Remaining Steadfast

"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." - James 1:1-4

My blog posts are going to be camping in the book of James for a while. I wish to study more using the word of God and a little less using my mere thoughts. The passage above will be covered in this post.

The book of James was written to Jewish believers sometime in the 40's A.D. The audience is indicated in James' first statement: "To the twelve tribes in Dispersion." However, for the sake of not losing your interest quickly, we will move on to the rest of the passage.

If you read the passage as a whole, the main idea one notices is the Christian is to be joyful during trials; quite a foreign idea, is it not? Do not people, even Christians, usually curse God during trials rather than praise him? If James was trying to appeal to his readers, I'm not completely sure he did the best job. Why did he start his letter this way? The overarching theme in James is, simply put, the importance of the believer to make their faith real and practical. James starts his letter with this idea of being joyful during times of trials because 1) it tells Christians that they will face trials, and 2) it immediately points out the importance of the Christian to be different than the world. Christians do face trials; life isn't perfect once you become a Christian, in fact, it's harder (Matthew 7:13-14). James is merely trying to be truthful to fellow believers. He also jumps right into the theme of the book by alerting the reader that faith is not enough apart from renouncing worldliness and embracing righteousness.

Being joyful during times of trial is not a worldly pursuit, it is only the pursuit of a righteous person. Be sure that the joy James talks of is not a joy due to the enjoyment of suffering, but it is a joy due to the realization that such suffering will mature us in Christ (James 1:4). We are not joyful because suffering is enjoyable, but because we are focused not on the current suffering, but on the end result of that suffering. As James says in the third verse, "for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." We are joyful during times of testing because it is a time for growth and maturity in Christ. The word translated "faith" in verse 3 can also mean "pledge" or "proof." You could take it to mean devotion. In other words, James points out that all trials are a test of our devotion to God. Is this true? Are all tests a test of our faith, pledge, and allegiance to God? Or is there some test that is for another purpose? You see, all trials merit a response from the one being tried, and that response is the test. How do you respond in times of pain, suffering, hurt, anguish, sinfulness, temptation, worldly desires? Every trial that a Christian faces, including cancer, heartbreak, depression, and anxiety, are a test of our devotion to God, and the results of that test are based on our response to it.

If we are to endure times of trial, then the "testing of our faith produces steadfastness." "Steadfastness" can also be translated "endurance" or "perseverance." Further, if our steadfastness of faith has its full effect, we "may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Do you realize friends that if we are steadfast in our faith, our allegiance, and our pledge to Christ and take that seriously, there is nothing else to be done? Do you realize yet that such steadfastness is the most important thing in the Christian walk and it encompasses the whole Christian life? If we are not steadfast, we lack faith; if we lack faith, we have missed the point. Yes, we will doubt in our Christian walk, but never doubt to the point that it causes you to make poor, unChristian decision in times of trial.

Trials are times to grow, not times to forget about Christ. These trials produce more steadfastness of our faith and that produces perfection and completeness. We live in a fallen world and cannot yet let steadfastness have its full effect because of our sin nature, but may we allow steadfastness to have the most effect possible that we may do more and more for Christ with a heart of perseverance and a strong faith.