My brothers and sisters, whenever you face various trials, consider it all joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance complete its work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing.
My brothers and sisters, think of the various tests you encounter as occasions for joy. After all, you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let this endurance complete its work so that you may be fully mature, complete, and lacking in nothing.
I know, I know, and I feel the same way, too. It seems like there’s no end to trials in this life. As they say, if it isn’t one thing, then it’s something else. There’s certainly no end to trouble and problems not just when we watch the news, but in the experience of our own lives.
The Common English Bible translation of this text quoted above highlights the correlation of trials and testing. Trials themselves are tests. Although the Greek words are different, the translation of the CEB is true to what the words can mean. And even when we read it as in the NRSV and other translations, we still have to acknowledge that the trials which come our way are tests.
But what does this testing amount to? It’s a testing of our faith meant to produce endurance in us. We would like an easy ride which requires no endurance at all. But life itself is not that way. Endurance is needed not only continue to on, but to do well. And again, this is about faith. To hang in there through this process is an expression of genuine faith.
I would like to think this could end sometime in this life. After all it says that we’re to let the endurance we experience from trials complete its work, so that we might be complete and whole, lacking in nothing. Yes, there may be a point of a fullness in maturity, but when do we ever fully arrive in this life?
I’ve noticed in my own life that I think I’ve made substantial, good progress in how I respond to difficulties and trials, even though I still have room to grow there. What seems to be missing in my own growth is a settling down into the peace of God in the midst of all of that. That is my next point of growth which I want to begin to enter in. Awareness of that possibility is good, and I’ve dipped my toes into it, but in my day-to-day experience, know next to nothing of it. But surely that’s part of what God has for us in this.
Trials as tests, not to see whether we pass or fail the exam, but to help us.
Jesus community 