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James 1:2–3
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”
Persecution forced many of the earliest Jewish Christians to flee Jerusalem to other parts of the Roman Empire (Acts 8:1; 11:19). These scattered believers made up most of the original readers of James’ epistle, and they faced many challenges—life in a foreign place, harassment from non-Christian Jews, poverty, and more. As a faithful pastor, the Apostle James begins his letter by addressing the reality of suffering that his first audience faced, and in so doing, he provides guidance for us today.
First, we must understand that trials inevitably attend the Christian life. James says “when” we encounter trials, not “if” we face them (James 1:2). Following Christ does not eliminate hardships; in many ways, it compounds them. Once we become Christians, we have to go through not only those struggles that all people face—family turmoil, sickness, broken dreams, job loss—but also the added burden of other people’s hating us because we follow Jesus and not the ways of the world. We may never suffer the particular trials of exile that James’ original readers did, but we will suffer the normal troubles that occur in a fallen world as well as the specific trials that are the consequence of faithful Christian living. Even Apostles endured such things (see 2 Cor. 11:24–28).
James tells us to “count it all joy” as we face these various trials of life (James 1:2). The Apostle does not exhort us to consider the trials in themselves as joyful or to deny the sorrow that they bring. Rather, he encourages us to look at our suffering with the right frame of mind, to think of our trials in a way that remembers God’s purposes while also being honest that the trials hurt. Counting it all joy when we go through trials means that we rejoice in the opportunity to suffer without pretending that it is not painful. Here joy does not serve as a synonym for happiness; it is an evaluation of the situation according to God’s truth that says that trials are for our ultimate good even though the challenges themselves are unpleasant.
Why should we count it all joy when we go through trials of various kinds? Because we “know that the testing of [our] faith produces steadfastness” (v. 3). James wants us to know that trials purify and refine our faith. As we continue trusting God’s promises during our suffering, we grow more confident in His faithfulness and are more able to believe that He can do what seems impossible to us. We grow more steadfast and less thrown into disarray by our trials.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
As John Calvin notes, our creaturely nature means that we inevitably feel grief and sorrow when we endure evils. He continues that nevertheless, “this does not prevent the children of God to rise, by the guidance of the Spirit, above the sorrow of the flesh. Hence it is, that in the midst of trouble they cease not to rejoice.” We cannot count it all joy when we meet trials if we rely on our own power. We must ask the Spirit of God to help us.
For further study
- Genesis 35:1–3
- 1 Peter 4:12–14
The bible in a year
- Genesis 3–5
- Matthew 2
- Genesis 6–10
- Matthew 3–4