NOTES for Jam 1:5

James addresses the twelve tribes in the dispersion. This designation has from ancient times referred to the Jewish people, but should we understand that James is addressing only Christians from among the Jews? Since the content of the letter concerns all Christians, by the twelve tribes we are entitled to understand the brothers who make up the Church, the people of God of the New Covenant.

The call to rejoice in temptations initially makes a strange impression. One can, of course, find a reason for joy in the fact that if the powers of darkness attack you, this means that you do not belong to them. But such awareness can lead to self-satisfaction, then to self-deception and proud self-exaltation, and that is itself a satanic trap.

So it is not temptations themselves that we should rejoice in, but the fact that the Lord gives us strength to cope with them, to stand firm against enticements. We should not fear them and lose our heads out of fear, but we should recognize them in time and be ready to receive help from above.

Today’s reading from the Epistle of the Apostle James is devoted almost entirely to what our proper attitude toward temptation should be. Of course, there is nothing good in such experiences; moreover, a person often emerges from situations of temptation drained, battered, and wounded, even if not defeated. Yet the Apostle considers it important to draw attention to the need to endure temptations with patience. The need to withstand powerful attacks of evil coming from different directions and disguised as good, and the steadfastness and firmness this demands, enable us to gain clarity of vision and mind—and consequently clarity of faith. It is precisely this clarity that makes it possible to overcome doubt when we greatly desire to yield to evil but understand clearly that nothing good will come of it. We usually excuse ourselves by saying that the temptation is too strong and we cannot resist it. In doing so, we forget that only the one who resisted to the very end can know the full force of evil’s attack: not the one who fell to the ground at the first gust of wind, but the one who remained standing through the storm. We are obliged to stand to the end, because the first One who stood firm died on the Cross for our life.