James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
James starts this verse with the word “Blessed”. When you think about it, just about everything that we do in this life is an attempt to be “blessed” or benefitted. We get married because we think it will benefit us. We have kids because we think it will benefit us. We change jobs because we think it will benefit us.....and the list can go on and on. So James is giving us insight on how we can benefit our lives. The greatest benefit that we can bring to our life is NOT financial, social or material but spiritual! That is exactly what James is informing us about.
In order to get the spiritual benefit that James is teaching about we must endure! The “race” that we are talking about is not a sprint but a marathon. With a sprint, we must exert all of our energy for a short period of time to run as quickly as we can, but afterwards we can quit. In a marathon, we must conserve energy and be willing to dig down deep to keep going long after we want to quit.
When we desire to live a life that God wants, there will continually be thrown temptations and obstacles in our way to cause us to stumble. But once we overcome the first temptation, we cannot throw our arms up in victory, because right around the corner is another temptation. The danger in any temptation is that there is always a possibility of being entangled in sin and being overcome with it.
2 Peter 2:20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
When we are overcome by sin, the end for us is worse than if we had never become a christian to begin with. That is why this verse, and so many others encourage us to endure to the end of our lives.
Matthew 10:22 ....but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Revelation 2:10 ....be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
When we are able to overcome temptations throughout our lives, we are told that we will receive a crown of life. That language is figurative of course. It relates to the time when the winner of a competition, like the olympics, would receive a “crown” of olive branches to signify victory....much like the medals given in our olympics. The “Crown” that we will receive for crossing the finish line is that of eternal life....Spending an eternity with our Creator and our remarkable Savior.
There will be times that we feel like giving up. There will be times that we feel like we cannot go a step further. But with God’s help we can. And the prize will be worth it.
1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment