James 1:12, commentary and pictures

Blessed is the one who endures temptation, for when proved faithful he receives the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Temptation does not come from God but from being drawn away by one's own desire, which leads to sin and death, so there is no excuse for sin and overcoming is required in this life. The crown is everlasting life itself, an incorruptible immortal inheritance and eternal glory given by the righteous Judge when Christ appears, and it is also the crown of righteousness. The gift is conditional and calls for man's cooperation with God, belonging to those who love God and remain loyal, steadfast and obedient to the end rather than to birth, position, merit or church standing. It is won through Christ's righteousness alone by distrusting self and depending wholly on Him, watching and praying, fighting with God's Word in the whole armor of God, and looking to Jesus until victory is secured.

Verse Wording and Context

Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. The blessing rests on the one who remains faithful through trial and is proved, and the crown is given when faith has been tested. Those who love Him are those who count it all joy when they fall into divers temptations.

Its setting teaches that the trying of faith works patience, and patience must have her perfect work so that believers may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing, which is a wonderful position they have the privilege to occupy. Those who lack wisdom are to ask of God, who gives liberally and upbraids not, asking in faith with nothing wavering. They are not to be double-minded and unstable like a wave driven and tossed. The brother of low degree is to rejoice in being exalted and the rich in being made low, because as grass withers and its flower falls and perishes in burning heat so the rich man shall fade away in his ways.

Temptation does not come from God. A person is tempted when drawn away and enticed by personal desire, desire gives birth to sin, and completed sin brings death. Therefore the verse calls for overcoming temptation in this life, gives no excuse for sin, and requires sincere repentance and forsaking of sin.

The crown of life is also the crown of righteousness. It belongs to the one who endures temptation and stands approved when tried.

Nature of Testing

Blessed endurance means being tested and proved to reveal whether life is drawn from Jesus with genuine fruit borne, or action comes from selfishness. The proving shows whether character is free of alloy, whether trust with sacred responsibilities can be given, and whether the weak and tempted will be strengthened rather than Satan's work being done. Enduring this testing is the way to readiness for the heavenly family and to the immortal inheritance, and all are subject to such trials, difficulties and earth-born sorrows.

God permits His people to face temptation, not to cause distress, but because trial prepares to resist evil and is essential to final victory, with Satan's designs overruled for His purposes. Each one is tested in the way most trying to him, to learn whether the Lord will be made the only source of trust. As the close of earth's history approaches Satan is intensely busy to get possession of every mind by putting thoughts into minds, working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, come down with great power to work his own will and carry out his plans to keep souls under his control. He moves upon men to make the way hard and trying for seekers of the crown, to provoke passion and to keep them from receiving the crown of life, so winning requires keeping the mind set upon the Lord, coming to Jesus to be molded and fashioned by Him, with living faith, continual looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith, and constant prayer for clear discernment to trust Him implicitly to work and reveal salvation.

Temptation itself is not sin unless it is cherished. It includes pressure to abandon truthfulness and honesty, especially through fear of punishment, and those very moments are when such virtues shine and are most highly prized, calling for steadfastness in doing right despite suffering or pressure. Those who make exceptions to God's commandments in matters they count minor may yield under coming worldwide trials and break the law, so the promise calls to strive for the crown and turn away from all iniquity.

Those who recognize and resist are fighting the Lord's battles in the conflict between Christ in His saints and the great deceiver, which the heavenly universe watches with deepest interest, cultivating patience while resisting. Satan's temptations against God's children are the outworking of his wrath against Christ, for he cannot hurt Christ except by conquering those Christ redeemed by His blood, wounding the Saviour when souls are ruined.

The Promised Crown

The crown promised to the one who endures is everlasting life itself, an incorruptible and unfading inheritance, immortal life and eternal weight of glory, a life that measures with the life of God. It is held before those running the Christian race as a prize of richest value, to be received by running with patience and enduring to the end, and it stands far above the valueless laurel of earthly games. Its unfading character encourages obedience as the path to eternal life, for lasting success comes from using ability to honor God and do good, and the great day will reveal the character formed in this life with each rewarded accordingly. Keeping the Pattern before the mind, resisting besetting sins, and continuing through opposition and difficult work with steadfast confidence rooted in love and established in faith belongs to this endurance.

It is given by the Lord, the righteous Judge, at the last great day when Christ appears. Those who faithfully endure temptation and strive to overcome will be received into the kingdom of God and into the family of the redeemed, enter the city and the mansions He has prepared, and be given the crown of immortal life. Purity of heart is required in order to be so received and crowned, and the crown is placed by Christ Himself upon the heads of the faithful. Christ longs to save, and waits to place this crown on the young who love Him when they stand around His throne in heaven clothed in the spotless robes of His righteousness, joining happy voices in ascribing honor and glory and majesty to God and the Lamb in the song of victory echoing through heaven.

Each victory over temptation becomes a gem in that crown of life. Souls won by unselfish efforts to save others become stars in the crown, more precious than needless adornment, repaying self-denial and sacrifice forever.

It is a shared hope, urging earnest effort in the Christian life, endurance of toil, and living for God with heaven and its joy shared with others. Parents who faithfully train their children for eternity look forward to sharing the crown with them in the city of God, and educating and guiding youth toward salvation as overcomers is the shared work of parents and teachers aided by the Holy Spirit and angels. Enduring mothers and fathers partake in Christ's joy in seeing saved children crowned, and even deep grief faithfully endured brings hope of reunion with loved ones at Jesus' appearing for those who love God and endure trial. Receiving the crown means resting together in the city of God, seeing Jesus and living in His presence, praising Him together, being crowned together, and entering with the joy of the Lord after willing toil as pilgrims and strangers, for to lose heaven is to lose everything. Jesus is the strength and support to obtain it and the crown of rejoicing, and seeking it includes seeking to bring all possible into glory, since each one brought into truth and soundly converted may bring others to knowledge of the truth, raise up churches, and bring scores to Christ, leaving pleasant recollections of souls saved when the armor is laid off.

It is pictured as a golden crown of everlasting life and happiness sought by God's faithful instead of earthly riches, honor and status. Those who see that earthly riches never satisfy turn from them and press forward with zeal toward true lasting treasure, recognizing that brief success in ordinary life is nothing beside the imperishable reward for faithful perseverance. Those who recognize the danger of pursuing the earthly crown turn from it to seek the heavenly one, and their gloom gives way to cheerfulness and holy joy. Worldly contests that people pursue with such intensity that they seem to expect a crown for winning distract from serving God and may cost lives, while the crown of life is the reward at stake in the nobler eternal perspective.

Conditions for Winning

The crown of life is conditional, and a human part must be done in cooperation with God. No one can say I am saved until test and trial have been endured and temptation has been overcome, for receiving Christ means enduring and overcoming, not claiming salvation at once without understanding. It is not received by merely asking for it but by complying with the conditions God has laid down, running a race and fighting a battle, wearing Christ's yoke and bearing His burdens, with suffering and the cross coming before glory. Winning it means daily fitting for weal or woe and working out destiny, working out in the heart to salvation what the Lord works within, while the Holy Spirit brings the precious truths and rich promises of redemption vividly and often to mind lest neglected truth lose efficiency. This requires placing oneself in right relation to God, being transformed, bringing forth fruit for repentance, and being diligent to secure every privilege and help for overcoming, fighting, wrestling, laboring, striving, and running with patience while laying aside every weight and besetting sin, casting off the works of darkness, keeping unspotted from the world, and standing without spot and blameless. By perfect obedience to God and by noble, determined effort to meet the conditions in His Word, a person earns the right to be clothed with Christ's righteousness, entering the fight against Satan while holding up the blood-stained banner of the cross as the duty of every servant of Jesus. No one can save himself, but Christ wants all saved and gave His own life to pay the ransom for souls, and He does not regard them with indifference but imparts the riches of His grace and is ready to help in hard places all who come penitent and believing, trusting His compassion and grace and love to save to the uttermost.

It belongs to those who love God, remain loyal and steadfast in allegiance to truth to the end, and stand fast, firm, tried and true. It calls for steady perseverance and victory over evil through divine power joined with human effort, patiently enduring to the end and living out profession of faith. Victory and the crown come to all who are loyal and steadfast, endure temptation, and stand tried, and this promise belongs to God's victorious remnant who overcome Satan's opposition and are finally redeemed and glorified. For workers entrusted with the last message of mercy that decides eternal destiny, this means being individually faithful stewards, examining what manner of spirit they are of, constantly representing the truth as it is in Jesus rather than molded by human peculiarities, with fidelity and thorough wholeness to God, so their work will not be consumed in the fires of the last conflagration. Obtaining the unfading crown is like running to win a prize, keeping the Pattern before the mind, resisting besetting sins, and continuing through opposition and difficult work with steadfast confidence, rooted in love and established in faith, following apostolic fidelity through opposition and persecution and persevering in full obedience without discouragement.

Receiving it requires thorough conversion, for religious habits or outward profession are not enough, and children also must unlearn false lessons and learn to live the truth and bear the cross to share eternal life. It is given to hearts changed and subdued and sanctified by God's grace, through transformation, new birth of repentance, and a well-ordered life of continual active obedience to all God's requirements and law. The obedient soul finds God's law a law of perfect liberty and lays hold by faith on a sure and steadfast hope, giving back to God what is His and washing character white in the Lamb's blood, and the promised life is worth a lifetime of obedience to the commandments and cherishing the truth in Jesus. Faithful service joined with gentleness, justice, and love, and the effort to do good, leads to this everlasting reward, and faithful obedience continuing without discouragement and walking in Christ's light leads to meeting the Saviour. Receiving the crown depends on believing the message of truth and trusting God's promise to give grace for the duties He requires, doing duty justly and lovingly with integrity, trading faithfully on entrusted talents, keeping marriage ties unbroken, and cultivating moral strength by the plan of addition in speech and appetite. Those who remain jealous will never wear it, and another person's choices are not charged to one who faithfully gives the needed warning.

It must be won by patiently running the race set before believers and persevering in it, lest the prize of eternal life be lost. The Christian life is a race to be run patiently while laying aside every weight and besetting sin, and becoming absorbed in temporal concerns dulls the sense of the importance of the work to be done for the Master. Every believer is called to enter the race and warfare and may be a conqueror, wrestling earnestly and running with patience, and every gospel worker and church member is to receive the Spirit of God and strive with high and holy consecration to save the perishing, not losing the prize through inefficiency, formality, and spiritual death. Earnest effort and self-denial must match the infinite value of the reward, striving lawfully with the discipline of racers and wrestlers in temperance and self-denial, guarding word, thought, and action, studying and complying with Bible rules, keeping the eyes on Jesus and the prize until no sacrifice seems severe, and overcoming as Christ overcame.

It requires faithful use of God-given abilities in service and soul-winning, for those who expect the crown must be light-bearers, and patient continuance in well-doing wins it while neglect of duty forfeits it. When entrusted powers are folded in a napkin and hidden away in the world instead of used, life's grand mission is unfulfilled and the promised reward is thrown away, for God claims service from everyone and lays responsibilities on everyone to be fully accepted and faithfully and conscientiously discharged. Hiding abilities instead of using them faithfully forfeits the crown, and it is cast away by leaving talents unused and undeveloped, living for selfish earthly purposes, settling for a low inconsistent standard, or yielding to Satan. Striving for it means becoming all the Lord desires, a gospel medical missionary placing His service first, giving the heart's best and holiest affections to Him who gave His life, cooperating with Christ as His helping hand and consecrating every talent to His service. Such striving does not make a person dissatisfied or less useful but increases knowledge and powers while building God's kingdom, making even a physician increasingly skillful and useful while keeping peace unbroken.

Birth, position, education, or supposed personal merit cannot secure it, and it cannot be won merely through church standing or leadership, but requires prayerful study, determined effort, self-denial, surrender to God, conversion and union with Christ, receiving Him as counselor and confessing Him before believers and unbelievers. No other person or enemy can take it away, though the faithful may face unjust accusations and opposition, yet a person may give it up through unfaithfulness, jealousy, and hindering God's work. The struggle is personal and mere profession is not enough, for Christ's character must be shown in a well-ordered, godly life that represents faith and exalts the truth in obedience to God's law. Trust rests not on the promise itself but on the faithful God who gives the promise value.

It is won through Christ's righteousness alone, not earthly glory or self-righteous merit, but faith that lays hold of Christ's righteousness for diligent growth in character and entrance into His everlasting kingdom. Receiving it requires a transformed character and a living faith that works by love, purifies the soul, and gives God supreme place through daily consecration and reliance on Him, in communion with Christ where sins are reckoned to Him and His righteousness is imputed to the believer who shares Christ's victories and receives eternal life. Victory comes by relying completely on Christ's merits, trusting Jesus, believing Him, loving Him, and making Him first and best in everything, and from Him receiving strength to overcome. Enduring temptation means keeping steadily to duty and integrity when put to the test, letting nothing swerve from right, persevering with patience and determination even when the trial is greater than expected and discouragement threatens, bearing test upon test and the proving of God, for temptations allure from the grand purpose and it is dreadful to fail. Abiding in Christ means having Christ formed within, the hope of glory, being crucified with Him, dead to the world, alive to Christ, and sharing His resurrection life, triumph, sufferings, and joy. Jesus died so believers may overcome in His strength and share the promised reward as those who remain faithful and love Him, trusting His compassion as Sin-bearer and Substitute who paid the ransom and wants all saved, with earnest human effort joined with God's power.

Strength to Endure

Safety lies not in self-confidence but in distrusting self and depending on Christ, for accepting Him does not place anyone beyond temptation and endurance remains necessary. Blessing belongs to those who recognize temptation and resist it, fighting the Lord's battles in the watched conflict between Christ in His saints and the great deceiver, where Satan's assaults on God's children are his wrath against Christ whom he cannot wound except by conquering those redeemed by blood. Enduring means cultivating patience, distrusting one's own strength of purpose, feeling utter helplessness, fleeing to Christ as the stronghold, casting the helpless soul upon Him, and clinging more firmly to the Mighty One as temptation grows fiercer. By faith the tempted one passes the temptation over to Christ and leaves it there, and faith in the Saviour's miracle-working strength makes the believer more than a conqueror, able to overcome as Christ overcame. Looking to Christ keeps a person safe and in continual harmony with God through reliance on Him for help, while trusting in self brings great peril, and temptation itself is not sin unless cherished, with peace and abiding trust filling the soul that looks to Jesus.

Endurance calls for constant watchfulness and prayer, including guarding speech and showing love to others, living every hour in trust and faith, bringing every thought into captivity to Christ, and dismissing the enemy even when he comes unexpectedly. It requires humble surrender and perseverance, continuing in self-denial, conflict, and use of the means of grace in humble dependence on God's promises, acting faithfully rather than becoming cowardly or assuming security while Satan strives to win every soul. Steadfast resistance with earnest effort, trust in God, and firm principle sustains this endurance, meets life's trials, and prepares for immortal life, with truth ultimately triumphing.

Winning means fighting the good fight of faith inch by inch as an overcomer in a lifelong warfare against Satan's seductive temptations, arguments, and deceptions to entangle the soul, a fight every soul must enter to obtain the crown. The weapons are God's Word, meeting the foe with It is written from a well-supplied armory that educates and trains the soul for still more severe attacks, supplying assurance and equipping to withstand increasingly severe assaults. The successful warrior is clothed with truth, the Word of God, faith and righteousness, and the hope of salvation as armor, putting on the whole armor of God to stand against the wiles of the devil, with eyes anointed to be keen and sensitive to detect the enemy's devices, strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, for God has made full provision to equip for warfare with the powers of darkness and His unfailing true Word is assurance of victory. Like a dove pursued by a hawk that stays safe only by rising higher and refusing to falter or be drawn earthward, the believer stays safe only by keeping the eyes fixed on the Author and Finisher of faith, setting affections on things above and not on things of earth, and rising higher and still higher by faith in attaining the graces of Christ through daily contemplating His matchless charms until growing into His glorious image in communion with heaven. The armor must not be laid off nor the battlefield left until victory is gained and triumph in the Redeemer secured, for Satan lays his nets in vain only for those who so endure.

Endurance comes through looking to the love of Jesus shown at the cross of Calvary and hoping in the risen Christ, who endured contradiction, agony, betrayal, mocking, scourging, and the cross and then rose, opening everlasting life to all who believe. It means coming out of the cave of unbelief to stand with God, refusing to dwell on trials into hopelessness and unbelief, but pressing close to Jesus and looking across the dark shadow to Him as the only hope, where the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness are seen. This looking is joined with prayer for a holy influence that subdues every passion, hushes murmuring, exalts affliction, and purifies the heart. The crown is won in the strength of the risen Saviour by resisting Satan and striving in faith, with Jesus helping those who sincerely come to Him, and to fail is to lose everything in this life and the life to come. Those enduring trial are to look to Jesus, trusting that He lives and wants to save them, meeting trial with joy, gratitude, praise, and confidence in His love, keeping the Pattern before the mind.

Christ gives patience under trial and grace so temptation can be endured without falling under the trial of faith, and He does not forsake those who trust in Him and seek His help. He is a present help holding out the crown and calling all to come just as they are, consecrating themselves to God and trusting wholly in His power to save instead of trusting in themselves or waiting for better opportunities, stronger persuasions, or holier feelings. With Christ and angels present with His people in temptations and difficulties that test faith, patience, and steadfastness, the believer can trust Him implicitly to work and reveal salvation while persevering in service and willing obedience. Enduring requires patience, faith, love for duty, daily self-denial, and looking to Jesus, with faithful work for God continuing throughout life and each person helping others gain eternal life.

The crown, which is eternal life, is won by refusing Satan's urging to curse God and die, saying No never because the soul is Christ's property purchased with His precious blood. Christ as Conqueror then breaks Satan's power and every yoke, sets the oppressed free, draws nigh to heal, takes the tempted one by the hand, draws him away from perdition, opens His loving heart for refuge in the cleft of the Rock, and makes him His beloved disciple as John was, bidding him look to Jesus and live. Through Jesus the mighty Conqueror even a defiling habit can thus be overcome unto the victor's crown.

Life of Endurance

Enduring temptation is gaining victory over self, temper and inclinations by bringing the will into conformity with God's will. Those who remain under God's discipline and press on through successive victories are promised life and made more than conquerors, working out the righteousness of Christ. It requires guarding the soul, seeking grace and strength from God for all weakness, humbling the heart day by day and walking in all meekness and lowliness, thereby partaking of the divine nature and being changed from debasement into His image, going step by step from glory to glory and laying hold by faith on the eternal weight of glory, while neglect leads step by step into the devil's snare. As Christ overcame by denying appetite, victory is possible through divine power, and firm self-control belongs to the struggle toward regaining Eden. Sanctification and the struggle for self-control, holiness and heaven are lifelong, and continual effort is necessary for advancement in the divine life and attainment of the victor's crown in God's kingdom.

Enduring means not yielding in thought or action, resisting the impulse to be harsh, dictatorial and arbitrary and to speak harsh, unkind, unbrotherly, condemnatory words, since such speech breaks the commandments. Temper and tongue are kept under control in dealing with souls precious by redemption, keeping self-respect and coming forth with God's approval. Angels mark every thought, word and action during the trial, and the one who endures unfailingly represents the goodness, mercy, compassion and love of Jesus, with righteousness going before him and the glory of the Lord guarding behind him. To those who so love God and endure belongs the promised crown of life, a wonderful inducement held out before those purchased with His blood.

It means holding to principle and being forward to do right when wrongs are presented to be righted, refusing silence about dishonor to God, condemning wrongdoing even without part in it, making restitution for what was taken, and cleansing God's service until righteousness rules. The man who so endures is blessed, and when tried shall receive the crown of life from the Lord the righteous Judge. When tempted and tried the believer stands bravely for what is right, gains victory, and moves nearer to perfection of Christian character. Strength and growth in grace come from one source, and victory brings the soul holy light from heaven and a pure, fragrant atmosphere.

Enduring without falling means keeping the eye single to the glory of God, refusing discouragement when treated in an unwise, unchristlike way, remembering that Jesus was unappreciated though pure, holy and undefiled, taking Him as example in all things, pressing to the light, walking in the light and cherishing light, and bringing His meekness and lowliness into practical life while waiting to see what the Lord has and doing His will. Even when misjudged, believers walk meekly and humbly, speak calmly, and reveal Christ's character through patient faith, humble trust and sanctified effort. Those who love Christ and remain faithful will receive the crown of life from Christ the righteous Judge, the reward to be won through learning meekness and humility in Him, which helps avoid great trials.

In the home all are subject to trials, difficulties and earth-born sorrows, but Christ's grace is given so temptation can be endured without falling under the trial of faith. This means bearing little annoyances, home difficulties, and perceived selfishness, avarice, injustice, neglect and wrong, including from a husband, in the spirit of Christ with meekness and self-control, not with a hard, unruly, unhappy, loveless and selfish spirit that insists on its own way. The wronged one takes sighs, neglect and wrong to Christ the Burden-bearer, is driven to the Saviour, and pities and prays for the wrongdoer instead of talking of home trouble to others to gain sympathy and commiseration or demanding one's own way. Winning the unfading crown also requires keeping marriage ties unbroken, uniting interests as vows require, consecrating self to do His will, acting as a faithful mother in wise counsel and help, dealing justly and lovingly as belonging to God, being frank and kind, cultivating whole-souled integrity, and trusting perfectly in God who gives blessing, peace and rest.

For ministers who must submit wills to Christ and come under God's control, for workers entrusted with the last message of mercy that decides eternal destiny, and for all who are loyal and steadfast in allegiance to truth, victory and the crown promised to those who love Him come through enduring temptation and standing tried. Such workers are individually faithful stewards, closely examining what manner of spirit they are of, constantly representing truth as it is in Jesus rather than molded by human peculiarities, with fidelity and thorough wholeness to God, so their work will not be consumed in the last conflagration. Those with long acquaintance and years of experience as pillars are to move wisely to hold the esteem that knowledge brings, walking carefully and prayerfully with assurance He will direct their ways. Teachers meet Satan's utmost power against every effort to save souls, and only firm, determined endurance through faith and prayer in warfare against him wins the crown; those who endure in earnest, devoted labor for souls receive life that measures with the life of God, immortality brought to light through Jesus Christ. Striving for that crown is bearing witness through true religion in daily life and living out the Bible's teachings, which brings the unfading crown.

Enduring requires following the course God appoints as counselor and guide rather than seeking a wider sphere or greater freedom for self, for the ambitious who fail to depend on Him will not win the crown promised to those who do His will. It means pressing close to Jesus, trusting Him for wisdom to pursue a plain straightforward path, hearing God speak from His Word and voicing His words in warning and encouragement, laying aside every weight and running the race with patience. It refuses to mingle temporal financial enterprises with God's work, for those almost wholly engrossed in things of time and sense lose the sense of the Master's work and fail to endure.

It means being discreet and careful in every thought and action, giving no occasion for talk and no cause for reproach, resisting Satan's work at once without hesitating in any doubtful or forbidden course, since personal weaknesses need only circumstances to awaken and give him victories even over men standing high whose ways are not perfect. It resists his one-after-another devices to catch the soul, refusing to be separated from God and allured from diligence to Him by fascinating prospects of money-making enterprises, and instead surrenders self to the Redeemer without reservation, which He will accept. It holds steadfastness to the end instead of being led away by the error of the wicked through flattering temptation to self-esteem, thereby gaining a redeemed soul, eternal life in God's kingdom, sonship, membership in the royal family, heirship with Christ, and through saving the soul saving many others. The safe path is the narrow heavenward way of following Christ, denying self, turning from self-indulgence and evil influences, contemplating Him to be changed into His image and serving God with high and holy purposes wholeheartedly, for He has provided all needed for salvation, while the broad road with its evil tendencies and harmful companions leads downward to ruin.

Continuing through opposition, hardship and difficult work with steadfast confidence rooted in love and established in faith, keeping the Pattern before the mind and resisting besetting sins, is running to win the unfading prize. Patiently and bravely meeting life's trials forms Christian character, and those who endure hardship keep pressing toward the end with privations strengthening eagerness, while the suffering of those before encourages others not to faint on the difficult way. Being tested like gold can benefit the soul more than hoped-for prosperity, and those who endure trials faithfully are blessed and will receive the promised crown. Steadfast resistance with earnest effort, perseverance, trust in God and firm principles prepares for immortal life, involving a deeper crucifixion of self than expected as believers follow Christ's path of suffering, are purified from dross, and go from grace to grace and strength to strength, learning thereby to help others more effectively.

This hope begins now in turning from darkness to Christ, beginning to follow Him in the morning of youth under nature's and God's laws, drawing daily nearer heaven by constant growth in happiness, holiness and usefulness with each year's progress exceeding the last, moving steadily onward and upward toward the crown waiting in the heavenly home. It is striving together with Him, honoring Him through every difficulty, serving God and remaining faithful through trying circumstances, holding fast to truth and keeping faith in Christ through closing scenes to the unfading crown. Bearing His cross is the highest honor and pledge of immortality, and self-denial and self-sacrifice belong to striving for the crown given to every faithful soul whose character proved by test shares the divine nature and is prepared to enter heaven. By the Spirit's refining influence believers are fitted for heaven, endure sacrifice in His strength to the victor's crown and song of deliverance, and help youth, students, families and fellow workers gain the victory and share entrance to God's city, the tree of life, and seeing the King in His beauty.

Promised Hope Applied

The crown of life is heaven to be won, the highest reward and an eternal weight of glory that never fades, held out before believers to induce them to run so that they may obtain it. It will be placed by Christ on the brow of those made fit to enter heaven, where they praise the One who gave His life for them. Jesus hungers for fruit and calls souls to come to Him that He may give them light and life and peace and consolation, and all who run the race with patience and follow the heavenly light unseen by mortal vision but discerned by the eye of faith will be all light in the Lord. Winning it depends on personal labor, a well-ordered life, piety, faith and tender compassion that advances truth, and on determining to overcome in a warfare with no release by fighting the good fight of faith and striving lawfully day by day for purity and moral excellency in order to represent Christ. This includes believing the promises of God and trusting in Christ as an inexhaustible treasure, speaking right words with the right spirit, never growing weak in God-given work, staying brave and cheerful under trials, and treating all without partiality and without hypocrisy as the purchase of Christ's blood, with the Holy Spirit as helper enabling all endurance through Christ who strengthens.

Striving for this crown does not make a person dissatisfied or less useful, but is joined with wholehearted work for God. Those seeking it are to use their abilities and gifts to save perishing souls and bring them into work with Christ, and as they build God's kingdom their knowledge and powers increase. It is to be sought with earnest effort, as earnestly as worldly people pursue earthly advantages, in connection with preparing to meet Christ in peace and welcoming truth into the home to sanctify it. It is the lasting reward desired by the one who perseveres in faith and does God's will, received through diligent growth in Christian character and entrance into Christ's everlasting kingdom, not by earthly glory or self-righteous merit but by faith laying hold of Christ's righteousness. Allegiance to the King of heaven fits the loyal with characters after the divine similitude, while loyalty to an earthly sovereign may leave men poor and debased, and when kingly crowns and honors crumble in the dust the loyal are given a never-fading crown of life.

The crown of eternal life is promised to those who love God, and loving Him means being an obedient child to all His requirements in this life. Expecting to receive it goes together with expecting to see Jesus as He is and to be made like Him, and both require present obedience, including obedience to God's prohibition of marriage with an unbeliever. Keeping the eyes fixed on Christ and relying on His divine strength enables a person to overcome evil tendencies and desires, leading to the victor's crown and eternal life with entrance into God's city, access to the tree of life, and seeing the King in His beauty. Overcoming even a defiling habit such as tobacco in the name and strength of Jesus the mighty Conqueror is such a victory that leads to that crown for the one who endures testing and overcomes. The Lord wants every person to have this crown through being saved in His kingdom by a personal Saviour, which carries individual responsibility to hear the word of the living God with faith and understanding, with prayer for oneself and for others.