Scriptorium Daily
A few weeks ago I was asked to be the speaker for the chapel of Biola’s Rosemead School of Psychology. Talk about being out of my element! The most I know about this field is my one Pastoral Counseling class I took in seminary. However, if there’s one thing that psychologists understand, and all Christians understand as well, it’s suffering. Suffering is at the heart of our faith—it is right there in the cross. When we talk about Christ’s “passion,” that word “passion” means suffering. So I chose a great text that talks about suffering, from James 1:2-12.
This is a summary of what I preached:
I want to address you from James 1. James is one of my favorite books of the Bible, and I think that as I grow older, its applicability continually increases. I think while it can be read by young Christians, it is really meant for those who are maturing. It takes on tough topics like the tension between faith and works (“faith without works is dead”), taming the tongue (“the tongue can be used for praising and cursing”), and true religion (which involves both social justice and personal holiness). All of these involve nuance and discernment to properly understand them. They are “both/and” rather than “either/or,” they are that tough middle way rather than the easy trite black-and-white Sunday School answers that we like to give. Let’s take a look at our text, then:
(2) Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, (3) because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. (4) Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (5) If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (6) But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. (7) That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; (8) he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. (9) The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. (10) But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. (11) For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. (12) Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
1) Trials can turn you toward holiness or bitterness
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “If it doesn’t kill you, it only makes you stronger.” Well, when I was growing up, I hated that phrase because the cynic in me always thought, “Unless it maims you for life!” Suffering doesn’t always produce good fruit in people—it can often bring out the worst in you.
What does James mean, then, that trials should bring “pure joy”? Are we just masochists?
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” I think this is another way to restate James 1:2-4. In the middle of war, when the bombs are exploding all around you and you’re in the trenches, then your wealth, your intelligence, what you own, none of that matters whatsoever. You pray, because at that point, God is all you have. And I think that’s somewhat of an unfortunate reality—I often pray the most when I am going through the most trials. And that’s horrible—I should pray in all circumstances, shouldn’t I? But I think that James understands human nature. I often find that the more that God gives me good blessings, the less I tend to focus on him. It’s only when he takes those things away from me that I tend to turn to him for help.
Maybe that’s why Jesus preached the Upside-Down Kingdom. My former pastor, Ken Fong (of Evergreen Baptist Church of L.A.) said: “I have long believed that a huge part of Christ’s redemptive work is to have the powerless teach the powerful.” I think you see that all throughout the Bible, for example the following statements (taken from Jesus and Paul):
-The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.
-Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
-Blessed are the poor, the meek, and those who mourn.
-Whoever wants to be great would have to be a servant.
-God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
-Jesus was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that through his poverty we would become rich.
-Jesus was equal to God, and then he emptied himself and made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, which is why he is worthy to be exalted as Lord.
I think part of the reason for the Upside-Down Kingdom is that gifts often take our focus off of the Giver. The reason that trials help us to grow is because it helps us to focus on the Giver. It helps us to rely on God instead of the things of this world. And it is only in God that we find “pure joy.”
James 1:9-12 is essentially the Upside-Down Kingdom expressed in James’s own words—“The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.”
2) Trials only turn you toward holiness if they are taken with faith
As I hope I made clear above, suffering can definitely turn you toward holiness, but it can also turn you toward bitterness. I definitely know of people who have been broken, and they wallow in their misery.
I think James recognizes both types. He gives a case study in two different types of people, both of whom suffer trials—the one with faith and the one with doubts:
One with faith: steadfast (v. 4)
One with doubts: unstable (v. 8 )
One with faith: perfect and complete (v. 4)
One with doubts: double-minded (v. 8 )
So here you have two types of people, both of whom suffer trials, but they have drastically different results.
I once heard the Christian singer Ginny Owens say, “It’s not trials that make you stronger, it’s what you do with those trials—whether you choose to give them up to God or not.” Trials can lead you to either holiness or bitterness, but it depends what you do with them. I think that’s the key here to James. God wants us to participate with him when we’re going through sufferings. In vv. 5 and 6, James encourages us to “ask.” Ask for wisdom, ask in faith, and it will be given to you. We don’t just sit there and take the sufferings, we must do something with it.
So what’s the difference between the one with faith and the one who doubts in James? It’s not suffering vs. no suffering, because both suffer. It’s not even asking vs. not asking, because both ask. It’s asking in faith vs. asking with doubt. That’s the difference between being steadfast and complete, vs. unstable and double-minded.
The latter will not receive anything from the Lord. When life gives you lemons, do you just scrunch up your face and eat the sour lemon, or do you make lemonade? James tells us that the way that Christians make lemonade of our trials is to ask God in faith.
3) What to do if life is good on an individual level
We’ve been talking about suffering, and most people in this world suffer. Some would even say that all of life is suffering. However, I have a dangerous confession to make: right now I don’t have many trials in my life. Why is this “dangerous”? Because when all is good, I think there’s always a part of us that gets a little nervous. Like, “I just know that something huge is going to hit me like a Mack truck at any moment now!” When we say that all of life is well, everyone around us runs and ducks for cover because they expect lightning to strike at any moment.
Now, let me qualify that statement: I have had many trials before this. Perhaps it’s not quite on the level of the Apostle Paul’s sufferings in 2 Cor. 11:23-29 where he recounts being beaten and stoned and shipwrecked. But I’ve definitely had my share of hardships. I’ve been physically assaulted while ministering in an inner-city neighborhood. I know what it’s like to have no money in my bank account. My parents went through a messy divorce. And of course, as human beings, we are all subject to sin. I am no stranger to pain.
But for right now, in this stage of my life, I’m good. I’ve got a stable job and thus a steady income, a great church, good friends, I have a couple of books coming out next year, and God is good. Probably the only thing that is “lacking” in my life right now is a wife. But hey, rather than complain, I should count my blessings! How ungrateful would I be to say, “God you’ve given me a million good things and all I can think of is that which you haven’t given me.” It makes me think of Veruca Salt, the spoiled girl in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Ugh.
Then I start getting some crazy ideas, like, “Maybe I need to seek out suffering before God puts it into my life!” But then my rationality gets the better of me. I remember King David and his sinful census in 2 Sam 24, and David said it’s actually better to be in God’s hands rather than the hands of men, right? God gave David a choice of punishments, and David says, “Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”
But how do we “fall into the hands of the LORD?” A friend of mine told me that he sometimes prays, “God, break me.” And I think, “Are you nuts? I’ve learned not to pray that prayer! There’s enough suffering in life without bringing it voluntarily on yourself!” I think a better model of prayer is when Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane—“Lord, take this cup from me—yet not what I will, but what you will.” No one ought to deliberately seek suffering, even Jesus preferred not to let it happen. But Jesus let subsumed His will under the will of the Father. That is the right way to go about it.
4) What to do if life is good on a corporate level
Can we extrapolate this to a corporate principle? The word “you” used all throughout the book of James is the plural “you” in Greek. Though I think it’s rare when you, in your individual life, don’t have trials, but sometimes I feel like corporately, we’re good—as Americans, and as Christians.
First let me speak to the faculty here—as professors, we have our degrees, our status, and students look up to us as authority figures not only in terms of grading but in terms of knowledge. But strip us of our degrees, our status, put us in a position of discomfort, and see how we respond. Or for those of you who are in training to be in positions of leadership, as counselors and teachers—the same principle applies.
As Christians, we’re also good. I mean, we don’t suffer for our faith, unlike many places in the world where people are thrown in jail or tortured. We live in a country where the President of the United States must confess a Christian faith otherwise he won’t be elected. I think this is hardly a position of persecution. But that’s a dangerous place to be in.
John Stott in Christianity Today (Oct 2006, p. 96) said: “When I was ordained in the Church of England, evangelicals were a despised and rejected minority…Over the intervening 60 years, I’ve seen the evangelical movement in England grow in size, in maturity, certainly in scholarship, and therefore I think in influence and impact. We went from a ghetto to being on the ascendancy, which is a very dangerous place to be. Pride is the ever-present danger that faces all of us. In many ways, it is good for us to be despised and rejected. I think of Jesus’ words, ‘Woe unto you when all men speak well of you.’”
What do we do as American evangelical Christians who enjoy the fat of the land, we who are the largest religion in the most powerful country in the world? I think we ought to be humble instead of arrogant, because “how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven!” I don’t think that verse is only talking about material wealth.
Conclusion
This is why, when we suffer trials, we should “count it all joy.” But that can only come from taking the trials in an appropriate way—to ask in faith. Here’s a caveat: I’m not advocating works righteousness here. Because sometimes evangelicals can make faith into a work, ironically! I’m not saying that if you have faith, everything will be made right. But what I am saying is, if you don’t have faith, surely everything will not be all right. To abandon God in the midst of trials is foolhardy at best. Let us hold fast to the One who is our “soul anchor” and count it all joy whenever we face trials of many kinds! In the end we will become more Christlike and that is God’s will for us.
