Exegetical Thoughts and Biblical Theology

Biblical Data: We are commanded to rejoice in the Lord – so joy must be, in part, a matter of the will (Matt. 5:12; Phil. 3:1; 4:4; 1 Thess. 5:16). We are told that joy is a fruit of the Spirit – so joy must be, in part, something we cannot produce on our own, but which is dependent upon the Spirit (Gal. 5:22; cf. Rom. 14:17; 1 Thess. 1:6). Paul prays that God would grant the Romans all joy and peace in believing (Rom. 15:13; 1 Pet. 1:8). So, joy is a gift of God that comes to us in the context of our believing. We are commanded to “count” things joy (Jas. 1:2) – so joy must be, in part, a matter of the mind. Paul testifies that he works together with the Corinthians for their joy (2 Cor. 1:24). Thus, joy is something we must labor for .  Laboring for joy may take a variety of forms. Two things stand out to me from Scripture. The first is the labor of keeping the mind focused in faith on God’s sufficiency and the effort of the will to choose to give thanks and prais...

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 ...