Why should we count it all joy? First Reason
In my previous post , I argued that James has in mind trials that challenge our confidence in God's goodness, wisdom, faithfulness, or power. Why are we supposed to count falling into such trials all joy? James gives a two part answer. The first part is in Jam. 1:3 -- "knowing this that the trying of your faith works patience." The word "knowing" is a participle both in English and in Greek. In both languages, participles are usually subordinate to (dependent upon) the main verb in a sentence. That means that participles give additional information about the main verb. In this case, the main verb is "count" ( ἡγήσασθε ) in Jam. 1:2. The participle in v. 3 gives the reason why James is telling his readers to count faith-testing trials all joy: because we know that such trials of our faith produce patience. As noted previously , the word translated patience ( ὑπομονήν ) is not the ability to stand in a long checkout line at a Walmart without losing your ...