I wanted to share some of my personal Bible Study on my blog. Right now in church we are going through James. I want to share some of what I have learned or noticed from reading James in my personal study and from church.

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Something caught my attention when I was looking over the beginning of the first chapter in a different version than the one I normally read. I find that reading a different version than normal can help my brain not auto pilot through the familiar parts of the Bible. James 1:2 says “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,” in the NIV but in the ASV it says “Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations;”. I had thought it strange that trials and temptations would be interchangeable in this context.

So I looked at a commentary for some more insight. Calvin’s commentary used both the words temptations and trials and called them “the tests of our obedience to God.” The temptations that a Christian experiences are counted as joy. I don’t think I’ve ever thought to be joyful when being tempted. I always saw it as something of a struggle that I had to wrestle, beating myself up afterward if I failed. James says to count it as joy, which is a fruit of the spirit (spoiler in Galatians 5:22-23) that a Christian is supposed to have. And just in the next verse before I have time to ask James why, he answers that question. “because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” These temptations that we are to face will develop perseverance for us. That is why we need to count all temptation as joy. Through the temptations we change and grow. The temptations are testing our faith in Jesus.

4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Which leads into verse 4. “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” We see here the completed picture of what a Christian is striving for from perseverance. Perseverance will make you complete. Complete in everything that a Christian needs to be. This is a spiritual completeness, including the fruit of the spirit. The American standard version says to let patience have it’s perfect work. So be patient in letting patience do the things that it needs to do to get you to the place you need to be. Patience will get you to the place that you need to be to lack nothing and be complete. Going through temptation will develop character and put you through tests of faith requiring you to trust God.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

The next verse 5 goes to a slightly different topic but still ties in here. I really like verse 5 especially as a kid. As a child it was very helpful when things were not confusing and in parables or figurative language. I really liked when there is instruction like “do this and that will happen”. So, when James says to ask God when you are lacking wisdom and he will give it to you, I thought that this was like a cheat code. I now knew that I just needed to ask, and God would give me wisdom. I didn’t need to do anything fancy to get it. I just needed to ask. And I think here is where I would stop often. I would pray for the wisdom and immediately after praying I would thank God for it in advance because I knew that he would give it to me.

6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

I didn’t often remember the verse after verse 5. In verse 6 we are told not to doubt when we ask for wisdom. James explains on in verses 7 and 8 that if a person is doubtful of God giving him wisdom when he asks for it then he should not expect that God will give him wisdom because he is double-minded. When a man is divided in his thinking where sometimes he trusts God to give him wisdom and other times, he doesn’t he will not receive the wisdom that he asked God for. As I grew up, I find this verse more and more relatable. When I was a kid there was not a lot of distractions that caused me to waiver in my faith. Now as an adult my attention is pulled in so many ways that my trust in God has also faltered.

These are my own thoughts: Could this apply to other things besides Wisdom? Would this also apply to asking for patience or joy? These are my own ideas from reading this verse considering in Matthew 7:7 Jesus says to ask, and it will be given to you. So, from this I would think that if I ask of God anything and trust that he will give it to me without a doubt then he will bring it to me.

Now how does asking for wisdom tie into perseverance? Well, lacking something means that one is not yet complete. Since perseverance needs to complete the work in us, we can ask for wisdom when facing our many temptations that are thrown at us.