Steadfastness Unto Perfection and Completion

God’s Word frequently tells us to do what is counterintuitive to the natural man, and we see an example of this in James 1:2–3. Left to our own devices, we would never consider it joy when we “meet trials of various kinds.” After all, trials bring pain and sorrow. Christians, however, must look at trials from a divine perspective, not pretending that the troubles we face are in themselves good things but understanding the larger purpose for them in God’s plan. The Lord, James tells us, uses trials to test, prove, or purify our faith to produce steadfastness in us. Faith in God should not and cannot remain static. It deepens over time and grows stronger so that we find it easier to trust the Lord in difficult times and waver less in our confidence in our Father.

To put it another way, trials purify our faith so that we steadfastly persevere. We remember that many people seem to start out strong in following the Lord, only to later walk away because they were not well rooted in Christ (see Mark 4:1–20). Authentic saving faith, however, always perseveres, and it perseveres as we heed the exhortations of the prophets and Apostles. John Calvin comments that “there are many . . . who show at first an heroic greatness, and shortly after grow weary and faint. [James] therefore bids those who would be perfect and entire, to persevere to the end.”

As important as perseverance is, however, James wants us to persevere not as an end in itself but so that we “may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4). Perfection and completeness here refer to a well-rounded character that displays all the Christian virtues in their maturest form. One of the most well-known lists of these virtues can be found in Galatians 5:22–23, where Paul calls them the “fruit of the Spirit.” Our great God acts to redeem us not merely to rescue us from the fires of hell but also to make us a new kind of people, a new humanity patterned after the Lord Jesus Christ. God is working to make us like His only begotten Son.

When God regenerates us and brings us to faith, He transforms us so that all the Christian virtues are present but in seed form. He planted them in us, but He has ordained a role for us in seeing them come to maturity. As we respond to our trials properly, counting it joy to endure them and allowing our character to be formed by them, we are working out our salvation in fear and trembling even as God is active in us to will and to work (Phil. 2:12–13).