James 1:2-12

Those Who Face Trial for The Sake Of Their Faith in God and the Lord Jesus Christ Will Be Blessed (James 1:2).

The letter commences by outlining the basic themes that will be dealt with later (see Analysis above), for as we have seen the whole letter is in the form of a chiasmus based on those themes. But it is also interesting that the opening verses of the letter after the greeting may also be seen as a chiasmus, coming between the two inclusios of James 1:2; James 1:12; James 1:2 commences with the overwhelming joy that they should have as they face up to trials for His sake, trials which will strengthen them and enable them to endure, while James 1:12 speaks of the blessedness of those who face up to those trials because it will result in their receiving the crown of life which God has prepared for those who love Him.

Analysis of James 1:2.

a Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into many kinds of temptations, knowing that the proving of your faith works patient endurance (James 1:2).

b And let patient endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing (James 1:4).

c But if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and does not upbraid, and it will be given him (James 1:5).

d But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting, for he who doubts is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed (James 1:6).

e For let not that man think that he will receive anything of the Lord (James 1:7).

d A doubleminded man, unstable in all his ways (James 1:8).

c But let the brother of low degree glory in his high estate, and the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he will pass away (James 1:9).

b For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass: and its flower falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in his goings (James 1:11).

a Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him (James 1:12).

Note that in ‘a' they will fall into temptation and testing which will result in patient endurance and in the parallel they will be blessed by enduring temptation and testing. In ‘b' the one who endures will have an abundance and lack nothing, while in the parallel the rich man who does not overcome his riches will be left with nothing. In ‘c' wisdom will be given to those who ask, and in the parallel both rich and poor are to learn wisdom from their experience. In ‘d' the believer and the doubter are compared, and the doubter is like the sea as stirred up by the wind, and in the parallel the doubleminded man is unstable in all his ways. Centrally in ‘e' those who are lacking in faith and are doubleminded will receive nothing from the Lord.

We might also see these verses as a summary, within the wider outline shown above, of the whole letter. It commences with testing (‘a', compare James 1:1), which will result in patient endurance (‘b', compare James 1:17; James 1:25), which will lead on to true faith and wisdom (‘c to e' compare James 2:14; James 3:13), which leads on to how the rich and poor are to behave in the face of that persecution (‘d to b' compare James 4:1 to James 5:6), which finally leads on to the Lord's final coming and judgment (‘a', compare James 5:7 onwards).