May 11 2009
Living Or Dead Faith?
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4)Last time we looked at the first part of verse two “. . .count it all joy. . .”. Today we will look at the second part of the verse, “. . .when you fall into various trials,” In the first part we were instructed to change our thinking about trials. Although trials will ‘hurt’, we will be ‘grieved’, and our hearts will be ‘troubled’, as Christians we are called to look beyond the present and set our sights on the future.
In the end, trials reveal if our faith is living or dead; saving or non-saving. Everyone experiences trouble. Job 5:7 tells us, “Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” As Pastor MacArthur put it, “Man’s fallen nature is a fire that spits out sparks.”
Several other passages speak to this truth:
Job 14:1: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.”
Ps 22:11: “Be not far from me; for trouble is near. . .”
Is 8:22: “And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.”
Eccl 2: 20 - 22: “Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun?”
No one is exempt. Matthew Henry reminds us, “It is implied that troubles and afflictions may be the lot of the best Christians, even of those who have the most reason to think and hope well of themselves. Such as have a title to the greatest joy may yet endure very grievous afflictions.”
James’s directives are not unique. In fact, his words echo Matthew 5:10-12. In the beatitudes, Jesus addressed this same subject. He said, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”
Trials and troubles are as old as man’s fallen nature. On the other hand, the Christian is no masochist, looking for trials in some kind of sick perversion (Mt 6:33). James says, “when you fall.” These troubles come upon us unawares. Nonetheless, they are not chance happenings. Gill puts it this way, “these they “fall” into; not by chance, nor altogether at an unawares, or unexpectedly; but they fell into them through the wickedness and malice of their enemies, and did not bring them upon themselves through any crime or enormity they were guilty of. . .”
Even our Lord, when He walked this earth, experienced troubles and trials (Jn 11:33, Jn 12:27, Jn 13:2). Yet, He remained without sin. This reveals two things:
1) Trials are to be expected. They are a normal part of our sojourn here on earth.
2) We can face trials without having a sinful response. Jesus did.
The trials into which we fall are “various”. The word means, literally, many colored. Calvin said, “The Lord then afflicts us in various ways, because ambition, avarice, envy, gluttony, intemperance, excessive love of the world, and the innumerable lusts in which we abound, cannot be cured by the same medicine.” Our sin has permeated ever aspect of our lives. Thus our Lord sends us trials to purge every area of our lives.
We have been using the word ‘trials’ as we have discussed verse two. However, if you read the KJV, you will see the word “temptations”. While the Greek word can be translated ‘temptation’, it can also be rightly translated ‘trials’. This is a rare word in secular Greek, yet it is very common in biblical Greek. In its verb form it means ‘to put someone to the test’. Our response determines whether this ‘test’ remains a trial or becomes a temptation.
Barnes explained it like this, “the word is used in the sense of trials, to wit, by persecution, poverty, calamity of any kind. These cannot be said to be direct inducements or allurements to sin, but they try the faith, and they show whether he who is tried is disposed to adhere to his faith in God, or whether he will apostatize. They so far coincide with temptations, properly so called, as to test the religion of men. They differ from temptations, properly so called, in that they are not brought before the mind for the express purpose of inducing men to sin.”
Every trial which God allows us to experience tests our faith. If we pass the test, it remains a trial. If we fail the test (handle the trial in an ungodly manner), it becomes a temptation. As Pastor MacArthur said, “Trials lead you to strength and make you stand.”
Trials reveal the genuineness of your faith. When you go through a trial, look carefully at how you react. Your response says much about your faith. If you persevere through trials and never abandon your trust in God, you prove to have genuine faith.
I leave you with this quote from Robert Johnstone. He said, “James shows that where there is but an empty profession or a mere dreamy sentiment unbased on firm and intelligent convictions of truth, the fire of trouble will burn them up. But where there is true faith, affliction naturally leads to deeper thought than under other circumstances on sin and its deserts and thus frees the heart from the control of self-righteousness. The source of weakness leads to earnest wrestling with God in prayer and experience of the sustaining grace thus obtained strengthens and exhilarates one’s hope with regard to the time to come.”
Next time we will look at how to face trials and come through victoriously. We will seek to see what it looks like to ‘count it all joy’ in trials.
