My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
To fall into varied trials is to encounter many kinds of severe testing unexpectedly rather than by seeking it, and to count it all joy is to regard them with complete joy as a privilege rather than as something strange. Falling into temptation is not the same as falling under it, for being tempted is not sin but yielding to it and cherishing it is. Such joy is possible because the testing of faith develops patience, and patience allowed to finish its work brings maturity, completeness and Christlike character. Trials are God's appointed means to purify the heart, remove impurities and unchristlike traits, and form a holy and balanced character fitted for heaven. They are to be met by going forward in faith, taking God's promises personally in prayer, asking for wisdom without wavering, and enduring with cheerful patience without murmuring or complaint.
Meaning of the Words
The phrase speaks of many different kinds of trials that come upon a person, varied and manifold rather than single or uniform. They are met or fallen into unexpectedly as they arise in the path, not deliberately sought out or walked into by choice. They may be severe, involving repeated and contested struggle against the enemy on the way to the crown.
To fall into temptation is different from falling under temptation, and falling into does not make falling under necessary. Encountering varied temptation is to be met with joy, not giving in to it, and trials themselves are not sin. Yielding is sin, for temptation becomes sin only when it is cherished.
To count it all joy means to regard such varied trials with complete and entire joy. It is a wonderful standing and a privilege to occupy. This joy is not because suffering in itself is pleasant, and trials are not to be treated as something strange. Even in temptation or darkness, praising and rejoicing brings light and encouragement to one's own life and to those around.
The setting is given by what follows: the testing of faith works patience, and patience allowed to have its complete work makes believers mature and entire, wanting nothing. Those who lack wisdom in trial are to ask of God, who gives liberally and does not reproach, but they must ask in faith without wavering, for the waverer is like a tossed wave of the sea and the double-minded person is unstable and receives nothing. The chapter is to be studied carefully and prayerfully, and its work taken as individual and personal before labor for others can accomplish anything. Some trials remain without full explanation of their meaning, because to explain them would destroy their object, which is to purify and ennoble the heart.
Reason for Joy in Trial
Believers can count varied trials as joy because the testing of faith develops patience, and patience allowed to complete its work brings maturity and wholeness, lacking nothing. This experience is required in the religious life for developing a character like Christ's. Like faith tested by fire, it can lead to praise and honor when Jesus appears.
Trials are God's workmen and pruning process and furnace work to purify and cleanse the heart. Their hewing, squaring, chiseling, burnishing and polishing, and pressing down to the grinding wheel, is painful, yet it removes impurities and roughness and dross and harmful things and unchristlike traits and strengthens weaknesses. Rough stones taken from the quarry are thus formed into precious stones polished after the similitude of a palace and prepared to fill a place in the heavenly temple, a careful thorough work bestowed not on useless material and not to destroy but to shape toward a holy and pure and perfect character. Murmuring and complaint only make the trial bitter and, if it does not accomplish its purpose, further trials may be needed, while patience and endurance and prayer and calm trust make it sweet and allow it to do its refining work and bring honor and glory to God through victories over self.
Trials test and prove whether people draw life from Christ and bear the fruit of faith or act from selfishness, and whether they can be trusted with responsibilities. They test faith and love and patience and constancy and faithfulness and purity and strength of principle, bringing hidden traits to light and revealing true principles and the reality of faith and the strength of the anchor that keeps safe. They develop rather than create, bringing out the mind and will of Christ and the principles of virtue and holiness and developing steadfastness and steadfast zeal and warm affections, strengthening the weak and tempted so that the honest act justly toward others whether or not it serves personal interest. God allows even self-sufficient people to be sorely tempted so they will recognize helplessness and learn to trust a greater power, and believers are not helpless prey of darkness because God is Helper, yet everything possible must still be done to keep the work of needed reforms and right education going.
Trials are permitted to deepen knowledge of God and love and trust in Him, leading people to seek counsel from His infinite wisdom and to depend on His Word. They keep people from becoming self-sufficient and lifted up in themselves. Borne well they strengthen spiritual life and develop steadfast character, with faith and meekness and love often reaching fullest growth amid hardship, and they prepare believers to resist the allurements of evil for final victory, though God takes no pleasure in their distress and though temptation itself is not sin but yielding to it is.
God's Purpose in Trials
God permits and in some cases ordains conflicts and trials of various kinds to test and prove people and to perfect Christian character for eternal life. They call to higher living and more sanctified service, test the purity and strength of principles, and shape character after the divine model, with obedience to every requirement of the law under supreme test exercising the mind toward perfection. Without such trials people remain weaklings, for trial is a test of character and a turning point of life calling for whole-souled decision to be on the Lord's side and serve Him to whom account must be given, rather than following one's own devising and refusing light. This is especially true when former helps and scriptural instruction are removed and duties must be met alone. Through discouragement and perplexity His leading fulfills a good purpose that would be welcomed if its end and glory could be seen from the beginning, strengthening His children to serve Him through both action and suffering.
Trials are moral discipline and education that ease and prosperity cannot give, and obstacles and perplexities rightly met become blessings. Clouds, disappointments, bereavements, storms and adversity mature faith, patience, forbearance, heavenly-mindedness and trust in the wise heavenly Father, virtues seldom seen in the sunshine of prosperity. Each encounter with hardship calls trust and firmness into action and makes a person more able, effective, powerful and self-reliant, while avoiding toil and trials prevents growth in strength, will and endurance. Like a tree more firmly rooted and strengthened by storms, the Christian becomes spiritually strong through hardship by relying on God for needed help. They were designed for good, not to discourage but to develop Christian virtues, and prove an advantage in many respects when received in the right spirit with trust in the Lord instead of mourning and distressing the soul over providence.
Temptation is a real struggle against Satan, whose skill to deceive has grown through long practice. Increasing human weakness meeting his increasing skill makes temptations especially severe in the last days, and yielding makes a person spiritually weaker, more ready to yield again, and less able to recognize sin or resist it. Temptations are the outworking of his wrath against Christ who gave Himself and redeemed sinners by His blood, for he seeks to wound Christ by ruining those for whom Christ died. Yet with the whole armor of God his thrusts prove harmless, and vast resources are available to give moral power to do righteousness under all circumstances, so that every blast of adversity makes a person better and abler.
The heavenly universe watches the conflict between Christ in the person of His saints and the deceiver, and those who recognize and resist temptation fight the Lord's battles. Trials are sure to come and must be met by going forward in faith, with enduring them strengthening faith and fitting for service. Satan knows human weakness, but his power is limited, and those who trust in Christ's saving merits and righteousness alone will not be destroyed but gain power to stem the tide of evil sweeping over the world. In dark and distressing times faith therefore submits to God's will, waits in hope, and seeks grace to endure and overcome rather than pleading only for immediate removal, allowing the trial to refine.
Meeting Trials Aright
Trials are to be met by going forward in faith, taking the word of life personally and bringing its promises to the Lord to claim them in prayer, relying not on any human power but on the strength of the Lord. This individual work must be done before labor for others can accomplish anything, for the one who endures temptation takes every burden to the Source of all grace and sufficiency, where help and power to save and hear are undiminished and more deeply interested than any human agent can be. Joy comes not by trusting strength of purpose but by feeling utter helplessness, fleeing to Christ as the stronghold, clinging more strongly to the Mighty One as temptation grows fiercer, and passing the temptation over to Christ by faith to overcome as He overcame, becoming more than a conqueror through faith in His miracle-working strength. Falling into temptation is different from falling under it, and it is not necessary to fall under because of falling into, so standing every test requires clinging to Jesus, abiding in God's love, and trusting Christ's righteousness alone for power to stem evil, which lightens burdens, relieves weariness, solves mysterious providences through continued trust, and opens the way for God to work as in sacred history.
Meeting trial rightly requires asking God for wisdom, who gives liberally and upbraids not, but asking in faith nothing wavering, for the waverer is like a tossed wave of the sea and the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and will receive nothing. It requires keeping the trusting spirit of a little child and calling forth simple, earnest, dependent faith into perfect trust, letting patience have its perfect work, with faith strengthened through continual exercise. Delay in answer to prayer is therefore to be counted as joy for special benefit, as faith is tested to see whether it is true and sincere or changeable like the waves, binding the soul upon the altar with strong cords of faith and love. Difficulties and perplexities belong to successive stages of growth and are met with joy by learning Christ's will and way more fully, waiting patiently for God's direction and letting Him work in meekness and confidence that His hand is on the helm, so that prayer and trust exercise and increase faith and give it increased strength.
Believers are to fall into temptation without ill will, murmuring, fretfulness, sorrow, unhappy feelings, or complaint, and without yielding to it, for the testing of faith is to develop patience rather than fretfulness. Dwelling on difficulties and talking about them only magnifies them and makes the trial more bitter, and looking to fellow workers who are themselves weighed down gives no true help. If the trial does not accomplish its purifying purpose further trials may be needed, but patience, endurance, prayer, calm trust, and cheerfulness make the trial sweet and allow it to refine character by removing what is harmful until completeness is reached. This means constantly looking and talking on the bright side rather than making the trial bitter by complaining, with trust in Jesus enabling resistance and learning from trials.
Joyful endurance calls for restraint and faithful cooperation with God, so that the trial may come unexpectedly yet be resisted without dishonoring Christ through hasty words or reckless discouragement, bringing instead peace, rest, and assurance. It requires individual self-discipline that exalts and ennobles rather than contracts the mind and centers it upon little or objectionable things, with thoughts growing out of holy principles, turning from self and disagreeable things to Jesus, and not making a brother an offender for a word nor judging him by finite measurement. Tests prove whether life is drawn from Christ and fruit is borne or action is from selfishness, and they are to be faced with joy rather than responses that harm others. In darkness there is to be no despondency but confidence from the Word in the heart, walking and working with God in humility and sincerity, maintaining the voice of simple, trustful, earnest prayer in the dwelling, committing the keeping of the soul to His care in assurance that He watches, directs, purifies, advances His work, and gives precious victories, peace, and hope.
Diligently obeying the command to count varied trials as all joy shows a person his need and calls for thorough, unsuperficial treatment of character until life pleases the Lord. That perfect and entire state wanting nothing is Christlike character formed through unreserved consecration, which is necessary for heaven to be home and for a minister's example to be safe for others to follow. It is the only safe course in probationary time for developing true Christian attributes and perfecting character by faith without uncertainty, embracing the whole man, soul, body, and spirit, with the Word cherished as an abiding principle under every circumstance, all powers and even thoughts brought into subjection to Christ in true sanctification where all parts blend in harmony, keeping no part for self but glorifying God in body and spirit as bought with a price, having not one religion for business and another for the church. This calls for studying the first chapter carefully and prayerfully, recognizing personal responsibility, remaining under discipline, and pressing forward from victory to victory.
Fruit and Application
Trials borne with joy strengthen the spiritual life, giving spiritual strength and increased faith and establishing faith more firmly in the truth. Endurance builds the ability to remain faithful under hardship without being uprooted, to endure and to act faithfully, and to help others who face trials. Patience under trial beautifies the believer and teaches lessons not yet learned, building an experience useful for future work and fitting for service and for the work God gives. Bringing faith into experience lightens every burden and relieves every weariness, while continued trust solves providences that are now mysterious and opens the way for God to work as markedly as in sacred history.
Affliction rightly received gives time to examine the heart to see whether it is purified from defilement, to review the past life profitably, and to seek entire conformity to God's will. It makes the promises rich and exceedingly precious, brings the peace of God with the sanctifying, reviving influence of the Holy Spirit, and fills the heart with unspeakable gratitude and loud praise even in sickness and emaciation. It leaves believers in a more favorable position by leading into right relationship with God and centering the mind on privileges in Christ, with character made ready through Christ's righteousness to enjoy God's presence. Such refreshing does not mean immediate deliverance from disease, but prepares and strengthens for still greater trials, and when events seem inexplicable, trusting, waiting patiently and humbling the heart keeps the enemy from triumphing while the Lord works present and eternal good.
Delay in answer to prayer is to be counted as joy rather than discouragement, because the delay is for special benefit in testing whether faith is true and sincere or changeable like waves of the sea. Those who wait bind the soul upon the altar with strong cords of faith and love and let patience finish its perfect work, and faith strengthens through continual exercise. Even small daily difficulties are tests of patience, faith and hope, and bearing them teaches the strength and knowledge needed to endure greater troubles, whereas stumbling under temptation leaves a person unprepared. Testing continues until self is hidden in Jesus, calling for grace to endure what is small yet harder to bear than great afflictions and to do God's will.
Counting it joy to suffer for the truth comes when truth fills the heart, absorbs the affections and controls the life through deep love for the Redeemer, so that no prison walls and no martyr's stake can daunt or hinder the work. It was shown when the apostles did not count their lives dear but rejoiced to be counted worthy to suffer shame for the name, and when Paul and Silas, having suffered loss of all things and been scourged and thrown onto the cold floor of the inner prison with feet in stocks, broke the midnight silence with songs of joy and praise without repining or complaint. It includes remaining steadfast when others jeer or scoff and following Christ through good and bad report, bearing His cross as a sacred honor. It means sharing Christ's humiliation and following His example even into hardship, remembering what He endured to save, so as not to grow weary.
The verse brings light and encouragement to long-experienced pillars to move wisely, walk carefully and prayerfully, hold high esteem in confidence that God directs in all ways, and commit life to God in doing right unto harmony with heaven in benevolence and brotherly love. It calls Christian youth to meet life's trials with patience and fortitude. It sustained a family in poverty, God permitting hardship to keep them from settling into comfort and to prepare them for greater conflicts and labor for others, since prosperity might have made home so pleasant they would not travel and work. Great trials bring great blessings, with loss and danger becoming occasions for miraculous preservation acknowledged even by worldly and unbelieving men, as fulfilled when pioneer workers lost a sanitarium bakery and laundry building by fire and passed through other trials.
Affliction received in the right spirit, with trust, humility, waiting, and devotion of all affections and powers to God while leaving results with Him, gives peace, rest, assurance, victories, joy and growth in grace. Faith thus endured becomes more precious and truth more appreciated, attachment to the world is weakened, losses are turned into gains, and the trial will be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus. Bearing trials patiently with calm trust keeps the soul and those around from injury, whereas complaining makes everything bitter. Testing of faith develops patience, and patience allowed its perfect work brings toward maturity and wholeness, lacking nothing, deepening knowledge of God like gold in the Refiner's furnace with dross removed.
To fall into varied trials is to encounter many kinds of severe testing unexpectedly rather than by seeking it, and to count it all joy is to regard them with complete joy as a privilege rather than as something strange. Falling into temptation is not the same as falling under it, for being tempted is not sin but yielding to it and cherishing it is. Such joy is possible because the testing of faith develops patience, and patience allowed to finish its work brings maturity, completeness and Christlike character. Trials are God's appointed means to purify the heart, remove impurities and unchristlike traits, and form a holy and balanced character fitted for heaven. They are to be met by going forward in faith, taking God's promises personally in prayer, asking for wisdom without wavering, and enduring with cheerful patience without murmuring or complaint.
Meaning of the Words
The phrase speaks of many different kinds of trials that come upon a person, varied and manifold rather than single or uniform. They are met or fallen into unexpectedly as they arise in the path, not deliberately sought out or walked into by choice. They may be severe, involving repeated and contested struggle against the enemy on the way to the crown.
To fall into temptation is different from falling under temptation, and falling into does not make falling under necessary. Encountering varied temptation is to be met with joy, not giving in to it, and trials themselves are not sin. Yielding is sin, for temptation becomes sin only when it is cherished.
To count it all joy means to regard such varied trials with complete and entire joy. It is a wonderful standing and a privilege to occupy. This joy is not because suffering in itself is pleasant, and trials are not to be treated as something strange. Even in temptation or darkness, praising and rejoicing brings light and encouragement to one's own life and to those around.
The setting is given by what follows: the testing of faith works patience, and patience allowed to have its complete work makes believers mature and entire, wanting nothing. Those who lack wisdom in trial are to ask of God, who gives liberally and does not reproach, but they must ask in faith without wavering, for the waverer is like a tossed wave of the sea and the double-minded person is unstable and receives nothing. The chapter is to be studied carefully and prayerfully, and its work taken as individual and personal before labor for others can accomplish anything. Some trials remain without full explanation of their meaning, because to explain them would destroy their object, which is to purify and ennoble the heart.
Reason for Joy in Trial
Believers can count varied trials as joy because the testing of faith develops patience, and patience allowed to complete its work brings maturity and wholeness, lacking nothing. This experience is required in the religious life for developing a character like Christ's. Like faith tested by fire, it can lead to praise and honor when Jesus appears.
Trials are God's workmen and pruning process and furnace work to purify and cleanse the heart. Their hewing, squaring, chiseling, burnishing and polishing, and pressing down to the grinding wheel, is painful, yet it removes impurities and roughness and dross and harmful things and unchristlike traits and strengthens weaknesses. Rough stones taken from the quarry are thus formed into precious stones polished after the similitude of a palace and prepared to fill a place in the heavenly temple, a careful thorough work bestowed not on useless material and not to destroy but to shape toward a holy and pure and perfect character. Murmuring and complaint only make the trial bitter and, if it does not accomplish its purpose, further trials may be needed, while patience and endurance and prayer and calm trust make it sweet and allow it to do its refining work and bring honor and glory to God through victories over self.
Trials test and prove whether people draw life from Christ and bear the fruit of faith or act from selfishness, and whether they can be trusted with responsibilities. They test faith and love and patience and constancy and faithfulness and purity and strength of principle, bringing hidden traits to light and revealing true principles and the reality of faith and the strength of the anchor that keeps safe. They develop rather than create, bringing out the mind and will of Christ and the principles of virtue and holiness and developing steadfastness and steadfast zeal and warm affections, strengthening the weak and tempted so that the honest act justly toward others whether or not it serves personal interest. God allows even self-sufficient people to be sorely tempted so they will recognize helplessness and learn to trust a greater power, and believers are not helpless prey of darkness because God is Helper, yet everything possible must still be done to keep the work of needed reforms and right education going.
Trials are permitted to deepen knowledge of God and love and trust in Him, leading people to seek counsel from His infinite wisdom and to depend on His Word. They keep people from becoming self-sufficient and lifted up in themselves. Borne well they strengthen spiritual life and develop steadfast character, with faith and meekness and love often reaching fullest growth amid hardship, and they prepare believers to resist the allurements of evil for final victory, though God takes no pleasure in their distress and though temptation itself is not sin but yielding to it is.
God's Purpose in Trials
God permits and in some cases ordains conflicts and trials of various kinds to test and prove people and to perfect Christian character for eternal life. They call to higher living and more sanctified service, test the purity and strength of principles, and shape character after the divine model, with obedience to every requirement of the law under supreme test exercising the mind toward perfection. Without such trials people remain weaklings, for trial is a test of character and a turning point of life calling for whole-souled decision to be on the Lord's side and serve Him to whom account must be given, rather than following one's own devising and refusing light. This is especially true when former helps and scriptural instruction are removed and duties must be met alone. Through discouragement and perplexity His leading fulfills a good purpose that would be welcomed if its end and glory could be seen from the beginning, strengthening His children to serve Him through both action and suffering.
Trials are moral discipline and education that ease and prosperity cannot give, and obstacles and perplexities rightly met become blessings. Clouds, disappointments, bereavements, storms and adversity mature faith, patience, forbearance, heavenly-mindedness and trust in the wise heavenly Father, virtues seldom seen in the sunshine of prosperity. Each encounter with hardship calls trust and firmness into action and makes a person more able, effective, powerful and self-reliant, while avoiding toil and trials prevents growth in strength, will and endurance. Like a tree more firmly rooted and strengthened by storms, the Christian becomes spiritually strong through hardship by relying on God for needed help. They were designed for good, not to discourage but to develop Christian virtues, and prove an advantage in many respects when received in the right spirit with trust in the Lord instead of mourning and distressing the soul over providence.
Temptation is a real struggle against Satan, whose skill to deceive has grown through long practice. Increasing human weakness meeting his increasing skill makes temptations especially severe in the last days, and yielding makes a person spiritually weaker, more ready to yield again, and less able to recognize sin or resist it. Temptations are the outworking of his wrath against Christ who gave Himself and redeemed sinners by His blood, for he seeks to wound Christ by ruining those for whom Christ died. Yet with the whole armor of God his thrusts prove harmless, and vast resources are available to give moral power to do righteousness under all circumstances, so that every blast of adversity makes a person better and abler.
The heavenly universe watches the conflict between Christ in the person of His saints and the deceiver, and those who recognize and resist temptation fight the Lord's battles. Trials are sure to come and must be met by going forward in faith, with enduring them strengthening faith and fitting for service. Satan knows human weakness, but his power is limited, and those who trust in Christ's saving merits and righteousness alone will not be destroyed but gain power to stem the tide of evil sweeping over the world. In dark and distressing times faith therefore submits to God's will, waits in hope, and seeks grace to endure and overcome rather than pleading only for immediate removal, allowing the trial to refine.
Meeting Trials Aright
Trials are to be met by going forward in faith, taking the word of life personally and bringing its promises to the Lord to claim them in prayer, relying not on any human power but on the strength of the Lord. This individual work must be done before labor for others can accomplish anything, for the one who endures temptation takes every burden to the Source of all grace and sufficiency, where help and power to save and hear are undiminished and more deeply interested than any human agent can be. Joy comes not by trusting strength of purpose but by feeling utter helplessness, fleeing to Christ as the stronghold, clinging more strongly to the Mighty One as temptation grows fiercer, and passing the temptation over to Christ by faith to overcome as He overcame, becoming more than a conqueror through faith in His miracle-working strength. Falling into temptation is different from falling under it, and it is not necessary to fall under because of falling into, so standing every test requires clinging to Jesus, abiding in God's love, and trusting Christ's righteousness alone for power to stem evil, which lightens burdens, relieves weariness, solves mysterious providences through continued trust, and opens the way for God to work as in sacred history.
Meeting trial rightly requires asking God for wisdom, who gives liberally and upbraids not, but asking in faith nothing wavering, for the waverer is like a tossed wave of the sea and the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and will receive nothing. It requires keeping the trusting spirit of a little child and calling forth simple, earnest, dependent faith into perfect trust, letting patience have its perfect work, with faith strengthened through continual exercise. Delay in answer to prayer is therefore to be counted as joy for special benefit, as faith is tested to see whether it is true and sincere or changeable like the waves, binding the soul upon the altar with strong cords of faith and love. Difficulties and perplexities belong to successive stages of growth and are met with joy by learning Christ's will and way more fully, waiting patiently for God's direction and letting Him work in meekness and confidence that His hand is on the helm, so that prayer and trust exercise and increase faith and give it increased strength.
Believers are to fall into temptation without ill will, murmuring, fretfulness, sorrow, unhappy feelings, or complaint, and without yielding to it, for the testing of faith is to develop patience rather than fretfulness. Dwelling on difficulties and talking about them only magnifies them and makes the trial more bitter, and looking to fellow workers who are themselves weighed down gives no true help. If the trial does not accomplish its purifying purpose further trials may be needed, but patience, endurance, prayer, calm trust, and cheerfulness make the trial sweet and allow it to refine character by removing what is harmful until completeness is reached. This means constantly looking and talking on the bright side rather than making the trial bitter by complaining, with trust in Jesus enabling resistance and learning from trials.
Joyful endurance calls for restraint and faithful cooperation with God, so that the trial may come unexpectedly yet be resisted without dishonoring Christ through hasty words or reckless discouragement, bringing instead peace, rest, and assurance. It requires individual self-discipline that exalts and ennobles rather than contracts the mind and centers it upon little or objectionable things, with thoughts growing out of holy principles, turning from self and disagreeable things to Jesus, and not making a brother an offender for a word nor judging him by finite measurement. Tests prove whether life is drawn from Christ and fruit is borne or action is from selfishness, and they are to be faced with joy rather than responses that harm others. In darkness there is to be no despondency but confidence from the Word in the heart, walking and working with God in humility and sincerity, maintaining the voice of simple, trustful, earnest prayer in the dwelling, committing the keeping of the soul to His care in assurance that He watches, directs, purifies, advances His work, and gives precious victories, peace, and hope.
Diligently obeying the command to count varied trials as all joy shows a person his need and calls for thorough, unsuperficial treatment of character until life pleases the Lord. That perfect and entire state wanting nothing is Christlike character formed through unreserved consecration, which is necessary for heaven to be home and for a minister's example to be safe for others to follow. It is the only safe course in probationary time for developing true Christian attributes and perfecting character by faith without uncertainty, embracing the whole man, soul, body, and spirit, with the Word cherished as an abiding principle under every circumstance, all powers and even thoughts brought into subjection to Christ in true sanctification where all parts blend in harmony, keeping no part for self but glorifying God in body and spirit as bought with a price, having not one religion for business and another for the church. This calls for studying the first chapter carefully and prayerfully, recognizing personal responsibility, remaining under discipline, and pressing forward from victory to victory.
Fruit and Application
Trials borne with joy strengthen the spiritual life, giving spiritual strength and increased faith and establishing faith more firmly in the truth. Endurance builds the ability to remain faithful under hardship without being uprooted, to endure and to act faithfully, and to help others who face trials. Patience under trial beautifies the believer and teaches lessons not yet learned, building an experience useful for future work and fitting for service and for the work God gives. Bringing faith into experience lightens every burden and relieves every weariness, while continued trust solves providences that are now mysterious and opens the way for God to work as markedly as in sacred history.
Affliction rightly received gives time to examine the heart to see whether it is purified from defilement, to review the past life profitably, and to seek entire conformity to God's will. It makes the promises rich and exceedingly precious, brings the peace of God with the sanctifying, reviving influence of the Holy Spirit, and fills the heart with unspeakable gratitude and loud praise even in sickness and emaciation. It leaves believers in a more favorable position by leading into right relationship with God and centering the mind on privileges in Christ, with character made ready through Christ's righteousness to enjoy God's presence. Such refreshing does not mean immediate deliverance from disease, but prepares and strengthens for still greater trials, and when events seem inexplicable, trusting, waiting patiently and humbling the heart keeps the enemy from triumphing while the Lord works present and eternal good.
Delay in answer to prayer is to be counted as joy rather than discouragement, because the delay is for special benefit in testing whether faith is true and sincere or changeable like waves of the sea. Those who wait bind the soul upon the altar with strong cords of faith and love and let patience finish its perfect work, and faith strengthens through continual exercise. Even small daily difficulties are tests of patience, faith and hope, and bearing them teaches the strength and knowledge needed to endure greater troubles, whereas stumbling under temptation leaves a person unprepared. Testing continues until self is hidden in Jesus, calling for grace to endure what is small yet harder to bear than great afflictions and to do God's will.
Counting it joy to suffer for the truth comes when truth fills the heart, absorbs the affections and controls the life through deep love for the Redeemer, so that no prison walls and no martyr's stake can daunt or hinder the work. It was shown when the apostles did not count their lives dear but rejoiced to be counted worthy to suffer shame for the name, and when Paul and Silas, having suffered loss of all things and been scourged and thrown onto the cold floor of the inner prison with feet in stocks, broke the midnight silence with songs of joy and praise without repining or complaint. It includes remaining steadfast when others jeer or scoff and following Christ through good and bad report, bearing His cross as a sacred honor. It means sharing Christ's humiliation and following His example even into hardship, remembering what He endured to save, so as not to grow weary.
The verse brings light and encouragement to long-experienced pillars to move wisely, walk carefully and prayerfully, hold high esteem in confidence that God directs in all ways, and commit life to God in doing right unto harmony with heaven in benevolence and brotherly love. It calls Christian youth to meet life's trials with patience and fortitude. It sustained a family in poverty, God permitting hardship to keep them from settling into comfort and to prepare them for greater conflicts and labor for others, since prosperity might have made home so pleasant they would not travel and work. Great trials bring great blessings, with loss and danger becoming occasions for miraculous preservation acknowledged even by worldly and unbelieving men, as fulfilled when pioneer workers lost a sanitarium bakery and laundry building by fire and passed through other trials.
Affliction received in the right spirit, with trust, humility, waiting, and devotion of all affections and powers to God while leaving results with Him, gives peace, rest, assurance, victories, joy and growth in grace. Faith thus endured becomes more precious and truth more appreciated, attachment to the world is weakened, losses are turned into gains, and the trial will be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus. Bearing trials patiently with calm trust keeps the soul and those around from injury, whereas complaining makes everything bitter. Testing of faith develops patience, and patience allowed its perfect work brings toward maturity and wholeness, lacking nothing, deepening knowledge of God like gold in the Refiner's furnace with dross removed.