Testing produces perseverance

“because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (James 1:3)

 

The natural environment seems to be unchangeable in outer, but in reality, it is under many changes and trials. The person ‘I’ have original self always, but even spiritual inner as well as the appearance changes little by little without a break. Any growth comes with changes and trials. Faith in Jesus Christ is the root for redemption by grace that God put into man. The fundamentals of faith do not change, but the process of faith, that is, the life of faith, accompanies with many trials. James the apostle said, to regard to be pleased with testing that follows to the life of faith. Just as we can’t expect change and growth in life without experiencing storms of world, so the life of faith does.

 

Any thing, while maintaining own self and essence originally, it has to be made change and growth. In nature or in humans, there is immanent the essence or self that God originally gave in. The theories scientists claim are physically very sophisticated and reasonable. Science is a study that finds and reveals the materials and properties of nature given by God, so the more continue to study, the more mysterious things we learn infinitely. Nevertheless science cannot discover God or explain directly about Him. Because God is not a material being that science deals with, but spiritual Existence. Instead of looking for God in a wrong way any more, they should reflect on the words of John 4:24: “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

God made man; the body was made with earth, and the spirit according to the image of God. Non-human animals also have an element alike the soul that corresponds to intuitive consciousness. There is the reactional as like as functions of soul on plants as well as animals. But we have to know those are fundamentally different from human soul who resemble the image of God. As it is said in Ecclesiastes 3:21: “Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” the spirit of man returns to God, but the soul of the beast goes to the earth, which is the origin of matter. As such, since man is an existence with the soul of God’s image, and the flesh, there is no choice but to be a wind of trials between the spirit toward God and the body toward the earth. Remember saying in Galatians 5:17, “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”

Just as natural wind and rain promote the growth of animals and plants, the trials accompanying to the faith produce patience. And those who achieve full patience will succeed in faith. Through trials, high-purity gold-like beliefs are eventually created, so how precious are trials. Therefore, James the apostle said, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” If you want your children or students to grow up well, you need to raise them wisely to be exposed to the trials from an early age. Disciplinary punishment of the child’s wrongdoing will eventually bring peace and joy to his parents.(Proverbs 29:17) If you become a man who pleases God with a pure faith, you will be able to live in peace in your soul and in the joy of eternal life.

The human body is called a mass of bacteria on the one hand. All bacteria with body weigh 1~2 kilograms, and the numbers are about 100~500 trillion, the 5~10 times more than the total number of cells in human body. Bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc. stick to our bodies and live together. If we live only in a sterile room for fear of bacterial infection, nobody would be able to survive in the world as a healthy person. It may be necessary to temporarily use sterile rooms to treat diseases, but rather it should live outside to develop immunity to germs. Likewise without the ordeal of faith, anybody will not taste eternal peace and joy.

 

A person who lives by true faith is called a righteous man in the Bible. If a man does not know the God of creation and salvation, he cannot live as a righteous man of faith. Be a man of faith so that live righteously in peace and joy. Even a master of astrophysics is not a wise man truly if he does not know Jehovah God and Christ. For the awe of Jehovah is the foundation of complete wisdom, and faith in Jesus Christ is the fountainhead of true knowledge and the understanding. If you pray in faith, and if you are not shaken, you would see the God of the Spirit.

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on June 19th 2022)