Are the daily trials that Christians experience simply just a matter of naturalism and random chance?
Am I Really Considering My Faith-tests as All Joy?
James 1:2-4
We are going to be learning from James 1:2-4 this morning. Please take up your Bibles and turn there now, to James 1:2-4. As you are turning there, I want us to be mindful of the blessing that comes from hardship. There is blessing that comes to us at times, and it comes with relative ease, and it comes in relative ease, but I am talking about the principle of blessing that only comes through the process of hardship. In Central America, there is a technique used along the mountains to produce more coffee berries from the same plants. What was discovered was that during times of hostility in war torn areas, where coffee bushes were blasted, as the plants recuperated from the shock, they would produce more coffee berries than before. So, now farmers blast charges in their groves as a part of a process to shock the plants to produce a higher quality yield. Blessing comes through the process of hardship. There is a blessing that occurs when you apply intense pressure, and intense heat, to carbon. When this process of hardship occurs over time, the carbon turns to a crystal, which is a diamond. There is process to gaining endurance as an athlete. It is a testing process. The process requires hours upon hours of working out. It is a grueling process, but it produces endurance. While I was working on this sermon this week, I had Isaiah sit down next to me and practice writing out words. He needed to get the shape of the letters down correctly. It took time. Sometimes it was frustrating. It didn't feel good. It was a trial. But ultimately, he was able to write out certain letters of the alphabet in almost perfect form. I could go on and on about so many of these kinds of things. They are the kinds of things, where an uncomfortable process, will produce blessing. James is going to cover a process that God uses for His glory to bring blessing. It is a process that involves you and me. It is the process of spiritual growth, whereby two things occur.
/1/
One thing that occurs is that the process reveals what is there in us already.
/2/
Another thing that occurs is that the process produces something there in us.
Both are blessings, and both are important things that blend in with what James is teaching. Let's keep these things in mind as we consider our passage this morning. Please read it along with me now, starting in James 1:1,
"1 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. 2 Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:1-4
Please have your heart prepared to go verse to verse with me through this wonderful epistle. My hope is that we will prayerfully seek to learn from this sermon this morning, titled,
Am I Really Considering My Faith-tests as All Joy? [prayer]
James says,
"2 Consider it all joy, my brothers, ..."
As we keep in mind the great process that God uses to reveal what is there in us, and for producing something there in us, we need to get the contextual flow and terminology out of the way. This will help us tremendously to understand where James is coming from as he is being led by the Spirit to write these things. First we must contemplate certain terms that James is using. James is talking to brothers. It was common for Jewish people to refer to one another as brothers. Israelites are all related to one another through their common father, Israel.
But, is this what James means here in his introduction?
We notice that James addresses his brothers of the twelve tribes. We Know that The twelve tribes were Israelites according to the flesh. But, we also know something else. We know that brothers and sisters is also terminology that all of us who are Christians use as the family of God. We are brothers and sisters according to the Spirit. The Greek word that James uses here for brothers is adelfoi. Adelfoi was used for both male and female siblings. The main point is that James is writing to Christians in the family of God. They are people who are his brothers and sisters according to the Spirit. James says it in 2:1,
"1 My brothers [and sisters--adelfoi (siblings)], do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism." James 2:1
In 5:7 James writes,
"7 Therefore be patient, brothers [and sisters], until the coming of the Lord. ..."
Keeping these things in mind, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we see that James is launching this letter with the command to have a very important mindset. This right here is what we are mainly interested in this morning. The instruction is to,
"2 Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." James 1:2-3
In the context, the consideration that God is urging, is that when the dispersed Christian Israelites encounter various trials because of their faith in the Messiah, it is not to be considered something that is horrendous, though it may feel horrendous, or even appear that way. It is not something defeating, though it may hit so hard that physical and emotional depression comes. God knows that we feel this way when we are hit with the fist of life in our desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. So, God gives us revelation of a truth that He knows about, and we need to live by each and every day. God tells us to consider doing something that we absolutely don't do as a matter of instinct. It's a consideration of doing everything to be what we don't naturally feel. What God is saying, does not make sense to lost people. It is silliness to the natural mind. God calls it something that when we look at it naturally, we can easily argue from experience that something else is going on. We say it is all junk. God says that it is all joy. This is the point; since it is all joy, because God is never wrong about what He knows everything to be, our loving Father is hugging us, and He is telling us to consider it what it really is--all joy. Immediately, when we read something like this from our Father, we think about it in the textbook way of reading such things, and we think that it sounds so simple. It is so easy to say. I mean, it is as easy as telling someone who has a broken arm, that they need to consider it as all joy. It's easy to say. In the meantime, they have a broken arm. I remember going out with a friend some years ago to take pictures of him making his first practice launch of a hang glider that he had recently purchased. We set it all up on steep hill. He got in place. I got in place at the bottom of the hill. My friend started running down the slope, but the hang glider did not glide. My friend kept on running, and unfortunately he kept running down the slope and into the ground. Instantly, he broke his arm. It was a compound break where he looked like he had an extra elbow. Now, at that point, I could have said a lot of things. But, looking at the horror in my friends face, and saying in relaxed repose, "Count it all joy," was not something that seemed like the right thing for me to say at the moment. I could have said it, and really, God wants us to say and think such things, but when it comes to the ease of saying such things, it is not as easy as we may academically think when we are sitting comfortably reading it while sipping a nice beverage. So, it sounds easy, at least to repeat this passage, and to read it when we are detached from certain trials. But, we also notice that the passage also has another sound to it. It also sounds seemingly impossible to do. But, God would not tell us to do something, if we can not do it. The fact of the matter is that in our weak, fragile, human flesh, there is no way we can be obedient to this command. In our natural flesh, we can not be obedient to the command to surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees. We can't be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Someone must be perfect for us, and that someone is Christ. And so it is in Him that progressive sanctification is worked out by the Spirit through the word. But here is what we must recognize about this command that James gives us:
God knows that he is speaking to weak, fragile, humans, but God also knows that He is not speaking to our flesh. What I mean is that God is speaking to you and I as born again people.
Remember, I started out this sermon explaining that this process reveals what is there in us. It reveals what we are. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are children of God. This means that there really is something greater about us that helps us to do this. There is something amazing about our makeup, where, even though we have weak, fragile, human flesh when it comes to trials, and testing, we are not weak, fragile, children of God when it comes to this joy that James is urging us to consider trials to be. So, this is not a command in a sermon that is meant to illustrate what you and I can not do, and likewise, it is not merely a suggestion of something that you might be able to do. Rather, it is a command that you and I,
a) can do as an expectation of God, and
b) we must do, because God expects it of us.
To understand this, we must understand that James is talking about something that is above the hurt, and pain of the trials. In other words, counting the hurt as joy does not make the hurt go away. Counting the physical pain as joy doesn't get rid of the pain. Counting it all joy occurs at a different level in spite of the hurt and pain. Considering that the trials are all joy, occurs as a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and it occurs in the renewed mind of Christians. These are the things that are there in us that come out in the test. First and foremost, the joy occurs as the fruit of the Spirit. By necessity, we must start here. Mere humans do not produce it. In other words, you can not write a letter to the apostate Jews of the 12 tribes of Israel, and expect them to consider it all joy when they encounter various trials. Any fake Christians who are among the true Christians, who have their faith tested, do not see the product of endurance that comes in any kind of association with Christ whatsoever. When the trials come, there is no joy, because there was nothing to be joyful from; there was nothing to be joyful about, and there was no Holy Spirit to produce the joy as fruit. Many people who claim to be Christians, either by curiosity in Christ, or by family association, or by birth, or by hanging out in church, do not consider it all joy when they encounter various trials that come with living as a true Christian. They are absent of the Holy Spirit who produces this joy, and so they are absent of the fruit. In Galatians we read,
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness," Galatians 5:22
So the first point is that we do not have this joy by being rejected by the world, encountering a world that is opposed to Christ, and living in a cursed culture that is not our home, as a natural kind of joy. We have it supernaturally, as a fruit of the Spirit.
The second point is that it occurs in our minds. Stopping there; let me say that it occurs in our Christian minds. Stopping there; let me add that it occurs in the renewing of our minds. The fruit comes from God using His word in us--in our minds that are being renewed by it. But, we don't just fold our legs, put our hands on our knees, close our eyes, and breath deeply in some meditative state and, then presto, somehow we are subconsciously considering it all joy. There is a battle in the mind of Christians in this cursed world, and we are very active participants in the warfare. In the battle plan, the first thing that we must do is take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. God tells us, that as Christians, we have the mind of Christ in 1 Corinthians 2:16, in respect to our discipleship in the faith. But, in order to have the mind of Christ in our own minds as our thinking process, we need to purposely apply effort to transform our thinking to His. Here's how we do it,
"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2
Our minds have to be renewed from all the deceptions of this temporal world that tries to convince us each and every day that we are attaining heaven on earth, for the transformation to occur. The world is trying to prove to us that its vain philosophies are good, acceptable, and perfect. It is a lie, and so the battle is whether we believe the lie and start living according to it, or whether we battle against the lie, proving what the will of God is, which is really what is good, acceptable and perfect. But it still isn't very easy. Even while we are being transformed by the renewing of our minds, we also have the old mind of the world lingering as the enemy. Sometimes old fears, old desires, and old ways of thinking arise, where we don't consider any kind of trial to be joy, or we think that the trials of this lost fading world are just the way things are in the daily grind of life, without making the connection that the daily grind exists because of the great spiritual battle of the fall. The fight occurs each day because we are the redeemed who exist within the culture of those lost in the fall. The fight is in the world, and the fight is in the mind. Folks, we are in the world, but we are not of the world, so when the world gets in our mind, there is a raging battle going on. So, there is this war that never stops. Thinking with the mind of Christ is how you win in engaging the enemy. In other words, considering it all joy is to be thinking like Jesus does. Discipleship is how we are equipped for this battle. Our faith is how we win the skirmishes. Paul explains the primary method of attack;
"We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ," 2 Corinthians 10:5
If you don't take your thoughts captive to the word of God, (rightly interpreted) then you will not consider all your trials as joy. So we see that it is a process that reveals that God's word is there in us. That is the first thing I am wanting us to get. God reveals what is there in us through the process of trials. So, we must understand that God expects these things from us. He's given us His word. He's given us His Spirit. So, if we do not do the things He is prompting us to do, then we will lead a life of defeated Christianity as a matter of our own choice. It is a process. But there are enemies of the mind that we need to fight to get to the renewal. And what is amazing is that right now in our generation and culture, one of the biggest enemies to the Biblical mandate to count all trials as joy, is false teaching that has infiltrated the church. How many of you went to the URL link that I sent out in the e-mail newsletter this week? It was a video clip of John Piper that someone had sent to me that morning. He was preaching against the false teaching I am talking about. Let me share with you right now, what Piper says in that video clip. He says:
"I don't know what you feel about the prosperity gospel--the health, wealth and prosperity gospel, but I'll tell you what I feel about it; hatred. It is not the gospel. And it's being exported from this country to Africa, and Asia, selling a bill of goods to the poorest of the poor;
'Believe this message, and your pigs won't die, and your wife won't have miscarriages, and you'll have rings on your fingers, and coats on your backs.'
That's coming out of America. People that ought to be giving our money and our time and our lives, instead selling them a bunch of crap called 'gospel.' And here's the reason it is so horrible; When was the last time that any American, African, Asian ever said Jesus is all-satisfying because you drove a BMW? Never. They'll say,
'Did Jesus give you that?'
'Yeah,'
'Well I'll take Jesus!'
That's idolatry. That's not the gospel. That's elevating gifts above Giver. I'll tell you what makes Jesus look beautiful. It's when you smash your car and your little girl goes flying through the windshield and lands, (like I was with a little girl on eleventh avenue two weeks ago) dead on the streets for three hours before the police would let her go, and you say through the deepest possible pain,
'God is enough. He is good; He will take care of us; He will satisfy us; He will get us through this. He is our treasure. Whom have I in heaven but You? And on Earth there is nothing that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart and my little girl may fail but You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.'
That makes God look glorious, as God, not as giver of cars or safety or health. Oh how I pray that [we] would be purged of the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, indeed America would be purged, and that the Christian church ... would be marked by suffering for Christ. God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him in the midst of loss--not prosperity."--J Piper
The point is that to consider it all joy, we will also have to renew our minds from false doctrines that attempt to teach the contrary. But think about this; even the trials that occur in our minds are to be counted as all joy. The struggle of Christianity isn't just occurring on the outside. It occurs at every level. It is the trial of Christian thinking in the midst of non-Christian thinking. I know that for myself, I struggle with negative thoughts that do not glorify Christ. They are human-centered thoughts that don't honor God and His standard of perfection that we all look forward to in glorification. They are trials that test my faith. I also struggle with sin thoughts. They are trials that test my faith. I struggle with doctrinal puzzles that bend my mind. They are trials and testings. I struggle with other members of the body who have pride, or they have doctrinal beliefs that make them want to separate from fellowship with me. I struggle in burden for the church of our generation. I struggle with all of these things, and it is not joyful. But I learn from God's word, what He wants me to do as a Christian in this generation, so I do it, and so I go to Him, and I say, "I will do it." Ultimately, in the midst of the mental anguish, I consider even the mental side of my testing as all joy. This is what God wants all of His children to do. Begin at the most fundamental level and then go up from there.
In our thinking process, (in our minds) it starts with recognizing that we are saved. Recognizing your salvation, is to recognize the most basic foundation. So, it starts with the Holy Spirit, in salvation, as a fruit of the Spirit, and it starts with the Christian mind. And so you've got to recognize that you are a unique kind of person in this world. You are not of the lost flesh of humanity. The trials of life will always tempt you to think and act like you are just like a lost person of lost humanity. So, we must be thinking that we are different than our lost neighbors. We are different than the lost people making movies, and starring in them, and telling us the stories that lost people love so much. We are different from the lost people in the businesses all around us. Our view of life, and triumph, and importance, and success is different than their views. Our view of death is different from their view of death. And so trials must come. If you are complaining about this, then you need to quit, because such complaining is sin. Your mind needs to dwell in the place where it recognizes that to be different, is to be God's joy. You were made to be different. We know that the world, in work, war, and play, is not encountering these trials that James is talking about. In contrast, the world counts it all joy to live according to humanistic creeds. The world counts it all joy to persecute Christians. The world scoffs at our beliefs, goals, and actions. The world persecutes us by saying things like,
"Don't wear your Christianity on your sleeve,"
as if you are to hide what you are. But, you are the sleeve. You are a child of God, and God does not want you to hide it. The world persecutes Christians by saying it is fine for you to believe in Christ and follow Him, but don't talk about it. They say you can live out your faith, but just don't live it out in public. This is a trial, because our whole lives are meant to glorify God. They say; Leave the cultures of the world alone. Don't mess 'em up by preaching your Christian beliefs to them, and they go on, and on testing us--putting us on trial. Let's call it what it is then; it is trial. So, we must consciously be recognizing that we are very different from the lost world. We must recognize that is so easy to get comfortable in the world that finds its joy in sin, and in the futility of the Gentile mind, which leads us to consider something that I think we all need to contemplate in serious meditation;
whenever we consider it all joy to be part of the world, then we will not consider it all joy when we meet various trials that test our faith in Christ, and our faith in the fact that we are different.
Let me repeat that again, because this may well be your biggest problem. Remember the theme of this sermon:
Am I Really Considering my faith-tests as all Joy?
Okay, think about that question, and listen again,
Whenever I consider it all joy to be part of the world, then I will not consider it all joy when I meet various trials that test my faith in Christ, and my faith in the fact that I am different.
When our minds are stuck on all the trappings of this world that are temporary, then we lose sight of the joy that God expects from us as His children, and we lose site of the eternal joy that is coming for us later in glory. So, part of our mindset is that we need to be recognizing that we are born to die. Our life is short. This world is not our home. So, we must focus our minds on our heavenly home to come. When we are thinking this way, then we will be thinking, right now, in joy concerning the joy that is set before us. To see what I mean, let's take a look at Christ and the great trial that met Him. On Christ's last passover night, He proceeded to the other side of the Kidron valley with his students. What Christ was entering into was the big encounter. Pay attention, because He was on His way to deliver himself over to sinners, by delivering Himself up as the Sacrificial Lamb for sinners. Think about the scene: Christ wasn't dancing over to the garden of Gethsemane like David danced through the streets of that same city. The physical and emotional anguish that Jesus experienced throughout the whole process was devastatingly harsh, which is an understatement. Let's look at it with analytical eyes and see if His experiences can be described as all joy. We know that Jesus stood trial before the High Priest and other leaders of Jerusalem. We know that Jesus stood trial before Pontius Pilate. We know that Jesus stood before Herod. But, when out Lord arrives in Gethsemane, he meets His first trial. It is called His hour of testing. We read the account in Matthew 26,
"Jesus came with [His students] to ... Gethsemane ... and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, 'My soul is deeply grieved,
[Okay. How grieved was Jesus?--]
to the point of death;" Matthew 26:36-38
Immediately, we recognize something that many of us understand, and we think we understand it all too well. Jesus experienced intense grief.
Grief is not typically considered joy, is it?
Grief is considered grief. But this grief was so intense; it was so distressing; it was so overwhelmingly depressing that the grief is described as bringing Jesus to the point of death. We may have never experienced grief to the point of death, but we have experienced grief. When we read on, the following events show how distressed Jesus was. He prayed, and He prayed that His Father would relieve the intense anguish of the grief malady that had beset Him. In the middle of the dark night, when people are already beginning to be wearied from the day, where fatigue has set in--such fatigue reflected in the fact that Jesus' students could not stay awake for even one more hour, though Jesus told them that they must stay awake--in that time, Jesus knew what was about to take place in a matter of minutes. Jesus knew what was going to continue on for the next hour upon hour--late into the sunrise of day; and so in the night, alone in His turmoil, Jesus prayed that the hour of such inner pain, (where His soul was grieved to the point of death) would pass Him by in Mark 14:35. Christ had just finished drinking from the last cup of the passover feast celebration with His students. But He knew this other cup was coming, and now it had arrived, and so He referred to this hour of anguish, as the cup that He was drinking, in Matthew 26:39, and 42. He paced back and forth in the garden. He prayed three different times while in restless agony. Finally the answer comes, as we see in Luke that Jesus,
"... began to pray, 42 saying, 'Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.' 43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground." Luke 22:40-43
The answer to Christ's prayer was that even though His circumstantial agony continued, an angel strengthened Him through His point of death experience, which we read, was so intense that His sweat became like drops of blood. While reading this, we wonder,
"Where is all the joy that God is telling us to consider?"
"Where is the joy that Jesus was experiencing in all of this?"
The writer of Hebrews refers to the intensity of this event, when he writes to Hebrews,
"In the days of [Christ's] flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made complete, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation," Hebrews 5:7-9
The first stages of Christ's suffering aren't coming across as very joyful in Hebrews 5:7. Christ experienced loud crying. He experienced tears in His prayer and supplications concerning His point of death experience. Again, I ask you;
"Where is all the joy that God is telling us to consider?"
"Where is the joy that Jesus was experiencing?"
He was heard, and the angel came, but Christ was in great, great, emotional pain. As eternal Son, before becoming incarnate as only begotten Son, Christ did not have to previously go through this kind of obedience. It is learned through experience, and so He learned it through experience. His trials involved real pain, real blood, and real heroic action to accomplish what had been determined to happen. It was not possible that Christ could disobey. It was determined in hard determination that He would obey. But, it was necessary for Him to learn what He never knew before--obedience in the midst of the trial. But then, directly after being strengthened, it all goes on. What happens? Christ is arrested, He is tortured, He is spit upon, He is ridiculed and rejected for what He is. What is He? He is the God-man. He is the Messiah. He is the King of kings, and Lord of lords. But he is treated like a criminal-con man. He is humiliated, stripped naked, and the skin is beaten off of His back. He is impaled on wood. He is hung up to die in the hot sun of Israel. To fulfill the ancient prophecy that He authored Himself, he cried out with a loud voice, a cry that echoed across the countryside, throughout the world, through the universe and throughout all time. He cried out on the cross,
'My God, My God, why have you forsaken me" Mark 15:34
Anyone who witnessed this heinous scene would describe it in the most solemn terms imaginable, but
who would have dared describe it is at all joy?
Yet, isn't this the side that people see when going through the fist of life that besets all of us as our lot?--especially as Christians who are seeking to live godly in Christ Jesus in a cursed world?
Isn't this where we take Christ's prophetic words, and ask them in sincere doubt of our God in the midst of the trial? Why Lord, have you forsaken me in this business deal? Why have you forsaken me in this school class? Why have you forsaken me in this friendship? Why, why, why?
Isn't this the way it is with just about everything that has to do with pain and suffering?
When the world walks by carnal sight, and not by supernatural faith, there is an understanding to trials that seem like they don't make a whole lot of sense, other than it all just something philosophically called the course of life in a random universe of chance and evolutionary theory. It is the thinking of the futility of the Gentile mind which is aside from the revelation of the spiritual dichotomy that we live in. It all seems harsh, or tragic, or intensely dooming. Because of the actual pain, the fullness, and the meaning of the trial is not being seen. God's sovereignty is eclipsed by the moment. It is a trial. Christ knew His sovereignty in the midst of subjecting Himself to the curse. Christ experienced sorrowful things, but He also experienced much more. Isaiah prophesied both, saying what?:
"He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our sins; The punishment for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed," Isaiah 53:5
Yes Jesus was pierced. Yes Jesus was crushed, and punished, but He did it with our well being (our joy) in mind the whole time. Christ had the revelation. He knew why He was supposed to cry out, My God, my God why have you forsaken me? It was to fulfill the prophecy, and He knew the answer to the prophetic question beforehand:
My God my God I am being pierced for my people in propitiation; I am being crushed for my people's sins in atonement; the punishment for their well being is falling upon me; by my wounds, all that I am purchasing will be healed forever and ever!
You see, Christ had the Spiritual side, and the mental side on the right side the whole time. He did it with the mind of accomplishing all of His goals, and of pure committed love for the sinners He saves spiritually. Now I ask you;
Did Christ consider it all joy?
Don't answer yet, even though you know the answer. I'll tell you why you don't need to answer; because we are going to let God's word answer the question for us;
"2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2
Christ perfects our faith through trials. But, what I want us to see is that the cross was an endurance. Of course the shame had to be despised, simply because it is not right for anyone to shame Christ, but during the whole process, there was the joy set before Christ of His mission, and of its accomplishment. This is the mind of God's Spirit. It is the mind that He wants you and I to have. All the trials that Christ entered into, were counted as all joy, because of the joy set before Him concerning the guaranteed result. You and I must recognize that the joy that Christ had, was deep within Him, even when he cried in the garden, even when He cried out His last words on the cross. This is supernatural joy that looks to our future hope, and we all must have it. This is the way it is with what James is saying,
"2 Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."
There are various trials. With the early Israelite converts, faith testing trials were not things that felt very good. Becoming a Christian, was to be accused of rejecting Yahweh. Israelite Christians were thought to have joined a cultic religion. In our culture, this might not seem like a big deal, but back there and then, this meant that your family disowned you. They would tear their garments and go into mourning as if you had died. From that time forward, they would treat you as dead, unless you renounced Christ. This was already intensely oppressive, but then the Jewish authorities would hunt you down. This is what Paul's job was. Before God saved Paul, he was a Christian hunter. When caught, Christians would be imprisoned, and they would be put to death, (as Paul said that he actually did when he as a zealous Pharisee, captured Christians and led them to slaughter). But then there was also the Roman persecution. If you did not confess Caesar as god, then you would be killed. Further, you have the Holy Spirit. You have the truth. So, either you, or some of your brothers and sisters you are associated with, are not going to be completely quiet concerning the faith. You are going to talk, or they are going to talk. When there is talk, there is going to be persecution. It is as the Scripture guaranteed those in that generation,
"Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." 2 Timothy 3:12
With us, it is the same way. Persecution comes, and trials come. The question is,
Am I, the true Christian, really having joy, which is a considered joy, in all the faith trials of life as a Christian in this cursed world?
It is a fruit of the Spirit. It flows from a renewed mind. So we see that it is a process that reveals what is there in us. But remember, It is also a process that produces something there in us. For the dispersed saints of the twelve tribes, and for us today, the reason, we are told, to consider it all joy, has to do with something that benefits us emotionally, physically, spiritually, and mentally. It is because of what James guarantees comes from it,
"3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."
I really think we need to recognize two ways that this endurance comes. First, the testing itself produces endurance, in that the testing is like a hardening agent that makes us stronger in the long run. The product is endurance. Testing is the means of getting it. When you workout physically, you get stronger, and your endurance increases. You defoliate coffee bushes, they produce fruit. Torture the carbon and it becomes a diamond, and so on. So, in this respect, what I am trying to say is that it becomes easier to go through even more trials because you have been strengthened in your resolve through the faith tests. This is what is produced in you, and so this is a good reason to consider our trials as all joy.
The other thing is that there is a demonstration of who the true Christians really are when they are tested. So, testing produces proof. What I mean is that when a false Christian's faith is tested, they fall by the wayside. But when a true Christian is tested, falling by the wayside is not produced. Rather, endurance through the testing is produced. So, endurance demonstrates the reality of salvation. This point leads us directly to what James says next. Finally James says,
"4 And let endurance have its perfect result [ESV--full effect], so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
Again, I think that there are many ways to look at what James is saying. One is in the immediate earthly context, where when we endure, since we endure, we are demonstrating that we are really, truly, Christians. We are demonstrating that we are born again to be children of God. We are authentic brothers and sisters in the only begotten Son. So, we should consider this as all Joy. But then in our endurance there is also other results. Spiritual maturity is one, but there is also the perfect result of endurance where it makes us known as true Christians to lost people around us. In this way, you are a living witness of the work of Christ. In reading the stories of martyrs, and persecuted Christians from all over the world, I am often impressed with the stories of salvation that come to some of the same persecutors who tortured, and often times executed those who persevered through the persecution. The Spirit of God uses the witness of the authentic Christian who has endured the trial. Paul calls it filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions in Colossians 1:24. We need to ask ourselves the questions:
Do you want to be known as a true Christian?
Do you want to be known as a living trophy of Christ?; where your life demonstrates that miracles really do exist?
We are miracles of God, in Christ. Then let endurance have this perfect result where you demonstrate the gospel to the world through filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Then there is maturity. The perfect, complete result of endurance is spiritual maturity where you become a seasoned veteran in the war of life in a curse world. You become refined, wise, and patient. When the hard hits come, you don't panic. You go to God knowing that He is sovereign. He has taught you that this world is not your home. He has taught you what is important, and what is not important. You are maturing spiritually, and that is a very perfect result.
Finally, perseverance has its perfect result in our eternal rewards. This is the hope of all saved people. Our future glory is so much better than anything this world has to offer. This mindset, wrought by the Spirit, through the word, is our joy as Christians. Jesus mentioned it to His Israelite students, where He said
"10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:10-12
The blessing is to be persecuted for Christ. Considering it all joy, is to rejoice and be glad. The reason is because your reward in heaven is light-years beyond the temporal persecution that occurs in this short stay on earth. Later here in James, he says the same thing,
"12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trials; for for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." James 1:12
After the testing comes, and after the long times of perseverance, we will all receive the crown of life.
This morning, I have been wanting us to learn the vital principles that James has urged. With those things in mind, I have been wanting us to ask the question; Am I Really Considering my faith-tests as all Joy? If you are not, then think about all the reasons why you are not.
Is your mind focused upon the fist of life?; or is it focused upon the hand of God that holds you?
Do you really believe that there is something greater than the faith-test that you are going through? Do you believe that there is something greater about you, and what you are involved in, in the great drama of good and evil? Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Remember, Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. But you need to consider it as all joy. Considering starts now. It starts right now before the trials come. Consider it all joy beforehand. Be expecting trials. Be expecting to be hard hit each and every day. When you get comfortable, then recognize what is creeping upon you. When you are experiencing joy in the things of the lostness of the world, then you are experiencing immaturity. Put that joy aside and get ready for the trials that are about to come from that very same world, because it is being used by the sovereign hand of God to mold you. Be ready, so that when the trials do come, you don't lose the mind of Christ that has been planted like a seed, and you don't act like some strange thing has come upon you. Pass the test. Learn, and then mature. Think of the words of Peter,
"12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation." 1 Peter 4:12-13
I urge you to renew your mind in this direction. What this means for a lot of us, is that we need to reevaluate our Christian walk in this cursed world. We need to become consumed with Christ to a higher degree than we are right now. I urge you to examine your life and identify the cares of the world that weigh you down. You should be caring more about Christ than you do about the world. When you are at work, you need to think that this is business that has a back seat place to Christ. Your work is for provision. While you work to provide, be doing it all for the glory of God. If that means you are going to face trials while at work that bring faith tests, then keep on thinking that you are working for the glory of God, and then count it all joy. The same goes for school, relationships with neighbors, and so many other pockets of life. Ask; Am I Really Considering My Faith-tests as All Joy?, and if you are not, then make the adjustment by renewing your mind according to the mind of Christ--amen?
