21.2 Count It All Joy
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience (James 1:2-3).
Giving thanks goes very deep, all the way into Gethsemane. Giving thanks is our willingness to share heart with God. Refer back to Lesson 13.1 Gates of Pearls. The entrance into God’s city, the kingdom of God revealed on this earth and to all the heavens, is our response to the difficult things God and we go through together.
Here, we want to look a little more closely at the pearl verses. But first, we just uncovered a wondrous pearl –the Eucharist.
The Eucharist
The Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:23-25).
“Given thanks” is where the Greek word eucharist became attached to what we also call the Lord’s supper or communion.
- Eucharisteó: to be thankful. Euxaristéō (from eú, "good" and xaris, "grace") – acknowledging that "God's grace works well"; to give thanks – literally, "thankful for God's good grace.” (adapted from biblehub.com)
Eucharist, translated, “give thanks,” means literally to be filled with good grace. Grace is gift. God gives us only one gift, Himself. Good grace is God in Person in us filling us with His glory and walking together as one person with us. Giving thanks is a continuous recognition on our part that we are filled with all of God and that the Father shares all things together with us.
Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, and gave it to His disciples. Then He did the same with the wine, giving thanks, and passing the cup around the table.
Members of One Another
Take, eat, this is My Body. – This cup is the New Covenant in My blood. As we eat of Him, we become His body. As we drink of Him, we become His life.
Yet we must never take this truth out of its context; this “supper” is a corporate action, members of one another. The most significant visible picture given by eating bread together and by drinking wine together is that all eat of the same one loaf and all drink of the same one cup. We are members of one another; just as we share all things together with the Father, so we share all things with each other.
The Pearl Verses
Filled with good grace, is the context, then, of the pearl verses.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven … (Matthew 5:11-12a). (Heaven here now, not far off in the future.)
That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7).
Seeing Face to Face
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I (Paul) know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known (1 Corinthians 13:12). It is clear to me that the writers of the New Testament did not see as far into the glorious meaning of their words as God is now opening our eyes to see Him, face to Face. In this short lesson, however, let’s find the pearls hidden inside of the words of James.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. We see these words out from eyes filled with “good grace,” filled with God Himself.
All Favor
| Pasan charan hēgēsasthe adelphoi - |
| All joy esteem, brothers (of me) |
- Pasan: all – same as Paul. ALL!
- Charan: joy, delight, gladness, a source of joy.
- Charan/Xará (from the root xar-, "extend favor, lean towards, be favorably disposed") – properly, the awareness of God's grace, favor; joy. Xaírō ("rejoice because of grace"), xará ("joy because of grace") and xáris ("grace") – are all cognates.
- Hégeomai: to lead, to suppose. To lead the way. Refers to “coming first in priority” or the leading thought in one’s mind. To highly regard the thought that leads. (adapted from biblehub.com)
Count, consider this thought to be the highest honor, the forefront of all our consideration. Count it all joy – grace, favor. Count that in this thing, God is favorably disposed towards us.
Grace is a problematic word because to most, grace means that this Thing we call “God,” far away from us over in heaven somewhere, has promised to give us something called “life” far in the future. Even those who bring grace into our present experience because of the power of the Holy Spirit, still see it as something from God.
Grace is one thing alone; grace is God in Person in us. Count it all God in you, my brethren.
Surrounded by Difficulties
| - peirasmois peripesēte poikilois |
| (When) trials you might encounter various |
We will arrange these words to their English sense.
- Peripiptó: (you might encounter) to fall around. I fall into the midst of, I am involved in, I happen upon a place. peripíptō (from perí, "all-around" and píptō, "fall") – fall all-around, totally surrounded by.
- Poikilos: many colored. Various, of different colors, diverse.
God “Sends” No Trials
- Peirasmos: an experiment, a trial, a temptation.
We are talking about something entirely DIFFERENT! We are talking about the shaping of the human heart to fit God. Heart cannot be created. Every other part of our design, God created by His word. But God cannot create heart. Heart that contains God can only be formed – willing hearted.
Bring to Finality
| Ginoskontes - - dokimion - pisteos katergazatia hypomenēn |
| Knowing (that the) testing (of your) faith produces endurance. |
- Ginoskontes is simply a form of the word to know, a knowledge that is internal and deep.
- Dokimion: a testing. A test, a trial, what is genuine. What is found approved or genuine after testing, focusing on the inevitable results of the trial. (adapted from biblehub.com)
- Katergazomai: to work out. I effect by labor, I achieve, I work out, I bring about. (The “I” refers to the testing.) From katá, "exactly according to," intensifying ergázomai, "work, accomplish") – literally, "work down to the end-point," to an exact, definite conclusion; bring to decisive finality.
Faith is the seed of the woman, “Let it be to me according to Your Word,” containing all that is Christ Jesus. Faith is the faith of the Son of God, living now as us.
- Hupomoné: a remaining behind, a patient enduring. Endurance, steadfastness, a patient waiting for.
Love Carries All
But that is NOT what it means inside of God.
Love all things endures. Love all things bears up under. Love all things carries. For surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? (Mark 10:38). Will you share Gethsemane with Me? Will you allow the Father to so shape and mold your heart that your heart, your human heart, can contain and can reveal the very Heart of Father God?
Love Poured Out
Love suffers long and is kind; love … rejoices in the truth; love bears all, believes for all, hopes for all, endures for all. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 - modified).
Through Jesus, we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God … We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:2-5).
We are not talking about “being good Christians”; we are talking about sharing heart with God.
Filled with All of God
We have connected each of the three HOW’s of God together with each of the three great verses that define for us what it means to be symmorphosed together with the image of Jesus.
By the Liberty of the Cross, we cast down the accuser. By the Value of the Blood, we sit boldly upon the Mercy Seat. And by the Confidence of speaking, asking, and giving thanks, we remind ourselves that we are filled with all the Life of God.
Just yesterday I got a ticket for not stopping fully at a stop sign; getting a ticket makes me feel awful. BUT – as I gave thanks, calling forth all the goodness of God this awful difficulty must bring, I saw that God fills me full.
Sorrow and Suffering
Every human goes through great difficulties life-long.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a man whose wife burned to death even while he tried his best to save her wrote these comments: “Every heart has its secret sorrows which the world knows not. – If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
The question is not whether or what difficulties we pass through; the question is HOW. HOW we pass through the difficulties common to all is HOW God wins the desire of His heart, the point of end finality. – The Father revealed through us.
The Sources of Difficulty
Everyone suffers difficulty. Difficulty comes from two sources. The first is the normal reality of being alive and of living together. “I am hungry (difficulty). Oh, I must make dinner (blessing).” “I don’t like what you just did (difficulty), but I love you and forgive you and bear with all that you are in joy (blessing).”
The other source of difficulty is evil actions against us.
God “sends” neither one, but shares both fully with us. The first kind of difficulty is the sign that we are ALIVE and will last forever, but the second form of difficulty, evil actions, has an end and will see all just restitution.
To Share Heart with God
ALL difficulty is one big waste of time for everyone. Unless we use that difficulty to win the most wondrous gift of God Himself to any created person. Unless we allow God, sharing all things together with us, to use that difficulty, whatever it might be, to shape our heart to be filled with compassion and understanding for all others.
Patience, otherwise called sharing heart with God.
And it is so easy for us to allow God to do what is most precious of all to Him. We count it all as joyous favor; we give thanks for all things.
Let us give thanks.