14.02.07
James (4): Loving God through Testing (James 1:12-19a)
How much do you love God? That is the question which James is asking us in 1:12-19a. In our good times and our bad, are we learning to love Him more? In particular, does the testing of our faith add to or take away from our love for Him?
So far in our study on James we have reflected on how, from vs. 1-11, the testing of our faith is designed to make us mature – it is designed for our fulfilment. But now, from vs. 12-19 we see how the testing of our faith is designed also to prepare us to receive the crown of life, in other words, it is designed for our future. The crown of life here refers to the quality and quantity of life we will enjoy with the Lord Jesus in heaven. If we have endured the trials and tests of our faith here, we will be rewarded with the crown of life hereafter. Doesn’t this give us new perspective on our trials here? Many will see us suffering for being Christians and wonder why we bother – why don’t we just let go and enjoy life here and now? Why don’t we go to the drunken parties our friends do; why don’t we just focus on getting up the ladder of career advancement – why don’t we just enjoy life? But the Christian is smarter than that, because he knows that by denying himself these so-called pleasures here and now he is storing up for himself eternal life. The pleasures of this life may last a few limited years; but the pleasures of heaven will last forever. So the Christian is a clever economist, sacrificing today in order that he may enjoy an eternal tomorrow.
Anyway, at the centre of this whole process of testing which comes to us in this life are these beautiful few words at the end of vs. 12 – ‘to those who love him’. Testing is tied up with loving God – the man who endures testing will emerge from the other side loving God more than he did before. That’s the idea – through testing, love for God grows. And this idea of ‘loving God’ therefore forms the whole idea of the next 6 and a half verses, where James rebukes those who use testing as a reason to stop loving God in vs. 13-16, and reviews the positive elements of God’s work in us in vs. 17-19a. And James wants us to sit up and take notice of all this – in vs. 16 and vs. 19a he emphasises the importance of this teaching – “Do not be led astray, my beloved brothers”; “Know this, my beloved brothers”. It is vital for us to realise what is going on when we are being tested; otherwise we will slip away from God.
[A] A Rebuke of Negativity (vs. 13-16)
When someone is being tested, the first thing they often say to themselves, or other people say to them, is “Why is God doing this to me?” Sometimes, that can be a good question in that the person is looking for positive reasons why God is bringing a particular trial into their life – they are looking for ways in which they can develop as Christian believers through the trial. But sometimes, it can be a bad question in that the person is accusing God of acting in a nasty way towards them. I suppose it is the question of testing vs. temptation – both words are very similar in the original Greek. Every test has the potential to become a temptation – every painful opportunity God gives us to get to know Him better also has the potential, if we do not see it with Divine Wisdom and deal with it through faith, to become a stumbling block to us. Or, in other words, a circumstance is a test when it pulls us closer to God; but we make it into a temptation when we use it to draw ourselves away from God. But someone will say, “God is putting circumstance into my life to push me away from Him. What God is doing to me is wrong and serves no good purpose.” And so this person uses the painful trial as an opportunity to stop loving God. But James rebukes this negative way of thinking by reflecting on two natures:
a. The Nature of God – two things are said in vs. 13 about the nature of God. First, God is unable to be tempted – in other words, God cannot be tempted to do evil to us. God is never tricked or enticed into plotting evil against us. Everything in God is absolute holiness and perfection. There is nothing within His character to which such a temptation could appeal – there is no nastiness in him at all. Secondly, God Himself tempts no-one – there is no evil motive within Him which causes Him to put things in our way which will bring about our destruction. There is no impulse in Him to seek our stumbling – He is infinite goodness and unmixed love and holiness. And so to look for the source of temptation, or that which pushes us away from God, in God Himself, is totally wrong – it is wrong to say, “God made me fall out of love with Him.” God can’t do that – it is against His nature.
b. The Nature of the Human Heart – if the circumstances we face don’t take us closer to God, if God is not responsible for that – who is? Who causes us to fall away and stop loving Him? It is not God – James tells us from vs. 14-15 that it is us. The source of temptation lies in our own evil desires or passions. Passions are a deceitful and enticing thing, making us believe that they can be satisfied and through their satisfaction that we will somehow be happy. However, the satisfaction of desire is sin, and sin brings death. In other words, what could have been to us such a thing as brought life, through our patient endurance of it, becomes death through our sinful twisting of it. The main stumbling block is our evil desires and passions – not the nature of God; He does not tempt us, we tempt ourselves. The blame doesn’t rest with God, but with us. And this, when understood, weans us away from loving ourselves and forces us upon the mercy and goodness of God – it shows us just how loving God is to give sinful, death deserving sinners like us such a thing as the crown of life. And it also helps us to see how God has brought these circumstances into our lives to deepen our love for Him.
[B] A Review of Positivity (vs. 17-19a)
Having discounted the negative reasons someone could put forward to stop loving God when the going gets tough, James now gives us two positive reasons why we should love God through our painful circumstances:
a. Old Gifts (vs. 17) – this verse is packed with information about the kind of God we have and the things He does for us. We could spend literally weeks going through this, and the next verse alone. But in a nutshell, this verse is leading us back to the Father of Lights – another name for the God of Creation. We are here being told that every good we have as a function of us living as members of the human race – the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the bodies we inhabit, the homes we live in – everything is a gift of God. We did not earn it, we did not deserve it, but God gave it to us nonetheless out of His sheer mercy and goodness. This is a God who is completely unlike the gods who the peoples of James’ day worshipped – the Pantheon of Roman and Greek Gods. They were Gods who played chess with human beings and could change their minds in an instant – gods who might bless you one minute and curse you the next just because they felt like it or because they were in a mood. But our God is constant in His generosity and goodness. But also, notice the connection between God’s good gifts and testing or temptation – because remember we are still in a section which is talking about the testing of God’s people. You see, people take God’s good gifts and twist them so they become something evil and dirty. People take God’s good gift of sex and twist it through pornography, homosexuality, promiscuity or adultery so that it becomes sinful and dirty. But it is not God’s gift which is wrong, it is the way people use these gifts. If I can say so reverently, God meant these gifts for good, but we have twisted them and made them dirty and evil. God is to be adored and loved for His extravagant grace and mercy in giving us such wonderful gifts as these.
b. New Birth (vs. 18) – in this verse we have the beginning of the Christian life in the determination, or will of God bringing us forth, or giving birth to us through His Word; and you see the purpose of the Christian life, that we might be first-fruits of His creation. See the goodness of God in re-making us into the people that we should have been. We twisted the first creation through our sin, but now, through rebirth, we have been redeemed and freed from death and bondage and set to receive the crown of life. Again, think about this in connection with the sphere of testing and temptation – we were created and redeemed in order to live for God and to love God; not to run away from Him. These tests are designed to make us even more fruitful in our Christian lives and to bring more honour to God. How loving and generous our Father God is – He is our Father through the new birth; He is our provider and our strong rock.
Remember the core message of the Book of James to which we keep coming back – do not be double-minded. You are perhaps going through trials and testing at the moment – do not be double-minded in your approach to them – see the goodness of God moulding you and making you fruitful and take the opportunity He is presenting you to love Him all the more for it; don’t let your passions turn these tests into temptations and so push you away from God. For as the Book of Psalms says again and again, “God is good, His love endures for ever.” AMEN