Author Archives: Mark Heath

Book Review–The Message of Nehemiah (Raymond Brown)

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The volumes in the Bible Speaks Today series generally fall somewhere between being an expository sermon series and a commentary. This one definitely tends more towards the sermon side of things. With 260 pages at his disposal, Brown has time not only to give us a good explanation of what is going on in the book of Nehemiah, but to explore some of the related issues that each chapter raises. For example, he uses Neh 2:11 as a springboard to discuss the importance of taking rest.

Naturally, Brown picks up on the great leadership example of Nehemiah, but I was pleased to see that this was by no means the only or even primary message he draws out of the book. He draws just as much attention to Nehemiah’s prayer life, love for the Scriptures and commitment to holiness as to his leadership acumen.

Interestingly, Brown attempts to draw parallels between our present society (he is writing in 1998 in the UK) with that of Jerusalem at the time of the return from exile. Whilst this may seem a little far-fetched, he identifies forces of secularism, materialism and pluralism as being the common link between our contexts.

Brown is helpful in the way that he helps to put Nehemiah’s story in the context of biblical books of a similar era – Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah and especially Malachi, noting that the book of Nehemiah does not have a contrived “happy ending”, but shows the beginnings of spiritual decline that Malachi would have to address in the years to come.

He attempts to draw out principles from the various moral reforms that Nehemiah promoted, rather than arguing for either Christian adherence to Sabbath observance and tithing (for example), or for the irrelevance of these OT laws to believers under the New Covenant.

Overall I would recommend this to those wanting to explore the contemporary relevance of the book of Nehemiah for us today. Brown touches on a broad range of topics as he goes through the story, and there will be plenty of helpful ideas for those wanting to teach through the book of Nehemiah.

Book Review–The Presence and the Power (Gerald Hawthorne)

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I’ll start straight off by saying this is one of the best books I have read all year. On almost every page I found myself wanting to underline something, but since I had borrowed it from a friend, I couldn’t. I may have to buy my own copy just to be able to do so, although sadly it seems to be currently out of print.

In this book, Hawthorne sets out to explore the role of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of Jesus. He looks at how the Spirit was involved in Jesus’ conception and birth, and goes through his childhood, his baptism and temptation, his teaching and miracles, and right through to his death and resurrection. What is surprising is how few others have tackled this subject in a sustained manner. Hawthorne is a Professor of Greek, and this book is fairly academic in feel. However, his devout faith and reverence for Christ shines through.

The first chapter gives a brief introduction to who the Holy Spirit is, since the gospel writers seem to take for granted that their readers are already familiar with the person of the Holy Spirit. Hawthorne also addresses the question of who Jesus is. He makes a special point of underscoring the full humanity of Jesus, something that no orthodox Christian would deny, and yet a truth whose implications are not always fully recognised.

The central thesis of the book is that “the Holy Spirit was the divine power by which Jesus overcame his human limitations, rose above his human weakness, and won out over his human mortality”. In other words, he makes the bold claim that all that Jesus accomplished is not merely attributable to his divinity, but rather to the fact that he was a human filled with the Spirit without measure.

Lest anyone suspect him of emphasising the humanity of Christ at the expense of his unique divine nature, Hawthorne also enumerates several ways in which Jesus was unique: he was sinless, his ministry was unique, he was aware of a special relationship with God as his Father, and, most significantly, he was the pre-existent Son of God.

The bulk of the book deals with the life of Jesus in stages. First of all, a chapter deals with the conception and birth of Jesus. He argues that Jesus, like John the Baptist, was filled with the Spirit from the womb. He claims that Jesus’ humanity was comparable to that of Adam’s before the fall – free from sin but also susceptible to sin. Jesus’ sinlessness was therefore a choice, not merely a logical necessity.

Despite there being very little biblical material available, Hawthorne also explores the role of the Spirit in the boyhood and youth of Jesus. He argues that it was the Holy Spirit who was filling Jesus with wisdom, and equipping him for ministry. He reminds us that Jesus is not presented in the gospels as a superhuman child, but one who followed the normal patterns and means of growth and development.

Another chapter explores the Spirit at the baptism and temptation of Jesus. His reconstruction of the event is fascinating. Rather than assuming that Jesus set out with the expressed intention to get baptised by John and then begin his public ministry, Hawthorne suggests that as Jesus listened to John the Baptist’s sermon, he was stirred by the Spirit to respond in obedience. Furthermore, we have no reason to believe that he knew that a voice from heaven would speak to him, assuring him of his sonship, nor that he would then go into the wilderness. His Spirit baptism changed the trajectory of his life dramatically.

He points out that the voice from heaven in Luke 3:22 addresses Jesus personally. It was for his benefit. Though he was aware from the age of 12 of a special relationship with the Father, it is possibly only at this point that he learns more fully of his true identity. Or as Hawthorne puts it “Jesus’ awareness of sonship was subject to growth and development, perhaps even to a degree of uncertainty, in need of constant illumination and affirmation.”

The next chapter looks into the Spirit in the ministry of Jesus. Again, Hawthorne has many interesting suggestions in this section, including the possibility that Jesus claiming to have seen Satan fall like lightning from heaven was a prophetic vision rather than necessarily a memory from his pre-birth existence with the Father. He also makes a compelling case that even Jesus’ miracles were not performed by virtue of his divine omnipotence, but through the power of the Spirit. In addition to surveying the explicit mentions of the Spirit, Hawthorne has also gone to some lengths to find implicit evidence for the Spirit in the gospel accounts, particularly in the use of the words exousia (authority) and dynamis (power).

The final chapter surveying Jesus’ life looks at his death and resurrection. Whilst the gospels are largely silent on the Spirit’s role in these events, the rest of the New Testament is not. He looks at various scriptures including Rom 8:11, 1 Cor 6:14 and 1 Tim 3:16, exploring the role of the Spirit in raising Jesus from the dead.

A number of the arguments put forth in this book have the potential to be highly contentious. Whilst in charismatic circles the concept of Jesus performing miracles by the Spirit’s power is more commonly accepted, it certainly is not agreed with everywhere. And perhaps even more sensitive is the suggestion that Jesus had to learn who he was rather than being perpetually aware. Hawthorne deals with this first by surveying church history and highlighting a number of heretical christological views that have been rejected by the church over the ages. He warns that “in a legitimate concern to preserve at all costs the deity of Jesus Christ, many contemporary teachers of the church have followed the lead of the ancient fathers and have become de facto Docetists”.

This leads him to discuss “kenotic Christology”. The original proponents of this thesis suggested that Jesus “emptied” (Phil 2:7) himself of the divine attributes of omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence. Hawthorne distances himself from this view, but follows Vincent Taylor in proposing a modified form of it, in which Jesus willed to renounce divine prerogatives in order to live as a human. In other words, the divine attributes of omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence were present but not operative. He chose to do his miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit, rather than that he had no other option. Taking this view avoids the problematic conclusion that other evangelicals have come to that Jesus had some kind of dual consciousness – an omniscient, omnipresent one, and a human one.

A final chapter explores the implications of his findings for the followers of Jesus. If he is right, then Jesus set an example that we really can follow, if we too are filled with and yielded to the Spirit. The Acts of the Apostles is a book that demonstrates what is possible for ordinary people to do under the influence of the Spirit. “The Holy Spirit is God present and active in the lives of Jesus’ followers not to make life rich and comfortable for them, but to equip them to fulfil God’s mission for them in the world.”

This is a rich and thought-provoking book, and I am not yet sure how to what extent I go along with his conclusions. I would say he makes a very compelling case, and one that makes a lot of sense to me. In particular, I think this makes for a much more trinitarian christology, since it presents Jesus as living not only in close communion with his Father, but in complete dependence on the Spirit. So this book comes with a very high recommendation from me. It is not particularly long (less than 250 pages), but it took me a while to get through it since there is a lot of material to digest and ponder. I’d be very interested to hear what others who have read it think.

Book Review–ZEC James (Craig Blomberg & Mariam Kamell)

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The Series

Since this is the first commentary in the brand new Zondervan Exegetical Commentary series, slated to cover the entire New Testament, let me take a moment to describe the series. It is bound in hardback, with the slightly squarer pages that Zondervan seem to be preferring these days.

The way the commentary is structured is reminiscent of the NIV Application Commentary, except for this one has more sections.

Literary Context deals with issues of structure, and the flow of argument throughout the book. Then Main Idea is a single paragraph summary of the main point of the passage under study. Then follows Translation which is actually presented in a chart form analysing the sentence structures. The translation itself is actually a bit cumbersome to read, as it is fairly literal in style. Next follows a section on Structure which essentially describes the findings of the chart. Following that we have Exegetical Outline which again reviews the structure, but rephrased as whole sentences (a bit like the main points from a sermon). In many ways, this was the most helpful section of the structure analysis.

As can be seen, with five sections devoted to structure and literary context, this is a strong focus of the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary series. Whilst it claims to be targeted at preachers, I couldn’t help wondering whether at least part of the goal was for them to become standard seminary textbooks for those studying their way through a book.

Having covered the structure and outline, the Explanation of Text is the main meat of the commentary. Each verse is presented in English first then Greek. What follows is primarily exegesis, although occasionally it strays into application. Greek words are often used, although always translated on their first use. There are plenty of quotes and insights from other commentators (especially Moo, Davids, Laws and Martin). There is also a generous amount of footnotes, again often interacting with other commentators.

Finally, Theology in Application attempts to apply the teaching of the passage to modern day life. Often this section takes the opportunity to briefly survey other passages of the Bible that teach on the same theme. The comments sometimes reference current events or movies, and deal with potential with misunderstandings or inappropriate applications of the text. Even this section is worded in a fairly academic way, so despite superficial similarities, the feel is very different to the NIV application commentary series.

Finally, in various places there are In Depth sections which are essentially excursuses taking on a particularly difficult exegetical issue.

The Introduction

Apparently long introductions are not intended to be a feature of the ZEC series, so this one covers the usual points in reasonably succinct style. For structure they state that James consists of about a dozen passages of preachable length, and go broadly with David’s approach, identifying three key themes of trials, wisdom, and riches & poverty. They argue that “the letter is heavily indebted to the Jesus tradition and is therefore fully Christian”.

"Faith in action, especially social action, remains central for this author … James sees no tension between orthodoxy and orthopraxy.”

Interestingly, an analysis of the theology of James is left out of the introduction in favour of a section at the end of the book, which highlights several key themes before selecting single-mindedness as the unifying theme of the book.

The Commentary

This particular commentary is co-authored by Craig Blomberg along with his research assistant Mariam Kammell. It would seem from the preface that Kammell was primarily responsible for drafting the “explanation of text” sections, with Blomberg doing the rest, although they make it clear that the whole volume is a joint effort.

I was reading this at the same time as reading Douglas Moo’s superb commentary on James in the Pillar series, so the question I had in my mind was, what added value did this volume give? Perhaps the main strength for me was the fruits of Blomberg’s prior work for Neither Poverty Nor Riches shining through. This commentary seems to pack more of a punch when dealing with the issues of money and poverty. It was brilliant on Jas 1:27 discussing care for the helpless.

James asks, in essence, “Did you in fact realize that the meeting of needs is not peripheral, nor optional, but central and obligatory to your faith?”

There are some helpful quotes in the section that works through the relationship between faith and works.

“Works” here are not the Pauline “works of the law” such as circumcision, but rather the works of love, such as caring for those who are in need, not showing favouritism, being humble, or being slow to speak.

Where Paul denies the need for pre-conversion works, James emphasizes the absolute necessity of post-conversion works.

One of the “in depth” sections deals with the question of whether the “teachers” in mind in James 3 were only men. They argue that 1 Tim 2:12 restricts the office of elder to men, but does not restrict women from teaching.

As I mentioned, the commentary on areas of the letter touching on wealth and poverty tends to be the most incisive and challenging. For example, on James 5:1-6 they comment:

How many upper- or middle-class Western Christians have so many extra, largely unused clothes, so that, were it not for mothballs or their equivalent, they would have become moth-eaten. How many have other needless possessions, even investments, that are not being used for much of anything…

How many churches think that the only realistic option when they outgrow one facility is to build a bigger, more upscale one, with perhaps millions of dollars diverted from truly helping the world’s destitute, physically and spiritually?

The explanation of the text is thorough but not exhaustive. For example, on Jas 5:16 I was hoping to read something on the meaning of δικαιου (righteous) but it was not touched on.

The theology in application section is a welcome addition, but should not be looked to as a source of a quick sermon outline. I appreciated the attempts to prophetically challenge the evangelical church, and their willingness to make potentially controversial statements, such as criticising church building projects, or a number of statements on the church’s attitude to gays and lesbians:

Many conservative Christians vote against equal rights for gays and lesbians without any balancing, positive actions to show them Christ’s love, making the legislation merely judgmental rather than fully scriptural.

The generous number of genuinely helpful footnotes is also a big strength of this volume (and hopefully the whole series). I found they were regularly worth consulting, unlike the more academic footnotes found in many other commentaries.

I would also say it is a series that I will watch with some interest, even though it is fighting for space in an already very crowded New Testament commentary market. The format seems well suited for working through an epistle. I will be interested to see how well it works for the gospels, with Grant Osbourne’s Matthew due to be published soon.

Book Review–The Letter of James (Douglas Moo)

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Introduction

Douglas Moo has a well-earned reputation for being one of the finest New Testament commentators, and this volume in the Pillar New Testament Commentary series is no exception to his usual high standard of work. It begins with a thorough introduction, which includes a defence of James the brother of Jesus as author. He dates it in the mid 40s, with the assumption that James was not yet familiar with what Paul meant by “justification by faith”, but had heard the phrase being used (or abused). He devotes several pages in the introduction to the topic of “faith, works and justification”, in which he compares James and Paul’s teaching. He does not see a fundamental contradiction, rather that they are bringing complementary teachings targeting different errors: “Paul strikes at legalism; James at quietism.”

Commentary

The commentary itself is based on the NIV text and works through usually a verse at a time. He doesn’t assume the reader has knowledge of Greek, although some understanding will help. His interest as a Bible translator shines through as he often explores the semantic range of a word, and he likes to highlight good translations (and occasionally criticise – such as the use of “happy” instead of “blessed”).

He breaks the letter up into small chunks, while acknowledging that it is very hard to find a structure to James. He keeps the sermon-like feel to James by making his section headings read like sermon points.

Whilst the Pillar series is primarily focused on explaining the text, there is latitude to discuss the theological implications, which Moo often does, albeit succinctly. He is a cautious exegete, never making the text say more than it actually does. He is particularly helpful in the parts where James is accused of being at odds with Paul, by looking at the different ways they each use the words “faith”, “works”, and most importantly “justify”.

Moo believes that “the heart of the letter is a call to wholehearted commitment to Christ.” He is especially helpful in highlighting links to the teaching of Jesus, as well as how James understood the “law”. Having read a few commentaries on James now, I would say that Moo remains my favourite. Sometimes I wish he would be a bit more preachy, but it is an invaluable aid to any serious study of the book of James.

Book Review–The Message of Ezra and Haggai (Robert Fyall)

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This is one of the most recent additions to the Bible Speaks Today series, and covers two books that fall into the post-exilic time-frame. Fyall recognizes that Ezra and Haggai are often neglected in favour of the slightly more accessible account of Nehemiah, and the more vivid prophecy of Zechariah. Nevertheless, he is determined to demonstrate to us that both books have a message for us today.

He identifies the main themes of Ezra as: God, the worship of God, the people of God, and Scripture and prayer. Its ongoing relevance is that it demonstrates that God never abandons his purpose or gives up on his people, but gives light for their guidance.

His approach is to work through the text, often making points of application along the way, but then a few pages at the end of each chapter are deliberately focused on what the contemporary message for the church is. Many of these points centre on the importance of the Word of God, the presence of God and the holiness of God.

The commentary on Haggai presents him as a prophet who had to confront a people like the church at Laodicea – tepid and complacent. Haggai’s style is blunt and succinct, with his prophecy a mixture of encouragement and rebuke. The temple for Haggai is the visible sign of God dwelling amongst his people by his Spirit. Fyall makes a point of showing how there is more going on here than simply a building project.

Overall I would say that I enjoyed working through this volume on two books of the Bible I don’t know particularly well. He gives enough background to help you piece together the timelines of the two books, but the focus throughout remains on finding what the Bible says today to our own situations.

Book Review: REBC Exodus (Walter Kaiser)

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I have reviewed various other commentaries in this series (find them here) so I won’t repeat my comments on the layout of the series, which is very good.

226 pages are devoted to this volume on Exodus, which is bound with Sailhamer on Genesis and Hess on Leviticus. The introduction is brief. Kaiser says that Exodus was never intended to exist separately from the rest of the Pentateuch. He accepts Mosaic authorship and defends the historicity of the book:

we are left with no explanation for Israel’s appearance on the historical canvas at all when we try to explain the emergence of this nation and this time without the presence of a Moses or an Aaron.

Exodus is a book full of foundational theology – containing God’s revelation of his person, his redemption, his law and his worship. He broadly structures the book as follows:

  1. God’s plan for deliverance (chs 1-19)
  2. God’s plan for morality (chs 20-24)
  3. God’s plan for worship (chs 25-40)

His commentary on the first of those sections was I felt the best material. His analysis of the three-fold promise of Ex 6:6-8 is good, and he provides a helpful chart giving an overview of the plagues. His interest in linking the plagues to known natural phenomena of the time is fascinating (e.g. deducing what particular disease the cattle died of), but perhaps not altogether what I was looking for from this commentary. However, despite his willingness to see God working through non-miraculous means for many of the plagues, he is not anti-supernaturalist, and accepts several other miracles features in the account (e.g. the manna, after ruling out various naturalistic explanations).

Kaiser shows an Arminian bias in his comments on the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, explaining God’s announcement in Ex 7:3 as the “occasion” but not the “cause” of his hardening. He makes an interesting point on Ex 12:3-11 and Ex 19:5-6, that God’s original intention was for the whole nation (i.e. not just the Levites) to be a nation of priests. Rather curiously this leads him to suggest that the “priests” of Ex 19:22 means everyone. He considers the “pillar of fire” to be the same as the “angel of the Lord”, which is also to be identified with the “shekinah glory”, which is Christ himself.

He sees the tabernacle as embodying the theology of worship – it signifies that God has come to dwell in the midst of Israel as he would one day come in the incarnation and will again in the second advent. He offers a few brief and tentative suggestions as to the symbolic significance of various items in the tabernacle. The commentary on this latter part of the book seems to speed up, to the point where chapters 36-39 are handled in one brief chunk, which mainly refers you back to his comments on the same topics earlier.

Since this commentary series has limited space, it is only reasonable to recognise that not every exegetical, historical and theological issue can be covered. But Kaiser’s interest in certain historical matters, such as whether crocodiles are to be found in the Nile, or what similarities the law might have with the Eshnunna Law, often meant that more pressing matters for expositors (which is who this series is aimed at) were left untouched. For example, preachers will probably want to wrestle with why some of the laws can seem unfair to us. Sadly, he opts to refer us to other works he has written on OT ethics without summarising his conclusions.

Overall then, I would say that this commentary on Exodus, while having some interesting insights here and there, didn’t quite scratch where I was itching, and I don’t think it fulfils the goal of being a commentary ideally suited to “expositors” (unless they are willing to supplement it with further reading). I’m going to try out Enns (NIVAC) or Stuart (NAC) next time I go through Exodus, as both those commentaries seem to be highly regarded.

James 1:25 The “Law of Liberty”

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But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. James 1:25

Laws forbid us from doing certain things, or command us to do things. By their very nature, therefore, they restrict our freedom to do whatever we like. So when James uses the phrase, “the law of liberty”, we might be tempted to think it is an oxymoron, a bit like saying “the chains of freedom”.

To understand this phrase, we first need to ask what “law” James is referring to. We might assume that he refers to the law of Moses, to the 10 commandments and the other rules and regulations of the Old Covenant. But commentators are broadly agreed that this is not in fact the case. Douglas Moo puts it like this:

James’s “law” does not refer to the law of Moses as such, but to the law of Moses as interpreted and supplemented by Christ.

In other words, James is referring to what we might call the “New Covenant law”, or the “law of Christ”. Elsewhere James calls it the “royal law” (James 2:8) and here in James 1:25 he calls it the “perfect law”. It is the law “written on our hearts” that Jeremiah prophesied (Jer 31:33). So the “law” essentially refers to God’s will for the way we are to live. It is as the Spirit fills us that we are given the three things we need to live according to this law:

  1. The knowledge of what God’s will for our lives is
  2. The desire to live in a way that is pleasing to God
  3. The power to overcome sin and temptation and to do God’s will

But that still doesn’t full answer the original question. How is living this way “freedom”? The answer surely is that true freedom comes when we do what we were made to do. “Freedom” to sin isn’t freedom at all – in fact, Jesus makes plain that sin leads to the very opposite of freedom – slavery (John 8:34). The question for us is are we willing to believe this? The most liberating way of life that is possible is one that gladly submits to the gracious constraints of God’s law. What seems like a straightjacket to the carnal-minded person, is glorious freedom for the God-obsessed.

James 1:17 – The Father of Lights

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Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:17-18

In James 1:17, James refers to God as “the Father of lights”. I never really understood why he used this unusual name for God here. But thanks to some insights from a few commentaries, it makes a bit more sense to me now.

“Father of lights” refers us back to creation, when God said “let there be light” (Gen 1:3) on the first day. Then on the fourth day God said “let there be lights” (Gen 1:14) such as the sun, moon and stars.

Instead of calling God “Creator”, which makes us think of the awesome power required to create a vast universe, James uses the name “Father of Lights” to point us to the perfection of God’s creation. This name underscores that everything God makes, everything he does, and everything he gives us is “good and perfect”.

Which I think helps make sense of another difficult phrase in verse 18, which speaks of us as the “firstfruits of his creatures”. James is picturing believers as the first parts of the new creation. And just as the first creation was good and perfect, so his new creation also is good and perfect. This is of course one of the great paradoxes of the Christian life – as a human being I am flawed and fallen, but as a new creation, I am “good and perfect”.

James 1:8 The “Double-Minded” Man

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If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:5-8 (ESV)

This passage talks about someone who needs wisdom. Perhaps they have a big decision to make. So they pray and ask God to give them wisdom. Now, I have always assumed the warning of verses 6-8 to mean that the person praying for wisdom is being punished for thinking “maybe God won’t answer my prayer, maybe he won’t give me wisdom”.

This interpretation could put you in a catch 22 situation if you are an introspective sort of person. Until you read this verse, you were confident you would get your request granted, but now you are not so sure, which more or less guarantees that it will be denied!

But I wonder if something else is going on. Most commentators agree that the concept of being “single-minded” as opposed to “double-minded” is a running theme throughout the book of James. The single-minded person is living wholeheartedly for God, whilst the double-minded person is vacillating between living for God and for the “world”.

So perhaps the double-minded man’s internal struggle is not so much “will he or won’t he give me wisdom?” but “do I or do I not want to what God wants”. He is saying to God, “tell me what I should do, but if I don’t like the advice, I reserve the right to do my own thing instead.”

The challenge for us then is not “does God really want to give me wisdom”, but “do I really want to know his will”? Or am I happier making my own plans and decisions?

James 1:2 Trials of Various Kinds

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I’m just finishing a study on the book of James, and have decided to do a short series of posts exploring some of the verses that particularly struck me along the way. First up is James 1:2

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds

There is a school of thought, amongst those who emphasise supernatural healing, that although Christians should rejoice when they face persecution, they should not do so in the face of other trials, such as sickness. From those trials we should simply pray for escape.

This verse in James, however, points in a different direction. It is not that James disagrees with praying for escape from trials. Later in the letter he explicitly gives instructions on receiving prayer for healing (James 5:14-16).

But the “various trials” he is referring to in this letter are not primarily persecution. As you go through the letter, you see that the biggest trials facing the believers at that time were that many were extremely poor, and were being exploited and oppressed by the rich.

When James gets round to selecting examples of those who set a good example of patience in the face of suffering, he picks out the “prophets” (James 5:10), who did indeed suffer persecution, but also he selects Job (James 5:11).

The interesting thing about Job is that his suffering was not persecution. He suffered illness, bereavement, and financial loss. Yet in a strange way, he too was suffering for righteousness’ sake. Though he had no way of knowing it, it was his righteousness that was the cause of Satan’s attack (Job 2:3-4).

Modern day examples of Job’s suffering might be godly pastors like Matt Chandler and PJ Smyth, who are facing serious illness, or Dave Matthias, who has been blogging recently about the grief of losing an unborn child. When James asks them to “count it all joy” he is not saying something like “always look on the bright side of life”. The point is not “cheer up, because although this terrible thing happened to you, you will grow in character as a result”. Growth in character (James 1:3-4) is only a side benefit; there is a deeper reason for joy.

The ultimate reason we can have joy as we face “various trials” is that we are a people of hope. Joy in the face of suffering is only possible if we see the bigger picture, believing God’s promises regarding our future. Trials do cause us grief, but we can also face them with joy if we are a people of hope, as James explains in James 1:12

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.