Hammer on Anvil '

Greetings! Let's look at a few different translations of James 1:2:

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy (NLT).

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds (ESV).

Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations (Amplified Bible).

In our Tuesday night house group, we are studying the Book of James. Because we have a lot of wonderfully articulate people in our group, we only made it through three verses the first week we met. It’s pretty much a verse-by-verse study, and I am privileged to glean wisdom from my peers as we discuss the book.

James 1:2 is a tough one. When you first read it, you might think to yourself, Am I supposed to be a masochist and enjoy heartache and tribulation? Hardly. What James is referring to here is the process we must all endure if we are to be more like Jesus. Unfortunately, most of us don’t draw closer to Him when everything is going our way. So our loving, all-knowing God permits us to—in fact promises that we will—go through trials in this life.

But it is suffering with a purpose. James describes the testing process with the Greek word dokimion, which is the word for “sterling coinage.” The aim of testing is to purge us of all impurities. If we embrace testing in the right way, it will produce what the King James Version calls “patience”—a much too passive translation. The Greek word is hupomone—not simply the ability to bear things, but to turn them into greatness and glory for Jesus’ sake.

The end result of testing, if we are submissive to our Father’s hand, will make us three things:

• Perfect – This doesn’t mean we will never make mistakes; it means we will be perfectly fitted for whatever God may ask of us.

• Complete
  

• Deficient in Nothing

May we all have courage to praise God in the midst of trials, and pray that His purposes will be accomplished in our lives.