James Expounds on Faith Volume 3

 The Testing of Our Faith Part 2

James 1:3-4 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. KJV

The Apostle wants us to understand our state, our situation, and the sacrifices we must endure as pilgrims on the 🌎 earth making our way to our real and true home in heaven. The faith (Ephesians 2:8) that we were given by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ can be trusted and will stand up against trials and it cannot ever be troubled. As we declared in the last study/commentary, the Lord Jesus Christ already knows this, but He wants us to know for ourselves that our faith is real and true, therefore, He who operates, orchestrates, and organizes all things does so with the trials/test of our faith that He allows to come to us, not to hurt 👥 us or harm us or to hinder us in our pilgrimage, but to prove to ourselves the authenticity of our own faith and to 'purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous for good works' (Titus 2:14). The good work of our trials/test will work within us patience which is not a virtue of mine and I dare say not of many specially during these last days of wanting and having things instantly and having the technology to get them in such a manner, that is, the microwave era and generation of humanity. The Apostle James says these words to those who lived during his day and especially to we Christians who are alive in this microwave generation, "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." (James 1:3-4) (KJV). The English word 'trying' is translated by the Greek word dokimion meaning a testing; by implication trustworthiness: - trial, trying. The English word 'worketh' is translated by the Greek word katergazomai meaning to work fully, that is, accomplish; by implication to finish, fashion: - perform. The English word 'patience' is translated by the Greek word hupomonē meaning cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy: - enduring, patience, patient continuance (waiting). The English word 'entire' is translated by the Greek word holoklēros meaning complete in every part, that is, perfectly sound (in body): - entire, whole. In other words, it is this testing that proves trustworthiness and working, performing, and finishing in our inner man or inner woman that optimistic and hopeful assurance that leads to our developing patience and endurance for this 🏃 marathon race of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that is only completed when we leave our tent/house/body and go to Heaven where our Lord Jesus Christ will stand up from His Throne of Grace to welcome us home just as He did with Brother Stephen (Acts 7:55-60). One of the men whom our Lord Jesus Christ allowed the 👿 devil to hound, harrass, and hunt was Brother Job who said these words, "But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." (Job 23:10) (KJV). The Prophet Zechariah said these words, "And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My Name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God." (Zechariah 13:9) (KJV). Finally, fast forwarding into the New Testament we read these words from the Apostle Peter, "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:6-9) (KJV).

Here is what Alexander MacLaren had to say of James 1:3-4, "The perfecting of Christian endurance is not a thing that comes without effort. And so the Apostle puts it into the shape of an exhortation or an injunction. He does not specify methods, but I may venture to do so, in a few sentences. And I put first and foremost here, as in all regions of Christian excellence and effort, the one specific which makes men like the Master - keeping near Him. As the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it, ‘consider’ (by way of comparison) Him that endured, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. ‘Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.’ Oh, brethren! there is nothing that sucks the brightness out of earthly joys when they threaten to interrupt our course, and dazzle our eyes, like turning our attention to Christ, and looking at Him. And there is nothing that takes the poison-sting, and the irritation consequent on it, out of earthly sorrows like remembering the’ Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.’ Am I to grumble when I think of Him? Shall I make a moan and a mourning for my sorrows when I remember His? Am I to say, ‘O Lord! Thou hast given me as much as I can manage in bearing this terrible blow which Thou hast aimed at me, without repining against Thee. I cannot do any work because I have got so much to bear’? Are we to say that when we remember how He counted not His life dear to Himself, and bore all, and did all, that He might accomplish the Father’s will? Do not let us magnify our griefs, but measure them by the side of Christ’s. Do not let us yield to our impatience, but rather let us think of Him. Consider Him, and patience will have her perfect work. Again, let me say, if we would possess in its highest degree this indispensable grace of persistent determination to pursue the Christian course in spite of all antagonisms, we must cultivate the habit of thinking of life, in all its vicissitudes, as mainly meant to make character. That is what the Apostle is saying in the context. He says, ‘Brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations.’ That is a paradox. It bids a man to be glad because he has trouble and is sad. It seems ridiculous, but the next verse solves the paradox: ‘Knowing this, that the trial of your faith worketh patience.’ That is to say - if I rightly understand the meaning of this world in its bearing on myself, the intention of my whole life to make me what God would have me to be, then I shall not measure things by their capacity to delight and please taste, ambitions, desires, or sense, but only by their power to mould me into His likeness. If I understand that the meanings of sorrow and joy are one, that God intends the same when He gives and when He withdraws, that the fervid suns of autumn and the biting blasts of November equally tend to the production of the harvest, that day and night come from the same cause - the revolution of the earth; if I understand that life is but the scaffolding for building character, and that, if I take out of this world, with all its fading sweets and its fleeting sadnesses, a soul enlarged, ennobled by difficulties and by gladnesses, then I shall welcome them both when they come, and neither the one nor the other will be able to deflect me from my course."

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.


Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…