Joy: Devotional Meditation for June 2-8
James 1:1-4 (NASB)
This is the Word of God. May the Spirit of Truth give us wisdom and insight to receive what has been conveyed through His Word by His Inspiration.
Who or what can separate us from the Love of God?!
1:1 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.
This is a letter from James primarily to the twelve tribes of Israel but also to all believers across the ages: that is you and me. It is a simple letter of practical lessons that give meaning and significance to faith in an unprecedented way. James does three simple things in the opening verse of his epistle. He introduces himself, identifies his audience, and salutes his readers with a word of greeting. He states his name and presents himself as the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. His epistle is addressed to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. That is, to those Jewish Christians who were scattered throughout the Roman Empire due to persecution.
James effectively captures the attention of his audience with a powerful spiritual identity with which he signifies himself and his service to God. With that, he sets his teachings on a solid foundation. First, he secures divine credence for his teachings because he speaks as a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, he bridges the supposed conceptual gap between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament Who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. He is the servant of God the Almighty Who is also revealed in Jesus Christ and works through the Holy Spirit, one God: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
He introduces himself as the servant of the God they knew and the Lord they believed for their salvation. By pointing his audience to God, James distances himself from any personal attention potentially directed toward him. He places himself and his audience on the same spiritual position under God even though he speaks from the exhorter's office as God's servant. Yet, he forges a tight spiritual bond between himself and his audience—a servant of God speaking to the children of God as they both listen to what the Lord says to them.
1:2-4
2Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James continues to identify himself with his audience by addressing them with an endearing tone as brothers and sisters. Even though he speaks to them as their exhorter, he acknowledges that his spiritual needs are the same as theirs. In essence, James does not speak as elite exhorter to a suffering church of a lower estate. Rather, he proclaims the living Word of God to every struggling believer, including himself.
On face value, his exhortation seems to stand contrary to our natural instinct. Rejoice in affliction? No! James does not suggest or imply that joy is inherent in pain. Instead, he shows us worthy reasons for considering our encounters with trials as occasions for joy.
James' exhortation is based on two spiritual factors which he expects us to recognize. First, trials and persecutions are integral aspects of Christian pilgrimage. They are the natural outcome of the adversarial attitude of the hostile world toward God's people. Second, they are purposeful. Trials are not fortuitous. They are effective tools in the hands of a sovereign God Who employs them to refine faith, purge Christian life, enhance godly fellowship, and augment Christian journey. In other words, they are unavoidable, necessary, and purposeful. They are either a purging discipline or a refining crucible.
James exhorts us to rejoice in affliction, not for what it is, but for what it will do in us. Trials and persecutions cultivate patience and endurance in us as we wait upon the Lord to accomplish His Purpose. Here, patience is not an end in itself. It is not an emotional milestone that marks either the completion of a difficult experience, or the fosterage of a desperately needed resilience to absorb pain, or simply the ability to survive.
Patience is the sacred path that takes suffering believers to the finish-line of God's fulfilled Purpose. In that, we rejoice. Trials and persecutions are, therefore, the tests that refine our belief in God into a real faith lacking in nothing. In that, we rejoice. Both patience and joy are the fruit of the Spirit that facilitate our communion with God during and through our difficulties. In that, we rejoice. Therefore, we view our trials and tribulations with a joyful attitude knowing that the testing of our faith generates a fruitful endurance leading to completion, contentment, and rest in God.
Notes/Applications
Writing more as a preacher than a theologian, James directly speaks to our souls and confronts the real nature of our claim to faith. His implied premise is that a confessed faith must also be expressible in the daily aspects of life. A claim to faith cannot be verified, confirmed, or presented as real by the very confession to which it owes its existence. If it is indeed there, true faith surpasses mere confession and thrives in a life that is drawn closer to God. True faith looks to God at all times, at all places, in all circumstances.
Right from the outset, James speaks with deep implications suggesting that an untested faith will collapse at the faintest onset of a stormy experience. Therefore, he exhorts us to directly interact with God on all occasions of sufferings instead of exclusively reacting to our experience. Our faith must continue to mature with a steady conviction, a strong consistency, and a meaningful application. Our instinctive reactions to unpleasant experiences cannot produce such steadfastness in our faith.
When we directly respond to God on all matters of life, our responses actually reflect faith that is being tested and refined by the same difficult events that are pushing us toward God. As we become less reactive and more responsive, we are acting by faith with conviction, strength, consistency, and steadfastness. That means we are less fluctuating and more persistent in our faith.
We must exercise caution here lest we mistake James' exhortation as promoting passive submission, a self-induced resilient endurance, or denial against reality. Rather, he is admonishing us to view all things with a godly perspective and a Christian outlook so that we may effectively respond by the Power of the Joy of the Spirit at work in us. James is exhorting us to walk with God through our trials so that the Power of His Joy would mature our faith into a perfect completion in Christ lacking in nothing. So we persevere through trials as the saints of God by the Power of the Joy of the Spirit. Whereas reaction to trials might give us a winless survival—if we are not crushed in the process, communing with God about our sufferings blesses us with a victorious perseverance, because the perseverance of the saints is the work of the Holy Spirit.
