Blessed is the Man Who Endures Temptation
1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he
shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love
him.Here is the connection showing we are still on the same topic James began in verse two. He originally said we were to “count it all joy” when we found ourselves being tested in our faith. In this verse he goes so far as to say that the one who “endureth temptation” is blessed. He is the one who can be counted as truly happy. For most of us today the entrance of trials and afflictions into our lives is the source of frustration and turmoil, agitation of soul and mind; certainly not happiness. The equation of happiness, or being blessed, with that of enduring testings or trials is antithetical to our way of thinking. We equate happiness with having plenty, being in good health, and free of any distress. Well then, how is it that James says the one who is blessed is the one who endures temptations?
Enduring temptation is more than just suffering because of ill fate or being tempted and not surrendering. Everyone will experience some sort of difficulty, sadness, or tragedy in life. But for the Christian the idea of temptation or trial supposes that such situations are there by God’s design to build our faith or they are there as Satan, or even our own nature, seeks to destroy our faith. Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible says of the word used in this passage for temptation, “It denotes anything that will try or test the reality of our religion; and it may be applied, therefore, either to afflictions or to direct solicitations to sin.” Somewhere in our lives we must answer the question of the genuine nature of our faith; is our faith in God real? So, when James mentions enduring these testings it is much more than just passively putting up with an inconvenient set of circumstances in our lives. Instead, we are to embrace them as an opportunity to reveal the true nature of that faith. We are to successfully bear up under those trials until they come to completion while holding fast to our profession of faith in Christ; holding to the hand of the Savior and trusting in the provision and sovereignty of God. When we have gone through a difficult time or when we have been tempted by sin and not surrendered we reveal the hand of God in our lives for all the world to see. As a result we are stronger and God is glorified.
It is for this successful completion of trials that James says we will be rewarded. Every believer ever to have been born will be tried. The saved will be judged in some manner by their works. II Corinthians 5:10 reminds us we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and answer for our actions here. And in I Corinthians 3:10-15 we are told that our works will be judged and for those works we will or will not receive rewards. It is likely then that James is making reference to the rewards offered at the judgment seat of Christ when he says, “for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” The crown of life is offered to those having successfully lived a godly life, those who have glorified God by their public testimony of faith in God and reliance upon God in the most difficult times of life.
The happy or blessed man then is happy not only because he has seen the hand of God in his daily trials and understands God’s love and provision for him in this life but he is happy or blessed understanding also that when this life is over and God examines or tries him he will receive the crown of life. The promise of God to those who bear up under the trials of life, trusting in and relying upon the provision and mercy of God, is the reward of a crown of life when they stand before the judgment seat of Christ. No man can say what the crown of life is precisely for none have received it and come back to reveal it to us. However, its mention here as a reward to those who are faithful is clearly meant as an incentive to embrace every difficulty we find as a means of glorifying God with our dependence upon him without grumbling and complaining just as the Apostles did in Acts 16:24-25 "Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them." Would they have received the crown of life had the prisoners heard the Apostles griping and complaining, asking why God had let this happen to them? No. Instead the prisoners heard them praying and singing praise to God in the midst of adverse circumstances. James says that it is for this we receive happiness here and a crown of life in glory.
