What Does James 1:12 Mean?

(12-18) The Apostle returns to the consideration of the afflicted Christian. Such a one has a blessedness, greater infinitely than any earthly happiness, already in possession, and the promise of a future beyond all comparison. It may be well to point out in this place that the idea of blessedness with regard to man is conveyed to us in the New Testament by a different word from that which expresses the like concerning God. The force of this may be seen in Mark 14:61, where the high priest asks our Lord, “Art Thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” *i.e., *the Blessed God, to show which the adjective is rightly printed with a capital letter. The word applied to God—as in Luke 1:68; Romans 1:25; Romans 9:5; 2Corinthians 1:3; 2Corinthians 11:31; Ephesians 1:3; 1Peter 1:3—may be almost called a Christian one; at least, it is not found in much earlier writings, whereas the other term descriptive of man’s blessedness (or rather, happiness) is ancient and classical. Only in one passage (1Timothy 1:11) is there an exception to this remarkable distinction; and such may well be considered, as it is by the German critic De Wette, *un-pauline, *though on no such a single instance, or even several such, could the superstructure be built that has been raised up by those who deny the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles. (12) **Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.**—Surely the Apostle links such blessedness with the nine Beatitudes, heard in the happy days gone by upon the Mount with Christ (Matthew 5:3-11). The words he uses in the original are the same as those which are expressed above, in our second, third, and fourth verses, by “patience” and “trials,” and mean a firm endurance, steadfastness, tenacity of purpose, and quenchless enthusiasm, such as men of Teutonic blood can appreciate perhaps even better than could either Greek or Jew. **For when he is tried** (literally, *proved, *or *tested, and found worthy*) **he shall receive the crown of life, **(*i.e., the life*) **which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.**—“Lord” is not found in the best MSS., but of course is required by the sense of the passage. Probably in this case, as in so many others, a little note—or “gloss,” as it is called—was made on the margin of an early manuscript, and included unwittingly in the text by some later copyist. The “pride” and “beauty” of the worldling are as “a fading flower” (Isaiah 28:1) under the scorching sun; but the unfading, ever-living crown is for the spiritual, the true lovers of their Lord: blessed in truth are they who thus endure the trial. “Therefore,” says the Book of Wisdom (James 5:16), “shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord’s hand.” “The righteous live for evermore” (Wisdom Of Solomon 5:15).