James 1:2-8
James does not waste time with long introductions or prayers of thanksgiving for the people’s well-being like Paul does. This may be because, unlike Paul, James is not writing to a specific church but to all believers scattered throughout the region. It could also be because James does not have the same sort of relationship with his audience as Paul does. This can be both a good and a bad thing in writing this letter. On the negative side, James does not have the same level of trust and familiarity that Paul would. On the positive side, this allows James to maybe be more direct and say things that a “pastor” might not be able to say.
The situation of this letter is that the followers of “The Way” are facing persecution. This persecution has been growing. We can see this throughout the early chapters of the book of Acts. Peter and John heal the blind beggar and are arrested. Later, Stephen is arrested and when he gives his defense the people are so enraged, they stone him to death. Standing on the sideline is a man named Saul who eagerly takes up the cause and begins to go from town to town to persecute Christians. The church in Jerusalem is scattered. This scattering leads to a couple of problems for this early group of believers.
First, not all the believers are now located in the same place. This causes a problem of leadership. The leaders of the Church do not have direct access to all the people because they have all scattered. Nobody is readily available to settle disputes or to correct false teachings. Each community begins to adopt their own rules and beliefs.
Second, the severity of the persecutions has led to fear. The people are afraid of what might happen to them if this Saul comes to town. Therefore, they might be tempted to hide their beliefs or to compromise their faith in the name of security. This leads to no set standard of conduct.
This is the background to the letter James writes. He wants to encourage the believers to hold true to their faith in Jesus but also set out some basic standards and expectations that each person should hold to. With this understanding, let us begin looking at verse 2.
The word “consider” or “count” in KJV, means to think about something, but in the Bible, there is the sense of allowing that thought to guide or to lead you. It is not a case of saying “I thought about it but reject that idea”. Instead, this thought, this consideration, is going to determine how you move forward.
Consider it a joy when you experience various trials – notice that trials is plural. We are not going to experience just one trial in our lives but should expect multiple trials throughout our entire lives. We might as well get used to dealing with trials. Since we are to expect multiple trials, we need recognize that not every trial is going to be the same.
Trials, or temptations, are tests of faith – how will you react – not to see how good you are at overcoming, but will you compromise your faith to do so. The test is to not see how good you are at overcoming but if you trust in God’s sovereignty. The main point is how you deal with trials.
James tells us that we need to approach trials with great joy (CSB), all joy (KJV), pure joy (NLT). Joy is the take pleasure in something. Obviously, nobody takes pleasure in suffering, the point here is to be able to look past the specific circumstances to the source of life which is Jesus Christ. We need to trust in God’s sovereignty and that Christ is enough. We do not have to “win” at any and all costs; Jesus has already won the victory. We need to trust that God will provide.
Trials will produce endurance or patience (KJV). Endurance is the ability to stand firm in faith in Jesus Christ. There should be no wavering, no compromise, no short-cuts. This reminds us of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome (Rom 5:3-4).
Enduring leads ultimately to maturity. Maturity is setting aside childish behavior and acting like an adult. This is the ideal but we must also be aware that it is something we will always strive to achieve but also struggle to achieve. Even Paul struggled with setting aside childish thoughts and doing the things he didn’t want to do (Rom 7:15-20). Behind this idea of maturity is the belief that God will provide everything we need, and then trusting that He will. This is easier said than done, that is why we continue to struggle.
This leads us to James’ statement that we will lack nothing. Lacking nothing is the idea that God will provide, even in times of trials. The more we trust the more we endure the more we will see God’s faithfulness. James is reminding us to not quit now.
James tells us then that if we lack wisdom, all we need to do is ask God for it and He will give it to us generously and ungrudgingly. Wisdom is knowledge which makes possible skillful activity or performance. In other words, specialized knowledge. This specialized knowledge is not something that we can buy or something we find laying around but it is knowledge that must be given to us. The only person who can give us this specialized knowledge is God. Therefore, we must swallow our pride, admit that we do not know everything, and ask God.
Wisdom is also a word used of Jesus. Paul describes Jesus as the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24). In the Old Testament, wisdom is said to have been with God at Creation, much like John says the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1). Jesus is the wisdom we need, Jesus is the specialized knowledge we need, and the only place we can get Jesus is to ask God.
How we ask God for this knowledge matters. We must ask in faith. To ask in faith means to be prepared to accept and obey whatever God reveals. We don’t accept it grudgingly but instead we accept it without doubt. James then gives us one of his beautiful poetic images. This image is of the waves during a storm. The waves don’t control where they go but instead are at the mercy of the wind. This is much like what we see in society today. Many people wait to determine what is true until they see which way the majority of society is going. For them, they do not control their own thoughts and beliefs but are instead controlled by the winds of society.
Such a person should not expect God to grant them the wisdom they seek. What would be the point? When we ask for wisdom from God we need to ask in faith, we ask being prepared to accept what God says is the truth and not wait to see which way the wind is blowing society.
A person who waits on the winds is considered to be a double-minded person. The Greek word here is dipsychos. Psychos is the Greek word for soul or life, so the double-minded person is someone who is double souled. The NLT can help to define this meaning when it says, “a person with divided loyalty.” James calls such a person “unstable.”
The word “unstable” in Greek means someone who is not controlled by someone else. They could either be unable to be controlled or unwilling to be controlled. Either way, it is the opposite of how James described himself in verse 1. James called himself a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Last week we noted that servant meant to be completely controlled by someone else. This person in verses 7-8 is the exact opposite. God is not obligated to grant to wisdom to such a person, nor should they expect to be granted such wisdom.
This all comes back to how a person responds the trials. They can either trust in God’s sovereignty or by trying to overcome the trials on their own by compromising their faith. For the true follower of Jesus Christ there is only one way. That way is to trust in Jesus Christ.