AM Bible Study Group; March 28, 2012
James 1:12
Theme: God blesses those who endure temptation.
As God’s people, there are certain things we can count on in life. One of them is that we will experience temptations. The form those temptations come may be different for each of us. What may be a great temptation to one individual believer may not be a particularly great temptation to another. But what we all have in common is that we will be tempted—in one way or another.
As he wrote to Jewish Christians who were suffering under the difficult trial of persecution for their faith in Jesus, Pastor James wanted to encourage endurance in them. It would have been very tempting for them to give up their faith and return to their former ways. And so, in writing to his dispersed and troubled brothers and sisters, he made sure to include a section in his letter in which he told them some of the things they need to know about temptation. In verses 13-18, we’ll see that he told them where temptation comes from and how it worked in them. But he began, in verse 12, by telling them about the blessings that come for those who resist temptation.
Note . . .
I. THE BLESSEDNESS OF THOSE WHO ENDURE TEMPTATION.
A. Every time we yield to temptation, we experience two consequences: (1) the short pay-off that comes from yielding to that temptation, and (2) the long-term loss that comes from unfaithfulness to God’s will. Conversely, every time we resist that temptation, we’re faced with two different consequences: (1) the short-term loss of the gratification of our desires, and (2) the long-term pay-off of God’s blessing. In both cases, a pay-off and a cost are involved. But in the first case, the pay-off is short-lived and the cost is long-term and very undesirable; while in the second case, the cost is short-lived and the pay-off is long-term and very desirable. One characteristic of spiritual maturity is that of an increasing recognition of these two outcomes of our response to temptation, and a progressive habit of forfeiting the short-term pleasures of sin for the long-term blessings of obedience. That’s why James sought to stir-up the hearts of these persecuted believers by telling them, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation . . .” The word “blessed” (makarios) means “happy”. It’s the same word that the Lord Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount when He introduced the Beatitudes. True “happiness” in the long term is what James is calling his brothers and sisters to seek. (It’s important to remember this. Sometimes people defend their sin through the argument that they just ‘want to be happy’. In reality, they don’t realize how happy God truly wants them to be! Eternal bliss is held out to them; but they settle for a cheap form of temporary pleasure instead! In reality, their problem is that they don’t want to be happy enough!)
B. The blessedness, or “happiness” that God offers is—specifically—for the individual believer who faithfully “endures temptation”. It’s not that it’s not simply the fact that they undergo trials that makes them blessed; but the fact that, in those trials, they endure in their obedience and faithfulness to God’s call on their lives. The word that is used for trial (peiramos) is one that should not only be understood as a temptation, but also as a test; because the word itself refers to the “putting to the test” of a thing. Our sovereign God is in perfect control of the trials that come into the lives of His people; and permits them in order to try them and perfect them. As Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” The results of endurance is that the believer will have “been approved” (dokimos). Peter used both of these words when he wrote to suffering Christians about their glorious prospect in Christ; saying, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials (peiramos), that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested (dokimos) by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
II. THE NATURE OF THEIR BLESSEDNESS.
A. James goes on to say that, when that individual believer has been “approved” by their endurance—that is, after they have been shown to be a genuine man or woman of faith who truly loves the Lord Jesus more than the temporal pleasures of sin—”he will receive the crown of life . . .” The word translated “crown” (stephanon) actually refers to the wreath that the winner of a contest received in the Greek games. In the ancient games, the “wreath” was set on display at the end of the finish-line in a race; and served as a motivation for the runner to endure and win. We may, in times of weakness, look at our trials as pointless suffering. But God does not see them that way. He calls us to look at our trials as the kind of testing that an athlete endures in order to win the prize at the end of the race (see Hebrews 12:1-2).
B. Note that it’s called “the crown of life”. The Bible speaks of our eternal reward in the figure of “a crown”. Peter urged pastors to be faithful to their work; “and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away” (1 Peter 5:4). Paul, when he knew that he would die soon, wrote, “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8). Paul wrote to his fellow Christians, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25). Even the Lord Jesus Himself told suffering Christians, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). In the original language, this phrase may be understood as describing “the living crown” (as opposed to the deadness that results from sin), or “the crown of life” (that is, the glorious reward of eternal life). We shouldn’t understand this to mean, however that eternal life is the reward of endurance; but rather that endurance is the proof of the eternal life that was already there; and “the crown” being the recognition and display of it.
C. This glorious “crown of life” is sure and certain; because it is the crown of life “which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. And because it is based on the unfailing promise of our Lord, it can never be lost to the genuine believer. Jesus told His disciples of the tribulations they would experience for Him; saying, “Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:21-22).