#2: “The Joy of Testing”

SCRIPTURE: James 1:1-18

            ¹James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.  ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.  ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

⁹ Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, ¹⁰ and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. ¹¹ For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes.  So, also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

¹² Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.  ¹³ Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.  ¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  ¹⁵ Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

¹⁶ Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.  ¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. ¹⁸ Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

INTRODUCTION:

In Deuteronomy 28 God, through Moses, pronounced judgment upon his chosen people, the Jews, because of their disobedience.  Listen to verses 64 through 66:

            “And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.  And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul.  Your life shall hand in doubt before you.  Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life.”

This dispersion of the Jewish people came in four stages:

1. The Babylonian stage;
2. The Syrian stage;
3. The Egyptian stage; and
4. The Roman stage.

It was these stages of dispersion that prepared the way for Christianity to be a worldwide faith.  On the day of Pentecost, in A.D. 30, when the church was established with the 3,000 converts who were baptized, along with the one hundred and twenty who had gathered in the upper room, the body of Christ consisted entirely of Jews from the four segments of the “Diaspora.”  As these Jews who had gathered in Jerusalem returned to their homelands, they took the message of the apostles with them.  They formed the nuclei of the churches the Paul and other evangelists established and set in order.

Now, let’s get into James’ message…

In these first 18 verses, James wrote about “The Joy of Testing.”

First of all, in the first 12 verses, he clarifies