James 1:12
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.
Blessed is the man
The word "blessed" in Greek is "makarios," which conveys a sense of deep, spiritual joy and contentment. This is not a fleeting happiness based on circumstances but a profound state of well-being that comes from being in right relationship with God. In the context of James, this blessing is not just for anyone, but specifically for the "man" who endures trials. Historically, the early Christians faced persecution and hardship, and this blessing would have been a source of encouragement, reminding them that their struggles were not in vain.

who perseveres under trial
The Greek word for "perseveres" is "hypomenō," which means to remain steadfast or endure. This endurance is not passive but active, involving a steadfast faith and trust in God despite difficulties. The "trial" refers to various forms of testing or temptation that believers might face. In the historical context of the early church, trials could include persecution, poverty, or social ostracism. The call to persevere is a call to maintain faith and integrity, trusting that God is sovereign over all circumstances.

because when he has stood the test
The phrase "stood the test" comes from the Greek "dokimos," which means approved or proven genuine. This implies a process of refining, much like gold being tested by fire to remove impurities. The trials faced by believers serve to purify their faith, proving its authenticity. In the scriptural context, this echoes the refining process described in passages like 1 Peter 1:7, where faith is compared to gold tested by fire.

he will receive the crown of life
The "crown of life" is a metaphorical expression, drawing from the imagery of a victor's wreath awarded in ancient athletic games. The Greek word "stephanos" refers to this type of crown, symbolizing victory and honor. In the Christian context, it represents eternal life and the ultimate reward for faithfulness. This promise of a "crown of life" serves as motivation for believers to remain faithful, looking forward to the eternal reward that awaits them.

that God has promised
The assurance of this promise is rooted in the character of God, who is faithful and true. The Greek word "epangellomai" means to announce or proclaim a promise. This is not a human promise, which can be broken, but a divine assurance that is certain and reliable. Throughout Scripture, God's promises are depicted as unchanging and trustworthy, providing a foundation for believers' hope and perseverance.

to those who love Him
The phrase "those who love Him" identifies the recipients of the promise. The Greek word for love here is "agapaō," which denotes a selfless, sacrificial love. This love is not merely an emotional feeling but a commitment and devotion to God, demonstrated through obedience and faithfulness. In the broader biblical narrative, love for God is the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37), and it is this love that motivates believers to endure trials and remain faithful.

Persons / Places / Events
1. James
The author of the epistle, traditionally identified as James, the brother of Jesus and a leader in the early Jerusalem church. He writes to encourage believers facing trials.

2. The Recipients
Early Christians, likely Jewish believers scattered among the nations, facing persecution and trials for their faith.

3. Trials
The various difficulties and persecutions faced by believers, which test their faith and perseverance.

4. Crown of Life
A metaphorical reward representing eternal life and victory, promised to those who remain steadfast in their love for God.

5. God's Promise
The assurance given by God to those who love Him and endure trials, highlighting His faithfulness and the ultimate reward for perseverance.
Teaching Points
Perseverance in Trials
Trials are an opportunity for growth and strengthening of faith. Believers are called to endure with patience and trust in God's purpose.

The Promise of Reward
The "crown of life" symbolizes eternal life and victory. It serves as motivation for believers to remain steadfast in their love for God despite challenges.

Love for God as Motivation
True perseverance is rooted in a deep love for God. This love compels believers to remain faithful, knowing that God is faithful to His promises.

Testing as a Means of Refinement
Trials test and refine faith, much like gold is refined by fire. This process is essential for spiritual maturity and growth.

Encouragement in Community
Believers are encouraged to support one another in trials, reminding each other of God's promises and the eternal perspective.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding the "crown of life" as a reward for perseverance influence your perspective on facing trials?

2. In what ways can you cultivate a deeper love for God that motivates you to endure challenges?

3. How can the community of believers support each other in times of trial, according to the teachings of James 1:12?

4. Reflect on a time when a trial tested your faith. How did it refine or strengthen your relationship with God?

5. How do the additional scriptures (Matthew 5:10-12, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Revelation 2:10, Romans 5:3-5) enhance your understanding of James 1:12 and its application to your life?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Matthew 5:10-12
Jesus speaks about the blessedness of those who are persecuted for righteousness, connecting to the theme of enduring trials for a heavenly reward.

1 Peter 1:6-7
Peter discusses the testing of faith through trials, which refines believers and results in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Revelation 2:10
Jesus promises the crown of life to those who are faithful unto death, reinforcing the reward for perseverance.

Romans 5:3-5
Paul explains how suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope, aligning with James's message about the benefits of enduring trials.
Advantage of TemptationS. Rutherford.James 1:12
Benefit of AdversityJames 1:12
Blessing in TrialC. F. Deems, D. D.James 1:12
Christ TriedJ. W. Hardman, LL. D.James 1:12
Divine TestingH. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.James 1:12
Enduring TemptationA. C. Watson, B. D.James 1:12
Enduring TemptationJohn Adam.James 1:12
Enduring TemptationsI. S. Spencer, D. D.James 1:12
Sermon on a Martyr's DaySusannah Winkworth James 1:12
Strength Through TrialJ. W. Hardman, LL. D.James 1:12
Temptation Does not Create EvilW. W. Champneys, M. A.James 1:12
Temptation: its Origin and EndH. Farley, B. A.James 1:12
The Benefits of AfflictionR. Baxter.James 1:12
The Blessedness of Enduring TemptationJ. Jowett, M. A.James 1:12
The Crown of LifeB. Jacobi.James 1:12
The Crowning of Patient EnduranceJ. M. Sherwood, D. D.James 1:12
The Discipline of TemptationBp. Temple.James 1:12
The Flag Nailed to the MastJ. W. Hardman, LL. D.James 1:12
The Good Life Exposed to TemptationJames 1:12
The Need of TestingF. M. Miller.James 1:12
The Probation of ManJames Bromley.James 1:12
The Rewards for Enduring TemptationEvangelical PreacherJames 1:12
The Secret and the Reward of ConstancyS. Cox, D. D.James 1:12
The Tempted Soul CrownedJ. Irons.James 1:12
Trial a Source of FruitfulnessJames 1:12
Trial Increases UsefulnessJ. W. Hardman, LL. D.James 1:12
Trials EnduredT. Manton.James 1:12
Tried Christians UsefulJ. W. Hardman, LL. D.James 1:12
True Blessedness Here and HereafterC. H. Spurgeon.James 1:12
The Natural History of EvilC. Jerdan James 1:12-15
Temptation and its HistoryT.F. Lockyer James 1:12-18
People
James
Places
Dispersion
Topics
Approval, Approved, Becoming, Blessed, Blessing, Crown, Endure, Endures, Endureth, Gain, God's, Happy, Love, Loving, Patiently, Perseveres, Promise, Promised, Proved, Receive, Stood, Temptation, Test, Testing, Trial, Trials, Tried, Undergoes, Victor's
Dictionary of Bible Themes
James 1:12

     1620   beatitudes, the
     4126   Satan, resistance to
     4938   fate, final destiny
     5262   commendation
     5280   crown
     5467   promises, divine
     5473   proof, through testing
     5484   punishment, by God
     5569   suffering, hardship
     5593   trial
     5874   happiness
     6251   temptation, resisting
     6647   eternal life, experience
     7028   church, life of
     8027   faith, testing of
     8031   trust, importance
     8105   assurance, basis of
     8106   assurance, nature of
     8110   athletics
     8140   prize
     8162   spiritual vitality
     8231   discipline, divine
     8296   love, nature of
     8418   endurance
     8476   self-discipline
     8832   testing

Library
February 28. "Count it all Joy" (James i. 2).
"Count it all joy" (James i. 2). We do not always feel joyful, but we are to count it all joy. The word "reckon" is one of the key-words of Scripture. It is the same word used about our being dead. We do not feel dead. We are painfully conscious of something that would gladly return to life. But we are to treat ourselves as dead, and neither fear nor obey the old nature. So we are to reckon the thing that comes as a blessing. We are determined to rejoice, to say, "My heart is fixed, O God, I will
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Fourth Sunday after Easter Second Sermon.
Text: James 1, 16-21. 16 Be not deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 19 Ye know this, my beloved brethren. But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

George Buchanan, Scholar
The scholar, in the sixteenth century, was a far more important personage than now. The supply of learned men was very small, the demand for them very great. During the whole of the fifteenth, and a great part of the sixteenth century, the human mind turned more and more from the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages to that of the Romans and the Greeks; and found more and more in old Pagan Art an element which Monastic Art had not, and which was yet necessary for the full satisfaction of their
Charles Kingsley—Historical Lectures and Essays

October the Eighteenth Unanimity in the Soul
"A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." --JAMES i. 1-8. If two men are at the wheel with opposing notions of direction and destiny, how will it fare with the boat? If an orchestra have two conductors both wielding their batons at the same time and with conflicting conceptions of the score, what will become of the band? And a man whose mind is like that of two men flirting with contrary ideals at the same time will live a life "all sixes and sevens," and nothing will move to purposeful
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

May the Fifth Healthy Listening
"Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only." --JAMES i. 21-27. When we hear the word, but do not do it, there has been a defect in our hearing. We may listen to the word for mere entertainment. Or we may attach a virtue to the mere act of listening to the word. We may assume that some magical efficacy belongs to the mere reading of the word. And all this is perverse and delusive. No listening is healthy which is not mentally referred to obedience. We are to listen with a view to obedience,
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

An Address to the Regenerate, Founded on the Preceding Discourses.
James I. 18. James I. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. I INTEND the words which I have now been reading, only as an introduction to that address to the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, with which I am now to conclude these lectures; and therefore shall not enter into any critical discussion, either of them, or of the context. I hope God has made the series of these discourses, in some measure, useful to those
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

On Patience
"Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." James 1:4. 1. "My brethren," says the Apostle in the preceding verse, "count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." At first view, this may appear a strange direction; seeing most temptations are, "for the present, not joyous, but grievous." Nevertheless ye know by your own experience, that "the trial of your faith worketh patience:" And if "patience have its perfect work, ye shall be perfect and
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

On Charity
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." 1 Cor. 13:1-3. We know, "All Scripture is given by inspiration
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Loving Advice for Anxious Seekers
However, the promise is not to be limited to any one particular application, for the word, "If any of you," is so wide, so extensive, that whatever may be our necessity, whatever the dilemma which perplexes us, this text consoles us with the counsel, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God." This text might be peculiarly comforting to some of you who are working for God. You cannot work long for your heavenly Lord without perceiving that you need a greater wisdom than you own. Why, even in directing
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 13: 1867

All Joy in all Trials
Beginning with this word "brethren," James shows a true brotherly sympathy with believers in their trials, and this is a main part of Christian fellowship. "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." If we are not tempted ourselves at this moment, others are: let us remember them in our prayers; for in due time our turn will come, and we shall be put into the crucible. As we would desire to receive sympathy and help in our hour of need, let us render it freely to those who are
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 29: 1883

The Days of the Week
JAMES i. 17. Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is neither variableness, nor shadow of turning. It seems an easy thing for us here to say, 'I believe in God.' We have learnt from our childhood that there is but one God. It seems to us strange and ridiculous that people anywhere should believe in more gods than one. We never heard of any other doctrine, except in books about the heathen; and there are perhaps not three people
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

Sermon on a Martyr's Day
Of three sorts of spiritual temptation by which holy men are secretly assailed; to wit: spiritual unchastity, covetousness, and pride. James i. 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. ALL our life (says Job), so long as we are upon earth, is full of struggle and temptation, insomuch that this life is not called a life by the Saints, but a temptation. When one temptation is over,
Susannah Winkworth—The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler

The Sixth Petition Corresponds as we have Observed to the Promise of Writing the Law...
The sixth petition corresponds (as we have observed) to the promise [26] of writing the law upon our hearts; but because we do not obey God without a continual warfare, without sharp and arduous contests, we here pray that he would furnish us with armour, and defend us by his protection, that we may be able to obtain the victory. By this we are reminded that we not only have need of the gift of the Spirit inwardly to soften our hearts, and turn and direct them to the obedience of God, but also of
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith

The Deepest Need of the Church Today is not for any Material or External Thing...
The deepest need of the Church today is not for any material or external thing, but the deepest need is spiritual. Prayerless work will never bring in the kingdom. We neglect to pray in the prescribed way. We seldom enter the closet and shut the door for a season of prayer. Kingdom interests are pressing on us thick and fast and we must pray. Prayerless giving will never evangelise the world.--Dr. A. J. Gordon The great subject of prayer, that comprehensive need of the Christian's life, is intimately
E.M. Bounds—Purpose in Prayer

Biographical Preface.
"The Church! Am I asked again, What is the Church? The ploughman at his daily toil--the workman who plies the shuttle--the merchant in his counting-house--the scholar in his study--the lawyer in the courts of justice--the senator in the hall of legislature--the monarch on his throne--these, as well as the clergymen in the works of the material building which is consecrated to the honour of God--these constitute the Church. The Church is the whole congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Antecedents of Permanent Christian Colonization --The Disintegration of Christendom --Controversies --Persecutions.
WE have briefly reviewed the history of two magnificent schemes of secular and spiritual empire, which, conceived in the minds of great statesmen and churchmen, sustained by the resources of the mightiest kingdoms of that age, inaugurated by soldiers of admirable prowess, explorers of unsurpassed boldness and persistence, and missionaries whose heroic faith has canonized them in the veneration of Christendom, have nevertheless come to naught. We turn now to observe the beginnings, coinciding in time
Leonard Woolsey Bacon—A History of American Christianity

The Puritan Beginnings of the Church in virginia ---Its Decline Almost to Extinction.
THERE is sufficient evidence that the three little vessels which on the 13th of May, 1607, were moored to the trees on the bank of the James River brought to the soil of America the germ of a Christian church. We may feel constrained to accept only at a large discount the pious official professions of King James I., and critically to scrutinize many of the statements of that brilliant and fascinating adventurer, Captain John Smith, whether concerning his friends or concerning his enemies or concerning
Leonard Woolsey Bacon—A History of American Christianity

The Neighbor Colonies to virginia-Maryland and the Carolinas.
THE chronological order would require us at this point to turn to the Dutch settlements on the Hudson River; but the close relations of Virginia with its neighbor colonies of Maryland and the Carolinas are a reason for taking up the brief history of these settlements in advance of their turn. The occupation of Maryland dates from the year 1634. The period of bold and half-desperate adventure in making plantations along the coast was past. To men of sanguine temper and sufficient fortune and influence
Leonard Woolsey Bacon—A History of American Christianity

Directions to Church-Wardens, &C.
CHURCH-WARDENS are officers of the parish in ecclesiastical affairs, as the constables are in civil, and the main branches of their duty are to present what is presentable by the ecclesiastical Jaws of this realm, and repair the Church [1] . For the better information of Church-wardens as to those particulars, which they are to present, [2] articles are to be given them extracted out of the laws of the Church, according to which they are to make their presentments, Can. 119. They are obliged twice
Humphrey Prideaux—Directions to Church-Wardens

Theological Controversies and Studies
(a) Baianism. Schwane, /Dogmengeschichte der neuren zeit/, 1890. Turmel, /Histoire de la theologie positive du concile de Trente au concile du Vatican/, 1906. Denzinger-Bannwart, /Enchiridion Symbolorum/, 11th edition, 1911. Duchesne, /Histoire du Baianisme/, 1731. Linsenmann, /Michael Baius/, 1863. The Catholic doctrine on Grace, round which such fierce controversies had been waged in the fifth and sixth centuries, loomed again into special prominence during the days of the Reformation. The views
Rev. James MacCaffrey—History of the Catholic Church, Renaissance to French Revolution

The Downfall, 1616-1621.
The dream of bliss became a nightmare. As the tide of Protestantism ebbed and flowed in various parts of the Holy Roman Empire, so the fortunes of the Brethren ebbed and flowed in the old home of their fathers. We have seen how the Brethren rose to prosperity and power. We have now to see what brought about their ruin. It was nothing in the moral character of the Brethren themselves. It was purely and simply their geographical position. If Bohemia had only been an island, as Shakespeare seems
J. E. Hutton—History of the Moravian Church

Knox and the Book of Discipline
This Book of Discipline, containing the model of the Kirk, had been seen by Randolph in August 1560, and he observed that its framers would not come into ecclesiastical conformity with England. They were "severe in that they profess, and loth to remit anything of that they have received." As the difference between the Genevan and Anglican models contributed so greatly to the Civil War under Charles I., the results may be regretted; Anglicans, by 1643, were looked on as "Baal worshippers" by the
Andrew Lang—John Knox and the Reformation

Whether Sacred Doctrine is a Practical Science
Whether Sacred Doctrine is a Practical Science We proceed to the fourth article thus: 1. It seems that sacred doctrine is a practical science. For "the end of practical knowledge is action," according to the philosopher (2 Metaph., Text 3), and sacred doctrine is concerned with action, according to James 1:22: "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only." Sacred doctrine is therefore a practical science. 2. Again, sacred doctrine is divided into the Old and the New Law, and the Law has to do with
Aquinas—Nature and Grace

Wherefore Let this be the First Thought for the Putting on of Humility...
42. Wherefore let this be the first thought for the putting on of humility, that God's virgin think not that it is of herself that she is such, and not rather that this best "gift cometh down from above from the Father of Lights, with Whom is no change nor shadow of motion." [2172] For thus she will not think that little hath been forgiven her, so as for her to love little, and, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish her own, not to be made subject to the righteousness
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

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