James---the brother of the Lord, an apostle, and a leader of the Christian church at Jerusalem---tells us today to handle everything that comes at us with joy. Easier said than done, right? Maybe not if we change our perspective on what joy really is. We tend think of joy as feeling happy and as being pleased with our circumstances, but if our joy depends on everything in our lives falling into place exactly the way we want, we're not going to experience very much joy. So today James invites us to reevaluate what this word means and how it applies to Christian living.
He begins his letter with a humble salutation which introduces him not as the brother of the Lord or as the top leader of the church at Jerusalem, but as the Lord's servant. "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings." (James 1:1)
We can tell from his salutation that James is writing to the Jewish believers. You will recall from our study of the book of Acts that persecution broke out at Jerusalem against the early church and that the believers other than the apostles were scattered in all directions in order to preserve their lives and the lives of their families. This turned out to be a good thing for the growth of the church as a whole, for these believers took the gospel message with them into territories where it had never been heard. (Acts 8:1) James is not necessarily speaking to the twelve tribes of Israel as a whole, but to his fellow believers, for he addresses them in this letter as "brothers and sisters" in the same way the other apostles do, meaning their brothers and sisters in Christ. However, I think James would have loved for every member of his nation to read this letter and learn about Christ and come to believe on Him as he himself has done.
We are taking our text from the NIV, but many other versions urge us to "count it all joy" when troubles come. The NIV renders it like this, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." (James 1:2-3) He's not advising his readers, "Rejoice and jump up and down when you're arrested and beaten for your faith. Thank God when your unbelieving family members disown you. Shout hallelujahs when your employer discriminates against you because of your beliefs." No, he's not saying that the trials themselves are enjoyable, but that our attitude about them should be, "I'm going to look at every circumstance as an opportunity to grow in my faith. These troubles are unpleasant and worrisome, but I'm going to lean on my Lord for help. I'm going to allow these problems to teach me more about the Lord and to help me develop more spiritual muscle."
Do we build physical muscle by only doing the things that are easy, or do we gain muscle mass by pushing against obstacles? I do some fairly heavy weight training three days a week. In fact today is one of my mornings to do it. I don't especially enjoy it but after I got in my 40s it wasn't easy anymore to keep my weight where I want it and I found that weight lifting was the only thing that worked for me. Some days it's downright unpleasant and I can't wait for it to be over, but the benefits are worth it. This is what James is saying about the things that help us build spiritual muscle. Troubles and trials are unpleasant. We can't wait for them to be over. But if we never learn how to properly deal with the heavy weights that beset us in this world, we are never going to be strong in the faith. Do I walk up to the weight machine with a feeling of joy? No way! I'd rather be sitting on the couch than sweating through a workout, but when I walk away from the machine after completing the whole circuit of exercises I know I've done something good for my health. I feel a sense of satisfaction because having strong muscles and bones is going to benefit me today and as I grow older. In the same way, we aren't going to walk up on problems and think, "Yay! A problem! This is exactly what I wanted!!" But according to James we can say to the problem, "You are going to bring me closer to Jesus Christ. I'm going to learn things about Him that I would never have learned without you. I'm going to build spiritual muscle in this struggle. I'm going to emerge from this season in life a stronger person."
James says that troubles and trials help us to develop perseverance. According to the thesaurus, perseverance means the same thing as "dedication, determination, endurance, persistence, stamina, and guts". Those are positive things. We'd all like to have people say we possess these qualities, wouldn't we? Well, we can all have people say these things about us if we look on every circumstance in life with the attitude that with the help of the Lord we are going to not only get through our struggles, but get through them victoriously. James says to face our problems head on and declare to them, "I'm going to be a better Christian after dealing with you. You're going to strengthen me so that when this time of trouble is over, I'm going to come out flexing my muscles and walking tall. I'm going to have more faith in my Lord than I had before. So I thank you in advance for making me a better person tomorrow than I am today."
No comments:
Post a Comment