THE BOOK OF JAMES
TRIALS, TESTS, AND STORMS
DR. JIM DIXON
JANUARY 27, 1985
JAMES 1:1-8
The Greeks called him Odysseus and the Romans called him Ulysses. He was a primary character in Homer’s Iliad and he was the principal character of The Odyssey. A hero in both Greek and Roman mythology, he allegedly lived 3,000 years ago. It was Ulysses who led the Greek armies in the siege of the city of Troy, and it was Ulysses who after the Trojan War took the battle armor of Achilles and set forth on a 10-year adventure upon the Mediterranean Sea. He longed to return to Ithaca, his homeland. He longed to return to his beloved wife, Penelope, but misfortune always kept him from making that journey home. And so he fought monsters, giants, and men.
He once came to a group of islands called the Aeolian Islands, and there he met the Greek god of the winds, Aeolus. Aeolus gave Ulysses a very special gift. To Ulysses Aeolus gave a sealed bag. Into this bag Aeolus had placed all the storms of Ulysses’ future—all the raging tempests. All the storms of his years to come Aeolus had taken and placed within that bag and sealed it. He gave the bag to Ulysses and he said, “You’ll never have to face a storm again as long as you guard this bag and you do not open it.” With a smile on his face, in the midst of calm seas, Ulysses began his long journey home to Ithaca and to his wife Penelope.
When he was almost home to Ithaca, the men of Ulysses decided to steal that bag. They knew it was special. They had seen him guard it. He used it as a pillow at night. And so, as he slept, they came and took the bag and opened it. And from the bag came out all the storms of Ulysses’ future. The great winds blew the great ship all the way back to the islands of Aeolus. And so it was that Ulysses once again was separated from his wife, Penelope.
Most of us (perhaps all of us) if we had the choice would gladly take all the storms from our future—all the raging tempests, all the tests, all the trials—and place them in a bag. We would seal it and we would never, ever face those storms again. But that would be a grave mistake, because the Bible tells us that we need the storms of life. As Christians, we need the raging tempests. We need the tests; we need the trials. Our passage of scripture for today tells us that tests, trials, and storms are designed to produce three things—three qualities—in our life.
First of all, this passage tells us that the trials of life are meant to produce in the life of the Christian steadfastness. Now, the Greek word for steadfastness is the word hupomone. It’s a compound Greek word from huper, meaning “under,” and meno, meaning “to abide.” The word is sometimes translated “patience.” But “patience” is far too passive for this word. This word was used to describe a person who persevered, a person who endured in the midst of the greatest struggles and oppositions. This quality of perseverance and steadfastness is precious to God. He wants to cultivate this quality of perseverance and steadfastness in you. Every one of you who believe in His name He wants to be steadfast in this life. He can only make that happen through the tests and trials of life. There is no productivity in this world without steadfastness and perseverance.
Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper. It’s one of the greatest paintings of history, but it took him 10 years to paint that masterpiece. He went through many trials and many hardships, sometimes going two and three days without food. But he persevered, and the world has a masterpiece. Michelangelo painted The Last Judgment. It’s considered one of the 12 master paintings of the ages, but it took Michelangelo eight years to paint that masterpiece through many tests and trials. In his records, historians have found 2,000 sketches of The Last Judgment. He worked it over and over again through those eight years.
Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea in 1952. He received a Pulitzer Prize for that book, and yet he wrote and rewrote the manuscript to that book 80 different times. Gibbon took 26 years to write The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Tolkien took more than 30 years to create the imaginary world of Middle Earth, the story of the hobbits, and the great trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Those are some of my favorite books. Webster took 36 years to write the dictionary. That’s not a particularly exciting book, but one that is useful and needed in this world.
If it takes perseverance, endurance, and steadfastness to be productive in the world of the arts, it surely takes perseverance and steadfastness to be productive in the world of business. And the Bible tells us it even takes steadfastness, endurance, and perseverance to be productive in the work of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. He wants you to persevere in ministry. Missionaries took 14 years laboring in East Africa before they had a single convert to Jesus Christ. Missionaries took 10 years laboring in West Africa before they had a single convert to Jesus Christ. Today, there are more than a hundred million Christians on the continent of Africa. Some authorities tell us that there are more Christians in Africa than there are in the United States of America. Africa has actually begun to send missionaries here. It took missionaries 16 years to produce the first convert in Tahiti. It took missionaries seven years of labor in Burma before one person accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of life. It took nine years in New Zealand before anybody accepted Christ. But they persevered.
I’m sure that most of you have never heard of Ludwig Nommensen. He was a pioneer missionary to the Batak tribes, people on the continent of Africa. He spent years training for that ministry. He went to theological school. He studied biblical theology, systematic theology, and practical theology. He learned the peculiar dialects of that region of the world that he might communicate with them effectively. He even entered into a physical conditioning program because he knew life would be hard living amongst the Batak. And finally, after years of preparation, he went to those peoples. The chief of the Batak told him that he could not preach Jesus Christ. The chief told him that he could live among them for two years, but he could not mention the name of Jesus Christ. He could not share his Christian faith.
To this Nommensen agreed, because he hoped that, by the grace of God, he might somehow manifest the love of Christ through his actions. So he lived amongst them for two years, never mentioning Christ. He lived in poverty with very little to eat. He lived without a friend. He persevered. He received their afflictions, their pestilences, and their diseases, but he persevered. And after two years it was very evident to the chief of the Batak that this man was a special man. He was a moral man. He was a loving man, and the chief just didn’t understand it. He went to Nommensen and he said, “Tell me, what are the guiding principles of your life? Does your religion have law?” Nommenson shared with him the 10 commandments. The chief said, “I don’t understand. We too have laws. We too believe that we should not kill, should not steal, and should not commit adultery.” Nommensen said “Yes, but there’s one difference.” And the chief said, “What’s that?” Nommensen said, “My Lord. He gives the power to keep those laws.”
Now the Batak were infamous for their violence. And the chief said to Nommensen, “Could you give this power to my people?” Nommensen said, “No, but I can introduce them to the One who can.” And for the first time after all those years of suffering, Ludwig Nommensen was able to mention the name of Jesus Christ and he began to share the name of Christ with those peoples. Today, there are 450,000 Christians among the Batak peoples, all because a man more than 100 years ago was steadfast in the midst of many obstacles in the service of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Christ calls each and every one of you to steadfastness. You can’t minister without it. You can’t resist temptation without it. You can’t live faithfully in a fallen world without it.
Some people believe that we are in the last days. They believe that we have come to the consummation of the age—to the time of Armageddon, the anti-Christ, and the final judgment. Certainly biblical prophecy reveals many signs that are being fulfilled in our time, not the least of which is the rebirth of the nation of Israel in 1948 and their occupation of the holy city of Jerusalem in 1967. Perhaps we are indeed approaching the consummation of the age. We are not called to pessimism. The Bible tells us that the consummation will be a time of tribulation. Our Lord Jesus Christ said it would be a time of tribulation such as this world has never known. There are some Christians who believe that Jesus Christ will come for His church before this final time of tribulation. They’re called pre-tribulationists. There are other Christians who believe that Jesus Christ will not come for His church until after the tribulation. They believe that the church will have to endure the tribulation.
Personally, I’d much rather He came before the final time of tribulation. But you see, our concern as pastors is not when He comes, but that we be ready. If it is at all possible that we might be called to go through that time of tribulation that is destined to come, how much more will we need steadfastness? God has called us to be a people of strength. He has called us to be a people of perseverance and faithfulness that only comes through every test and trial of life. It only comes if we would be clay in the hands of the Potter. That’s why the Apostle Paul says, “Be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might. Be steadfast and unshakable, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Trials are meant to make us strong. They are meant to give us steadfastness.
Now secondly, this passage of scripture tells us that trials are meant to make us perfect. God wants to give us perfection. He wants to make every single person in this room who believes in the name of Jesus Christ perfect. That is why the Apostle James says, “Count it all joy when you experience various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Let steadfastness have its full effect that you might be perfect and complete, equipped for every good work, lacking in nothing.”
The taking of metals from their respective oars and the refining of those metals into a pure form is called extractive metallurgy. One of the methods of extractive metallurgy is called smelting. Smelting requires a blast furnace. Some blast furnaces are massive. The blast furnace used to extract iron from iron ore may be as tall as 10 stories high. It is such a massive furnace, and into the top of that blast furnace they place iron ore, limestone, and coke. Into the bottom of the blast furnace they place a hot blast of preheated air and they send it up into the furnace. That hot blast of preheated air burns the coke, producing gases and heat sufficient to reduce iron from its oxide minerals in the ore. It produces heats sufficient to melt the limestone and the unwanted materials in the ore into a molten substance called slag. This unwanted material, this molten slag, is then released through the bottom of the blast furnace and the pure iron is released through another opening in the bottom of the furnace and the heat and the gases are released from the top. All of this is in order that metals might be purified.
God wants to purify you. He wants to make you perfect. He wants to make me perfect and He knows it’s going to take a blast furnace. It’s going to take fire. He wants to remove the slag from your life and from your character. He wants to remove the slag from your faith. That is why the Apostle Peter says “Now, for a little while, you may suffer various trials so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Even gold is purified by fire, and so your faith—more precious than anything—must be purified by fire.
One of my favorite illustrations is the illustration of the emperor moth. The emperor moth is regarded by most scientists as perhaps more beautiful than any of the moths or butterflies of the world. The emperor moth begins at first, of course, as a caterpillar, but then it goes through a process of transformation. This process of transformation requires the pain and the rigors of the cocoon. The cocoon of the emperor moth is flask-like in shape, and for hours and even days the emperor moth must struggle through much pain to go through the bottleneck of that cocoon. There have been many people who have watched the emperor moths struggle to come out of the cocoon and have felt pity. They have taken scissors and cut strands of the cocoon in order to release the emperor moth so he wouldn’t have to struggle. In every case it has been a disaster. Scientists tell us that the emperor moth (and all moths and butterflies that use cocoons) needs the cocoon in order to develop. It needs the cocoon in order to attain to perfection. It’s the tensing of the muscles that forces the blood and the air into the wings and gives them life. If the moth does not go through the struggle, it simply falls out invalid. It lives as an invalid. It has no wings and it cannot fly. It crawls on the earth, only a shadow of what it was meant to be.
God wants to make you everything you are meant to be and He knows that you must go through the struggle of the cocoon. You must be transformed. As surely as it takes the cocoon for a butterfly to attain to beauty, so it takes tests and trials for you to attain to beauty. God doesn’t offer in this life through tests and trials to make you perfect physically. He only offers physical perfection in the life to come, when you receive in Christ your resurrection bodies. He does not offer in this life through tests and trials to make you perfect spiritually. He only offers sinlessness in the life to come, when we see Jesus Christ face-to-face. There’s a special kind of perfection He offers to give to you in test and trials, and that is a perfection of function. He offers to make you fit for His specific ministry, the specific ministry that He has called you to.
You see, the word for perfection in this passage is the Greek word teleios. It rarely refers to total perfection. It refers to being made complete and fit for a specific purpose. The purpose of the emperor moth is to come out of that cocoon, to spread its wings, to fly, and to radiate beauty. The purpose of the Christian in this world is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to enter into ministry for the kingdom of Christ. Each and every one of you have been called to different expressions of that ministry, but God offers to bring into your life just those trials and tests that are fit to prepare you for that ministry.
Some of you have experienced the loss of loved ones. You’ve had children or a husband or a wife or mom or dad die. But through those tests, you are now more fit to minister to someone else who is experiencing loss. Some of you in the course of your life have experienced financial disaster (or so it seems). Some of you have had businesses collapse. Maybe some of you have even had to file for bankruptcy. But you see, those experiences—those tests, those trials—are meant to make you fit to minister to others who are in the midst of such a struggle. Some of you have had great victories, significant victories over temptation in your life and you are now fit through those tests and trials to offer strength and encouragement to someone else who has been tempted. All of us have had times when we have fallen, and those times make us fit to show the mercy, grace, and love of Jesus Christ. They make us fit for ministry, perfect for ministry. That’s why He gives us trials and that is why James says, “You know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Let steadfastness have its full effect that you might be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, equipped for every good work.”
Now thirdly and finally, we have this teaching from this passage of scripture: tests and trials are meant to produce joy in the life of the Christian. At first glance, this seems like a very strange teaching. But James says, “Count it all joy when you experience various trials.” I think most Christians do not understand the meaning of the word joy.
This past week I was out on the greenbelt behind our house hitting a tennis ball back and forth. I do that a lot. That’s how I prepare my sermons. That’s how I go over my scripture memorization. I just go out there mindlessly and I hit that ball back and forth and I just pace and I think, “I’m sure the people in the neighborhood think I am totally crazy.” But our children know that when I’m doing that they’re not to bother me because they know I’m studying.
One day, Heather came out anyway, climbed the fence, came into the greenbelt and said, “Daddy, what’s my full name?” I said, “Heather Joy Dixon.” She said, “I know that.” I thought, “Great. Why did you come out into the greenbelt?” She said, “But what does joy really mean?” I said, “Well, Heather, joy means happy.” I was in a hurry. Heather said, “Well, why did you call me Joy?” I said, “Well, Heather, your mom and I knew that you were going to grow up and be a very happy little girl.” And she smiled and she kind of bounced up and down. She went running into the house.
She is a very happy little girl. But you see, the answer that I gave Heather was not an adequate answer at all. It was a lazy answer, because the word joy does not mean happy. Anyone in this world can be happy, but only a Christian can experience joy. Happiness has to do with good circumstances and good surroundings. Happiness has to do with happenings, but joy is far deeper. Joy transcends circumstances and surroundings. Joy comes only from God. It comes from the confidence that you have been given the gift of salvation and eternal life. It comes from the confidence that the Lord will never fail you or forsake you. It comes from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian. The Greek word for joy is the word chara. It comes from a family of Greek words: charis, meaning “grace;” chari, meaning “to rejoice;” charismata, meaning “gift.” Joy is an expression of God’s gift and it is a response to God’s gifts. Every gift of God, every charismata, is an expression of His grace—charis—it’s meant to produce rejoicing—chari— and it’s meant to give us joy—chara. When James says, “Count it all joy when you experience various trials,” he is telling you that with every trial comes a promise and the promise is a gift by faith. Through that trial, I’ll give you a gift. Therefore, count it all joy.
I’m sure most of you know the story of Job. The Bible tells us that he lived thousands of years ago. The Bible tells us that in the Eastern world Job was one of the most famous and affluent people on the Earth. And he was a man of faith. He believed in God, but one day everything began to go wrong. Satan began to test Job. Now obviously God in His sovereignty allowed that. Satan first began to test Job’s wealth. He took Job’s wealth away. The Sabaeans came and they stole 500 oxen and donkeys from Job (that was all the oxen and all the donkeys that Job had). And then the Chaldeans came and stole 3,000 camels from Job (that was all the camels he had) and killed some of job’s servants. Then lightning fell from heaven and it destroyed all 7,000 of Job’s sheep and more of Job’s servants were killed.
But Satan wasn’t done. One of Job’s households fell down. The roof collapsed and many of Job’s loved ones died (although God spared Job’s wife). Satan still wasn’t done, because Job’s health then began to be tested. He was afflicted with horrible diseases. Some medical experts believe that he came down with elephantiasis. Some think it was arrhythmia and some think it was smallpox (in a time when the world was not able to defend itself against smallpox). The Bible says that he was literally covered with sores and with swelling from the tip of his toes to the top of his head. And he rent his clothing and shaved his head and fell to the ground and he cried out to God.
You’ll recall how he was sitting on the dung hill outside the city gates and three of his former friends came to him: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. With their pet philosophies, they tried to comfort him. But they could not comfort him. And yet through it all, Job persevered. Through all the trials and through all the losses he felt like cursing God, but he didn’t. He felt like taking his own life, but he didn’t. He persevered and he is known for his steadfastness. But many Christians have failed to realize the incredible gifts that God gave Job through those trials. God wound up blessing Job beyond comprehension through those trials. When it was all done, God blessed job materially. God gave Job 1,000 oxen and 1,000 donkeys. God gave Job 6,000 camels and 14,000 sheep—twice as many as he had had in the beginning.
God gave Job more gold and silver than he could measure. God gave Job long life and fullness of years. God gave Job’s wife nine additional sons and three additional daughters. God blessed Job’s children and his children’s children. And above all else, God gave Job gifts spiritually. God gave Job humility. Job learned repentance and, above everything else, Job actually came into a new relationship with the living God. When the trial was done, Job said to God, “Hitherto I had heard of Thee with the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes have seen Thee.” What greater gift could anyone ever have? The gifts of God are promised in every trial to the faithful.
Sometimes God uses the trials and tests of your life to give a gift to somebody else. That’s alright too. Sometimes through your suffering someone else is blessed, and if you really seek first the kingdom of Christ you count that all joy also. There’s a Hebrew parable (and with this will close) that tells of a little shepherd boy who’s out in the field. Suddenly he notices that one of the little lambs is caught in a thicket and the thorns are piercing it all the way to the flesh and the lamb is in much suffering. And the little shepherd boy ran over. With great care he began to remove the little lamb from the thicket, pulling out the thorns and freeing the lamb. After a time the lamb was free and it ran off to join the flock.
But that night, the little shepherd boy began to think, “Why? Why are there thickets in this world? Why does God allow thorns? Why do we live in a world like that?” It just didn’t seem right. The next day, the little shepherd boy was out in the same field and he saw a raven come from heaven. It came and landed on that little thicket. He saw the raven begin to take wool from the thorns and then fly off to a tree and begin to build a nest with that wool. Then he saw the raven come back again and again to that same thicket, every time taking more wool that the little lamb had lost in the thorns. The raven was constantly taking more wool back to build a little nest for its children. Suddenly the shepherd boy realized that through the suffering of that little lamb God had chosen to bless another one of his creatures.
If that’s true in the realm of nature, it is surely true in the realm of people. Sometimes, as a Christian, God allows you to go through the thicket in order that someone might be blessed. You don’t always know (nor are you meant to know) who that someone who is blessed is, but we are to count it all joy because the kingdom of God is blessed. You see, by faith we believe that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. Sometimes that work of good is directed towards us and sometimes it’s directed towards others, but that’s alright because the kingdom of Christ is blessed.
Trials are meant to produce steadfastness in our life. They’re meant to make us strong, particularly as we approach the consummation of the age. Trials are meant to produce perfection in our life that we might be made complete, fit and equipped for ministry—the specific ministry that you’ve been called to in this world. Trials are meant to bring us joy, as they are expressions of God’s gifts to us and to others. And in that we rejoice. God does not give trials to make you weak, but to make you strong. He does not give trials to make you fall, but to make you sore. He does not give you trials to defeat you, but that by His grace you might defeat them. That’s why James says, “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.” Shall we pray?
Lord Jesus, we trust You. The moment we first believed in You, the moment we first received You as Lord and as Savior, we put our trust in You. You have promised that You would never fail us and You would never forsake us. You promised that You would provide for us as You provide food for the birds of the air and clothing for the lilies of the field. You never said that it would be easy for us. In fact, You said that in the world we would have tribulation, and yet You said, “Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” So Lord, we trust You. We believe that in every circumstance of our life You will work for good. We believe that You’ll bring steadfastness and strength to us by Your grace if we would but have faith and be clay in the hands of the Potter. You’d make us perfect, You’d equip us, and You’d make us fit for the ministries that You’ve called us to on this Earth. And Lord, we pray that You’d give us gifts and that You’d give gifts to others through our trials. Lord, help us to count it all joy by Your grace and for Your sake. In Your name we pray, amen.