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James 1:12-18 James 1:12 Blessed Is the Man Who Remains Steadfast Under Trial, for When He Has Stood the Test He Will Receive

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James 1:12-18 James 1:12 Blessed Is the Man Who Remains Steadfast Under Trial, for When He Has Stood the Test He Will Receive James 1:12-18 the crown of life 2019.10.06 James 1:12-18 James 1:12 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. 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 1:16 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. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Psa. 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; Psa. 19:10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Let’s pray. As we focus in on these few verses of James chapter one, it is helpful to be reminded again of the context of this letter. James is writing to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion. The situation is strained, the Christian recipients feel alone, uprooted, and are struggling through what may be the greatest trial of their lives. James is utterly aware of their circumstances and their sense of hopelessness. His focus is to reorient them and their sight to their true purpose and hope and helps them target areas of skepticism. James knows that they are facing many trials and temptations and this section of Scripture is his response. In this section James is calling the Christian church to remain steadfast in the face of trials. Now, when we were just newlyweds, living in San Diego, CA, each year at Christmas time my wife and I would make the 18-20 hour drive up to Tacoma. We would leave at 3:00am in the morning and arrive around 11:00pm that same night. The journey was long, and as Nathaniel H. Gutiérrez www.faithtacoma.org 1 of 10 James 1:12-18 the crown of life 2019.10.06 we drove by beautiful beaches, Disneyland, Universal Studios, the Redwood forests and many other wonderful attractions, we would long to stop – but we had to press on. After the first 5 hours of driving, we were tired, but ok. After 8 hours, we’d notice that we were getting more and more uncomfortable and we’d start getting a little annoyed with little things, at 12 hours we’d start talking about calling it quits and staying at a hotel somewhere, but then at 16 hours we’d get a second wind. We would see familiar signs, we knew family was waiting for us, that we were almost there, and we’d keep on pushing. Those trips were fairly easy. We did the drive up and back the same way for 4 years. But the journey of our Christian lives is not that easy. We are tempted, we are tried, we get beaten up by the difficulties in this life and we can be devastated by pain. It isn’t just a long trip that is over in a day, it is more like a life-long journey in a beater of a car that keeps on breaking down and falling apart. It is a journey with wrong turns, speeding tickets and lots and lots of detours and delays. If we were to go around this sanctuary and we all shared the difficulties in this journey of life - the trials and the hardships – we would bring down the morale of this room really quickly. We’d probably all feel deeply discouraged and overwhelmed with grief and sorrow. In the Scriptures of the OT and NT we are given narrations into the lives of certain men and women that struggled in life with different trials and temptations. How they fell, how they recovered or didn’t recover and how God interacted with them. Of course, these are stories of only a select few who lived in their days. How many more struggled with similar challenges and temptations that we never learned about? Jesus himself was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He grieved and wept, he was betrayed and denied, he was accused and crucified for sins he did not commit. The Bible is a book full of people who have suffered in this life. There is no person in the Bible that was not touched by grief and sorrow in some way or another. No person in this world can come out unscathed. We live in a fallen world. Like our endless drive from CA to WA, as believers it can become tempting to feel like the struggles and the long journey of life with all of its trials will never end. We are tempted to despair and detour, to glance over toward an easier path, toward something less demanding and less trying. The Christians James was writing to, were likely ready to throw in the towel. They were feeling the heat from the trials and were getting exasperated. Christians in the early church received harsh persecution. An example of this is what Paul writes about himself, in 2 Cor. 11: Paul says he had…. Nathaniel H. Gutiérrez www.faithtacoma.org 2 of 10 James 1:12-18 the crown of life 2019.10.06 “far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” With that kind of suffering, one would be tempted to despair and abandon the faith. Though we might not have the astonishing list Paul has, there are most certainly some impressively hard lists that we could come up with here at this church. The trials and battles we face today, while possibly not on the level of stoning and beatings, are still significant and make this world a difficult place to life in. JAMES’ RESPONSE This is precisely why James needs to reorient us – and point us the right direction. People were feeling distant from God, abandoned and unloved. That was making their world spin. “Why are we doing all of this again?” Does God love us? James says, in v.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.” He sort of sets the stage for what is happening. He gives us context. He reminds us that this is God’s story of redemption they are in. We are not the center of the story, nor the center of the universe. God is working in us and through us for his glory. He has a plan of redemption for us, and we are blessed! If we are steadfast until the end, in the midst of trials, that means that we have not given into the pleasures of this world. We have not given into Satan’s kingdom and lies. It is to say that we have valued future joy and happiness in God over and against instant gratification in the here and now. We have placed our treasures in heaven where they will neither rot nor be destroyed. It is such a blessing to know that our suffering here on earth is an investment that brings eternal dividends. And Paul and the apostles rejoiced at the thought that they participated in Christ’s sufferings. How could this bring them joy? The reason it could bring them joy, is because suffering for the cross meant that they were united with Jesus in his suffering. If they are united with Christ in his suffering, that is a Nathaniel H. Gutiérrez www.faithtacoma.org 3 of 10 James 1:12-18 the crown of life 2019.10.06 reminder of the fact that we are also united with him in his death, and resurrection! And with the resurrection comes the crown of life – eternal life. “Christ overcame by the way of the cross and this set the pattern for his followers. They face grim days. But let them never forget that what seemed Christ’s defeat was in fact his victory over the world. They need not fear if they are called upon to suffer, for in that way they too will conquer.” Leon Morris, 86.
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