Articles
Trying Faith Works
It is a very common notion that “getting right with God” should somehow begin to alleviate our problems and make every-thing in life just seem to fall into place. Where does this notion come from? Cer-tainly not the Scriptures! In fact, when someone expressed an interest in follow-ing Jesus, He informed him of just the op-posite— “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head (Lk. 9:58). He was warning him that following Him was a difficult life, not the answer to making all of your problems disappear. To be clear, choosing to live godly lives will BRING trib-ulation (2 Tim. 3:12; John 15:19-21, John 16:33).
How about a little refresher of this truth from James. The book of James begins with the proposition that we are to con-sider the trying of our faith a thing of joy for through such we are matured as God’s children. By the time you get to the end of James, he is still talking about the trials of our faith. The specifics that James men-tions in this section are truthfulness, suffering, joy, sickness, and sin. In ourstriving to be godly how do we respond to such trials?
Swearing. This is not ‘cussing’ but the exclamation of an oath that supposedly strengthens our claim of honesty. In the first century, such oaths were often used to allow one OUT of his word. In Matthew 5:37 Jesus brought the whole matter back to a simple matter of character: tell the truth. Godly people are to be like God and it is impossible for God to lie (such is simply inconsistent with His character).
Suffering. Many people indeed suffer BECAUSE they are Chris-tians. This is not the same as having difficult times that are common to all in life under the sun. Everyone (including athe-ists) has such problems. The suffering under consideration in this text primarily has to do with suffering as a Christian. Re-gardless of the cause of the difficult times the answer for a godly person is the same – pray. Pray for strength. Pray for wis-dom. Cast your cares upon God because he cares for you.
Joy. A trial of one’s faith not only involves times of trouble but times when everything is going right. Moses warned Israel of such times for it is then that people tend to forget God. This is again when our true faith is proven, for true faith acknowledg-es that ALL good things come from the hand of God. We re-spond to good times not by feeling guilty, nor by going about waiting for a shoe or two to drop, but by enjoying the good that God has brought our way and by being thankful. Of course, we know that “dark days” eventually come to all, but for the time being we do not worry about tomorrow, and we rejoice and “enjoy the good” (Eccl. 3:13).
Sickness or injury: These things happen. Of course, we do all
that we can to remedy the condition or situation (even as the Sa-maritan poured oil and wine on the man’s wounds), but ultimate-ly our response should be to turn to God in prayer. We recall King Asa who developed trouble with his feet and he was condemned for having sought the physicians (exclusively) and not calling upon God. We don’t pray alone but rather call upon fellow Christians to help bear our infirmities, just as James tells us to do in chapter 5. Such prayer is not to be just a prayer of desperation or duty but one of trust, the ‘prayer of faith.’ We trust that God is in control, that He has the power to help in time of need. We trust that God cares. We trust that God responds. We also trust that God some-times has greater plans and purposes, and through this we contin-ue to be godly in difficult times.
Sin. Yes, this too happens among God’s people. Sometimes we give in when we are tempted. We may even ‘wander from the truth.’ God however continues even here to offer us forgiveness. God doesn’t want us to perish but to repent (2Pet. 3:9). James says He wants us to turn (repent – to be ‘brought back’ vs. 20) and to confess (admit our wrong) one to another. In such admis-sion and turning we can call upon God and He will forgive.
Godly people do indeed have their faith tested – often, daily and continually. We find our faith tested in character, suffering, joy, sickness and sin. Through all of this we must keep God in the cen-ter of our lives. Godly people must strive to be godly at all times and under all circumstances. Hence, we come back to the begin-ning – “Count it all joy my brethren when you fall into various
