Rightly Responding to Suffering: Joy Rooted in Faith
Click here to read the first article in this series.
Many of the trials in my life have been minor or short-lived. I could gut it out and the trial would be over with. But when I was diagnosed with an irreversible, progressive muscle disease between my junior and senior years of college, I had to face up to a never-ending, ever-worsening trial. At first, I thought that if I responded well, then the Lord would reward me by the doctors’ figuring out how to reverse my disease. In reality, I was misdiagnosed, treated with high-dosage steroids for almost a year, which made my overall health quite worse, and I began to feel like Job in Job 3. I had to go back and re-study James 1, which I had pored over during the previous year. I knew what I needed to do: have a perspective of intense delight in God in the midst of my many trials. But I needed to learn more personally why and how I could do this.
As I studied and restudied James 1, these points stood out:
- What you must do: have intense joy in the midst of trials (James 1:2)
- Why you can do this: because of a correct perspective of faith in what God is doing through the trials (James 1:3-4)
In sum, responding with an attitude of Joy as you face overwhelming trials will only be possible by a correct perspective of your faith in God.
The Reasoning Behind the Command: God’s Work to Refine My Faith (James 1:3–4)
James commanded the believers: “Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations” (James 1:2) He must have known that such a command would come as a shock as the believers tried to grapple with putting that into practice in light of the realities of their suffering. That’s why in the very next two verses he goes on to explain why the believers can and should obey this command (James 1:3–4).
“Knowing this”: Your perspective ought to be shaped by a right knowledge of truth and reality. And James is going to highlight the theological knowledge that must orient that perspective. One need not work up some kind of superficial fake emotions, focusing on how to have the joy one is commanded to have. Instead, believers need to be directed by right thinking—deep theological truths and realities that produce in them the settled satisfaction and delight in God that believers are commanded to have.
“The trying of your faith”: Faith is at the centerpiece of it all. The theme of the Book of James can be summarized as “Tests of a Living Faith.” James 1:2–18 is the first test of a living faith: undergoing trials. You need to know that the trials you face are a test of your faith (see also Job 1:6–12).
“Worketh patience”: Know that your trial is taking you through God’s purposeful process in your life, stretching you to persevere in your faith. The trial is what God uses to work out His purposeful plan that can only come to pass through your persevering faith.
“Let patience have her perfect work”: Know that a persevering faith produces a perfecting work in you. God’s sanctifying work takes place as He purifies your persevering faith. Let this work of God take place in your life by embracing God’s working in you to refine your faith.
“That ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing”: Know that this purifying work of persevering faith is necessary to perfect you as the mature believer that God is making you to be so that you don’t lack in anything that He has planned for you.
I can have an intense delight in God in the midst of overwhelming trials because God is purifying my persevering faith in order to perfect me. This is what I must do and why I can do it. That theological knowledge should drive my faith, resulting in the joy I’m commanded to display. Your focus isn’t on generating joy; your focus is on living out your faith, which will result in supernatural joy.
I found myself having this intellectual knowledge of what ought to be. But I was still struggling with carrying it out. And I think James knew his readers would need more help on how to fulfill what they knew they needed to do even though they may have known why. The temptations and difficulties of fulfilling this are multifold. And James continues his thread of thought on trials; he’s not done yet (James 1:12). In the next post we’ll look at three common responses to trials and the biblical alternatives.
Kevin Collins has served as a junior high youth leader in Michigan, a missionary in Singapore, a Christian School teacher in Utah, and a Bible writer for the BJU Press. He currently works for American Church Group of South Carolina.
This post is part 2 of 5 in a series on suffering.
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