James 1:12, Endure
James 1:12, “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.”
“The man that endureth.”
We need endurance. We need men and women of God that can endure. We are not promised an easy race, but God does promise that we can endure. Hebrews 12:1 tells us to “run with patience the race that is set before us.” Running this race is not about being the fastest and crossing the line first. We need to be faithful to finish. The best tool a long-distance runner can develop is endurance. How do we endure the temptations and trials in order to finish?
Hebrews 12:1 further instructs us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” Sin is a terrible thing that will cause us not to finish this race to receive the reward. Sin easily besets us. While we know that none of us are perfect or will reach perfection this side of eternity, how we regard sin makes a great difference in how we run this race. Unconfessed and unforsaken sin in our hearts interrupts our relationship with God. Psalm 66:18 warns that “if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Sin ruins our joy, our peace, and even our ministry. David prayed in Psalm 51 for the cleansing of his heart from sin so that he could see restoration in these areas and more. We will not endure if we allow sin to beset us.
Sin is not the only besetting factor in this race; we can also be hindered by weights that we carry along. In my college days, I would try to schedule my classes spread apart enough for time in between for travel. But for an odd semester or two, I would have to schedule back to back classes that were located on the top floors of buildings at opposite ends of the campus. The only way to make that trip successfully was to sprint carrying the books and materials for both classes in my backpack. What I learned is that if you are going to run a race, better to not do so with a heavy weight strapped to your back. In fact, runners can be so conscious of excess weight that they choose their shoes by which weighs less (ounces of difference) to be as light as possible. Extra weight can beset you or hold you back in a race. You want every advantage possible.
Another way to understand the idea of besetting weight is from the wisdom of 2 Timothy 2:4 which states, “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.” The last thing a soldier needs when going to battle is to be thinking of things at home or elsewhere that might distract him from his mission. If his mind is elsewhere, it may cost him his life or the life of a fellow soldier. A soldier must be focused on the job at hand.
So must we Christians not be entangled with the affairs of this life, or, in other words, we cannot burden our backs with unnecessary weights of which have no eternal value but simply encumber us and hold us back. Maybe it isn’t something you can find listed as a sin, but maybe it falls under the category we find in 1 Corinthians 6:12, “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” It might be lawful (not a sin per say), but it also might not be expedient or profitable. We need to strive to not be under the power of any such weight.
What are these weights? This varies from person to person. A good test is to ask yourself, “Is this activity or thing hindering my relationship to God? Am I doing this more than or instead of spending time in prayer and in God’s Word? Do I allow this to keep me from regular attendance to church? Do I think about this more often than it really deserves? Is this my drive more than service to God?” You may think of other questions that could help identify the weights in your life that could beset you in this race and cause you not to endure.
More importantly, we need to ask God to reveal the weights and the sins that would hold us back and cause us not to endure temptation. We need to pray as the Psalmist did in Psalm 139, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Let God reveal to you what you can lay aside for the cause of endurance and allow Him to make the change in your life. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
“When he is tried.”
We can endure when we are tried! This is another example of “when” used instead of the word “if.” We will be tried, and when this happens, we need to endure. We must endure, if not for our own sakes, then for the sake of the next generation. We must be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus so that we can teach the next generation to do the same and “teach others also.”
