Lesson 10 April 7,
2004
Step Two—Count it All Joy Part 2
(2) The People Addressed — “my brethren”
James
addresses believers in Christ, those who are in union with Christ, born ones.
We are
shown how believers who know Jesus Christ should act when faced with trials.
(3) The
Time Aspect — “when you encounter”
“When you encounter”
refers to that point in time that calls for us to add up the facts and to count
it all joy.
“Encounter” is the Greek
peripiptw, “encounter,
fall into,” and carries with it the idea of falling into something so one is
“surrounded, engulfed.”
“Various”
is poikiloj, “many colored, variegated, varied.”
This
calls our attention to the nature of sufferings and life in a fallen world.
God’s
plan for our lives and the potential for each of us as believers in Christ is
that we should be able to handle any and every kind of irritation or trial
regardless how small or how large—from the irritation of a gnat or the bite of
a mosquito to the charge of an elephant or the roar of a tank.
Philippians 4:11-13
“Trials” is an important word and one that needs to be
understood if we are going to grasp the heart of this passage in James.
The same Greek word lies behind the word “trials” in 1:2 and
the word “tempted” in verse 13.
[peirosmoj peirazw]
The goal is that the one tested should emerge stronger, purer, and
better off as a result of the testing.
Rem:
Happiness is a by product, a by product of staying focused on Him, that
flows out of our relationship with Him.
Fundamental to such a pursuit is the need
to consciously reject the goal of becoming happy and adopt the goal of becoming
more like the Lord. Conformed to the image of Christ!
How,
then, can a person find this joy in the trials of life? Part of the answer
comes by grasping the following:
1. John 14:27
2. John 16:33
From
these two passage we learn two important truths regarding peace:
First, due to the nature of this fallen
world in which we live, a world dominated by sin, Satan (the god of this
world), and death, all of us are going to experience a certain level of
tribulation, [qliyij]
Second,
while peace and joy are not exactly synonyms, they are related.
God
allows both prosperity and adversity according to His own wise counsel and He
does so without revealing all the specifics of what He is doing.
Ecclesiastes 7:13-14
In view
of God’s plan, the preacher teaches us the need of submission to God’s
plan.
- Eccl.
Part of
the life of faith is accepting prosperity and adversity from God’s hand without
being able to explain just how everything will be worked out for the future
(Eccl. 7:14; Rom 8:28)
Some Observations Drawn from these passages:
1. We will never get the whole if we leave God out of the equation
of life.
2. His
objective for us is to take His wisdom and to walk by faith, not by sight.
3. Since He is perfect, His provision for us is also perfect and
therefore sufficient to meet the need whether its in prosperity or adversity.
4. We must recognize that
conditions in life will change, count on it.
5. Today's challenges and
tomorrows surprises are to be placed in His hands.
6. Wisdom then is the God given
ability to see life and live it with rare objectivity and stability.
Plainly,
suffering is a fact of this life that none of us will avoid.
You must learn that your troubles are not meaningless, random events,
that crash into your life without purpose and pattern.
The Advantages of Trials — What's the Objective (vss. 3-4)