James 1:2-3
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”
Where this sits
The opening instruction of the letter, addressed to Jewish believers scattered by persecution. It is the first thing James says after the greeting.
Reflection
Count is an accounting word, and it is the only reason this instruction is possible.
James does not say feel joy when trials come. That would be an instruction nobody could obey, and he does not give it. He says count it joy — reckon it, enter it in the ledger under that heading. It is a decision about classification, made deliberately, and it can be made while feeling nothing of the kind.
And the reason follows immediately, introduced by knowing. The joy is not irrational; it rests on information. The testing of your faith produces endurance. James is not asking for a mood untethered from reality. He is asking his readers to add a fact they have to the situation they are in.
Fall into is worth noticing too. The Greek suggests stumbling into something unexpectedly — falling among, the same construction used of the man who fell among thieves on the road to Jericho. These are not trials anyone selected. Nobody in this verse volunteered.
Various is the last honest touch. The trials are not one recognisable type you can prepare for. They arrive in different forms, and the variety is part of the difficulty.
What James does not say is that the trial is good. He says it is productive, which is a smaller and more defensible claim, and the whole letter is written by someone who appears to have tested it.
- Theme:
- Joy
- Book:
- James