“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

There are sometimes temporal benefits to trusting in the Lord. For those who trust Him are seeking to experience how life works best….how God intended for each of us to live. But in a world like our own, faithfulness to the Lord also brings various kinds and degrees of suffering. In verses 2-4, we were exhorted to count our various trials all joy because they are a means toward growth in perseverance or endurance or steadfastness and, in turn, maturity and completeness.

All those things are very good, of course, but as good as those characteristics are, they may not be enough motivation in the face of certain kinds of suffering. In a sense, they could be considered too ‘here-and-now’, too temporary. Of course, they aren’t all that, because the maturity and completeness James speaks of will one day be perfected and forever enjoyed. However, the promised growth in godliness in verses 2-4 still seems to have a focus on what trials can produce in you now.

Not so with verse 12. For here James points to the promise of a future crown. He calls us to endure not for the sake of growth in endurance and maturity and completeness, but for the sake of receiving the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. He does so because he knows that in the midst of certain kinds of trials, it is virtually impossible to focus on present benefits.

Interesting enough, I read the following example of this earlier this morning,

In the late Seventeenth Century in… southern France, a girl named Marie Durant was brought before the authorities, charged with the Huguenot heresy. She was fourteen years old, bright, attractive, marriageable. She was asked to abjure the Huguenot faith. She was not asked to commit an immoral act, to become a criminal, or even to change the day-to-day quality of her behavior. She was only asked to say, “J’abjure.” No more, no less. She did not comply. Together with thirty other Huguenot women she was put into a tower by the sea…. For thirty-eight years she continued…. And instead of the hated word J’abjure she, together with her fellow martyrs, scratched on the wall of the prison tower the single word Resistez, resist!

In order to endure 20-30 years in a prison tower with little hope of release, you need more than a promise of present maturity and completeness. Or when government officials come to take our children or to take us to prison or torture us or displace us; or when cancer strikes and we stare suffering and death in the face; or when unimagined tragedy strikes without explanation–the lose of a child; or a spouse; or movement in our legs–when any of these things occur, growth in maturity here-and-now will (right or wrong) probably not bring a great deal of comfort. In the face of such unimagined difficulties, we need a promise beyond this present life. We need a promise that stretches far beyond the prison tower. We need desperately to know that if tomorrow does not get better, we can still look forward to an eternal Tomorrow, one which will always improve.

So it is that James points us to the crown of life. So it is that our gracious God gives us multiple reasons to rejoice in the face of various kinds and degrees of trials. In verses 2-4, we are promised maturity, completeness, steadfastness…if we endure. And if your trial is so severe that those things are not enough, then endure in order to receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. If time offers you no promise of comfort, you still have ample reason to rejoice, for no matter what you face, you can endure with a view towards the everlasting Tomorrow. Though tomorrow might not improve, you can look forward to the crown of life. And you can know that whatever you face now will be worth it in the end.

“…and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with is scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.”

Again, we are wise to look to the experience of Asaph in Psalm 73. Amidst personal struggle, Asaph began to wonder why many unbelievers experienced greater temporal blessing than him. He began to actually envy them as he looked upon their prosperity. But then, he says, he went into the sanctuary of God and ‘discerned their end.’

James takes the same approach as he seeks to encourage his brothers in lowly financial circumstances (and us). He knows that if we really understand the end of those who put their hopes in riches, we will by no means envy them. Indeed, we will probably pity them. If we want to live well now, we are desperate to have a clear understanding of what will take place in the end. Who will God exalt on that final day? And who will He humble? If our answers to these questions are clear, they will have a very profound and practical impact on how we live today–and how much we rejoice in the face of present difficulties.

James’ words for the rich man are by no means timid or unsure. In essence, he says that, contrary to the rich man’s inclinations, he has nothing ultimate to boast in. Nothing that will matter when that final day comes. For the one who hopes in riches has no real foundation on which to stand when faced with the living God and an eternity in Heaven or Hell. The winds and waves of judgment will come; and those who have no root will be swept away.

Like a flower of the grass he will pass away. The Sun of God’s glory will expose all things for what they really are. And those who have lived for this life only will not be able to handle the heat.

Not only that, but (and this seems to a primary focus for James) the temporal trials and difficulties of this life will also make the rich man fade away–here and now…before our very eyes. For as James has already made plain, trials will come. And unless your hope is in the One who is jealous to make you mature and complete, you cannot count your trials as all joy. For if you are hoping in riches, what will take place when your riches are taken from you? What will happen when disaster kicks in and exposes your rootless life? Will you embrace James 1:2-4 and look forward to maturity and completeness? Will you really be able to rejoice? To count them all joy? I think not.

We are wise to base our lives on One who is immovable, One who is unchangeable, One who can never let us down. We are wise to hope in His promises–all ‘Yes’ in Christ– for in them we can find strength and encouragement in the face of every difficulty. For then we can have hope when all things earthly are taken from us. When we are displaced. When we are poor. When life is full of uncertainty. For we can know that the Lord is jealous to produce in us steadfastness, to make us mature and complete lacking in nothing, to conform us to the image of His Son. We can know that He is jealous to give us that which is worth much more than silver and gold.

In the day of difficulty, riches cannot help but let us down. But the Lord cannot help but lift us up and enable us to rejoice. “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation….”