What did James know that will help us?
There won't always be a church in the world- there will come a day when it is gone- the reason for that is the removal of the Holy Spirit from the earth. We know this will happen. Those who do not believe the Bible don't consider this important. Those who have read the Revelation of Christ understand that this will take place, and what will follow is beyond any human beings ability to see.
Right now total evil is held back, somewhat in check, like a hit man with no bullets in his gun, he's dangerous, that's for sure, but, not instantly deadly. When there is no holding action against the evil on earth, then nobody can see what that's like, but it won't be nice. Did James at some point in his life wonder if it had already hit?
Did John talk about the Revelation he received on Patmos? Did these early followers of Christ believe that they were living in the last days? It's possible- some historian's claim that the rise of the common name, "Roman candle," used on the 4th of July, had it's inception under Nero who tarred and burned Christian's on stakes to light the roadways, calling them, Roman Candles. If you saw such, wouldn't the horror be impossible to escape? If you had seen your brother die on the cross, then saw Him rise again, then saw Him testify before as many as 500 hundred witnesses, and then you saw Roman candles, and Nero's terror, what would you think was happening?
Too often we see verse 4 of this incredible opening statement from James, and we go right over it moving on in chapter one, we're in a hurry, but I want to gently suggest to you that there is merit in taking it slow. Some things are better done slow, aren't they? Eating ice cream on a hot summer day isn't one of those, it melts, but for example, a nice lazy walk among the trees can be slow and refreshing. Verse 4 is something like that: "Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (NIV) It's not the nicest visual context to think of, but in my mind James represents a bull dog kind of faith. He'd been through it, and was likely in my mind going through it some more, when he wrote what his heart was led to believe was God's intent for the people who followed his Brother's way.
Solubility is an important part of the chemical process that we love on a hot summer day called Lemonade. Get the squeezed lemon juice, the sugar content, and if you put a touch of Karo syrup in, well, let's hope it dissolves well and adds zing. The ability to mix in - very substantial, can't have gas, lemonade, syrup for pancakes, glue, and the list goes on and on, without it -but you get the point, do you have the ability to blend, and are the sort of person who allows life to teach you to do that? James would use the term, "Let." Let perseverance finish it's work," let's halt there briefly to ask, "Could such be prevented?" The answer is almost always, yes, all we have to do is bow out of a difficult circumstance, and perseverance will be out of the picture. So James in this one small word is suggesting to you that your life should include those aspects which aren't comfortable, aren't without unpleasant smells and temperatures and mixes of emotions. He's suggesting that not everyone is going to finish first, but that if you are smart about following Christ, you will finish.
Imagine the hot sunny day, it's the kind of heat that comes up off the pavement in waves, there you are at the starting blocks. Next to you are athletes equally trained, some even better trained, each of you wanting to come in first place, but at the beginning of this race, your thinking of the immediate need, are the blocks right for your feet, is the lean right for a quick jump off the gun, are you alert enough, strong enough, and ready. It is hot, and the heat does affect your ability to withstand the moments before the race. But there you are. Got the picture, "Bang," the starting gun goes off, now your thinking isn't about the end of the race, it's each step exerting as much maximum pull on your muscles as possible, you do it without thought, it is reactionary, you don't think you just "Dash." Now your are about a hundred feet into the race and you begin to feel the burn, the muscles drawing
oxygen, your lungs beginning to feel the strain, and you strain on, you don't want to lose the race. Halfway through the intensity of every pain in every joint in every muscle in every breath is such that your brain shuts out the pain and you focus on the moment, the competition, this is where coaches always scream "Don't look around, look ahead and run," but even the greatest, look, a quick glance to see, how are the others doing. Now you are three quarters of the way through, and you realize that you are going to finish this thing, you are going to complete the race, no matter what. You can almost taste the tape. Then quicker than you believed possible, it's over, your done, and...
Perseverance doesn't just happen at the end of the race. The beginning of the race, in some sense, will always be, the concluding aspect of some wider angle picture of the race. Where you were before you were engaged in this particular race. Life is like that, and Christianity is an enhanced model of that event. We run the succeed, and in Christianity that means serving Jesus, and in serving Jesus, James saw, we must serve our fellow man, without that, we can't make the reality of what we know real to others. This then is the background aspect perhaps of what James saw about perseverance. That as a young man at home, he thought being around his brother involved this type of perseverance, but then he saw Him die, then He saw Him come back to life, then he saw Him appear to up to as many as 500, and then James saw the "Roman candles," and the questions came hot and heavy about why such power would not stop such an assault. Then the answer moved through his life in a magnificent awakening of what it means to know Jesus,. "Let perseverance."
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