GodSprings - 26, April, 2018

When Through/in Trials - Perfect and Complete / Imperfect and Incomplete?

And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:4

Temperature is rising with each passing day here in Bharatpur where I stay. To keep myself hydrated I thought of buying watermelon. I remember my dad used to buy perfectly ripe watermelons. He would take a watermelon hit it three times and would come to know whether it’s sweet and ripe. I also tried to do so. Went to the market and took few watermelons and hit them so that the shopkeeper may think I am an expert in this. For me all the watermelons sounded the same. I was confused and picked up one. Came home and I cut it and realized it wasn’t ripe.

It surely is tough to buy a ripe watermelon. On the outside they all look like the same. But it is on the inside that counts. And to know whether it is perfectly ripened or not you have to slice it. Same is the case with life also. To know our life is ripened in Christ we have to be cut and sliced. In the last two meditations we were looking at trials and its effect. When we go through trial what is it that we choose – joy or happiness and are we movable or immovable.

James continues to tell us that the deeper purpose of trials in our life is to make us complete and perfect. These trials are necessary so that we lack nothing.  

The Greek word used for perfect is teleion which is used in secular sources for animals that are full grown. When James uses this word here, I am sure he meant a believer who is fully grown. The faith is tested to see whether we will move or change in our belief in the Lord. And when we have it in the full effect we will be perfect and complete. Along with the secular usage this word perfect also has the meaning of being rich in character i.e to be in the place where we really want to be and where the Lord want us to be.

When we go through trials in our life we have to choose one or the other. If we choose the latter then we walk in congruence to Lord’s desire. The best example we can find in the Bible is Job and his wife. When Job had to go through trials and sorrows, his wife said to him to curse God and die. (Job 2:9) Many of us can knowingly or unknowingly respond in that way. But there is yet another way that Job shows by the way he responded. Job said, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we nor receive evil?” and the verse continues and tells us that in all this (sorrow, trouble, trial, tribulation – whatever you may call) Job did not sin with his lips. (Job 2:10)

This is life in the world we are living. It requires a continuous and active choice to choose God. When troubles come we can hate God. We can hate life. We can also start to hate the providences that have dealt us so rudely. Or we can fall on our knees and pray in faith that in this time of trouble and distress God is fitting something better for us and pray that we may receive strength to withstand it.
I close with a Facebook post I read few years ago which says Problems are like washing machines. They twist us, they twirl and push us around, but at the end, we come out cleaner, brighter and better than before.

May we be joyful in times or trial remaining unchangeable and immovable by the outer circumstances so that we may attain completeness and be made perfect in Christ.