The great believers have been the unwearied waiters ¹. They have stood in the face of delay and denial. They have stayed with their eyes fixed on Jesus. Their heart set on His mission. And, their faith grounded in His love. They have come forth as witnesses that you too can become a mature believer and inherit God’s promises (Heb. 6:12). In his letter, James gives us the secret to real growth in God (James 1:2-4).

 Click on this link for a flow diagram of this passage.

Epistle of James: Chapter One

SUMMARY

Chapter Summary: James 1

The chapter includes practical ‘how to live life’ instructions on dealing with tests and trials capped off by an admonition basic to all believers, doing the Word.

Section/Post Summary: James 1:2-4

James begins his letter with instructions on tests and trials encouraging the ‘scattered’ of the Diaspora to ‘hang in there’ and respect the journey understanding that blessings in development and heavenly rewards await the victorious. Verses two through four address the joy and patience elements necessary to endure tests and trials.

James 1:2-4 (KJV) – 2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

DEFINITIONS:

• brethren/ἀδελφός/adelphos
  • Brother; a male from the same womb.   ²; also brother or sister  or siblings as Acts 1:15-16 shows. This ‘all encompassing’ definition is the sense here.
• count/ἡγέομαι/hēgeomai
  • The word translates many ways in the English Bible but mainly to lead or guide. Here the meaning ‘to consider’, to think, to regard, and to reckon synonymously fit the passage. The idea of leading combined with the idea of thinking gives us the following definition: ‘to lead ones thoughts or considerations or fixed conclusions out of the mind’.
• all/πᾶς/pas
  • Whole, every kind of, full, all.
• fall/περιπίπτω/peripiptō
  • To fall into.
• divers/ποικίλος/poikilos
  • Diverse, various kinds, multi-colored.
• temptations/πειράζω/peirazō
  • to try, test; examination.
• knowing/γινώσκω/ginōskō
  • To know; to understand.
• trying/ δοκίμιον/dokimion
  • To test or to prove, testing to prove genuineness or authenticity.
• worketh (works)/κατεργάζομαι/katergazomai
  • Work; create; produce; work out.
• patience/ὑπομονή/hypomonē
  • Endurance, patience, steadfastness. The word patience breaks down into two words; ‘hupo’ meaning to be under – and ‘meno’ to remain, stay, or abide. Combined it gives us ‘to remain under’. In addition, the word infers steadfastness, patience, or refusing to move.
• have/ἔχω/echō
  • To bring about, cause; to experience a state or condition, generally involving duration–‘to experience, to have’ ³.
• perfect/τέλειος/teleios
  • Full, complete, to bring about the desired end having grasped the end or purpose.
• perfect/τέλειος/teleios
  • Full-grown, mature; an adult. Same Greek word as previously but with a different meaning. The word applies to a person not a spiritual quality.
• entire/ὁλόκληρος/holoklēros
  • Whole, complete, having integrity, without defect; healthy.
• wanting/λείπω/leipō
  • To fall short, lack, to be in need; deficient.
• nothing/μηδείς/mēdeis
  • Not anything, in no way.

BACKGROUND:

• No background for this passage.

COMMENTS:

• ‘My brethren’
  
  • What Can We Learn from the Words ‘My Brethren’?
    • The word ‘brethren’ in Greek means brothers of the same womb. The term is unisex. Brothers, in the Christian sense, come from the same spiritual womb – the same Holy Spirit. The blood of Jesus, our elder brother (Romans 8:29), made us family. The bond between the saints of God are like double helix DNA strands. All humans have the same genes; so do believers. The new birth forms the holiest gene pool in the universe. Believer’s spiritual cells link to Jesus, to one another, and to the Father (John 17:23). 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.” What does new mean? The word new compares your life in Christ with your life as a sinner. But, the word also signifies a new species. The new creation brother never existed before Calvary. By adding the pronoun ‘My’, James includes himself and identifies with his spiritual family. The truths he is getting ready to share are ‘my brethren’ truths. They apply to the whole family. James is saying, “I am the same as you. We are one body of Christ. We are on the same plane.” This letter takes on the feel of kitchen table talk. It’s James talking to his family.

[Tweet “How does joy come? It appears when you know you have a planet creating God watching your back.”]

• ‘count it all joy’
  • The Connection between Brains and Bliss when Confronted with Trials
    • The apostle coaches his audience to count it all joy when falling into trials. Honing in on the words ‘count it’ yields significant help. Count it all joy’ means, to consider all angles of a trial mentally. The word means to consider, to calculate, to think so you come to a proper conclusion. It’s like this. You’re walking through a typical day. No seismic tremors. Everything is familiar. Suddenly, it’s like you’re caught in a downpour without your umbrella. Wham, the floodwaters rise from beneath. Welcome to tribulation (John 16:33). As the water squishes in your shoes, the mental thoughts begin to rise like the tide. ‘What did I do? How did this happen? How did I get here? Why me? I just don’t have time for this stupid mess.’ The barrage is on. Answering these questions is irrelevant. They don’t fix the problem. It’s just your soul vomiting. After all, you are not only spirit. You are soul and body also (1 Thessalonians 5:23). So, how should you continue after the drenching? Count it joy. It starts with thinking in line with God’s Word. Mull over the trial using God’s Word as a filter. Assess it through the eyes of what God has said. Ponder it. See it as He sees it. When you do, you’ll realize there is only one logical result, joy. If your thinking produces a result other than joy, you have a Word problem. You have an illumination issue. Here is where other believer’s strength can come alongside and help you. Where does this joy James points to come from? It appears when you know you have a planet creating God watching your back. It comes from knowing ‘no weapon formed against you will prosper’ (Isaiah 54:17). It comes from knowing there’s no trial from which the Lord cannot deliver. He knows how to deliver His children. He told us so (2 Peter 2:9). God is on your side. He is for you, with you, and in you. This knowledge produces joy in the most difficult tests. Joy, in a believer’s life, is not a developed state. You do not grow in joy. You choose it. Once you settle the matter, you are now in a position of strength (Nehemiah 8:10). You are ready to overcome. Fusing brains and bliss does it.
• ‘when you fall into’
  • The Unexpected Nature of Trials
    
    • James tells us to count it joy when we ‘fall into’ difficulty. This idea of ‘falling into’ a trial gives the sense that trials come out of nowhere. We have seen the cartoon where the character is going along and suddenly disappears through an open manhole. Trials are not a line item we schedule in our Day Timers. They are haphazard oddities of life. When you understand the ‘fall in’ factor, you can walk free from blame. Why scold yourself when it wasn’t your manhole you fell into? Chiding yourself over the unexpected is futile energy. The words of 1 Corinthians 10:13 say it best. Every temptation overtaken you is common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
• ‘divers temptations’
  • Trials Come in Different Sizes and Shapes
    • Don’t let the word temptation, used in the King James, throw you. In many minds, the word carries a negative and sexual connotation. Lust doesn’t describe the sense of the word. It is too narrow. Broader, the Greek ‘peirazō’ means testing and trial. James qualifies the word with the adjective divers. Divers trials are like people. They come in different sizes and shapes. In the Old Testament, the enemies that Israel faced came in various packages. Some lived in entrenched cities (Joshua 6) as Jericho. Others had huge reservoirs of military might Isaiah 38:1-39:8) as the Assyrians. Small annoying cities like Ai (Joshua 7:2-4) also produced a challenge. Some enemies posed a giant challenge for Israel. Goliath’s height registered at 9 feet 9 ½ inches tall (1 Samuel 17:4). Another of Israel’s enemies, Og King of Bashan, slept in a bed that measured 13 ½ foot long (Deuteronomy 3:11). All the giants Israel faced were not the same size. All the giants you face will vary. Learn to take on the small ones right where you are. Then when the bigger ones come along, you’ll be a seasoned veteran well experienced to overcome.
• ‘Knowing this’
  • The Importance of Knowledge when Challenged with Trials
    • The word ‘knowing’ or understanding is a critical ingredient when facing trials. According to James, a stressful test becomes a reason for joy when you view it through the lens of patience. The world has a saying about knowing. You have heard of it. ‘It’s not what you know but who you know’. Christianity has a different thought. It stresses both what you know and who you know. The ‘what’ encompasses God’s Word. The ‘who’ concerns God’s own person. Saints rise or fall on the knowledge they have in these areas (Isaiah 5:13, Hosea 4:6, 2 Peter 1:3, Luke 6:46-49). But, it’s not just amassing knowledge. Refusing to access stored knowledge creates fat heads and defeated hearts. The recipe for continuous victory is knowledge coupled with continuous action. Notice, what James doesn’t say. He doesn’t say God’s love for you is the key to overcoming. Whether you are victorious or defeated has nothing to do with whether God loves you. Victory does not show favor. The reality is God loves defeated Christians as much as victorious ones. Applied knowledge is the key, not love. With that comes this understanding. How much victory you enjoy is more up to you, than it is up to God. So, walk the overcoming life. Follow the Holy Spirit’s instruction to pray for knowledge (Ephesians 1:16-23). Read, study, and pray through the scriptures. And, apply to every situation the knowledge of God you possess.
• ‘that the trying of your faith’
  • God Does Not Associate with Evil
    • Understanding the origin of testing bolsters your trust or faith in God. Christians must not confuse friend and foe. Since we are told in the scriptures to resist the enemy, don’t we have to know who the enemy is? Soldiers must know who they’re shooting at. This makes friendlies very happy. Reconnaissance then is critical. Knowing the scriptures helps you to determine whether a test is from God or not. For example, who was the source of the persecution based scattering mentioned in verse one? Was it God or was it Satan? James clarifies this for us in verse fourteen. God does not test or try us with evil (James 1:14). That settles it. God does not abuse his own body. He did not cause the dispersal. Examine your situation this way. If you identify the problem as enemy related, you know what to do. Resist him. Cast him out. Aim your gospel gun and pull the trigger. Point it at sickness. Zero in on strife. Direct your assault at worry. These are all authentic evils arrayed against the cross. God is in none of it.
• ‘worketh patience.’
  • Working Patience Out of Your Spirit
    • The word working means to work, create, produce, or work out. Work out is how the word translates in Philippians 2:12, ‘work out your salvation with fear and trembling’. The idea of ‘working something out’ fits this word because patience is one of the nine fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22). These fruits are sown into your spirit and are part of your spiritual DNA. Knowing you are internally pre-wired for success is one thing, getting those dormant seeds active is another. Enter the trial. Tests and trials are one way patience blossoms out of the seedbed of your heart. According to James, the ‘trying of one’s faith’ works patience. It pulls it out of you. Defining patience at this point will help us. Patience is staying consistently constant despite all trouble. It means refusing to be offended despite the offence. Are you one that throws their religion away at the first sign of contrary winds? If you are, then allow patience to have its maturing work in you. Incorrectly, tradition defines patience as passivity. But patience doesn’t mean stand and smile while you get your face beat in. It is not passive or fatalistic. Sometimes patience is confused with longsuffering. The two are not the same. Yielding to patience has other benefits. It helps you prove yourself. Trials are opportunities to believe God and prove His Word. The Christian, standing in faith and anchored by patience is more than a match for any trial. We are more than conquerors. It is soul-stirring to point your faith at the mountain and watch God deliver. Not only do you experience the joy of victory but you also prove to God you will keep His way (Genesis 18:19). You also demonstrate to devils, demons and evil spirits that you are a front-line real deal believer. Last, you witness to your own self. You gain confidence in your current place in Him. You now know you can walk in faith. You can now be trusted with more. Through every victory, you gain confidence. Through every missed opportunity, you gain experience. You learn most of all, you learn the game of life is never over because of a setback. The child of God plays the game until he wins. See 1Peter 1:6-9 and Romans 5:3-5 for similar instructions on faith’s testing amid trials. This is the impact of patience worked out of your spirit man.
  • How Faith and Patience Work Together
    • The trying your faith gives the opportunity to work out of you a steadfastness that refuses to budge or move. Patience or endurance helps you to stay constant in the face of pressure. Imagine the picture of a military person in a foxhole taking heavy fire. His refusing to retreat or give up any ground to the enemy portrays these words. Trials and tests develop into opportunities to use your faith in God’s Word. We stand against the difficulty that has risen against us to bring us down. An active sequence may include something like this.
      A test appears. You identify it as an enemy attack. You go to the Word and find scriptures which speak to the problem. You stand on those verses and believe Him to deliver you. But, nothing happens so you stand firm. Day one goes by. On day two, your stance continues. Nothing changes. The difficulty hasn’t moved. You refuse to move off God’s promises despite the clear lack of progress. You praise God for the answer and help comes; not the answer to the trial but patience bubbles from within your heart. It helps gird you and keep you steady. Bolstered, you refuse to move, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. The days fade away. A week goes by. You know God heard your prayer. His Word said He did. You refuse to give up your faith though the days slip away into nights without sign of change. All seems like surreal nothingness. A fact which the enemy continues to remind you of. Satan wants you to change your believing. He wants you to judge the spiritual by the physical. Doubt says, “If nothing is happening on earth than nothing is happening in heaven. No help is coming. You missed it.” Yet, the opposite is true. Outward appearances have a deceptive look. Isaiah 64:4 helps us here. “God acts for those who wait for Him.” God moves while you wait. Lack of physical progress has no relevance. This is the faith arena. Faith considers the facts of God’s Word not the facts of a man’s world. God heard you the moment you prayed. And while you wait, He works. Finally the answer comes. It appears in a way you didn’t expect and in a manner you didn’t calculate. It’s always that way. He will awe you with the variety of His movings and methods. Physical progress has no relevance in the faith arena. Growth occurs through the entire process. Our confidence now is greater. You have followed the Spirit, prayed, believed, and stood in the face of doubt and devils. God has heard you, met you and delivered you.
• ‘But let patience have her perfect work’
  • The Choice to Allow Patience to Run Full Out
    • The Greek word ‘let’ is continuous. Because it is, you can translate this phrase as ‘let and keep on letting patience have her perfect work’. This highlights the importance of exercising your will in dealing with trials. You have to ‘let’ patience access the test. Fighting or fleeing is your decision. You can choose to stand or you can succumb to the flight response.  But, bailing is a blunder. That’s a Bible fact. God cannot save a man who doesn’t allow Him to. Relentless patience; hanging in, hanging on, and hanging out while God does the heavy lifting is the way of maturity. You must not allow circumstances, heavy pressure, threats, or loss to make the choice for you. As you gain experience from dealing with trials (Romans 5:3-4), you will notice a pattern to the enemy’s lies. He always tries to make you feel the trial is in control not you. Exposing that lie is key. Your persistent intent is the lynchpin between victory and defeat. Look at the Good News Bible translation of this phrase. “Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing.” You is the understood subject. You make sure your endurance carries you all the way. Isn’t wonderful to be the control freak when it’s at the enemy’s expense? It’s the only time it’s acceptable.
• ‘her perfect work’
  • The First Benefit of Patience: Maturity
    • Maturity is the first of three benefits of yielding to patience. The word ‘perfect’ means to complete or to bring to a desired end. This gives us the idea of maturity. Mature believers are patient and steady people. Notice James’ interconnecting ideas. Counting a trial joy because you know it will mature you already shows you’re on your way. Arriving at such a place involves skill in using God’s Word of God amid difficulties (Hebrews 5:13-14). The sheltered know little of patience. This becomes obvious with exposure. You can see, from this letter, that maturing is an important part of your life. The idea of growing in God must resonate in your innermost parts. It must be your aim. Not growing should trigger questions. It should set you to seek God for the answer. Take heart though. Spiritual and physical development have many comparable stages of development. For example, no one is born a full grown human. You’re born a babe and then grow from there. In Christianity, the same is true. Accepting Jesus as Lord, doesn’t mean you’ve arrived. You’re born a spiritual babe, and you grow from there. The sad part is when someone remains undeveloped, even though they’ve known Jesus for many years. Thank God for the Bible. Following the admonition to let patience have its perfect work avoids the no growth pitfall.
• ‘that you may be perfect’
  • What A Mature Believer in Jesus Looks Like
    • Ephesians 4:13 speaks of the ministry gifts God has placed in the church to help mature it. Jesus set the goal of being mature in Matthew 5:48. Understanding what a mature believer looks like is fundamental help along this line. There are many other maturity traits besides the patience of chapter one. For example, James addresses ‘tongue control’ in chapter three. Paul speaks also to this in his letters. The mature have a capacity to hear wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:6). They are consistent in their thought life (Philippians 3:15, 1 Corinthians 14:20). They have a handle on walking in love (1 John 4:18). They feed on the strong meat of God’s Word (Hebrews 5:14). The mature also understand what the will of God holds for them (Romans 12:2). They live in it with conviction (Colossians 4:12).
• ‘and entire’
  • The Second Benefit of Operating in Patience: Whole and Complete
    • The word ‘entire’ means you have the ability to come out of testing’s and trials whole and complete. The word shows us the divinely supernatural, ‘hand of God’ in overcoming tests. You can tightrope walk the fire without the smell of smoke. You can come up out of the flood with your feet on dry ground. You can paralyze hordes of enemy with praise as a defense. The weapons formed against you can’t overcome your life, if God is for you. But, you have to stand to see God’s salvation (Exodus 14:13, 2 Chronicles 20:17). That means stepping into the flames when the only other choice is compromise. You also note, in the word ‘entire’, an essential difference between saved and unsaved. The saved come out whole, unscathed, and with integrity. The unsaved come out damaged, mutilated, and shot through with ‘bullet holes’. Their experience adds logs to the fire of a discontented life. The triumph of the three Hebrew boys in the fiery incinerator is the perfect illustration for this word ‘entire’.
• ‘wanting nothing’
  • The Third Benefit of Operating in Patience: Lacking Nothing
    • The enemy uses afflictions to try to steal God’s graces from your life. God’s promise is a safeguard against these attempts. God’s are plain. If you allow patience to do its work, you will come to place of contentment. A place, where you lack nothing. That doesn’t mean you’re one hundred percent insulated from loss. God’s assurance is your end will be greater than your beginning. So much greater, your first loss seems insignificant. Job lost a legion of family. His property followed suit. But in the end, he gained much more than he started with (Job 42:10). It never costs to serve God, it pays (1Timothy 4:8).

QUESTIONS:

• What Does the Words ‘all joy’ Mean?
  • ‘All joy’ means count every step of one’s way as joy. Here the way leads through the shadow valley of tests. Tests are excuses for joy. They are not occasions to feel good. After all, this is a test, not ice cream. Cross bearing ordeals are not about feeling; they are about counting. Who looks past the cavern and sees joy sitting on the other side? A zealot? The New Testament calls him a disciple. Disciples count (Luke 14:28). They work out the math. Is that you? Are you this caliber? Yes, if you are in Jesus. He’s that way. Hebrews 12:2 says Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the cross. Give yourself for joy’s sake, as He did. Do it ahead of time. Don’t wait until you’re looking the dragon in the face before you set your attitude and outlook. A sad heart adds weight to any journey. A happy heart benefits and lightens it. (Proverbs 17:22).

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References