James 1:2 says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various trials.” The entire world lies in the evil one, Satan (1 John 5:19). Satan opposes God continually in every possible way. Satan is displeased whenever people turn to God, and he will not tolerate this. Once a person turns to God, Satan will instigate others to persecute that one. Paul once said that we Christians are appointed to suffer persecution (Phil. 1:29). Persecution, therefore, is the portion appointed to us as believers in Christ. Hence, an aspect of practical Christian perfection (the subject of the book of James) is the enduring of trials, a word that includes persecution.
Persecution is a suffering. However, trials are not merely a suffering, for trials are a suffering that serves the purpose of trying or proving us. Our heavenly Father arranges different trials for us. All these trials are good for us. Just as examinations are good for students, so the various trials we face as Christians are a profit to us.
Perhaps after you believed in the Lord Jesus you thought that in the Christian life there would be no sufferings or trials. You may have had the concept that, as a child of God, the Father would not allow anything bad to happen to you. This is the concept of many believers. But eventually trials come. The various trials through which we must pass as believers serve the purpose of trying, testing, and proving us. These trials are a help in our practical Christian perfection, for God uses them to perfect us.
If we realize that God uses trials to perfect us, we shall thank God for perfecting us through trials. Trials not only help us in the matters of our spiritual education and the experience of life, but also help us with our character and our behavior in our daily living. Many believers can testify that through trials God has perfected them in a practical way in their Christian life.
James even encourages us to “count it all joy” whenever we fall into various trials. The reason we can count it a joy when we fall into trials is that these trials perfect us. Notice that in 1:2 James speaks not only of trials but of “various trials.” This indicates that we should count all trials a joy, not just certain trials. On the one hand, we do not like trials, opposition, and persecution. But on the other hand, we should count it all joy when we experience such things because God, through the divine dispensing, uses them to perfect us.
In 2 Corinthians 4:8 Paul says, “We are afflicted in every way, but not straitened; perplexed, but not despairing.” The Greek word rendered “afflicted” can also be translated “pressed down on every side.” The word “straitened” also means cramped. Literally, “perplexed” here means unable to find a way out. The word translated “despairing” literally means “utterly unable to find a way out”; that is, the way is entirely shut up. Here Paul is saying that they were perplexed, unable to find a way out, yet not despairing, not utterly unable to find a way out.
In verse 9 Paul continues, “Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” The Greek word for “persecuted” also means pursued by enemies. To be forsaken is to be abandoned, deserted; literally, it means to be left behind in some evil plight. “Cast down” also means struck down, and “destroyed” also means perishing, that is, killed.
In verse 10 Paul goes on to say, “Always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body.” The putting to death here means the killing, the deadening, that is, the working of death, the working of the cross, which the Lord Jesus suffered and endured. When the Lord was on earth, He was daily under the killing. Day by day He experienced being put to death. The apostles also experienced this. Daily they were under the killing; daily they were being put to death.
The apostles experienced this killing work “that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body.” The killing of the cross results in the manifestation of resurrection life. This daily killing is to release the divine life in resurrection. The life in verse 10 is the resurrection life, which the Lord Jesus lived and expressed through the working of the cross.
In 2 Corinthians 4:16 Paul says, “If indeed our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day.” The outward man is our body and our soul, with the body as its organ and the soul as its life and person. The inward man is our regenerated spirit with our renewed soul. The regenerated spirit is its life and person, and the renewed soul is its organ. The life of the soul must be denied (Matt. 16:24-25), but the functions of the soul-the mind, will, and emotion-must be renewed and uplifted by being subdued (2 Cor. 10:4-5) to be used by the spirit, the person.
The Greek word rendered “decaying” also means being consumed, being wasted away, being worn out. By the continued killing, the working of death, our outward man, that is, our material body with its animating soul (1 Cor. 15:44), is being consumed and worn out.
The inward man is renewed by being nourished with the fresh supply of resurrection life. As our mortal body, our outward man, is being consumed by the killing work of death, our inward man, that is, our regenerated spirit with the inward parts of our being (Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10; Rom. 7:22, 25), is being metabolically renewed day by day with the supply of resurrection life.
In 2 Corinthians 4:17 Paul says, “For our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory.” The affliction here refers to the putting to death, the working of the cross. Literally, “more and more surpassingly” means excessively unto excess. The eternal weight of glory is in contrast to the momentary lightness of affliction. Glory here is the expression of God as resurrection life and is in contrast to affliction. The momentary lightness of affliction works out for us an eternal weight of glory.
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