~ Welcome to Hard Times ~
James 1.1-4, 12
James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. Greetings! Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you encounter various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing... Blessed is the person who endures testing, because when he is approved he will receive the crown of life that [God] has promised to those who love him.
In these verses James tells us that we should 'consider it all joy' when trials come our way, because trials are God's way of working in our lives and hearts to transform us into the people He desires us to be. When he writes of 'trials,' he isn't writing about supra-spiritual realities; trials don't need to be 'spiritual' in nature; indeed, they are most often the simplest difficulties that all flesh-and-blood humans face. Difficulties with work, strains in interpersonal relationships, and car troubles are all 'trials' that God uses to bring about changes in our hearts. God is sovereign, and in His wisdom He uses various trials to produce specific changes in our lives. Just as diseases need different medicines to be treated, so it is with different sins. If we are prideful, God will humble us; if we love money, He may take it away; if we put our own desires before Him, He may thwart our plans. When trials come, we ought to ask ourselves, "What kind of work is God trying to do in my life?"
When trials knock on the door, we mustn't fear them as a shot in the dark that has escaped God's oversight. God is in control, and any trial we face He has either orchestrated or permitted. While such trials are judgments and 'shots across the bow' for those who don't love Him, they are discipline for those who do. God's ultimate goal for us isn't that we are happy, or content, or satisfied; His goal isn't that we acquire all our dreams and goals. His aim isn't to make our lives a rose garden experience. Many Christians falsely believe that because God is their Father, His greatest ambition is the happiness of His children; but as any parent knows, a mother or father whose chief aim is to make their children 'happy' is no good parent at all. Parents are tasked with raising their children to be wholesome, functioning members of society. Parents are tasked with 'training up' their children so that they are able to do the work assigned to them, to enable them not only to 'handle' the real world but to thrive in it. In the same way, God's goal for His children isn't their happiness but their thriving as human beings in both this world and the next. Just as a father uses discipline to correct bad behavior and to keep children moving in the right direction, so God uses trials to sharpen us and hone us into the people He created us to be.
In Romans 8.29 Paul tells us that God's goal for His people is that they be conformed to the image of His Son; in other words, that we become Christ-like. Throughout the New Testament Jesus is portrayed as the 'true Man', the man who fully embodies, and thus reveals, how mankind is designed to function. Paul isn't saying that God's goal for us is that we become mini-saviors; no, he's saying that God's goal is that we emulate Christ insofar as he shows us what genuine human living looks like in a fallen world. In Galatians 5.22-23 Paul writes about the 'fruit of the Spirit'; these nine attributes--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control--are hallmarks of what it looks like to live as God intended us to live from the very start. These are not, as we all know from personal experience, our default characteristics; indeed, they are antithetical to the sinful nature which we carry around like a cackling old hag on our shoulders. It is through spending time with God, soaking up His Word, bathing in His Spirit, and worshipping and communing with the saints, that He works changes in our hearts so that, in ever increasing measure, we reflect more and more His Son and holy, genuine human living. Trials, James says, are one of God's preferred tools to bring us ever nearer that goal of genuine human living.
James says that when trials come our way, we are to respond with endurance. This means that we don't despair or give up; we do the hard work that endurance requires; we don't lose hope in God; we believe that God is at work for our good; and we endure the trials in prayer and patience. As we endure, God works in our heart, and when we come out the other side of the trials--whether in this life or the next--we will be better for it. Remember that God's ultimate goal is to change us from the inside out, and that God uses trials as a tool to bring this about. This is, in a sense, how it works: imagine you got a new job, and it's tough learning the ropes, a real struggle. You endure the first couple weeks, but then it gets easier. It isn't long before it's second nature, and you've become a solid, skilled worker. God wants to build us into solid Christians who are skilled at living holy, God-honoring lives.
Let's be honest: we dread trials, in whatever form they come.
We don't like being sick, or needy, or alone.
It's easy to grumble and complain when things are hard.
It's easy to lose sight of God who is constantly watching over us.
But when we come to grips with the fact that hard times and difficulties are actually God's kindness towards us, we can respond not with complaining but with rejoicing. It is a kind and loving parent who disciplines his children; in the same way, God is kind when He disciplines us. Isn't it peculiar how we say parents who let their kids run amuck are not good parents at all, but when God uses discipline in our lives, we're so ready to question His love and fatherhood over us? James says that the one who endures trials is 'blessed'; he's saying that those who endure are favored by God, and the blessed life is, ironically, the happy life. There's a myth that says the Christian life is boring, but Psalm 1 tells us that the Christian life is actually the blessed life. It is only in Christ--in being reconciled to God, to finding our footing as human beings, and living as human beings were designed by God to live--that we can experience true human living. Christ offers us a life of joy and peace that transcends the nitty-gritty hardships we face on a day-to-day basis; and not only this, but Christ promises us an inheritance in a newly-created universe. The psalmist tells us that there's no rest for the wicked; the life of the wicked is marked by turmoil, strife, and restlessness. When the wicked experience deep-seeded joy and peace, it is fleeting; their lives are marked by exhaustion and emptiness, or at least they will be in time.
~ A Word to the Wise ~
James 1.5-8
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, let him as for it from God, who gives to all without reservation and not reproaching, and it will be given to him. But let him ask for it in faith, without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed about. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
James' basic idea is that we need wisdom to endure the trials that come our way. 'Wisdom,' in a bare-bones generic sense, is knowing how to live well. The wisdom James speaks of is more specific: this wisdom is the knowledge that God uses trials to shape us into the people He wants us to be, and it is knowing that God is in control and trusting that He's working for our good. 'Our good,' of course, isn't 'our happiness,' in the sense that He's always working behind the scenes to make our dreams come true; 'our good' is our development into human beings who live as we are created to live. God is eager to give wisdom, James says, but we must not only be sincere to receive it; we must also ask!
James says we need to ask 'in faith'. This means that when we ask God for wisdom, we must trust His promise that He will give us wisdom; it means we must trust that He will give us wisdom. To ask 'in faith' is to believe in God's promise and to trust Him to be faithful to that promise. James warns that the 'double-minded' man won't receive anything from God, and that such a person is unstable in all his ways. To be 'double-minded' means to have one eye towards God and the other on the world. Many Christians will take God only insofar as they're able to retain those 'precious sins' that they feel they just cannot do without. When we harbor sin in our hearts, we're not cutting ourselves off from the salvation found in Christ, but we are certainly sabotaging our own growth as redeemed human beings, and we are effectively isolating ourselves from God. Imagine that our spiritual life, which comes from God, is like water shooting through a hose; God is the spout, and we are at the end of the hose, drinking up His water. When we cling to those sins that so easily beset us, we are essentially putting a cinch in the hose's line, so that the water we receive from God is basically a trickle. No, our salvation is not in jeopardy (we're saved not by what we do or don't do but by our faith in Jesus), but the quality of our life as Christians (and the quality of our lives in general) suffers. James warns that when we have one foot in God's camp and one foot in our own, we can't assume that God will answer our prayers for wisdom.
~ The Futility of Wealth ~
James 1.9-11
Now let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his high position, but the rich person in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a flower of the grass. For the sun rises with its burning heat and dries up the grass, and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is lost. So also the rich person in his pursuits will wither away.
Christians come in all shapes and sizes, and some are poor while others are rich. There are lots of false ideas when it comes to Christians and wealth. Some people believe that there is no such thing as a 'rich Christian'; Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God, but seeing as he was likely speaking of a narrow gate in the city of Jerusalem rather than a sewing needle, his point isn't that it is impossible but that it is difficult. Other Christians believe that God rewards faith with money; how much money you have, then, is a reflection of how much God favors you. In reality, faithful Christians can be either poor or rich. The money one has in the bank isn't reflective of one's status before God. In the Corinthian church we see some members who have lavish estates and others who are practically homeless! God blesses some people with a lot of money and entrusts them to use that money wisely for God's glory and the benefit of His people.
Why, then, would Jesus say that it is difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven? Simply put, it is quite easy to fall in love with money. It's been erroneously said that money is the root of all evil; no, it's the love of money--the devotion to it--that is the root of much evil. James is writing to Christians from all walks of life, and he tells the poor Christians to boast in their spiritually high position--they are children of God with an inheritance preserved for them in the coming new world!--and he tells the rich Christians to boast in their 'humiliation', for in the gospel they've come to see that money isn't all it's cracked up to be. Wealth is a temporary thing; it may make life easier in a lot of ways, but it's ephemeral, a passing phantom, here one minute and gone the next. It's a very unreliable god.
James says that the rich person 'in his pursuits' will whither away. He isn't speaking here of rich Christians who use their monetary gifts to bless God's kingdom and His people; rather, he's speaking of those who make money their god, their ultimate aim and pursuit of life. A lot of people make money their god, and other people make different things their god. Our worldly culture is permeated with the pursuit of the gods of Freud, Nietzche, and Marx: sex, money, and power. We pursue these things (and others) with the wrong idea that they will bring us happiness. The reality is that none of these things bring happiness. Those most successful in these pursuits--from Egyptian pharaohs to 21st-century CEOs--report that their lives, though looking outwardly successful and lavish, are filled with emptiness, exhaustion, and restlessness. When we pursue things other than God--whether our pursuits are focused on sex, money, or power; or on love, or fame, or even the acquiring of the American Dream--we are pursuing our own kingdoms rather than God's kingdom. This is a huge part of what it means to be a fallen human being. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve pursued knowledge of Good and Evil in the hope of becoming like God; at the Tower of Babel, we tried to usurp God's throne and take it for ourselves; and in our day-to-day lives, even to this day, our natural bent is to make God a puppet and try to play His strings to our benefit.
We hope that by pursuing these worldly and fleshly passions that we will find ourselves, but the reality is that when we pursue these things, we become enslaved to them. We actually lose ourselves in the process. The only way to truly find ourselves is to find ourselves in God. This makes sense: after all, we were created by God, and as His image-bearers we thrive when we're plugged into Him and living as He created us to live. Our thriving comes from living as we are designed to live. Real human thriving--along with meaning and purpose--comes from being a part of God's family and living for Him rather than for ourselves. But what does this look like in practice?
It means obeying God even when we don't want to.
It means putting other people before ourselves.
It means living a life of selflessness and sacrifice (a life of biblical love).
It means putting aside our own ambitions for God's ambitions.
It means conforming to the image of Christ.
It means embracing the trials that sharpen us into the people God wants us to be.
True human thriving--what the Greeks called eudaimonia, which they made the ultimate goal of philosophy and of living--is found only in submitting to God and His will for our lives. True human flourishing isn't found in acquiring wealth, sexual exploits, or powerful conquests. True human flourishing isn't found in the American Dream. It's found only in submitting ourselves to God and living the way He has intended us to live from the start.
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