“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

“…for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” Notice first the words, for you know. Recognize that in order to embrace your trials of various kinds as pure joy you have to know something. You have to be intellectually aware of a reality that is not seen on the surface, a reality revealed, a reality made known to us. Note: it is vital for us to fill our minds with Bible truth. For we cannot live as we desire until we think as God would have us to. If you and I want to be people of maturity and completeness, we need to know a great deal. We need to be diligent students of the Scriptures. Intellectual knowledge must never be despised; for it is, according to this verse, the means by which we can rejoice in the face of trials.

Second, note the words testing of your faith. Realize that all tests are designed for at least two things. 1) to see if your faith is genuine and 2) to deepen your faith…to really make that faith your own. This is the sense in which James is using the word here.

Tests, then, must never be despised, for the man whose faith is never tested cannot know if his faith is real. We never know what strength lies inside us until we are forced to muster up every ounce of strength within. We must face obstacles that we have never faced before if we would know what really lies inside of us. Therefore, tests must come to the Christian. Indeed, tests are a token of God’s love.

Not only are tests designed to reveal faith, however, but as James makes plain here, tests are designed to strengthen faith, to make it the kind of faith that perseveres. A student takes a test not only to see what he knows, but to help him really know what he knows. To help his knowledge sink in just a bit deeper. A weight lifter puts on a few extra pounds not simply to see how strong he is, but to grow stronger still. So the Lord uses trials of various kinds as means to strengthen us into people of perseverance. He uses tests to make you someone you are not right now, but someone who you want to become. He uses tests to push you to the brink, to not only see what you are made of, but to make you the man or woman He created you to be.

I have heard it said that the reward for passing a test in God’s classroom is the facing of a harder one. It isn’t the whole truth, but it is truth. The Lord loves us so much that He will not allow our faith to atrophy. We will never ‘arrive.’ If a man lifts the same weight and performs the same exercises year after year without every challenging himself, his muscles will not grow stronger, but weaker. They will adapt, for they, in order to grow stronger, must be pushed. And so it is with faith. Testings are necessary. They are a must. Trials of various kinds are our friends, our helpers, our servants. For they are designed to 1) show that we are real and 2) make us who the Lord longs for us to become.

Third, note that the proper response to the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. This is one aspect, one quality, that the Lord is jealous for us to possess. And this is a quality that must be learned. After all, I have not known anyone who was naturally inclined to face trials of various kinds with all joy. No child emerges from the womb with such a perspective. No baby is born as a child of steadfastness. O no! Sin is real and it has made us people who want to cruise, people who want to simply relax and gently lounge our way to Heaven. And yet, those who lounge, those who cruise, cruise not to Heaven, but to Hell. Hell, not Heaven, is our default destination.

So steadfastness must be learned. And trials of various kinds are our teachers. They are designed not to hurt us, but to help us become all that we desire to become. They are designed to make us people of steadfast faithfulness, people of perseverance. People who are not rattled at difficulties large or small, but people who persist in the face of trial, indeed, people who rejoice.