James is the least dogmatic of all the books. He doesn’t mention any of the great theological themes common to Paul’s letters. He mentions Christ only twice (1:1; 2:1), and does not mention His death, burial, and resurrection at all. The book contains some of the best Greek in the New Testament, using 570 different words including some rare words, 70 of which are unique to the New testament. It is, above all things, a very practical book.
He speaks of the man who appears to be religious. This word (‘threskos’) can be used in a bad sense such as superstitious, but is also used in a good sense meaning the zealous and diligent performance of the outward service of God. Since it refers to the outward or external form of religion, one can appear to be religious without necessarily being so. One can have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof (2 Tim. 3:5). He wants the reader to examine himself and his religion. This is such a down-to-earth and in-your-face book. He gets down to the nitty-gritty. We might entitle chapter one, If any Man among you seems to be Religious.
So, let a man’s religion be put to the test, of what sort it is. What sort is it? is a common question. Of cars (Holden? Toyota?); TV’s computers, washing machines, diseases etc. It is asked of really important things too:- What sort of teaching (1 Cor. 3:13), what kind of sorrow, worldly or godly? (2 Cor. 7:11), or what sort of journey (3 John 6)? What sort of religion is mine? Don’t really know till it is tested. Structural engineers do stress testing:- they flex a beam so many times to see if it cracks, or deliberately overload it so that it does break so they can see how, where and when it will break. The plane you flew in on your trip was subject to stress tests in the design stage to simulate the stresses it endures as it carries you through the air. Gen. 22:1 says that God did test Abraham, not for God’s benefit but for Abraham. It is easy to have an over-inflated view of our religion (like I fast twice in the week, give a tithe etc..). When it is tested we have the acid test. How is a man’s religion tested?
According to verse 2 a man is subject to divers temptations (KJV). I remember the first question I ever asked as a lad in a Bible class was when I heard a verse quoted that mentioned divers places. In my ignorance I asked, Is that under the sea? Well, it caused a ripple of good-natured laughter. It reminds me of the old mountain preacher’s text, They brought Jesus to those who were taken with divers diseases. The old preacher said, Now doctors can scrutenize you, analyse you, and sometimes cure your ills, but when you have divers diseases, then only the good Lord can cure you. And Brethren, there is a regular epidemic of divers diseases among us. Some dive for the door after Bible class. Some dive for the TV set during the evening services. Some dive into a bag of excuses about work that needs to be done for the Lord. Others dive for the car and take a trip over the weekend. Then a few dive into a flurry of fault-finding every time the church takes on a new program. Yes, Brethren, it takes the Lord to cure you of divers diseases. When you have divers diseases, Brethren, you are in a bad way! “Divers” is poikilos, meaning variegated, party- coloured. So it essentially means various. “Temptation” is peirasmos, meaning a putting to the test, proof, trial. So the NASV and NIV have trials. To fall into (divers temptations) is to fall so as to be surrounded by anything (cf. Acts 27:41; Luke 10:30). So the picture is to walk into an ambush or a whirlpool on the road of life. We don’t go looking for it (Matt.6:13 -‘lead us not into temptation’) yet trouble comes (Job. 3:26). Troubles and afflictions are part of the lot of the child of God. If religion meant exemption from trials who would not be religious? But what would be its measure?
In vs. 5-8 we have the test of prayer (do you pray? Have you given up on prayer (cf. Lk.18:1)? The temptation is there) (unstable in prayer – unstable in everything?). What has this got to do with trials? Well, how is it possible for me to see a blessing in my difficulties? It takes more wisdom than I or the world has (cf. Ps.73:2,3; 16,17). We need wisdom to make the right use of trials. God’s hand must be acknowledged in the turmoil and strife of life. Why would you ask of God if you doubted? Desperation? There are many who have an each-way bet, and vacillate between the pub and prayer, depending on which they see is the better option at the time. It is the test of Matt.28:20 – “is He really with me all the time?” He is a rewarder of the diligent seeker (Heb. 11:6). Am I willing to seek His face diligently? To live by faith and then by distrust is unprofitable and casts grave doubts upon the genuineness of one’s religion. In Job 2:10 Job reminded his wife “shall we not receive good and evil from the Lord?”. Trust and distrust of God shows that the heart is not sold on God. Distrust of God and His motives has been a Satanic device from the beginning, constantly telling man that God is not good. If we believe that God is not good then our religion is not Christian (John 3:16: 1 Pet. 1:21).
In verses 9 through 11 he covers the trials of the circumstances of life: poverty, riches, transience. The poor man is not to bemoan his lot in life but to rejoice in his exaltation, for though he may be poor in this world’s goods he is nonetheless heir to the riches of Heaven. The rich man is humbled in that whatever worldly status he has, for he has been reduced to a servant of the Lord (1 Cor. 7:22; Prov. 22:2). Somebody once quipped, a rich man is just a poor man with money. Often there is not much difference between the rich and the poor. 1 Tim. 6:9,10 intimates that there are those who are rich and those that want to be rich! Poverty and riches in themselves do not destroy the relationship between Christians, nor between God and man. If riches are fleeting, then so is poverty, for all of life is fleeting (Jas. 4:14). But as riches, poverty and earthly life recede the Christian has something else to anticipate. Also, circumstances can change in life (1 Cor. 7:21), and transition can be difficult. If you are used to heat or cold, living in the opposite can be difficult. Poverty to affluence is difficult, as is affluence to poverty (cf. Job), and it takes skill and learning (Phil. 4:12). So is health to sickness, and sickness to health, and from freedom to jail and vice versa. Perhaps poverty to affluence is the hardest of them all (cf. rejoice with those who rejoice is harder than weeping with those who weep). People see themselves as great givers if only they were rich: it’s true that a rich Christian may use his wealth to help him toward Heaven (Luke 16:9), but if the poor perchance become rich they find their attitude changes.
In verses 12-15 James speaks of the trials of temptations and lusts. Not only do we have to deal with that which comes from without, we have to deal with that which comes from within. A man’s religion is not measured by whom he can blame. Can’t blame god (vs. 16,17). Apparently some were blaming God for their problems and weaknesses. Why did God make the world the way it is? Why did God make me the way I am? Don’t let Gen. 22:1 in the K.J.V. throw you: it has ‘tempt’ but it is really ‘test’. God did not put evil before Abraham, to tempt him – rather He put a command to test whether the man would obey. The Devil would have tempted him not to do it and the devices would have been readily apparent. But we can’t even blame the Devil though he is the instrument of evil. God does not teach people to cause tribulation to His people. God allows temptation to happen but He tells and encourages us not to give in. We are subject to calls for allegiance from two sides – from God and from the Devil. We are caught in the middle and we are faced with choices that test our religion. King Louis XIV of France was listening to a preacher speak on Rom. 7:15-19, and he illustrated it by saying it is like there are two men in one, at which point the King interrupted and said, Ah, those two men, I know them well. So we are in a fight with sin. The hardest thing about battling temptation is putting your heart into it – but it is a great test of a man’s religion because it reveals what is the great love of our life – Christ or the thing that killed Him.
Now, in verses 18-25 we have the test of forgetfulness and complacency. In v.18 he reminds us of the privilege of being born again as a child of God, a kind of firstfruits, and the focus we are to have in our trials and lifestyle. The test of a man’s religion includes the test of his attitude toward the word of God, because it is the impact of the Word of God that determines how we live, and how we live is important to God. Job boasted that his love for the word of God was greater than his necessary food (Job 23:12). James speaks of the implanted word (v.21), and Matt 13 uses the same sort of idea in speaking about the word of God being sown in human hearts. He gives the parable of the mirror in vs. 22-25 to show that we can forget (cf. Jer. 2:32). In the parable of the sower Jesus spoke of the one who was like weedy ground – weeds choke out the Word.
It’s easier to start a race than to finish it. It’s harder to concentrate than to goof off. It’s easier to work for an hour than for eight. It’s harder to be zealous, abounding in the work of the Lord, than it is to let the hands hang down and the knees to wobble. It’s easier to be lifted up in pride with a little knowledge than to remain a humble student of the Word of God all one’s life. It’s harder to keep pressing on than it is to think one has done enough, has arrived, and can rest on one’s laurels. It’s easier to think one has earned one’s stripes than to consider one is a debtor and a servant. It’s easier to think that having been baptised, one has completed all things in the service of God rather than having just begun.
The race of the Christian is a marathon, not a 100-metre sprint. The tests of time, of energy, of constantness, of restlessness, of boredom, of familiarity, are searching tests. Chrysostom tells of the women of ancient Corinth who used to pick several names at the birth of their children. They would assign a name to a candle and light the candles. The name assigned to the candle that burnt the longest was the name subsequently given to the child. A similar idea is seen is each congregation in Rev. 2,3, with each congregation having a burning lampstand which has the possibility of going out. It would do us well to think that the Lord has a perpetual burning lamp for every soul that shall persevere to the end. It is not enough to begin in the Spirit and finish in the flesh. It is not for the one that runs, but for the one that endures to the end that the crown is reserved. Pusey wrote, Listen not to Satan, telling thee existence is hard. It is hard when thou beginnest. It is hard to resist sin, it is hard not to follow thine own will, it is hard to save thy soul: but it is harder far and unendurably to lose it and the sight of God. Thine own easys will become hard to thee.
These stress tests don’t weaken but help (vs. 3,4), so he says count it all joy. This is not joy in spite of these things but joy because of them! This is not to suggest that trials are a giggle but we are in a position to regard the trials of life in a certain light. There are many who would believe that God created the world but is letting it wind down like a clock. Thus the things that happen in life are nothing more than ‘bad luck’ with no redemptive quality at all. The Stoic can keep a stiff upper lip, and the Hedonist can only fall apart, but the Christian can put a different twist upon it altogether. God disciplines but He still has the heart of a Father.
Like exercise for the body, testing is good for the soul (there is no danger of overstress because of God’s mitigation – 1 Cor. 10:13). “Resistance training” produces strength. It is interesting how that things that can be hard, even injurious at times, can be beneficial: eg. salt, acid, caustic soda. Cortland Myers wrote, Steel is iron PLUS fire, soil is rock PLUS heat or glacier crushing. Linen is flax PLUS the bath that cleans, the comb that separates, and the flail that pounds, and the shuttle that weaves. Human character must have a PLUS attached to it. The world does not forget great characters. But great characters are not made of luxuries, they are made by suffering. Again, note v.3 – the trial of our faith. “Trial” is from dokimion, meaning a proof, a test, a crucible (see Prov. 27:21 in the Septuagint).
Finally, trials tell us whether we just seem to be religious, or whether we are true sons and true daughters of the heavenly King.