James 1:1-4, Part 1

[Hidden In Him]

Mastering Endurance, Like An Athlete Training For Glory, Part 1



Since ancient times, runners sought fame and honor by winning great contests of endurance. Those who won events like the Greek marathons were not only given financial rewards but attained glory for themselves and the cities they came from. On their return home, they were heralded for their victories, and statues were sometimes built in their honor.

Some are still honored in this way today such as the man above. It's a statue of Canadian runner Harry Jerome, who set a number of world records during his era. Though James will not mention athletes directly in this opening section of his letter, it quickly becomes apparent this was the analogy he was using in reference to believers, since he will later state that those who endure hardships as Christians will be granted with "the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him" (James 1:12). As we will get into, a recurring theme in this letter was the need to perfect endurance, and not allow what anyone might do or say to cause us to become bitter, lest we sin against them through retaliation.

James was the earliest letter of the New Testament. The gospel had not yet even been proclaimed to the Gentiles, so it was sent exclusively to Jewish believers dispersed throughout the world as a result of the Gentile conquests of Israel. They had been scattered to other nations in search of safer places to live, so James was now writing from Jerusalem to "the twelve tribes in the dispersion."

James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, unto the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greeting. My brothers, esteem it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the proving of your faith builds up endurance. But let endurance have its perfected work, that you reach full potential and development, not falling short in any circumstance. (James 1:1-4)

From the start, James was trying to implant in his readers a mentality that embracedhardships rather than run from them. An Olympian athlete actually wanted his body to be pushed to its limits, because he knew it was the only way he might be able to perfect the endurance needed to withstand a twenty-eight mile run. Christians likewise needed to perfect the ability to withstand things like abuses and insults, because even worse things were coming. Persecution was soon heading the church's way. The Lord Jesus Christ had prophesied this (Matthew 5:10-12), and within another few years of this letter's writing persecution would break out in Jerusalem against the church.

The following describes what took place just a few years after James wrote this letter:

But about that time Herod the king put forth his hands to harm some of those from among the church. And He put James, the brother of John, to death with the sword. And having seen that this was acceptable to the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also… whom, having seized, he put in prison as well. (Acts 12:1-4a)

This persecution against the church intensified to the point that many of the apostles were eventually driven out of Jerusalem. As Paul would later write to the Thessalonians:

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus, in that you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and are not acceptable to God and contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles so that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always. (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16)

This then is why the early church needed to be developing an overcomer's attitude towards trials, and why James' letter was so timely. Many were already facing great trials at the hands of the rich and powerful in Judea, and some were being subjected to the worst forms of spiritual, financial and judicial abuse, so there was already a need for teaching endurance in the face of tests and trials.


The Types Of Trails Believers Were Facing

James mentioned "various" kinds of trials, so what sorts of hardships was he referring to specifically? As stated, persecution was something believers had to be prepared to endure, and the apostle Peter warned about it using much the same terminology. Believers needed to embrace the "proving of their faith," for chances were good that they would be "put to grief through various trials," and persecution might be among them:

[Your] salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time, regarding which you exult, though now if necessary for a little while having been put to grief through various trials, so that the proving of your faith, much more precious than perishing gold and proven by fire, may be found unto praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ… receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls, regarding which salvation the prophets, having prophesied of the grace predestined for you, undertook research and investigation, searching into the time and circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was disclosing when He testified beforehand of the sufferings [that would take place] until the coming of Christ, and the glories afterwards. (1 Peter 1:5b-7, 9-11)

In the set of studies on 1st Peter I will cover it more, but the "sufferings" Peter was talking about here were persecutions the saints would endure in advance of the coming of the Antichrist, as prophesied in Daniel, Chapter 7:

Then I enquired carefully concerning the fourth beast... And he said, "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom on the earth, which shall exceed all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and trample and destroy it… And [the little horn] shall speak words against the Most High, and wear out the saints of the Most High… and power shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. But the judgment has sat, and they shall remove his dominion to abolish it, and to destroy it utterly. And the kingdom and the power and the greatness of the kings that are under the whole heaven were given unto the saints of the Most High." (Daniel 7:19, 23, 25-27a)

The "glories" the saints would receive afterwards would be when their sufferings were finally over, and their faith had been purified like gold tried in the fires of adversity. They would attain dominion, because the kingdoms of this world would be handed over to the saints of the Most High God, and theirs would be an eternal kingdom. But in this life they would have to endure some sufferings first, because they would first and foremost experience the proving of their faith through persecutions.

Financial Exploitation

But there were others. Financial exploitation of the poor was also going at this time, as evidenced by the following statement in James Chapter 5, where he chastised the rich for exploiting the poor:

You hoarded up treasure in the last days. Behold, the pay of the workmen who harvested your fields is crying out, having been kept back by you, and the cries of those who reaped your fields have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts. (James 5:3-4)

In other words, the rich were robbing laborers out of their wages by withholding pay, probably by making excuses that the harvest had not yet been profitable enough. The financial exploitation of the poor appears to have been common place for many years leading up to this time, for God warned the rich about this practice centuries before through the prophet Malachi:

"I will draw near unto you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness... against those who swear falsely by My name, and those who keep back the hireling's wages, and those who oppress the widow and strike orphans with the fist, and turn away the legal case of the stranger, and do not fear Me," says the Lord Almighty. (Malachi 3:5)

Swearing falsely, i.e. in court, and turning away the case of strangers, and oppressing widows and orphans were all perversions of the Jewish legal system, which as we shall see next was yet another trial early believers were having to endure at the hands of the rich.

Continued next post...

 

[Hidden In Him]

Judicial Oppression

Because they were rich, the wealthy in Israel lent money to the poor, but often with the intention of oppressing and enslaving them. Those who could not pay their debts usually had to sell themselves or their children into slavery until the debt was paid, and so the rich were quick to drag them into court to force them to do so whenever they were late with their payments. While in court, if the debtor happened to be a believer in Jesus Christ, this too was brought up as yet another justification for why their children should be given to someone else:

Do not the rich oppress you, and drag you into the courts? Do they not also blaspheme the good name by which you are called? (James 2:6-7)

This practice of the rich oppressing and enslaving widows and orphans after the husbands divorced them or passed away also had a long history in Israel. During the time of Elisha, one of his fellow prophets passed away, and the man's wife pleaded with Elisha to keep the creditor from making her sons his slaves:

And one of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor has come to take my two sons to be his slaves." (2 Kings 4:1, LXX)

By Nehemiah's time, the oppression of the poor was almost systematic. With children to feed, many families borrowed funds just to eat. Then, because they still owed money the next time, they had to pledge their homes, vineyards and fields to buy more food. Then, when they didn't have enough to pay taxes, with their property already pledged, they had no choice but to sell their children into slavery to survive:

And the cry of the people and their wives was great against their brethren the Jews… And some said, "We have borrowed money for the king’s taxes - our fields, and our vineyards and houses are pledged… and, behold, we are [now] reducing our sons and our daughters to slavery, and some of our daughters are already enslaved. And there is no power in our hands, for our fields and our vineyards [already] belong to the nobles." (Nehemiah 5:1-5 LXX)

For poor believers in New Testament times, the saddest part about being dragged into court and forced to sell their children into slavery was that they would no longer be able to continue raising them as Christians. And when it came to daughters, once they had them in their households, the rich could begin grooming them for all sorts of self-serving purposes.

Spiritual Belittlement

On top of being exploited, cheated and oppressed by the rich, poor believers were spiritually belittled by them as well. The rich were consistently given the best seats in the synagogues, and treated like religious superiors. The poor, meanwhile, were given the most demeaning seats in the synagogues, and treated like sinners who rightfully deserved disrespect. Tragically, this custom of practicing "respect of persons" carried over into Christian meetings as well, a fact James was none too pleased with:

My brothers, do not uphold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, while practicing respect of persons. For if there comes into your synagogue a man wearing gold rings and fine apparel, but there may have also come in a poor man in dirty apparel, and you looked upon the one wearing the fine apparel and said to him, "You sit here comfortably," yet to the poor man you said, "You stand there," or "Sit under my footstool," have you not made distinctions amongst yourselves and become judges engaging in evil estimations? (James 2:1-4)

This was essentially a demonic type of caste system similar to that used in India, where the rich were treated like moral and spiritual superiors. It was a wicked system that honored the most evil members of society as if they were the most righteous:

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do. But do not adopt their works... for all their works they do to be seen by men, for they widen their phylacteries and enlarge their borders. They love the place of honor at the banquets, and the most important seats in the synagogues. They love the greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by men." (Matthew 23:1-3, 5-7)

Thus, the wealthy in Judea were subjecting believers to a whole host of trials, from persecution and financial exploitation to judicial oppression to spiritual belittlement, with Satan deliberately using all these trials as a means to attack Christians. Those unable to endure such trials, who were enticed by demons into lashing out in anger against their oppressors, were then pointed to as proof that Christians were sinners who had no respect for the "righteous."

Satan's Goals In Subjecting Believers To Trials

First of all, Satan hopes to cause weak believers to fall away from the faith entirely, as described in the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:16-17). When "the heat of the day" arises, those who have not established deeper spiritual roots in their faith cannot withstand it, so they wilt under the pressure. Satan also attempts to cause Christians to appear "accursed of God" by the same means, thereby making Christianity appear unappealing to the unsaved, who want no part of being hated and abused by others. However, if all else fails, there is also a third objective, as already alluded to: Satan hopes at the very least to tempt us into getting in anger, bitterness, resentments etc., because if these grow within us we will eventually "give place to the Devil" in our hearts. He knows the effects of mistreatment, slander and abuse, so he uses these things to see if we will let him in, and then usurp the rule of the Spirit of God within us. If this happens, he attains a great victory, which is why James taught so strongly on the need to perfect endurance, so as not to allow the enemy to gain the rule over us. Paul also taught on this potentially happening in Ephesians:

Be angry, yet sin not. Let not the sun set on your provocation, nor give place to the Devil... Let no foul word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good for edification when needful, that it may bestow grace upon the hearer. And do not grieve the Holy Spirt of God, by which you were sealed till the Day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and indignation, and wrath, and shouting, and slander be removed from you, together with all malice. (Ephesians 4:26-27, 29-31)

He gave a similar teaching to the Thessalonians, reminding them there that returning evil for evil quenches the Holy Spirit within them. Again the key was staying in joy, just as James was teaching:

See that none recompenses evil for evil unto anyone, but always pursue the good, both towards one another and towards all. Rejoice always, pray incessantly, and in everything give thanks… do not quench the Holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:15-19)

This, then, was all the more reason why it was wise advice to "count it all joy" when they fell into various trials. Joy, peace, love - that is, the fruit of the Holy Spirit - are things we can walk in permanently if we understand the principles James was teaching about mastering endurance. We just have to take an aggressive stand toward the tests we encounter in life, and view them as opportunities to perfect ourselves. In Part 2, I will get more into the analogy James was using of the Olympic athlete to drive this teaching home. It was an analogy even the apostle Paul would borrow from heavily in later years.

Questions & Applications

1. What sorts of things in life, i.e. what "trials" do you find are still most difficult to deal with in your own life. What do you think you would have to perfect in your endurance the most, and what still sets you off? (Note: Even if there are some things we don't want to share here, meditating on it for one's own sake is beneficial, because the enemy knows our greatest weaknesses in detail, even if we are still somewhat unaware of them ourselves).

2. Is it always beneficial for someone to be experience greater trails and sufferings, even if they're in a place where they are getting weaker instead of stronger?

3. What should one do if they are in a weak place, and finding themselves increasingly failing instead of succeeding. What other things might help get one to the place of being better able to endure trials and sufferings?