Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
— James 1:12
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
— Romans 5:3-4
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
— James 5:7-11
Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
— Proverbs 9:4-6
Patience and Its Perfect Work, by Thomas Goodwin.
Introduction
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.—JAMES 1:1–5.
Christian patience is my subject, and the perfect work of patience, ver. 4; but as an introduction thereunto, I must first open some things of the words in ver. 1, 2.
1. As to the persons he writes to, they were ‘the twelve tribes scattered,’ that had been and were bereft of their inheritance in their native country, and quitting that, had betaken themselves to banishment; multitudes of them, I do not say all, as appears, Acts 8:1,’And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.’ And, Acts 11:19, we find them travelled as far as Phenice, Cyprus, Antioch; who went from thence afterwards into other countries. The other Apostle who wrote to the same persons, comforts them with this—1st Epistle 1:4—that they were begotten again to a bettor inheritance than that of Canaan, which now they were deprived of.
2. I observe that though these had been made thus sufficiently destitute and desolate already, and driven from house and home to seek their livelihoods, with their families, in foreign countries, that yet still great and pressing troubles and miseries did follow them, as one wave doth after another: they were continually falling into divers and sundry temptations of all sorts. God ‘tries us every moment,’ as in Job 7:18; we are chastened every morning, Ps. 37:13; and ‘killed’—that is, in danger of death—’all day long,’ as Rom. 8. God had not yet done with these.
3. He utters the strangest paradox upon this occasion that ever was or can be uttered; and begins with it, ver. 2,’My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.’ Thus bluntly and abruptly, without any mollifying preface or sweetening introduction, unless that of ‘my brethren,’ to make way for it. The fore-part,’count it all joy,’ seems to carry a moral contradiction in the face of it unto the latter part,’when ye fall into divers tentations;’ and this latter seems to put an impossibility upon the former, which is the duty exhorted unto.—Let us consider every word of each.
1. Were it simply that they are called upon to rejoice, how uncouth is this to men in that posture and circumstance they are supposed fallen into! Well, but yet count it joy, says he: not only moderate, keep in, and smother your contrary passions,—which was the highest lesson that philosophy and the Stoics, the best of philosophers, had taught,—but the gospel calls upon us ‘therefore,’ &c., or for and upon these temptations, to rejoice. ‘Count it joy;’ that is the first.
2. All joy; the highest joy, for so ‘all joy’ must needs be supposed to be.
3. And this, not when they should see by experience the glorious issue and event these temptations do produce; but to account it all joy beforehand, as if they were possessed of what God promiseth shall be the assured and ‘expected end,’ Jer. 29:11; and to be beforehand as sure of it as if they had it already.
4. It is not when they are assaulted with troubles, but when temptations are actually broken in upon them, and they lie under them.
5. Nor yet when they are led into them by steps, or had met with them as in their way; but when they ‘fall into’ them. It is a downfall he speaks of, and that suddenly, at once, and utterly unexpected by them.
6. Not when you fall into one or two, but into many temptations; as, elsewhere, the word ‘divers’ here is translated, 1 Peter 1:6,’manifold:’ and many is imported in manifold.
7. And those not of one sort or kind, but ‘divers,’ and so of several sorts, as in good name, reproach, revilement: divers also as to their bodies, souls; their relations and families, friends, wives, children; inward, outward man.
8. When you fall (περιπέσητε) into them, as into a pit and snare, and so they falling round about you; so as you have nothing to stand or lean upon, but all about you falls with you and under you, so as in all outward appearance ye are sunk and overwhelmed with the ruins.
In this case to ‘count it all joy,’ to shout as men in harvest, or that have gotten great spoils; when their miseries are so great that they cannot be endured, that yet their joy must be so great as more cannot be expressed; this is the hardest duty that ever was required of the distressed hearts of men. And yet God would not require it if it were not attainable; and it is attainable by no other principles but of Christianity. And argues that our Christian religion, which is the only true wisdom, ver. 5, hath so spiritful and sovereign a virtue in it that it is able to raise spirits up unto thus high and glorious a pitch and perfection in this life.
But they might say, You have propounded this hard and strange duty to us; what ground is there that may rationally and effectually persuade and bring our hearts to it? What considerations that may procure us this joy, and how may we be wrought up to it? For God never gave any commandment but there was a full and sufficient ground and reason to enforce it.
He gives them two grounds: one at the 3d and 4th verses,’Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.’ This is a ground from what follows in this life. The other is at the 12th verse, ‘Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life.’ This is the reward that follows in the life to come, in the hope and expectation of which you may count it all joy that now you are tried; for the end and issue of them is a crown of glory, which these do work, as 2 Cor. 4:17,’For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’
I begin with the first, what ground there is in this life to cause us to rejoice in such temptations. This, in the 3d and 4th verses,’Knowing’— that is, deeply considering and weighing this principle of our Christian profession—’that the trying of your faith works patience.’ That is one and the first, in which the Apostle tacitly supposeth this maxim, and builds upon the supposition of it; it lies at the bottom, and yet is enough implied. It is this: That to have our graces, especially to have our faith and patience tried and drawn forth and exercised in us, to the glory of God, is the greatest blessedness of a Christian in this life.
That this is the bottom ground is evident. For why else should he propose and hold forth this of all other, with a ‘for,’ or particle, that gives the reason of what he had now said? That seeing their faith and other graces, as patience, &c., would be tried thereby, that therefore they should ‘count it all joy.’ My brethren, if we had eyes to see and to consider it, we might know, that as to have grace that accompanies salvation is the greatest mercy can befall any one in the world; so to have that grace tried and exercised and drawn forth to the utmost, is a thing of the greatest moment, the greatest spiritual privilege that can come to us after that we have that grace. And therefore, when trials come, we are to think with ourselves, Now will my graces be tried, now is that befallen me which will do it; this ought to be matter of the greatest joy to me. For from this ground and reason it is that the Apostle bids them count it all joy. And hereupon it is, for no other doth he mention here, this alone being the greatest advantage that a Christian is capable of in this life; and in this life only it is that grace is exercised.
And the reason of it lies in this, that for grace to approve itself to God in a way of the greatest well-pleasing to him, and so as to come to be approved of by God; and for a man’s sincerity to have God’s approbation and testimony,—as to Abraham,’Now I know thou fearest me,’—this is the greatest privilege a saint can have, and this ought to be matter of the greatest comfort. And it is our greatest glory, according unto that, 2 Cor. 10:17,’He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord;’ which he there speaks in reference unto what follows in ver. 18,’For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.’ Both which the Apostle spake as that which he comforted himself withal, yea, and gloried in, even the Lord’s approving of him. Job also comforted himself with this: chap. 23:10,’When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.’ The Apostle saith,’The trial of your faith is more precious than gold;’ and he speaketh it of the very instrument or means by which your graces are tried: the very calcining pot, or the fire, whereby it is tried—τὸ δοκίμιον, his word is—even that is more precious than gold. Then much more the graces that are tried. And therefore the Apostle by his τὸ δοκίμιον intends and means these very afflictions and tentations by which we are tried. They are the refiner’s pot and fire. You would rejoice if you had so much gold given you. Then rejoice that you have so much affliction to try your gold. That your graces are so highly valued by God is the reason why he tries them; he would not be at the pains and cost of it else. And they being tried, and holding to be right and true gold indeed, they have thereupon his approbation upon that trial; and he sets his royal Tower stamp and mark upon them, secretly in this life, and the same will openly appear to all the world at latter day; so, in 1 Pet. 1:6, 7,’Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.’ It will be found unto praise then; but it is unto praise before God now, as much as it will be then.
He mentions faith—’for the trial of your faith’—in the first and chief place, as that grace which is the most tried; and as that which, being tried, sets all the rest on work. I need not much insist on it. It is faith that shall be counted for honour and glory at that day, having been tried. It is faith which bears, and by which we bear, the stress of all tentations. It is faith by which we overcome: 1 John 5:4, 5,’This is the victory which we have over the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world? He that believeth,’ &c.
A second and more particular principle or maxim, which concerns this life, and should cause us to rejoice, is, that faith, being tried, works patience; and that if patience have its perfect work, it will make us perfect Christians. ‘But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.’
He enlargeth no further upon faith; only gives it the honour that it is the mother grace, and of patience especially, when itself is tried. But he had no sooner mentioned patience but he runs out upon that, and falls upon the greatest encomium and praises of it: Let patience have its perfect work, and it will make you perfect. Now there is no occasion, or room, or work fur patience, unless there be tentations. And patience, its work is but so far as the affliction proves to be. So then, his second argument runs upon this principle, that the full work of patience in our souls is, of all other graces, the highest perfection of a Christian: and therefore, ‘count it all joy to fall into tentations;’ for thereby you will have that grace drawn forth to the fullest length, wound up to the highest peg, which is not done unless tentations be answerable. And in all your trials let it but have its swing, its perfect work, and it will make your persons perfect,— that is, as perfect as in this life you can be made.
Quest.—But in what respect doth it make us perfect?
Ans.—Not only in this sense—for there is a double sense of that speech— either as if when we had exercised all other graces, but yet have not had occasion for this one, that when this shall be added, that then they should he perfect Christians. But this is not the meaning, for this may be said of any other graces:, qs if a man hath exercised all other graces, if he begins to exercise any one new grace, it may be said there is a perfection in this respect. As when he says to the Corinthians,’As you have abounded in every other grace, so abound in this also,’ 2 Cor. 8:7. But there is another sense, and that is his scope here, which is not to extol a perfection in common with other graces, but a singular perfection to be attributed to patience: Let patience but have its perfect work, and that alone will make you eminently perfect. And in scope is to comfort them against the greatest trials and occurrences of their lives—’tentations.’ And therefore a singular and special encomium is attributed herein unto patience, which is the shield against them.
My brethren, to give the full sense of this, I will make a supposition. Suppose a Christian to have had the privilege to have lived in the exercise of all graces in a way of acting, or of an active life, as to have lived in sweet communion with God, and to have walked in the light of God’s countenance all the day, Ps. 89:15; and withal to have had the opportunity of doing good, and accordingly to have done much good in an active way, as having been abundant in good works, holy duties, praying, reading, holy conferences, &c.; but yet all this while with a freedom from suffering, so as he hath not had the suffering part yet, so as there hath been no need for, or use of patience. Suppose another Christian, who hath been obstructed and hindered and kept from such an active life of doing good with that freedom spoken of, but the dispensation of God hath disposed him to a suffering life all his days, and confined him thereunto, and therein his patience hath been exercised under all sorts of tentations; and then withal, suppose that patience, with all those gracious dispositions of heart that are proper to it, hath had its free and full passage through his heart,—such as I shall hereafter describe,—hath had its operations all sorts of ways, according as his afflictions have been: this alone would so draw out and exercise all graces, and head them, that you would say, This man is a perfect Christian; shall I say more perfect than the other? At least the text says that this makes him a perfect man.
Or again, if you will suppose one that hath been very active in the foregone part of his life, and done God great service, with an enlarged heart; and that at last, after he hath done the will of God, further to crown all, God will exercise this man’s patience with great sufferings, and draweth it forth according to these his trials,—that man is perfect every way, and he lacked till then that which is his greatest perfection, and he was not before every way accomplished.
For proof that patience is the eminent perfection of a Christian—
1. Take the instance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. What was Christ’s perfection? He had been perfect in all active obedience, complete in all graces, yet the glory of his perfection is put upon his sufferings and his patience, Heb. 2:10,’For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.’ This of patient enduring was that which enhanced and exalted his obedience so: Phil. 2, ‘He humbled himself, and was obedient to death,’ &c. This of patient enduring was obedience learned: Heb. 5:8,’Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by what he suffered.’ The active part of obedience was natural to him, he being, as the natural Son, the Holy One of God; having the law of God in his heart, and it was his delight, his meat and drink, to do his will, Ps. 40:8, Heb. 10; that is, this was natural to him. But for him to suffer who was the Son, and so to be patient in suffering, who was so great a person, this was to be learned, as that which was improper for such a person, the Son. And yet, as I may say, this perfected the natural accomplishments of him; this was a lesson out of the road, utterly uncouth and extravagant. He must go to school, therefore, to learn this. For so that text implies; this he was to learn, as that which would perfect him above all. And so, indeed, to this purpose it follows in ver. 9,’Being made perfect,’ that is, by what he suffered,—as in the verse before, and chap. 2, he had also said,—and as that which did perfect him, more than all his other obedience, and rendered him more acceptable to his Father. Now it was his patience and enduring wherein that his obedience principally lay; which accordingly is so often spoken of him, as Heb. 12, ‘He endured the cross,’ ver. 2; and ‘He endured such contradiction of sinners,’ ver. 3; the same word that here is used for patience; that the verb, this the noun. ‘Enduring’ is put to express ‘patience,’ and is the word used up and down the New Testament, and in this epistle most, to express patience by, as chap. 1:12, chap. 5:8, 10, 11. Now Christ did so endure. ‘He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; he opened not his mouth.’ Hogs cry, but sheep make no din when led to the slaughter, or when their throats are cut. And this was Christ’s proper and super-perfection, who is therefore proposed as an example of suffering and patience to us, and likewise of that glorious end and issue of it, in these words of that chap. 5:11,’Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord,’ namely of the Lord Christ, which many of these Jews he wrote to had seen with their eyes, or it was transacted in their times, and so in their view; they saw him suffer, and now they see him crowned with glory and honour, Heb. 2. That was the end of our Lord, and his sufferings, which made him perfect.
2. And as it was Jesus Christ’s perfection, so it was of the most eminent saints. Look again into this epistle, chap. 5:11, and you find the primitive principle that was in vogue to be,’Behold, we count them happy which endure,’—it is still the same word which is used for patience, as was said, —that is, We Christians generally esteem them the happiest men in the world that are most exercised with sufferings, and armed with patience to endure them. They are happy to a ‘behold!’ and so to a perfection, in our common esteem. ‘Behold, we count them happy!’ It was a common criedup maxim amongst them in those times, and the thing itself in greatest request. Then—
3. ‘Take the prophets for an example,’ says he, chap. 5:10. He commends them also for their patience, as well as for their prophecies. And though he describes them by this character and periphrasis,’that have spoken in the name of the Lord,’ yet that was but to set out and celebrate the example of their sufferings and patience the more. He sets the crown upon the head of that grace. Nor doth he mention any of the good they had done; nothing of that, but their sufferings only. And then by name he instanceth in Job. God boasted of him to Satan for his former active life in holiness; but you have no mention of that by the Apostle, nor in the New Testament, but he cries him up for his suffering and his patience only, as that which had endeared him to God more than all the former part of his life.
Lastly, Take the apostles. The Apostle in the Revelation puts it into his coat of arms as a piece of his nobility, and a part of his heraldry. ‘I John, who am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,’ Rev. 1:9.
Now, upon all these grounds, if you be true and right Christians, and know, as the Apostle’s word is, how to put a due estimate upon what is your greatest interest and privilege in this life,—viz., the proof and trial of your graces, and of this grace of patience above all, as the highest perfection of a Christian, yea, of Christ himself, and which was the most eminent praise of prophets and apostles,—if you value your being rendered most pleasing unto God, then count it all joy when you thus fall into tentations. For now you have God and Christ, the great, the chief master orderer and designer of these conflicts, setting his most gracious eye upon you, pleasing himself to behold how valiantly, wisely, and gallantly you behave and acquit yourselves. He sits in heaven as the great spectator of these jousts and tournaments, which are to him as spectacles which are sports to us; to which the Apostle alludes, 1 Cor. 4:9,’For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.’ Rejoice therefore, as good soldiers would, to enter into these lists, in the sight of their great general and emperor, whom they have given themselves up to please. Thus, 2 Tim. 2:4,’No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.’ Therefore get your hearts free and loose from all those entanglements that arise from adherency to the things of this world; from inordinate passions that cleave unto the things of this life, which will hinder and weaken you as to a patient bearing the losses and crosses you meet with in it: knowing also that you cannot please the captain of your salvation, nor approve yourselves more to him than by a patient endurance; which is, in the words before that passage, in that place to Timothy, exhorted to, ver. 3,’Therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ.’ And in its coherence this follows,’it pleaseth your general to see it.’ And in Col. 1, he first, in the general, prays, ver. 10, ‘that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing;’ which pleasing, as it consisteth in fruitfulness in good works, or the active life of a Christian,—’being fruitful in every good work,’ in the same verse,—so in being ‘strengthened with all might, unto all patience and long-suffering,’ as that which is the second, and chiefest, and most glorious part that a Christian is to perform, to consummate the other; and which, therefore, requires a more glorious power to work it than the former, the active part, did, as ver. 11 shews—’Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering.’
Thus much for the opening of the words, in order to that I am more setly to handle, which followeth.
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