James 1:2-8 – Persecution, Wisdom, and Hedging our Bets

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

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 1:2-8

While the recipients of James’s letter may have longed for home upon first hearing its opening words, James’s next words would have quickly brought them back to earth. He wrote, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2). Even the hope for future heavenly joys can be dashed when we encounter present earthly troubles. James wrote to address life’s harsh realities and bring practical advice to all believers living away from their true home.

The early Jewish believers did not leave persecution behind in Jerusalem; the book of Acts reminds us of the constant conflict they experienced (Acts 6:1, 9; 9:23; 11:2; 13:45, 50; 14:2, 19; 15:1, 5; 17:5, 13; 18:6, 12; 19:9; 21; 23). The believers were questioned as to whether they were discarding the laws of Moses, frequently persecuted because of false perceptions surrounding their newfound faith, and oppressed in every other facet of their lives.

The modern reader most likely doesn’t understand this sort of persecution. We might be mocked a little at work because we go to church or because we pray. We might have antagonistic neighbors. We might even have family members who don’t approve of or understand our beliefs. But I suggest that not many of us are shunned and castigated by those with whom we once had the closest camaraderie like the early believers. When they fled Jerusalem, one of the first things they would have done was to locate a synagogue. But many of these synagogues had heard about them and, as often happened to Paul, would have been antagonistic towards them, possibly even forbidding them to enter the synagogue. The life of tradition and ritual that had defined these Jewish believers in Jerusalem was taken from them. Even so, James still began his letter by saying, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.”

I think this is the point where I’m supposed to say that James wasn’t telling them to find joy in the actual persecution itself, but I’m not so sure that would be accurate. In Acts 5:40-41 we read this, “and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name.” The apostles rejoiced that they were persecuted for preaching in the name of Jesus.

Certainly, they found joy because of what the persecution provided for them — steadfastness in their faith — but they also found joy in the fact that they were persecuted for the right reason. And that is key; for the right reason. Peter writes, “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed” (I Peter 3:13-14). But James and Peter didn’t make this stuff up on their own; they were repeating what Jesus had taught them. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12). Persecution for the right cause is always a reason to rejoice.

But this doesn’t mean we should search out persecution; not at all. It is enough to be a disciple of Jesus and a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven; persecution will follow on its own. And when it does, we should emulate the disciples and rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus.

We must, however, keep in mind that James is talking about persecution because of our faith. I don’t think he is talking about trials associated with an aging body, poor finances, misfortunes from car accidents, storm damage, ever-changing zoning laws, political upheaval, or a loss in a championship game. No, James is specifically talking about persecution that comes as a result of our faith. Those other misfortunes might be painful, and they may, in some way, lead to us being more focused and resilient, but those aren’t his focus. God, Jesus, and James want us to become the person we were first intended to be when God created the human race; perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

But ever since the fall, our path to perfection is filled with trials. And when trials come, what do we do? If you are like me, you probably try to avoid the problem; you may even become a spiritual Clint Eastwood; strong and silent weathering every storm on your own. While that might be our natural response, James has a different suggestion.
Don’t you find it interesting that when James addresses what we might lack he doesn’t mention strength or power? Instead of those, our usual go-to’s, James mentions wisdom. James knows that our lack of wisdom has been our downfall since the garden. Genesis 3:6 says, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.”

Prior to this point in the Bible, wisdom is not mentioned; and there could be one of two reasons for that: either wisdom didn’t exist, or wisdom came from a different source. We can rule out the first option since wisdom was with God from the foundation of the earth (Proverbs 8:22-31). That leaves us to believe that wisdom came from a different source than the trees. And in fact, it did. Wisdom was with God from the beginning (Proverbs 8:30-31). Adam and Eve had direct and constant access to wisdom as they walked with God in the cool of the garden every day. But Adam and Eve wanted to find and have wisdom on their own.

That doesn’t sound much different from us, does it? Our natural inclination when we are in the midst of trials and persecution is to do things our own way; either we gut it out or we read the most recent self-help book to discover a nugget of wisdom that might help us weather the storm. But according to James, gutting-it-out and self-help are not the ways to go; the only source of wisdom for us is God. But we must ask for it. And the last time I checked, that means we need to bend our knees and pray. And, James writes, if we ask God he will generously give us wisdom. That’s quite a promise, isn’t it?

But, James also says don’t doubt. Now, I know some people have suggested that this means we should not experience any sort of doubt in our life of faith, but I don’t believe that captures the meaning of James’s words. James is talking about doubt associated with our receiving wisdom from God. Another way to explain this, in more modern terms, would be to say that we should not hedge our bets when looking for wisdom; God alone is sufficient. We hedge our bets when we rely on sources of wisdom other than God or in addition to God. In the event that God’s wisdom doesn’t pan out the way we hope for, we want something else to rely upon.

I am reminded of Jesus’s closing words in the Sermon on the Mount. He said that the person who hears and obeys his words is like one who builds his house upon a rock, but the person who does not obey his words is like the one who builds his house upon the sand. Hedging our bets when it comes to wisdom is like placing one foot on the rock, God, and one foot on the sand, human wisdom, in the hopes that one of the two will withstand the storm. But when the storms come, even with one foot planted on the rock, the other foot will falter and you will be swept away. James puts it this way, “he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

I’m sure it was tempting for the first-century Jewish believers to return to the sand when they were under the thumb of persecution. The rituals from the Mosaic laws had been their rock for generations, and perhaps they thought they could hold onto both Jesus and Moses while under persecution. But James wrote that they must embrace the rock when the storms of persecution come. The true rock, Jesus, (not Dwayne Johnson), is the only source of wisdom that can bear up under the weight of persecution.

In very specific terms, I think this means that we should fill our minds with the Word of God and persist in prayer. Yes, I just said something that seems old-fashioned; read the Bible and pray. I know there are tons of other options available today that James’s audience didn’t have. Every day a new book is published; every minute a new podcast is launched; our friends are constantly at our fingertips giving us advice; we even have weekly sermons. All of these can be good things, but none of them are substitutes for reading the Word and praying.

Certainly, there are many good Christian books and resources available today. Perhaps we should pay attention to some of them. But I find that those resources only offer play-dough to eat when a steak awaits me in the next room. None of them can be a replacement for reading the Bible. I might even suggest that we should not spend more time consuming those resources than we do the Bible. Or to put it another way, we should read the Bible more than we go to those resources.

Read the Bible. Read the Bible completely each year. Study books of the Bible; study specific passages every day. There is no substitute for God’s written word. None. You may miss out on some new, cool, popular resource by spending more time in the Bible, but you should be okay with that. The depths and richness of the Bible are inexhaustible; it alone should be our source of wisdom. On it alone should we stand, not one foot on the rock and one on the sand.

I encourage you to consider the sources of wisdom to which you go every day, month, and year. Do you place both feet firmly on the rock, or do you doubt and hedge your bets?