Lent 1: Epistle, James 1:12-18                                   

James 1:12-18

Some of us HATE tests. Some don’t mind and some actually look forward to the challenge. But follow the call of our Master Jesus and you will be tested. James, in his brief epistle confirms that and describes two kinds of testing. The kind that God sends and allows from the externals of life are labeled “trial,” while the kind from within our own sinful flesh are tagged as “tempted.”

God allows both but is the source of only one for “he himself tempts no one” (1:13). The trials that life brings are there and allowed by God to test us. So those who don’t like tests, will have to acquiesce sooner or later to the All-Wise Tutor or simply become hard, impenetrable and unusable to the Master. But for those who endure the tests He sends and who learn the skill of turning to Him for every need will stand, shine and point others to the One who is faithful to us through every challenge. By the way, I understand that it is so much easier to write about than to experience. And I am still in the middle of the learning curve, I assure you.

The “tempt” side is the uglier of the two, because I have no one to “pin it on.” Just me. James is clear, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (1:4-15). Contrast that ugly process (and it is) with the “birth” that comes from God’s will towards us, “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (1:18). That is a birth process as well. But a joyful one as it should be and it is because it begins and ends with God. You and I just happen to be fruit. 

I want to pass both the trials and the tests. The solution in both is our Lord and His work on our behalf. I need the gospel of Christ to endure the hard places in life and I need the gospel of Christ to grant repentance, faith and forgiveness to me every day that He gives me. From within or without it matters not. In every challenge, I need the Lord Jesus. Amen? Amen!