James 1:1-4, Part 1

[Hidden In Him]

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



Since ancient times, runners sought fame and honor by winning great contests of endurance. It's why the apostle Paul used the analogy of "running the race with endurance." Christians were being called to endure not only persecution but all sorts of trials and hardships for believing, yet for those who stayed faithful until the end there was laid up for them a "crown of righteousness" for emerging as victors.

James will start his letter by using the same analogy, for he will soon state that those who endured hardships would be granted "the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him" (James 1:12). The Jews had long been a persecuted people and had been scattered abroad to other nations in search of safer places to live, and he was now writing to Jewish Christians especially throughout the ancient world to encourage them to continue enduring in the face of opposition, ridicule and mistreatment.

James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, unto the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greeting. My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the proving of your faith builds 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)

An Olympian athlete actually wanted his body to be pushed to its limits, because he knew it was the only way to perfect the endurance needed to withstand things like a twenty-eight mile run. James was here telling his readers to adopt the same mindset, and be thankful if they were pushed to the limits of what they could withstand, for they needed to always be prepared to respond in love as true champions of the faith. It was especially important because persecution was coming. Satan would soon be raising up persecution against the saints through the Jewish leadership not long after this letter was written, when the following would transpire.

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)

James, the half-brother of Jesus, was martyred at this time, and persecution against the church only intensified in the years that followed when the apostles were driven out of Jerusalem. As Paul later told the Thessalonians:

For you 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 believers needed to be developing an overcomer's attitude towards trials and sufferings, and why this letter was not only timely but prophetically significant to the early church. As shall be seen, even before persecution broke out, many were already facing great injustices at the hands of the rich and powerful in Judea. Some were being subjected to the worst forms of spiritual, financial and judicial abuse, so there was indeed already a need for building up endurance in the face of tests and trials.


Financial Exploitation

James mentioned "various kinds of trials," but what sorts of trials were they being subjected to specifically? The first was financial exploitation. Many of the faithful were poor, and poorer believers were being exploited by the rich, as is evidenced by what James will say in Chapter 5, when he chastised the rich for taking unfair advantage of them by not paying them for their work.

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)

Farmers were robbing laborers of their wages by making excuses that the harvest had not been profitable enough yet. This exploitation of the poor appears to have been common place for many years leading up to this time, for God scolded the rich about this practice centuries beforehand 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 in court, turning away the case of strangers, and judicially oppressing widows and orphans were all perversions of the Jewish legal system, which as we shall see next was yet another trial that early church believers were having to endure at the hands of the wealthy and powerful.


Judicial Oppression

Because they were wealthy, the rich in Israel were lending money to the poor, but often with the intention of oppressing and enslaving them, not helping them. Those who could not pay their debts usually had to sell themselves or their children into slavery until the debt was paid, and 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 over 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 prophet's wife pleaded with Elisha to keep the creditor from taking her sons away and making them 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 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 raise them as Christians. And when it came to daughters, these girls faced the possibility of being forced to become "one flesh" with evil, self-serving men who not only despised Christ but were blaspheming Him.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Spiritual Belittlement

As if these things weren't bad enough, poorer believers were being spiritually belittled by the rich as well. Wealthy Jews were being given the best seats in the synagogues, and treated like religious superiors, but the poor were deliberately given the most demeaning seats in the house and treated like sinners who rightfully deserved disrespect. Tragically, this practice of "respect of persons" was now carrying over into Christian meetings as well, something James would take serious issue 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 look upon the one wearing the fine apparel and say to him, "You sit here comfortably," yet to the poor man you say, "You stand there," or "Sit under my footstool," have you not made distinctions amongst yourselves and become judges engaging in evil assessments? (James 2:1-4)

This was essentially a demonic type of caste system similar to the one used in India, where the rich were treated like moral and spiritual superiors to justify all sorts of mistreatment. 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... Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you likewise outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:1-3, 5-7, 27-28)

In short then, 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 these trials as a means to attack Christians and subvert their faith. Those unable to endure such trials, and who were enticed by demons into harboring bitterness and lashing out against their oppressors were then pointed to as proof that Christians were sinners who had no respect for the "righteous."


Satan's End Goals

What are Satan's end goals in oppressing Christians? Ultimately he 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 deep spiritual roots cannot withstand it, so they wilt under the pressure of the hardships they are subjected to. Satan causes them to appear "accursed of God," thereby also making Christianity appear unappealing to the unsaved, who want no part of being hated and abused by others.

However, if all else fails, Satan hopes at the very least to tempt us into anger and resentment, because if bitterness grows 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 allow evil spirits to usurp the rule of the Holy Spirit 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 happening in Ephesians, where he said:

Be angry, yet sin not. Do not let 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 also instructed the Thessalonians that returning evil for evil would quench the Holy Spirit, so again the key was to stay in joy, just as James taught in our opening passage when he told them to rejoice when they encountered various trials.

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 stood out to you from this study, and what do you recall thinking as you were reading through it?

2. Have you experienced anything similar to the types of trials the early Jewish Christians were experiencing in this letter? If so, how did you deal with it?

3. What sorts of things set you off the most? What kind of "trials" are still the most difficult for you to deal with, and by extension, what do you think it will take for you to finally perfect endurance? (Note: Even if there are some things we don't want to share publicly here, meditating on it for your own sake is beneficial, because the enemy knows our greatest weaknesses even if we're still somewhat unaware of them ourselves).

4. James will eventually bring up Job in this letter, as an example of enduring great trials at the hands of Satan. Would you still trust God in an absolute worst case scenario?

5. 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? What should one do if they are in a weak place, and finding themselves increasingly failing instead of succeeding?