James 1:2-4 (KJV)
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Sandro Botticelli – Three Temptations of Christ (detail) – WGA2760 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Faith Muscles
No Christian in their right mind wants to be tempted. Temptation carries risk of failure. Failure for believers means we fall short in the eyes of God, others, and ourselves. Looking bad in the eyes of God is not an enjoyable experience. Yet here, the Apostle James, who was the brother of Jesus, tells us that we should count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations. Clearly there is something different about God’s perspective.
What the Lord is telling us through James is that the experience of being tempted gives us opportunities to resist wrong doing. Resistance that is repeated builds strength. Just as in physical exercise, increasing weights and the repeated lifting of these weights, builds muscle strength and size. Body builders depend upon this, so they plan and vary their resistances to exercise, strengthen and sculpt their muscles. They know the physique they want, and they create a regimen of weights lifted or resistances, to create a desired level of strength. When they meet a goal, they move on to higher weights, more resistance, and multiple lifting of those weights until a desired level of mastery or ease of lifting of that weight is achieved. They repeat this until they reach their goal of strength and muscle mass. But in order to maintain this level of strength and muscle mass, certain weights have to be lifted repeatedly. Without on going resistance exercises, the muscles return to their former mass and weaker strength. Overcoming progressive resistances is physically painful. From this basic fact we get the saying “No pain, no gain.”
We live in a fallen world where there is no such thing as learning without error. Temptations are the arena in which the Lord strengthens our faith muscles. We are to learn to resist, resist, and resist, so that our faith is made stronger and stronger, to the point where we eventually overcome (lift) the weight (temptation & adversity) and are conformed to the image of Christ – which is our ideal physique.
Patience is the end product of temptations. The word temptations, as it is used in today’s verse means: “a putting to proof (by experiment [of good], experience [of evil], solicitation, discipline or provocation); by implication adversity,” (Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary). The end product, patience, means “cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy” (Strong’s). God uses adversity as a means proving the good work He has begun in us. Knowing this, we should expect the outcome of perfection. The word “perfection” as it is used in today’s verse means “complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.)” (Strong’s). So, divers temptations creates patience, which is a joyful expectation that the Lord will use these experiences to perfect our growth, work, mental and moral character.
The lesson here is to not cringe and complain about adversity that the Lord in His wisdom allows to touch our lives. Knowing that adversity and temptations are sent to strengthen our faith muscles so that we can lift or overcome progressively greater resistances to the point where we are very strong in Christ, is reason to have patience, which is cheerful, hopeful endurance. To have the spiritual physique of Christ, Who is “altogether lovely,” and “wonderful” is ample cause for us to rejoice. Be a blessing to someone today.
Until we meet again: “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” (Ephesians 6:10)
Verneda
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