Pure Joy

I have been reading the book of James this past week during my morning quiet times. Every time I read James, I am challenged by it.  I think it is one of the most practical books on how to actually live out the Christian life in the New Testament.  James pulls no punches, he is here to tell us exactly what our lives as Christians should look like.  From the outset of the book he emphasizes that our lives should look nothing like what the world expects.  In only the second verse of the book he says:

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (James 1:2-3 NIV)  

Really, James?  Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds?  I don’t know about you but the last time I felt like I was really going through a trial I wasn’t thinking “wow this really hard thing that is happening right now, this is a joy because it is producing perseverance in me.”  It was more like “Man I hope God pulls me out of this trial real soon because this is terrible.”  

When I was in elementary school our school librarian would hang these posters on the walls of the library that had hidden images in them (they are called autostereograms, which I just learned).  If you looked at the poster up close it just looked like a pattern of colors, but if you backed away and looked at the whole thing and sort of unfocused your eyes then you could see the hidden image (at least that is what I have been told you have to do, to be honest, I could never figure them out).  The difference was all about perspective.  

James is trying to tell us we have the wrong perspective.  We are looking at things in the wrong way.  Throughout the whole book in various ways James is saying “I know you have lived in this world and you have spent your whole life up until now seeing things a certain way, but with Christ we must see things differently.” Over and over again he urges believers to live contrary to the expectations and ways of the world.  The verses below highlight just a few of the times he urges us to get a new perspective.

“Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position.  But the rich should take pride in their humiliation - since they will pass away like a wildflower.” (James 1:9-10 NIV)

“My dear brothers and sisters take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” (James 1:19-20 NIV)

“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.” (James 1:27 NIV)

Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position?  We should listen before we speak and be slow to anger?  The religion God accepts as pure and faultless is not a constant striving to obey every law, or the puffed up ‘righteousness’ of the Pharisees, but rather to look after those most vulnerable? Yes, yes, and yes.  As James says in 1:27 we must keep ourselves from being polluted by the world, which means we have to see and act differently than the world does.  We must look beyond this world.  We must fix our eyes on Christ.  We must not look at the giant in front of us or the mocking crowds.  Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  The only way I can consider my trials pure joy is when I have a different perspective; when I am looking to Christ and the work he is doing through the trial rather than the trial itself.  Hebrews 12:1-2 summarizes this so perfectly.  

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.  And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eye on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  For the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2 NIV)

When I look to Christ how can I be filled with anything but pure joy?