Sunday
School Lessons
Commentary by Walter Albritton
September 7
James Shows Us the Way to Victory over Our Trials
James 1:1-18
Key Verses: My brethren, count it all
joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience. – James 1:2, 3
Our
first reaction to the trials of our lives is often to ask, “Why did God allow
this to happen to me?” If not that, we blame someone else for our troubles,
someone who has done us wrong.
James
suggests a better plan, God’s plan, for responding to troubles that test our
faith. Unbelievably, James says we should welcome our difficulties with
joy! To which our
first response is “You have got to be kidding!”
James,
however, is not kidding. He says joy and he means joy. As we examine James’
teaching, we begin to understand why we should welcome distress with joy.
James
knows that when our faith is being tested by our trials, that God will be in
the midst of them
with us. After all, He is Immanuel! God uses our testing times to make us
stronger Christians. He will allow our trials to make us more patient. This
gives us the biblical principle that “tribulation worketh patience.”
Sometimes
we jokingly say, “Lord, I believe I am patient enough; please do not send me
any more tribulation!” Even so, most of us realize that we learn more, and grow
more, from difficult times than we do when life is easy. Recognizing this, we
gradually learn that what we really need is not an easy life but a life filled
with God working in us to make us what we ought to be.
Questions
are important. Instead of asking why God allowed our troubles to happen, we can
more wisely ask, “What does God want me to learn from this test of my faith?”
Perhaps
that is why James goes on to urge us to ask God for wisdom. God alone can help
us understand why certain trials come into our lives. Human wisdom is not
enough.
Godly
wisdom helps us better understand the true meaning of patience. To be patient
is not simply to take things in stride, stoically. The patience James speaks
about involves strength of character, and the faith to persevere rather than surrender.
Thomas
Samford demonstrated to his family and friends that one can welcome trials with
joy. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, and advised he had about a year to live,
Thomas refused to think of himself as a victim and welcomed his affliction with
joyous faith. Remarkably, he lived a dozen more years, though in a continual
struggle with cancer.
Several
years ago, Thomas and I began to meet with a few other men at
I never had any difficulty getting up early on
Wednesday mornings, knowing that a man who was struggling with cancer and
constant chemotherapy would be waiting for me to pick him up. All of us
recognized that our friend Thomas was demonstrating daily remarkable courage
that inspired and blessed us. We shall never be able to forget Thomas saying to
us, “I thank God for my cancer. My cancer led me to know God. Except for my
cancer, I would have missed meeting the Master. I am not fighting cancer,” he
would tell us. “I am simply asking for grace and strength to teach His Word
until He is ready for me to come home. Whatever time and energy He gives me, I
will use to please Him.” And he did!
When Thomas died recently in early August, I realized that as much as
anyone I have ever known, he had lived out before us the wisdom of James:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (NIV).
At
his grave, I shared my heartfelt confidence that, to use the words of James,
Thomas had “stood the test” and would surely receive from God the promised
“crown of life.”
May
God give each of us the courage to welcome our trials with joy, so that God the
Potter can shape us into strong disciples who can persevere until one day it
can be said of us:
“Blessed
is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he
will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him”
(James
As
Thomas, who for the past nine years served God as a remarkably effective Sunday
School teacher, would say: “In the Name of the Christ. Amen!” + + + +