James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, sends greeting to the twelve dispersed tribes.
When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character, men of integrity with no weak spots. And if, in the process, any of you does not know how to meet any particular problem he has only to ask God--who gives generously to all men without making them feel guilty--and he may be quite sure that the necessary wisdom will be given him. But he must ask in sincere faith without secret doubts. For the man who doubts is like a wave of the sea, carried forward by the wind one moment and driven back the next. That sort of man cannot hope to receive anything from the Lord, and the life of a man of divided loyalty will reveal instability at every turn.
A. The patience (joyous confidence, hopeful endurance) that James is urging us to know must carry us through our trials. If we begin a trial in patience (gritting our teeth and being determined to get through) but give us before the trial ends, our patience has not met Jame's demand.
B. God counts those faithful who continue all the way to the end.
Examples:
Ezekiel 18:24,26
Numbers 6:12 (Nazarite vow. If he failed to fulfill the vow, even if it wasn't his fault, all the days he had separated himself did not count. After the offering, he had to start over. (Read earlier in the chapter for the requirements of the vow.))
Matthew 24:13
Hebrews 10:34-36
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