In James 1:2-4 “Count it all joy”, James urges! What a strange paradox he bids his readers when suddenly overwhelmed by misfortune. What James is not saying is 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 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.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 7:4 (NKJV) “I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.” This is not a call to “grin-and-bear-it”, there is no masochistic character trait being suggested by James.
He is not saying that we ought to be happy about tragedy and pain. The Christian life is not phony or put on; James’ words aren’t looking at the present to interpret the future but using the future to interpret the present!
James is calling on Christians to: Look ABOVE the immediate unpleasantness of the trial and find joy in what God WILL ACCOMPLISH by it! One author put it, “Trials will either break you or make you. If you are not utterly crushed by them then you will be utterly enlarged by them!” The choice is ours!