James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Tribulation apparently drove these Christians to scatter in the dispersion and James wastes no time emphasizing the ongoing nature of their trials. Though “trials” usually denotes persecution, James qualifies them as presenting in various, or diverse, kinds, ποικίλοις, meaning that their trials consisted of many different types of opposition, hardship, and suffering. Probably we could sum these trials up by saying these are the general hardships, to varying degrees, faced by Christians in a corrupted world.
But these trials offer a benefit: they lead a person to maturity, a perfection and completeness that arrives without lack. A great benefit indeed. If a person desires to be perfect and complete, lacking nothing, at least in the sense that James intends, they must participate in steadfastness, or ‘endurance’ in a number of other translations, that comes in the testing of faith. And these tests of faith come by means of trials. The biblical writers know of no other pathway for Christian maturity. The prophets of old and the Apostles of the new, including Peter and Paul, all speak to the same process.
Here’s the process, simplified. We walk the path of life illuminated by Jesus. Trials meet us on the path. These trails last for an indeterminable amount of time. That length of time tests our faith. As we endure, faith strengthens. And a strengthened faith produces its good end, a perfect and complete Christian maturity, realized apparently to some degree in this life, but only perfectly fulfilled at the return of Jesus.
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