March 22, 2026
James, writing to his fellow Jewish Christians sends an encouragement how to view these sudden, sad and often time’s life threatening challenges to their profession of Jesus Christ and the calming faith we have in Him.
We often hear “faith is the victory that overcomes the world”, and that is because Satan uses this world and the people in it to relentlessly mount attacks against faith. When a believer is saved, comes to Christ in saving faith, the fear of sin and death and condemnation from the wrath of God is replaced in our hearts with joy, relief, peace and celebration; the world, controlled by Satan, and even our own flesh, receives a trigger alert and it comes to you in all its sorrows and cares of this life and attack you like the anti-bodies surrounding and attacking bacteria.
James’ encouragement to his fellow believers is, not only should we not be over-come with grief, sadness, despair or fear but rather ‘count’ or make a deliberate decision to ‘view’ these events in joy. Not a little joy, or half joy, but ‘all-joy’, which in the Greek means, unmixed or diluted. This is a joy that God provides. This joy does not mean an absence of sadness, but rather a presence of confidence in the goodness, the promises and the purposes of our good Father. This joy is a powerful presence we have in any situation.
What fuels this joy is knowledge. This knowledge is that we’re not abandoned by God to suffer but rather lovingly being placed into refining process by God. God is bringing and building us to a purer faith in Him, stripping away impurities of doubt. With each furnace comes more assurance and a God-ward purpose driven life and peace that in all things I will praise Him.
James says, these trials bring a more God-pleasing you and God’s glory will shine the more for it in your life. This process therefore, we ‘count’ all joy.
The book of James, which was written by Jesus’ half-brother and the pastor of the 1st church of Jerusalem, is a very practical book written for Christian living in a life of faith seeking God’s wisdom. It is often called ‘The Proverbs of the NT’, considered ‘Wisdom literature’ and is often associated as a commentary to the Sermon on the Mount.
James ‘the Just’, dealt with questions that arose in the Jerusalem council, alongside the apostles, and based on the evidence that Peter and the other apostles laid out, it was obvious that God had extended His saving mercy to the Gentiles. People of all nations, cultures and backgrounds were being saved but had no ideas about the Jewish culture, customs or laws of Moses. They were challenged with legalistic Jews who insisted on new converts observing the national, cultural and Mosaic laws in order to be considered one of God’s saved people, but after council, prayer and direction, James, Peter, Paul and the apostles concluded that the Gentiles did not have to become Jews to be saved, but to avoid using their freedoms as an offense to Jewish Christians (Acts 15).
James, in his epistle to the dispersed Jewish Christians (1:1), I believe shows us that there is a balance of faith and works, and that balance is, true faith in Christ will produce works. Both are evidences for each other. If there is a sun, you must have sunlight and if you have sunlight, there must be a sun. Therefore, he takes all of the various ‘trials’ or ‘tests’ of faith that a Christian may face in their life, he incorporates the balance of responding in faith while expressing that faith in obedience and good works towards God.
Intentional or not by James, but we know intentional by the Holy Spirit, the book of James also shows the readers what true faith looks like in the light of circumstances that ‘test’ the faith.
Being the Lord’s half-brother, he at first was an unbeliever and skeptic of Jesus’ message (John 7) – but later came to faith in Christ when he experienced firsthand, the loving powerful presence of the risen Lord and surrendered his life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. James died a martyr around 62AD, being thrown off the top of the temple, then stoned, then beaten to death by clubs remaining faithful to his profession of His Lord and Savior.
May we, like James, find expression in our walk of faith, being loyal and obedient to the will of God in our lives, and as Paul stated in 2 Tim 4:7, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith…”