*James 1:2-27
James instructs believers to consider trials as opportunities for growth, explaining that perseverance produces maturity and faith that is complete.
- Joy in Trials:
- Believers are encouraged to consider it pure joy when facing trials of various kinds.
- Trials are seen as a testing of faith, which produces perseverance, and perseverance must finish its work so that the believer may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
- Wisdom from God:
- If anyone lacks wisdom, they should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to them.
- However, when asking for wisdom, one must ask in faith, without doubting, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
- Humility and Exaltation:
- The humble circumstances of the poor should be a cause for boasting in their high position.
- Conversely, the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower.
- Enduring Temptation:
- Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
- Believers are warned not to say they are tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.
- Source of Temptation:
- Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
- After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
- Listening and Doing:
- James emphasizes the importance of not merely listening to the word, and so deceiving yourselves, but doing what it says.
- Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
- True Religion:
- True religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.