Trials and Wisdom

Briefly

• This Summer, I’m going through the New Testament book of James, written by the Apostle and one of the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem.

• James is filled with practical guidance for Christians – many times it covers how one can successfully follow Jesus, and not merely learn what it looks like to follow Jesus.

• Each week, I hope to be able to point out a simple piece of guidance that James writes about, and this week’s guidance comes from James 1:2-18.

• Today’s practical point is to consider trials – particularly trials of sin and temptation – that you and every Christian faces. God has wisdom to lead you through the trial, and he wants us to keep facing the trial, keep persevering, and keep adjusting until we discover and embrace the wisdom. This success is pure joy!

Introduction to James

James, son of Alphaeus, was one of the three key leaders of the Church in Jerusalem (Galatians 1:18-19, Galatians 2:9), and one of the Twelve Apostles (Matthew 10:2-4). He is sometimes confused with the other Apostle James, the son of Zebedee, but this James was martyred about 11 years after Jesus ascended (Acts 12:1-2) which is before this letter was written.

James’ writing describes practical activities for the Christian, so it is not a book that you read and explore to develop theology or to understand the behind-the-scenes activity of God. Simply, if you’ve decided you want to be a follower of Jesus, then James is ready to give you some essentials.

So with each message this summer, I would like for you to walk away with understanding one essential, practical point of being a Christian. That is, it is active stuff that you should apply to your life so that you can be successful in following Jesus.

And a quick note on my approach with James. My engagement with the chapters and verses of James, is to explore them for depth of meaning, and not devotional or inspirational reading. For these types of messages, a more literal translation will be helpful such as the ESV or NIV or NASB. (Though I recommend the NLT a lot to people, this translation is geared more for devotional reading and gathering broad concepts, as opposed to precision and detail.)

An Initial Reading

As we begin an initial reading the first Chapter of James beyond the pleasantries and greeting of James 1:1, we are quickly oriented to a weighty tone. James is describing trials and the need to face trials with perseverance so that we can attain maturity.

When I see the word trials, my mind initially pictures physical persecutions and harassments because I know that Jerusalem suffered a lot of such trials in this first generation of the church. Additionally, I know that Jewish Christians from Jerusalem were dispersed after Stephen was stoned, and that Saul oversaw additional persecutions (Acts 8:1-3) – this seems to align with how James is addressing this letter.

Though as we read further, we can notice in James 1:13-15 that the trial he is speaking of could be strong temptations to sin, and the maturity he is speaking of here is not some physical ability to survive, but that it is holiness – pushing through the temptation to sin, maturing toward holiness.

So, which is the focus? Are the trials physical persecutions and harm? Or, is James using the memory of the physical persecutions as a sort of metaphor for the spiritual persecutions that Satan brings about with temptation?

I don’t want to just assume an answer here, so this means that I’ll need to consider more than just one verse. I need to consider the context of the surrounding verses.

Identifying a Practical Point

I trust that scholars have poured a lot of time and prayer into helping identify the theme of a particular section of Scripture, and I observe that there is consistency between translations in identifying James 1:2-18 as a package of thought, and so that is where I’ll be focusing this first message of James.

On my own, I am able to notice verses that repeat and verses that provide contrast, and this helps me see an organization to what James is describing. Remember, with this message I’m ultimately searching for a practical takeaway or a focal point to what James is saying, so I look at the big picture before going into the details [2].

Initial impression. After reading through it, this is clearly a passage encouraging maturity (holiness, righteousness, purity), and that the secret to maturity will be the gifts of the wisdom of God. What is also clear, is that well-resourced and double-minded Christians will have difficult access to this wisdom because they practice self-wisdom or confused wisdom. As we go through each of these sections, I’ll suggest the practical guidance that James is conveying, and sum it up at the end.

Begin with Your Trial and Temptation

James opens up his letter with a direct message about the pursuit of purity and goodness. Faith is a spiritual relationship with God – it is relational, and not religious or educational. A person could have deep book knowledge of God and perfect Christian religious performance, and yet be absent of God’s relational presence in their life.

How can we tell the difference? How might we know if our faith is full of Sunday religion and Bible education, but absent the power of a relationship with God? James is going to be helping us answer this with different themes through the chapters of his writing.

His first theme regards the great spiritual battlefield between the powers of good and evil, and we are all on this battlefield. We need God with us if we want to be successful. Or, in spiritual terms, we need faith, present and maturing, if we want to be successful. So, our faith is going to be going through trials. The joy that James refers to here is because we have opportunity for strengthening faith – drawing closer to God and involving God more and more in our lives. And though James doesn’t say this directly, it is also joyful to know that our faith is not faked – genuine faith has predictable outcomes.

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

So, here, one predictable outcome of genuine faith will be steadfastness (or perseverance) in the face of the trials that we encounter.

Perseverance in the face of a trial is powered by God, and a key indicator of God’s power in our lives.

The one thing that is the essential mark of a Christian is that there is a presence of God in you (1 John 4:13). So, James is saying, “let’s look … let’s see if it is genuine, or if you are imagining it … because, it is getting tested”.

And one way that this is evaluated is summed up in the opening words of James’ letter. He says, can you identify the trial that you are facing that is a potential point of failure with God? Great, that is your temptation and a trial. It could be different for each person – it could be a moral failure, a sin like lust or coveting or shoplifting or selfishness or pride, or it could be the physical health problem where you need peace and perspective and hope, or it could be the relationship trauma that is out of your control, or it could be denial to something God says.

Now, face that trial, engage in the battle, and don’t give up. Even if you stumble, or if you fail over and over, get back up, dust off your clothes, and do not surrender. The spirit of God within you keeps you pushing to conform with God’s will, and you don’t give in to wills that are in opposition to God – your will, or the will of Satan.

Next Tap Into God

If you want to find eventual success in this trial that you are facing, it is going to have to involve God. God is not calling you toward morality, or sobriety, or abstinence, or relational healing, or patience, or hope without also giving you the wisdom to be able to properly navigate toward it … and, eventually, to reach a point of maturity.

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1:5)

Wisdom from God has an interesting flavor, for it is beyond quality knowledge and information. Sometimes we might think of wisdom as a form of knowledge, rightly applied to a situation – call it selective knowledge, or using the right tool to get the best outcome.

God’s wisdom separates the paths of good and evil. They are big picture, considering not only your needs but the broad needs of others and the ultimate will of God. There indeed may be a solution to your trial that relieves you of your personal anguish, but it is not a path of God’s wisdom if it is only about you.

For example, let’s say you loaned money to someone in the church who was going through a rough patch, and they’ve since recovered financially, but still haven’t repaid the loan. When you ask, they tell you they don’t have the money yet. But you see them now driving a new car, and wearing expensive clothes, and they have a new iPhone. Seriously?

Someone else then suggests to you that you take them to court and sue them. This seems like wisdom, for it is a way to solve the payback of the loan, and you will be satisfied. But, is this wisdom from God, particularly since it violates multiple Scriptures and will likely destroy the relationship? My view is that this is worldly and self-centered wisdom, designed to get the best outcome for yourself, perhaps to the detriment of another person or in opposition to God’s will. Such wisdom is selfish and unspiritual. It is not from God.

Because we tend to be selfish and worldly, God’s wisdom often eludes us. God’s wisdom will not always be what is optimal for us personally, but it is insight and action that produces God’s agenda across time and across the lives of many. James will expand on this later on in James 3:13-18, but he also addresses it here with wisdom struggles.

Wisdom Struggles and Failures

There are two worldly and unspiritual conditions that interfere with receiving God’s wisdom. The first is double-mindedness.

⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

The mature in Jesus have the clarity of mind to be able to distinguish between God’s wisdom and the common wisdom paths of the world (Hebrews 5:14). But this passage is describing those who are yet to be mature. God wants that wisdom to come to us, but since we struggle with double-mindedness and pride, we are going to need some help with discerning wisdom.

Wisdom does not magically fall into your head, particularly for the immature. When you are noodling over a problem, maybe even prayerfully, and there is a sudden thought or impression that pops into your mind, from whence did it come? Is it God or your opinion? Is it from God or from that YouTube video you watched yesterday? Is it a suggestion by Satan? How would you know? Is it because you just somehow feel it? In my observation, the ideas that pop into the heads of those who are not yet mature are most always self-centered because our minds drift to the least painful, easiest and fastest solution to a problem. And no wonder. For when we are struggling or when we are in pain, we just want it to stop … now!

People come to me, describe the situation, and then ask for my opinion of a “wise solution” that they have thought of. They already have a solution, so they are not coming to me for wisdom. I’m pretty sure that they come to me because they want me to affirm whatever opinion they’ve arrived at … that is, they want me to put a God stamp of approval on their wisdom. And, most every time whatever they are suggesting as a solution is obviously not God’s wisdom because their wisdom wants to succumb to the sin, it destroys people and relationships, or other violations of Scripture’s guidance. They are looking for a quick and easy way out. This is the character of what our minds create.

We come up with such ideas because we are functioning with a double mind, and it is typical of a follower of Jesus who is still an infant. This is where one wants both the paths of God (because they genuinely want to follow God) and their own created paths (because they are typically self-serving and easier, and popular in the world around them). The double-minded will operate much like the famous prayer of Augustine that he described from his youth.

Lord, make me sexually chaste and self-controlled … but not quite yet.

The double-minded person wants both their desires and God’s desires, or at least hoping that God will agree with their desires. Looking for the easy and self-enriching approach does not validate your faith, but instead suggests that you are double-minded and perhaps even faithless.

But, remember this passage is about maturity, and progression toward God’s will. James is not trying to condemn you, but to guide you. James then describes how we may need to burn off a lot of that self-capacity, failing a lot more, to get to a place of humbly receiving God’s wisdom.

⁹ Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, ¹⁰ and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. ¹¹ For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. (James 1:9-11)

Rich does not only mean a wealth of money. Rich can also mean those who are typically self-capable, and frankly describes a significant majority of people in the Washington DC area. What I mean is that there are a lot of people in our region who are well-educated, wealthy, perhaps charismatic, well-connected, deeply familiar with the world’s patterns, etc. When someone has infrastructure to lean on when there is a problem, or to provide support when facing a trial, there is a tendency to depend on their own wisdom instead of God’s wisdom. We can fake it, like a high-functioning addict.

The lowly brother cannot. His account is empty and he has no other recourse, so he has no options but to seek out God’s wisdom.

So where does one get wisdom when they don’t have the capacity to discern God’s Wisdom?

I think this is the point where the core lesson of this passage comes to life. James says, persevere in the trial. Don’t give up, keep searching for God’s wisdom. You may seek wisdom that is self-centered and fail, but don’t give up. You may seek the wisdom of the world and fail, but don’t give up. You may be relying on your own majestic qualities and self-wisdom and fail, but don’t give up. Yes you may fail over and over, but keep going and seeking out God’s wisdom. So, whether lowly or rich, whether clear-headed or double-minded, the one with Faith is still called to persevere even in the face of all this trial.

¹² Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12)

Perseverance doesn’t give up … it doesn’t succumb … it makes adjustments with wisdom to eventually vanquish attitudes that need to be changed. It eventually encounters and follows God’s wisdom.

Groundhog Day

Let me give you a fun example. There was a movie from the 1990’s called Groundhog Day that I think illustrates the message of perseverance that we see in James 1:2-18.

The main character, Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray), is full of charisma and humor. But he is ego-centric and self-confident, caring little about others and letting them know it as he demeans everyone around him.

The trial that he encounters is a never-ending hell where February 2nd (Groundhog Day) repeats itself in a time-loop over and over and over. He tries to figure out a way to break the cycle using his intelligence. This fails. Then he indulges in endless hedonism. This fails to satisfy him. He becomes distraught or depressed, thinking that suicide will break the cycle, or suicide with the groundhog might work. Everything fails – yes, even killing the groundhog fails.

He was stuck. Unable to change his tragedy. Powerless.

But, in a conversation with the woman he was trying to woo – and, by the way, his wooing of her was also a failure – she delivers some wisdom to him. She said, “sometimes I wish I could live a thousand lifetimes”, and then she describes all the little life fixes she would make, and all the good that she could become and do for the world if she just had enough time.

That was the wisdom Phil needed. As if a lightbulb came on, Phil then uses this wisdom to embark on a new journey – one where he improves himself and helps others, even finally noticing the plight of a homeless man that he had walked by a thousand days. He turns away from his selfish, hedonistic, and destructive ways, took the gift of wisdom and then persevered until he broke free of groundhog day.

As the movie closed, he rephrased the wisdom: “You can waste time, you can kill time, you can do time, but if you use it wisely, there's never enough of it. So you'd better make the most of the time you've got.”

James wraps up his practical advice on these trials by describing the harsh reality of failure with sin, and then celebrates the beauty of God’s gifts of wisdom. First, here are his words of the harsh reality of failure:

¹³ Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. ¹⁵ Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:13-15)

Next, here are his words cautioning us against being deceived, for true wisdom does not come from philosophy, your own intelligence, or the patterns of the world. It is wisdom that comes from God alone, delivered to you through godly paths:

¹⁶ Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. ¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. ¹⁸ Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (James 1:16-18)

The Practical

Let me end with recounting the practical advice that we see in this passage.

First, you have trials in your life. You should be able to articulate one or more trials to others who are around you. Is it a sin you are battling? Is it a relationship gone sour? Is it some fear that you can’t seem to shake? Different people will face different trials.

Second, God has wisdom for your unique trial. It is wisdom that is unlike human wisdom, philosophy, or patterns that you see around you.

Third, recognize that you likely have immaturity that may deceive you from hearing wisdom, or may even cause you to think that you don’t need God’s wisdom. God’s wisdom is a gift that can be delivered through others who are not similarly blinded by your trial or your immaturity.

Fourth, and perhaps the central thematic here, persevere and keep going. Face the trial and don’t give up, and don’t set it aside as unimportant. God’s presence in you seeks out God’s will, and God provides wisdom in time. Perseverance not only produces maturity, but joy!

Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Keep searching for genuine wisdom from God.

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NOTES:

[1] Section Headings. Many of you may see that your Bible has a subject matter headings before James 1:2. In my copy of the NIV, the heading is Trials and Temptations. In my copy of the ESV, the heading is Testing of Your Faith. Other translations use Stand Firm (CEB), Joy in Trials (NET), and Trials and Maturity (HCSB). These section headings are not part of the original writing of James, but are added by translators to help us separate themes that the writer is expressing. Translators, for example, may recognize that the writer is using ancient Hebrew or Semitic literary structures to tie ideas together or to emphasize points. There is more that I could write about chiastic structures and parallelism in ancient writings, but the simplest explanation is that whenever we notice ideas being repeated, or contrasted, then this usually expresses that the writer is creating a literary package to convey his intended message.

We see this in the first chapter of James, in James 1:2-18, and this is why most translations summarize this group of verses with a section heading.

[2] When I work with a passage of Scripture, I begin with my own summary and a crude organization. I can see some organization of thought in a pattern of A B C A B

• A) [2-4] Maturity develops as we persevere through trials

• B) [5] God will give us wisdom to help us be successful

• C) [6-11] There are barriers and struggles to receiving wisdom

• A) [12] Perseverance in a trial will lead to victory (maturity)

• B) [13-18] When we fail, it is not because of God. God offers the good and perfect gifts.