(Biblical text and some background information from www.nextbible.org)
From James, a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings!
My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything.
James doesn't waste any time with his dispersed audience. He immediately addresses the situation they find themselves in: trials. James' audience was the "12 tribes" in the Dispersion - the Jewish Christian community spread throughout the region. Jews were scattered throughout the Roman empire prior to the time of Christ, but two specific persecutions led to a diaspora of Jewish Christians from Jerusalem: the persecution of the church by Saul (approx. 34 AD, Act 7-8), and Herod’s persecution (approx. 44 AD, Acts 12). Whichever context led to the need for James to reach his flock by letter, the fact is that they were being persecuted before they left Jerusalem.
As James makes clear in both chapter 2 and chapter 5, their oppression was not merely because of their faith. To "fall into" trials literally means to be encompassed by them, surrounded. These people were poor, and rich landowners took advantage of the poor regardless of religious status. In Palestine before the fall of the temple in AD 70, most of the population were peasants with small land plots. Some family members worked the land, but most brothers were either traders or laborers. Wealthy landowners took advantage of the situation, robbing people of their lands, discriminating in hiring labor, and at times suppressing the church. This was a time in church history where most persecution was by Jews, as the church was still considered a sect of Judaism by the Jewish leadership. So, these Jewish Christians had the additional trial of their so-called brothers of the flesh persecuting them for their faith. A further trial was the prophesied worldwide famine (Acts 11:27-30) which happened around the time of Agrippa's persecution. Thus, the "trials" James addresses cover a broad range of challenging circumstances.
James' writing style typically involves a summary statement, followed by explanations, examples, and other supporting details. This passage is no different. James outlines to his audience the broad command: "Consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials". Obedience to James' admonition does not rely upon mere emotion or mindset. The word James uses for "consider" carries a connotation of judging, or making a determination, as a ruler would do. James is essentially teaching his scattered, persecuted, impoverished, hungry flock: "Weigh the evidence, and make a decision to view this as nothing but joy." James calls his readers to involve their will in the process. The difference this makes is significant: Rather than following our feelings, or trying to convince ourselves and others that it's really going to be okay, we can look at all the evidence and choose the side of joy.
Joy, of course, is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), so this decision will have to be a Spirit-empowered one. Yet James does not leave us without a tangible motivation as well. The very trials we are choosing to count as joy, James tells us, are the things that lead to our endurance, our perserverance. Endurance, Strong's lexicon tells us, is "characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings." Essentially, James is telling us that if we choose to consider THIS trial as joy, we will be strengthened and the next one will be less likely to sway us. Since the trials are presenting as coming "when" rather than "if", we can know that they will happen. We can be equipped for them by weighing our options and coming down on the side of joy.
Furthermore, James observes, perserverance isn't the end of the road for believers. We don't merely muddle through trials. As we learn to perservere in them, we are "perfected" or made mature ... lacking nothing or as this translation states, "not deficient in anything." Not lacking, not deficient ... calls to mind the literal translation of Ps. 23:1: "The Lord is my Shepherd; I lack nothing." Mankind tends by nature to focus on what we don't have ... but by the Spirit-empowered decision to consider a trial as JOY we can instead grow in perserverance and eventually feel that we lack nothing.
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