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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain James 1:3:
James 1:2-4
Excerpted from: Displaying a Good Conscience: PolitenessPatience requires vision—forethought. And as we are tested through trials involving others, patiently handling the situation according to God's instruction by extending mercy and forgiveness, we will develop righteous qualities within us.
So if we handle this testing correctly, it will develop unwavering faithfulness.
The word patience is too passive a translation of the Greek word hypomone used here in verses 3 and 4. It is not just the ability to endure, it is the ability to turn challenges into greatness and glory.
Hupomone or patience is the quality that enables a person not only to endure hardships but to overcome them. Testing patience helps develop the strength to handle even greater challenges. And that is why good conduct and manners and gentleness and politeness require a lot of patience.
James says that this unwavering faithfulness, which gives us patience, ultimately leads us to three things.
1. Unshakeable faithfulness makes us perfect. That is teleios in the Greek, meaning perfect for a specific purpose. Complete in mental and moral character growth. We are perfect when we are spiritually healthy enough to be offered to God without any disqualifying spiritual flaws, and then we are spiritually mature and fully grown.
And the way that James uses the word perfect means unshakeable faithfulness resulting from testing, in the sense of being spiritually healthy for the duty we are born to do.
2. Unshakeable faithfulness makes us complete, and that Greek word there is holokleros, meaning complete in every way, that is, perfectly sound in body. Over time this unshakeable faithfulness removes the weakness and imperfections from our character.
Daily, it helps us overcome past sins and shed old blemishes, so we can replace them with new virtues, and this process continues until we are fully spiritually healthy and ready to serve God in His Kingdom.
3. Unshakeable faithfulness makes us deficient in nothing, meaning we are not lacking in the unwavering faith needed to overcome our spiritual enemies. Paul states:
James 1:2-8
Excerpted from: Faith and PrayerThat is what we are dealing with here. James, in writing this, had a trial of some length in mind, the kind that we must persevere through. What he is saying is in order to persevere through it, in order to get to the end, we have to exercise patience. And he said in addition to that we better be asking God for wisdom to get through this trial. It is not just a matter of setting our will. It is a matter of going through it with the greatest amount of wisdom so that we learn as much as possible on the way through, because a person of faith understands that God has decreed that we wait. God in His wisdom has set up the answer in such a way that He is making us wait. He has made a test of our faith out of this. Therefore He wants other things to be accomplished while we are waiting for the answers. That is why the need for wisdom. As you are going through the trial James said you better ask for wisdom in going through this.
Wisdom here is not some kind of philosophical system, but rather it is the kind of wisdom that appears in the book of Proverbs, practical common sense on how to make the most and the best out of this thing that we are going through. What he is saying is, "Ask God for insight on how to manage the trial that you are going through so that you understand as much as you possibly can of the direction that God is taking this in so that you can cooperate to the fullest extent." I will tell you, when you do that, the pressure of waiting is going to dissolve because you are going to be concentrating on making the most out of the present. There is so much wisdom in this.
James 1:2-4
Excerpted from: Faith (Part One)Patience is needed because it is working something in us. It is going to produce something that is very valuable in regard to us glorifying God. It is going to be very valuable in regard to our relationship with God. It is going to be very valuable for us when we are in the Kingdom of God.
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