It often seems easier to get things wrong than it is to get them right. Perhaps this is particularly true when it concerns the truth of God and the work of God. For every inch of truth, there seems to be a mile of error.

It would be one thing, if this were the case only of the non-Christian. We would understand that. Their minds have not been enlightened. They neither know truth, nor can they know it (1 Cor. 2:14). How­ever, God’s children err, as well. James says: “Do not err, my beloved brethren” (v. 16). Circumstances can cloud our minds; inward instability can make us err. Our slowness to attend to the Word makes us err. We can be mistaken about others, about ourselves, and about God’s thoughts towards us. This can especially be the case during times of trial.

Trials

Trials can have a way of clouding our spiritual under­standing. They can come in like a dense fog. They make us lose our bearings. This was the experience of the people to whom James was writing. They were being persecuted, and were scattered. Many were poor and oppressed. Peter refers to these same cir­cumstances as a fiery trial of faith (1 Peter 1:7). It felt like a fiery furnace. When you are tested like that, it’s difficult to know what to think, what to say, or even what to pray. It’s as if all our minds leave us. That’s why James writes: “If any of you lack wisdom...” (1:5). Trials often make us feel our lack of wisdom. If only we could keep our spiritual wits about us during affliction; so often it seems like we lose them exactly when we need them most.

Trials also have a way of revealing the instability within us. One part of us seeks God; another part of us pulls away from Him. One part of us hates sin; another part goes after it. There is this inner war going on that is wearying. James explains that this instability comes from double-mindedness (1:8). The literal word here is “double-heartedness,” and is the opposite of “whole-heartedness” or “single-minded­ness.” It is the disposition that makes you feel as if you are being pulled in two directions. At times this inner tug of war seems to break your heart in two.

Worst of all is when we find fault with God. It seems that some of James’ readers were doing exactly that. James says: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God” (1:13). It is true, when we are overwhelmed by trials, our hearts can fault God, either secretly or openly. We may believe that He means this for evil or even that He is tempting us to sin. We are so prone to err in times like this.

Truth

When this happens, what we need more than anything is divine truth powerfully spoken to us. There is nothing that so sheds light on trials, temptations, and tests as the Word of God. The key in facing trial is to focus on truth rather than on what is within or around us. This is exactly what James is doing in this first chapter in various ways.

First of all, he sheds the light of God’s truth on our attitudes under trial. James writes: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations...” (1:2).This is a remarkable opening: “Count it all joy....” Notice that he is not saying that trials are joyful experiences in and of themselves. They are not happy things. But he is urging us to be active in look­ing at trials as opportunities for joy. He encourages us to labor to see them from a vantage-point that is not natural for us. We need to look at trials from the angle of their effect, their end, and the aim they are meant to achieve (1:4). You will never extract joy from simply focusing on the trial itself. You might as well try to get honey from a bramble bush. But if you trace the path of trial to its proper end, the trial will become a beacon of joy. Or to use another image: Follow the bee that stung you to its hive, and the honey you find will sweeten the pain. This is the truth that James is bringing to people undergoing trials.

Secondly, James sheds the light of God’s truth on all our circumstances. If a Christian is poor, the truth brought by James says: “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted” (1:9). If a Christian is rich, James has a truth for him as well: Let him remember that his life will soon pass away (1:10).

Thirdly, he uses truth to correct wrong views about God. A person whose mind is clouded by affliction might be inclined to blame God. However, truth says: “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man” (1:13). James is saying that we can trust God. If we had to live with the lie that God does tempt, we would be miserable! However, truth unmasks that error, and puts the blame squarely where it needs to be: “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust...,” etc. (1:14). Man can’t be trusted, but God can! God only sends down perfect gifts (1:17). What a faithful God!

Touchstone

Truth is a tried man’s touchstone. He can use it to gauge everything, including his own state before God. In verses 19-27, James applies the touchstone of the Word of God and distinguishes between “seeming religion” (1:26) and “saving religion” (1:27).

Let no one look to the world as his touchstone; we need to look to the Word. We need to look past external circumstances to eternal realities. Externals are not necessarily an indicator of internals. If you prosper in life, that doesn’t mean your heart is fine. If you struggle your way through life, God’s smile might still be upon you. Riches are no indication of spiritual life, but righteousness is. “Do not err, my beloved brethren.”

James makes this point: Trials in the believer’s life are tests to prove and purify true religion. God sends trials so that the genuineness of our religion will appear, and that the impurities in our religion will disappear (1 Thess. 3:3). There is so much religion that is only words, hearing, or feeling. When trials come, such religion is unmasked as nothing more than “self-deception” (1:22).

James applies the touchstone of the Word to three distinct areas:

1. How We Use our Tongue

Later in his Epistle James will say more about the tongue (3:1-12), but already here he attaches great importance to the tongue. An unbridled tongue belongs to a self-deceived heart (1:26). He urges us instead to “be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (1:19). Do we submit to this standard? Are our tongues instruments of temper or of truth?

2. How We Respond to the Word

The self-deceived are quickly finished with the Word. For them reading the Word is like a quick glance in the mirror. They adjust a few externals and are on their way. They quickly forget whatever the Word has revealed about them. On the other hand, the godly stare into the perfect law of liberty, and far from being forgetful, they seek to practice what the Word actually says (1:25). They receive the Word with meekness (1:21). It is as if the Word is engrafted, or rooted, into their very being (1:21).

3. How We Move through this World

Impure religion has no problem immersing itself in the world, which contaminates. Its impurities match the world’s impurities, and so it is at home there. On the other hand, the believer seeks, by the grace of God, “to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27) by the grace of God.

So the truth about trials is that they help prove and purify pure religion. However, only the truth of God’s Word helps us to see this. And that same truth is a touchstone for all reli­gion, showing what is true and what is false. “Do not err, beloved brethren.”

Questions:

1. So often we think undergoing trials is some­thing in which we ought to remain passive. What active behaviors does James recommend in times of trial (vv. 2, 3, 9, 12, 19-27).
2. According to James, from where do good and evil come (vv. 13-18)? What does this mean for us and how we regard our external circumstances and our internal selves?
3. Those who are begotten through the truth will love the truth. Trace this from v. 18 and v. 21. Explain what is meant by v. 21.
4. How can a person deceive himself (vv. 22-25)?
5. How can one keep himself unspotted from the world? Give some practical suggestions.