The Pursuit of Perfection | James 1:2-4

Introduction

A 2017 article in the New Yorker by J.B. MacKinnon begins with these words…

In the first light of dawn on June 3rd, two rock climbers approached the base of El Capitan, the towering stone heart of Yosemite National Park. They were first overwhelmed—everyone is—by the sweep of golden granite reaching twenty-seven hundred feet into the sky. Then they noticed a lone figure, not far above them, moving swiftly up the wall. Such is the lore of the valley that it could only be one person, could only be one moment. “Oh, my,” said one to the other. “It’s happening.”

On that early morning in June, Alex Honnold scaled the granite face of El Capitan in 4 hours without the aid of ropes and harnesses. This incredible feat, documented on the Oscar-winning (and palm-sweat inducing) film “Free Solo”, has been described as the perfect human achievement which transcends all sport. To call this a “record-setting event” doesn’t seem to do it justice. Usian Bolt is a record-setting runner. But a lot of people can run the 100m dash—just not as fast as he can. What Honnold performed was an event that no one has even qualified for, let alone are willing to participate in.

The stakes for free-soloing couldn’t be higher. It’s described as a “dance with death”—and the only way Honnold admits he is able to do this death-defying feat is not by just flying carelessly up the mountain despite the fear and danger—as if it really wasn’t that scary or dangerous—but confronting the very real possibility of death, and preparing himself and his responses in those moments. In his own words, “Ironing out all the details and the unknowns until there are no more questions to be ironed.” In short, he prepares. He knows he’s going to face fear and danger, and trains his body to respond differently to those things than it naturally wants to. The result? Were you or I placed in ANY similar scenario, we would be terrified, frozen, unable to move, panicked—Alex Honnold has trained himself to be in those same terrifying situations and to respond differently.

Now, that’s all well and good. We look at what Alex Honnold did and say, “wow, that’s incredible. And given the stakes, him completing that climb without dying could be called “perfect.” And when we look at the moral standards of the God we serve, it can feel an awful lot like free soloing—an awesome goal, but impossible. Pitfalls and sheer drops face us at every turn. And we look at our own lives and see that we are far from professional. The Christian life feels not like a stroll in the park, but a death-defying ascent up 3000 feet of sheer granite.

Part of what plagues us are the ever-present, never-ending obstacles of living in a broken world. We are constantly battling indwelling sin, constantly faced with difficult and trying circumstances, and not to mention we now live in this “Negative World” where even the culture around us is pressing in and putting the full-court press on you to get in line or be whipped out.

What are we to do? What hope is there? James answers that question in the most upside down, unpredicted, unnatural yet completely gospel-saturated answer. And the promise he gives you? Perfection. How? How can that be? Let’s turn to his word to find out.

Like any good race, like any good battle, like any job interview—how you begin matters. And what we find in these 2 verses is James’ opening volley in his all-out assault against any theology that would merely stay in our heads. Ryan mentioned last week that James is an earthy book—well, right off the jump, James nails us to the wall, grounds us in the material, and confronts us with the reality we all live in and demands that we grow and mature.

My aim this morning is to join with James and convince you of this:

Every circumstance has a divine purpose, ultimately for your total satisfaction.

And as we examine this incredible text, we will see the 2 ways the Lord means to grow and mature us through 2 commands: 1) Count it pure joy, and 2) pursue perfection.

Count it pure joy

Every word in these verses matter. Every word in this book matters. We believe that every word in this book is breathed out by God—they are his very words. So we need to linger and fight to understand exactly what James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is meaning to communicate to us. Because if we do, we can actually understand what God means to communicate to us! Truly, these words are more precious than gold, much fine gold.

And as we read through this letter, as you read through the NT in your Bible-reading plan, one pro-tip is to pay attention in particular to the commands—they are often the writer's main point. And as Ryan preached last week, James is slam-packed with commands and promises. And it is here in opening verses we see at the beginning how James intends to continue.

So, command 1: count it all joy. Critical to understanding this command is understanding what is meant by the word “it”. What is included in that word? And James answers that for us: “trials of various kinds.” 

It’s tempting to hear James here and think he just means when things are against you, when they’re not going your way. While that’s true, that’s not the whole picture. The "trials" James mentions is not just suffering, but the full range of fallen humanity—suffering (done to us or a result of our sin), temptations, and testings. The entire array of sinful humanity that we might experience—from within or without—is what we are to have in view.

We live in a broken world. We live in a world where we meet often, regularly, daily, hourly, trials of various kinds. This morning even, maybe you were fighting the fight of faith by just trying to get shoes on your kids. You’re fighting a 2-year old, wondering why they won’t listen..is it just how they are or have you failed as a parent. And maybe you respond in frustration and anger—you just want to do a simple thing like get their shoes on and get to church on time! But then you feel shame for responding sinfully and how you’re supposed to be the mature one and why can’t you control your own heart….and then you repent to them and they’re 2 so they blow you off and now you feel disrespected…all that happening in a 5 minute window in a normal, godly, loving home. 

Or maybe you agonizingly wrestle daily with unspeakable, deep grief. You’ve lost a loved one, or you yourself have received a diagnosis and don’t know what’s next, and try as you might to numb it in the day-to-day busyness of life and work, you get side-swiped by a gut-wrenching fear of the future, causing debilitating anxiety and stress.

Or maybe someone or multiple people have sinned against you and your family in deep, destructive ways. You constantly fight bitterness and anger and frustration that they just seem to have gotten away with it and no one seems to care.

Or your a stay at home mom, and just getting out of bed to face the day with kids that fight, and complain, and never say thank you, and get sick which gets you sick and everyone’s sick and the medical bills are flying in and the accounts are getting low and all of it seems to rest on you to hold everything together.

Or you're a dad, fighting the pressures of leading your family. You know and feel the call to lead and shepherd your wife and your kids…but it can feel overwhelming. You work all day, get home wanting to just relax and put your feet up, but your kids are pumped to see you, demanding you wrestle and play, and you feel run over. And you know you’re supposed to be leading your family in devotions and the spiritual welfare of the house, but you’re exhausted and feel unequipped to undertake such a task…

We could go on and on. We could go row by row, family by family, soul by soul, and we would begin to grasp all that James meant by “trials of various kinds.” It’s all here, it’s all a part of living in this broken world. Sin corrupts from within and attacks from without—and that’s true for even us who are in the church.

So it is in that context, in that reality, that James confronts us. And the way he confronts us is not by letting us dwell in self-pity about how hard life is and why won’t anyone notice…. No, James commands each of us that when we are in those situations, every time, to count it all joy. That verb, “to count”, could be translated “to regard”, “to deem”, “to consider”. It means to name it a certain kind of thing. And what are we to name our trials and sufferings? We could call them a lot of things, but James commands us that when, not if, when we encounter trials, to consider, to name, to deem them joy!

That….is quite a start to this letter.. And this is what makes James so incredible—this is unnatural. Like being 2000 feet up on the side of El Capitan, I would have a natural, visceral, unthoughtful, instinctual response to that—panic! But we are commanded to not respond to suffering and trials in a way that would be natural, but to respond with joy! To look at all the scenarios just mentioned and rather than feeling overwhelmed and buried and paralyzed, instead to see them as joy.

And notice, I think a better translation is “pure joy”. The type of joy James has in mind is not just "all" joy (nothing but joy), but more accurately "pure" joy (complete and unalloyed joy). John Calvin explains in his commentary on James…

When he bids us to count it all joy, it is the same as though he had said, that temptations ought to be so deemed as gain, as to be regarded as occasions of joy. He means, in short, that there is nothing in afflictions which ought to disturb our joy.

—John Calvin

Or, Doug Moo puts it this way…

James does not, then, suggest that Christians facing trials will have no response other than joy, as if we were commanded never to be saddened by difficulties. His point, rather, is that trials should be an occasion for genuine rejoicing. 

—Douglas Moo

No one would say that suffering is fun. James is not saying that. Experientially, it is grievous and this text is not attempting to deny that or say to you, “buck up! Stop feeling what you are feeling! Just smile, no matter how hard!”

Rather, the aim of this text is to help you in those moments of every kind of suffering by pulling your focus outside of that suffering to the bigger picture. The source of our joy is not the trials themselves, but in what they produce. Similar to taking your kids to the dentist to get a cavity filled…not fun, painful, scary, and yet you know that this is ultimately for their good because of the healthy teeth it will produce. The question for the child isn’t are they having a good time, but rather do they trust that their parents love them and that this is ultimately for their good? It is always a question of faith.

Our natural instinct is to view hard circumstances, suffering, trials, as obstacles to our joy. But what James explains is that hard circumstances are actually the means to our joy! In the midst of the storms of life, it is a text like this that can pull our heads above the canopy, orienting our perspectives above the chaos, and fix our eyes on Christ and on the Lord, who is working all things for our good. Peter says it this way…

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

—1 Peter 1:6–7

And it’s vital to remember that we can not produce this type of joy on our own. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit…meaning its source is not found in you, but in the Spirit. It is a supernatural thing that can not happen from our flesh. It is impossible to count it all joy from our own strength—as if we can just grit our teeth and begrudgingly count it all joy. No, we are dependent on the Spirit for everything, including the power and ability to name our suffering as a joyous thing.

So James commands and demands that we count every circumstance, no matter the season, as pure, unalloyed joy. Trials are a key ingredient in our sanctification, refining us, shaping us, producing in us steadfastness so that it is even more precious than gold. 

What is meant by steadfastness? Doug Moo again is helpful…

The picture is of a person successfully carrying a heavy load for a long time…Like a muscle that becomes strong when it faces resistance, so Christians learn to remain faithful to God over the long haul only when they face difficulty.

—Douglas Moo

Again, at the very base of the Christian life is faith—future hope that God will do what he said he would do. And our hope in suffering is that God would produce in us, by his Spirit, that very steadfastness promised here in James 1. Like the picture of someone carrying a heavy load, not just in the immediate short term, but over the long haul. Faithfulness over many years, through various seasons…that steadfastness.

Consider the people you know who you would describe as steadfast? What are some characteristics they all have in common? One thing is for sure that none of them were born steadfast. Steadfastness doesn’t work like that. By nature, it is a characteristic that requires testing over time. Think of the trustworthy people in your life. Why are they worthy of your trust? Because they have shown to be trusting over various seasons and over the long haul. So is the same with steadfastness. We can not receive this apart from seasons of suffering and trials. That is why every circumstance is an opportunity, an occasion, another at-bat for joy!

So count it all joy, my friends, whenever you face trials of various kinds—whether a season of suffering, or the daily fight of faith against your sin—because YOU KNOW, by faith, that in those moments the Lord is getting much work done in your soul and in your faith, strengthening it and refining it so that no matter the circumstance, what may be said of you is that you are steadfast.

James isn’t done with us. As valuable as steadfastness is, it is not the final goal of our suffering. The product of suffering is steadfastness, but steadfastness is a key ingredient to an even more incredible promise.

Pursue perfection

The second command in this majestic passage is passive in nature—don’t do something! And what are you not to do? Let steadfastness, allow steadfastness, to do what it must do—put a different way, don’t rob steadfastness of its value! And what is that incalculable value? Perfection. So we could say James commands us to pursue perfection!

Perfection. We hear that word and our immediate response is “not possible.” And yet…that is precisely what James is promising. I think it is passages like this that have caused the church historically to squint a little at this letter and say, “Hmmm….I don’t buy it. Sure, that’s ideal, that’s the goal, but we all know perfection is not possible.” And there is some truth to that. James is not talking about perfection in the eschatological sense—the perfection we will experience in heaven. We know this isn’t that type of perfection because of the second promise given—perfect AND complete, lacking nothing. Satisfaction. Perfect satisfaction and contentment. That is what is promised here and that is what is promised over and over again in Scripture as something we can experience here and now in this life. 

And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

—Isaiah 58:11

The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever!

—Psalm 22:26

For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

—Psalm 107:9

Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!

—Psalm 65:4

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

—Psalm 90:14

For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

—Jeremiah 31:25

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

—John 6:35

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

—Matthew 5:6

If you’re wondering, there are more. This book is filled to the brim with promises that if you come to this table, you will be satisfied. And how does James define satisfaction? Perfection, having no lack.

But again, remember the means to this satisfaction. What are the stepping stones that, if trodden, will bring us to the solid rock of satisfaction? Trials, suffering, and seasons of hardship. So the pursuit of perfection and satisfaction is not the removal of hard circumstances, but the endurance and growth in them. 

Doesn’t that give you hope in the midst of your suffering? Doesn’t that give you ballast in your ship in the midst of the seas, whether peaceful or stormy? Ultimately, the result of this process is becoming more and more like Christ.

Remember the incredible promise made in Romans 8…

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

—Romans 8:28–29

Our Lord is sovereignly working all things—all of it, the good things and the hard things, the peaks and the valleys, seasons of joy and seasons of sorrow—for your good and ultimately for your joy. And notice Paul’s logic here in Romans 8…all things are what are conforming us into the image of Jesus. In our union with him, we have hope.

And think of what it means to identify with Jesus, to be united to him, and to be conformed into his image. Yes, it means his moral perfection. Throughout the rest of this letter James is going to call you over and over again to be more like Christ, to bear fruit like Christ, to display the work of Christ in your life in your works, and more. And he starts that idea right here in the opening verses of the letter—pursue perfection!

But our identity with Christ is more than just being united to him and his moral perfection. A key category in Jesus’ perfection—in fact, the most critical category for you and for me—is his suffering. Just like you and me, suffering marked every moment of Christ’s earthly life, with the exception of sin from within. We actually do have a savior who can relate to us. And it is through his suffering that Christ matured and grew, and Hebrews 5 says…

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

—Hebrews 5:8

But the climax of Christ’s suffering was seen on the cross as he bore our sin and shame. By his wounds, we are healed. The suffering of Christ on the cross was not an obstacle to his perfection, but the very vehicle that brought about the most glory. Remember Hebrews 12:2…

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

—Hebrews 12:2

Christ looked on the indescribable and horrific suffering he experienced for you and for me, and he declared it JOY! And it is through that endurance and because of that suffering that he is right now seated at the right hand of the throne of God, interceding for you before the Father, and putting all enemies under his feet. What a savior! What a gospel.

And it is because of Christ—James’ very own brother—that he now looks to us and says, “do the same! Be like Christ!” Count it all joy, pursue perfection, mature in Christ, grow in steadfastness, be continually satisfied in all that the Lord has for you in this life. Trust that the Lord is good and that he is working, even now, no matter your circumstance, for your good and for your joy.