Suffering Joyfully?

James 1:2-4

INTRODUCTION

I remember one day when our son John was a little boy. He had had a bad day—things hadn’t gone very well for him—and toward the end of the day he said plaintively, “I wish I’d never been born. There’s so many disappointments!”

Here is one of the strangest and hardest to explain sayings in the Bible. It’s right at the beginning of the book of James:

“My brothers and sisters

whenever you face trials of any kind,

consider it nothing but joy,

because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance;

and let endurance have its full effect,

so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4)

The word translated “trials” in my translation is the Greek word peirasmois. It is the same word that is also translated: “tests” and “temptations”—they’re just different words for the troubles every one of us experience—not because we’re evil, but because we’re human.

We pray, “Lead us not into temptation.”

So why does James tell us to consider it “joy” when we face trials, or temptations, or troubles? We’ll come back to that.

I. Troubles are part of life. No one is exempt. A wise man said, “Be kind—for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle you know nothing about.”

A. Sometimes suffering makes even Christians bitter.

I’ve known people, and you have too, who became disagreeable and sour in their old age. They dwelt constantly on disappointments, injustices, and the faults of others.

They are not only miserable, but they make everyone else miserable too.

One of the best witnesses to our love for Jesus is constant cheerfulness. And I have known people who have experienced many troubles who are able to rejoice in the good they see in the world.

B. I have known people whose faith was destroyed by their troubles.

I had a friend in my younger days. His name is Wayne.

I admired Wayne. He was an outstanding young Christian.

I envied him. He could give exciting Bible messages.

He directed a Bible camp. He had a lot of influence for good in other people’s lives.

But when his wife left him, he decided God had let him down, and he walked away from his faith.

That was years ago, and I’ve not heard that he has ever gone to church again, or had anything to do with the Bible or faith.

C. I will tell you something even sadder. It is so sad that it hurts me to talk about it.

I had a dear friend named Eddie who loved Jesus as much as anyone I’ve ever known. But Eddie became mentally ill—schizophrenia. He fought his delusions for years. He saw psychiatrists. He took powerful medications every day. Some of his medications had serious side effects.

But Eddie became so deluded and desperate that one day he took his life.

I know Eddie loved Jesus, but his troubles overwhelmed him.

Looking back, I wonder whether I couldn’t have done more to help him.

I know I didn’t try as hard as I should have.

D. Always remember that whenever you see a fellow believer suffering a great sorrow or a great trouble, the worst trouble is the feeling that their faith is ebbing away.

It’s hard to keep believing when things are going to pieces.

That’s when you need to be there to help support the sufferer with your faith. I have been in great trouble when I felt I was not hanging onto God but hanging on to the faith of fellow believers.

I began to doubt God. But my Christian brothers and sisters gathered around and poured their love upon me. Having hardly any faith of my own, I clung to theirs.

And finally I came back to faith. That is the most precious time in my life. My friends proved to me that God is real.

II. Here are some Biblical answers about finding meaning in our troubles and trials. I don’t have all the answers, but here are some ideas that have helped me make sense of suffering.

A. James says that suffering teaches us endurance. That word in Greek is sometimes translated “perseverance” or “patience.”

We could never learn endurance if life was always smooth. It is only by struggle that we become strong.

A famous psychiatrist wrote, “We learn nothing from our pleasures. We learn only from our suffering.”

B. Trouble helps us to understand the suffering of others. And having suffered gives us the understanding we need to comfort them in their need. St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:3: “[God] comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

I have a friend who worked in an office. A woman who worked in that office had suffered tragedy in her life. My friend said that people in the office who were in trouble of various kinds often went to her and shared their struggles with her. They were sure that she would understand.

A woman named Peggy lost her 28-year-old daughter to cancer. As she mourned and suffered she poured her broken heart out to God. She offered herself and her suffering to God Just as Jesus did on the cross.

That hasn’t made her suffering any easier, but now everywhere she goes she meets people who have lost adult children to death. Peggy sits next to them on airplanes, meets them in the supermarket, and bumps into them on vacation. She shares their suffering and offers them Christ and his comfort. Her suffering, united with Christ’s suffering has meant salvation for many.

How could you feel compassion for those who suffer if you had never experienced tragedy yourself? How could you weep with those who weep if you yourself had never experienced the depths of sorrow?

Of course, you should never say, "I know just how you feel," because you don't. Everyone's sorrow is unique. Still, you have experienced something like it, so you can sympathize.

C. Suffering can make us despair and forsake God, but it can also make us cling closer to God—because God is all we have left.

A pastor lost his wife suddenly, and after her death he preached an unusually personal sermon. He admitted in the message that he did not understand this life of ours. But still less could he understand how people facing loss could abandon faith. “Abandon it for what?!” He said. “You people in the sunshine may believe the faith, but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else.”

Some of people look back on the most terrible time in our life with thanksgiving because their troubles opened their hearts to God. If their lives had been smooth they would never have found salvation.

D. Trouble gives us an opportunity to prove something—or to give up. I have known people who were powerful witnesses to the reality of God in their lives simply because they could keep their faith in their struggles.

Peter writes about this. He warns believers that they will have suffering in this life. But, he says—as gold is tested and refined by fire—so the genuineness of our faith is tested and proved by suffering.

The greatest testimony to the reality of the gospel is the believer who can keep trusting to the very end.

E. Suffering helps us appreciate what Jesus did for us on the Cross.

One of our residents at Village Ridge suffered great pain and disability and bore it well. She told me that something that helped her was to remember that others suffered even worse. She also said, “When I remember what Jesus suffered on the cross, I know that what I have to suffer isn’t so bad.

Jesus suffered this terrible feeling of forsakenness when he cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

But God had not forsaken Jesus, and that bitter forsakenness turned into the joy of resurrection. And so it will with us.

CONCLUSION

Imagine what life would be like if there was no trouble.

Imagine being beautiful smart, athletic, popular—always strong, always successful, always happy—

no failure, no disappointments, no disease, no weakness no arthritis, no old age, no death…

What kind of a person would you be?

Would you have compassion for those who suffer?

Could you look back on battles fought and victories won?

How could you have gained the wisdom you have now?

Would you be grateful for your blessings, or would you just take all the good things for granted?

Would ever be willing to let go of this life, and contemplate the world to come?

An ancient Stoic philosopher named Demetrius is famous for having said, “No one would be more unhappy than a person who had never known affliction.”

When James writes, “Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy” he’s telling us to value these experiences as opportunities to prove our faith is genuine and that God is real.

He’s telling us that suffering bravely borne qualifies us for a great reward in the world to come.

James goes on:

“Blessed is anyone who endures temptation.

Such a one has stood the test

and will receive the crown of life

that the Lord has promised

to those who love him” (v12).

Let us keep in mind that this world is a place of sojourn and a time of testing.

The troubles of this life are preparing us for the real life to come—that life in which God will wipe away every tear, and mourning and crying and pain will be no more, and we will be with Jesus for ever and ever.