James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life… There are four possible experiences in regard to the trials of life. 1. They may fail of that which may be their best result. We may have the troubles of life — indeed, we must have them — and yet we may fail of the discipline. 2. They may be made seductions to evil, and yielded to. 3. They may be suffered just as brutes suffer pain. 4. They may be "endured." Blessed is the man who has this last experience, who accepts the troubles of life as trims, who endures them, going on his way of duty as speedily in the storm as in the sunshine, obeying the injunction, "Let those who weep be as though they wept not." These are the blessed ones. There is no blessing for the untried man, as there is no currency for the unstamped bullion — for the metal, however precious, which is not marked so as to show that is has been tested and is now approved. There is no blessing for the man who yields to temptation or fails under trial. There is no blessing to him who has brutal insensibility to the pains of trial, or unconsciousness of the process, as the anvil is unconscious of the blows of the hammer. But there is a blessing for the man who knows what is going for. ward; who understands the intent, and appreciates the object, and desires the result of the process. For when he has become approved, after the testing and by reason of the testing, "he shall receive the crown of life." (C. F. Deems, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
    |