Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals
Tuesday September 1
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James 1:2-4-My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
The idea that trials are somehow to be counted with joy has been difficult for me to understand. On the surface, it sounds like the Bible is saying that when we go through a hard time in life, we should be cheering and enjoying the painful elements of that struggle.
Is that what James is saying?
Let’s study.
The word “count” that is used here is very interesting. It was an accounting term, used by tax collectors and book keepers. It meant to look at the sum total of several individual deductions.
Outlook determines outcome, and attitude determines action. God tells us to expect trials. It is not “if you fall into various testings” but “when you fall into various testings.” The believer who expects his Christian life to be easy is in for a shock…Because we are God’s “scattered people” and not God’s “sheltered people,” we must experience trials. We cannot always expect everything to go our way. Some trials come simply because we are human—sickness, accidents, disappointments, even seeming tragedies. Other trials come because we are Christian…..The phrase “fall into” does not suggest a stupid accident. Translate it “encounter, come across.” A Christian certainly should not manufacture trials. The Greek word translated “divers” means “various, varicolored…..The key word is count. It is a financial term, and it means “to evaluate.” Paul used it several times in Philippians 3. When Paul became a Christian, he evaluated his life and set new goals and priorities. Things that were once important to him became “garbage” in the light of his experience with Christ. When we face the trials of life, we must evaluate them in the light of what God is doing for us. This explains why the dedicated Christian can have joy in the midst of trials: He lives for the things that matter most. Even our Lord was able to endure the cross because of “the joy that was set before him” (Heb. 12: 2), the joy of returning to heaven and one day sharing His glory with His church. Our values determine our evaluations. If we value comfort more than character, then trials will upset us. If we value the material and physical more than the spiritual, we will not be able to “count it all joy.” If we live only for the present and forget the future, then trials will make us bitter, not better…So, when trials come, immediately give thanks to the Lord and adopt a joyful attitude. Do not pretend; do not try self-hypnosis; simply look at trials through the eyes of faith. Outlook determines outcome; to end with joy, begin with joy. (Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Mature (James): Growing Up in Christ, 31-33 (Kindle Edition): Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook)
So an accountant would take a person’s deductions, and add then together. By the time the evaluation was finished, the “deductions” (though individually costly and expensive) would be added up and lead to a greater profit. That means that Christians do not get joy in the moment out of the pain of any individual hardship. Rather, they look at the trial in faith that God will use that (and every other hardship) to bring about something profitable for His people in the long run.
Second, this idea of refining through trials that James uses has precedent in both the Old Testament and in uninspired Jewish literature.
In a Christian context the term means that he addresses those within the church: this is not an epistle addressed to the world at large. The brothers are to rejoice or “count themselves supremely happy” (NEB) whenever they face πειρασμός. The author assumes that this is a context for the Christian life, and that testing comes in a variety of forms (ποιϰίλοις). Jews, of course, have a long tradition about testing, reaching back to Abraham (Genesis 22), the prime example of one who passed the test, and to the Israelites in the wilderness (e.g. Nu. 14: 20–24), the prime example of failure. This tradition was amplified under the experience of exile and persecution. Sir. 2: 1–6 advises: My son, when thou comest to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation. Set thy heart aright and endure firmly, and be not fearful in time of calamity…. Accept whatsoever is brought upon thee, and be patient in disease and poverty. For gold is proved in the fire, and men acceptable to God in the furnace of affliction…. (Cf. Jud. 8: 25; 1QS 10, 17; 1QH 5: 15–17; 1QM 16: 15–17: 3.). (Peter H. Davids, The Epistle of James (New International Greek Testament Commentary (NIGTC), 157 (Kindle Edition): Grand Rapids, MI: William. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company)
We fix our eyes on the good ends that God will accomplish through our hardships, whether in this life or in the new Heavens and new Earth. By looking at the trials that we endure in the understanding that God will allow them into our lives for good, we are then able to “count” them as joy.
The passage begins with a command: “Regard it altogether joy.” A large part of the life of faith is one’s attitude toward things in life and one’s response to events. We often can do little to control our environment and the things that happen to us, but we can control the way we think about them and how we react to them. Knowing how to interpret events and actions is a large part of wisdom, and the faithful attitude of the Christian is one of joy. Still, to count testing as joy is a truly radical proposal. How can a trial be regarded as a joy? And how can it be regarded as “altogether” or “all” joy? As Ropes (1916: 129-30) says, the word “all,” functioning essentially adverbially, heightens the effect of joy, and he suggests the translation that I have adopted: “altogether joy.” 107 Hence, the NIV reading, “consider it pure joy,” though possibly somewhat misleading (see the next paragraph), is semantically not far off. Although James later gives further reasons for joy in testing (1: 12), here he indicates that testings are to be regarded as occasion for joy because they are an opportunity to endure and prove faith-keeping and because they lead to wisdom. This is not to say that there is no component of sorrow in trials as well. James is not advocating masochism. The reason for the joy is not the suffering per se but rather its fruit, the character traits that it induces: endurance, maturity, and wisdom. The strange ability to experience joy at the same time as sorrow is a hallmark of genuine faith. The connection between wisdom and enduring trials is found elsewhere in the NT (see especially 1 Pet. 1: 6; 4: 12-13) and is known also in Jewish wisdom thinking (Wis. 3: 4-5; Sir. 2: 1; 2 Bar. 52.5-6). The connection is especially clear in Sir. 14: 20-15: 10 (esp. 15: 6), which locates joy in wisdom, the path of which involves discipline and testing (Sir. 4: 17; 22: 6). But there may be another reason why the enduring of trials may be counted as joy: they are an indication of the nearness of the end of the age (Davids 1982: 67-68; but cf. Laws 1980: 52). At least it is a reflection of the biblical hope already found in Ps. 126: 5 NASB: “Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. (Dan McCartney, James (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), 1909-1923 (Kindle Edition): Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic)
Help us, Lord, to see beyond the pain of our trials in faith and hope of the good that You will bring. Amen.