take our places with Him in heaven? Once we understand this, it transforms our view of all our trials, including this one, doesn’t it? They are not random things any more. Neither, indeed, are they things to be avoided at all costs. We aren’t to go looking for them, as I indicated at the beginning of this meditation. But when we happen upon them, we won’t be resentful, shaking our fist at God with anger and bitterness. We can rest in the confidence that He knows what He is doing, and He knows what He needs to do in each of us to prepare us for heaven - and that makes even our trials a source of joy!
