Purpose of testing a Christian

James Ch 1: 2-4

2. My bretheren, 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.

James has a way of going against the flow. While it is normal for people to mourn and weep when they go through various trials and temptations, James asks the people of God to rejoice.

How is it possible for us to rejoice when we are hurt, or when things go wrong, or when we go through the valley of shadow of death? How can we be joyful when all we do goes awfully wrong? How can we be happy when everything that we worked so hard to built up is now in shambles? Let us look at the Bible as always for our answers. Some times the Bible talks to us in a roundabout way, and it does take a while to figure things out. I will try to explain this as well as I can.

In vs 3 James says that the “trying of your faith worketh patience.” When you accept Jesus as your personal savior, God instills a faith in us. This faith enables us to trust in God, in all circumstances. A new believer in the Lord is like a small baby, who is just learning new things. A child learns new things by experimenting or exploring. Sometimes it learns from harsh lessons. Whenever a child of God goes through trials, his/her faith is tried. This trial through faith teaches us several lessons, of which the most important one is patience. When our faith is tried several times, God teaches us to be patient.

Romans 5:3 says “Tribulation (sufferings) produces patience.” Putting these two verses together we see that when we go through trials or tribulations, our faith is tried and when our faith is tried, then we learn patience.

In I Pet 1:7 we read that the trail of our faith, which is much more precious than gold, is for praise and glory to our Lord Jesus Christ. Gold in its original state has many impurities. Gold has to go through a period of purification by melting it in a furnace at a very high temperature. After this process of purification, the impure gold becomes perfect.

Similarly when we go through trials and tribulations, our faith is tried, and we learn patience. This patience helps us go through many more tribulations that we may be found perfect and entire, wanting nothing (vs. 4) at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the reason why James asks us to count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations.

Secret of answered prayers (James 1: 5-8)