The challenge rendered by the book of James is what is much needed in today’s church, an active faith. The question is what is the key ingredient that God uses to activate our faith? The answer is to be found in the opening statement in verse 2 “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” Christian maturity is the main theme.
It is obvious by the context of the letter James was NOT written to people who DIDN’T struggle with their faith. In fact, this letter is all about people who found it difficult to live the Christian life at times. It seems from James’s perspective that following Jesus didn’t always make life easier to live, it may have made it harder to live.
The Christian life is enjoyable not because it is easier to live, but because the follower of God can endure the difficulties of living life by obeying His Word by His Spirit.
“Count it all joy”, James urges! What a strange paradox he bids his readers when suddenly overwhelmed by misfortune. James is not saying that we should seek disaster or deny the pain and sorrow that they produce. Instead, he says that we must regard such adversity as tests of our faith and pathways to our spiritual growth!
The patience that they produce is not mere passive submission but steadfast endurance that of triumph of trust! Every believer faces two pressures that will either causes us to behave like victims or victors, these two pressures are from two opposite directions outside and inside. Based upon the text from James they are:
12-11 Trials from the outside
23-18 Temptations from the inside
How we respond to these pressures will indicate whether we will grow in our relationship with Jesus. The Greek phrase “count it all joy” speaks to the believer considering and looking up and foreword past the present trial to the desired outcome our maturity. Our goal should be to look more like Christ after a trial, seeing He is always faithful!