The Sufferer’s Survival Guide: Part 1 - James Lesson 29

 Let’s return this morning to the fifth chapter of James. We are rapidly approaching the end of our study of this very straightforward letter. Today we will be studying verses 13-18. I doubt we get through these verses today but however long it takes, we will be looking at these verses as a unit of thought because James intended for them to be understood this way. The insights and instructions given in these verses are of utmost importance.

 I have entitled this section, “The Sufferer’s Survival Guide.” Do we need this teaching? If you look around at all the things being endured by the people who are part of this church, I think you will conclude that we do. If not us, those close to us are enduring hardship and suffering. Something is causing suffering for virtually every person in this church, or someone very close to us. Everything from stroke, to brain injuries, to kidney failure, to knee problems, to cancer, to POTS, to families in crisis, to financial distress, to problems with children, to marriage struggles, to just about anything that can be happening, we are dealing with the suffering associated with something.

 This certainly should not take us by surprise. Suffering is part of life in a fallen world. Suffering is one of the consequences of sin. Even the righteous suffer. Earlier in Chapter 5 James pointed to the need for patience in the face of suffering associated with injustice. He pointed to the example of Job. Job was the most righteous man on earth. He was the shining example of faithfulness, obedience, integrity, and devotion to God. He suffered so much. He also understood that suffering was a common aspect of the human existence. Job 5:7 says, “For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward.”

 I would love to watch a conversation between a modern day health, wealth, and prosperity teacher, and the Apostle Paul on the topic of suffering. The confused, false teacher would be telling Paul that he would not have had to suffer if he had just had more faith to believe God for good circumstances rather than circumstances that caused his suffering. Paul would tell them how ridiculous their theology is and how much he gained from his experiences of suffering. Paul saw his suffering as having come from the hand of God, especially in the form of a thorn in his flesh. And he gloried in that suffering because he learned so much about the sufficiency of God’s grace. Paul would tell you that suffering is not a problem. Suffering is rather an opportunity for God to be glorified in our lives.

 We need to learn from the sufferer’s survival guide, but so did those to whom James wrote. The Christians to whom James wrote weren’t suffering the same kind of things many of us are suffering today. Their suffering was much worse. These Christians had been scattered because of persecution in the early days of the church. They were suffering for the name of Jesus. The places to where they fled were home to other Jews who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. These places were also inhabited by Gentiles who did not like Jews or Christians because they were just a sect of the Jewish cult. In addition to this widespread persecution from Jewish non believers and Gentiles, the rich who were associated with the church were also causing suffering through the injustices committed against these humble followers of Christ.

 If these instructions on surviving suffering were good for the Jewish believers of James’ day, they are also good for us in our suffering today. James asks, “Is anyone among you suffering?” He isn’t specific about the nature of the suffering. Suffering is suffering, whether it comes from a hateful world, or from some physical affliction. Anyone who suffers needs this instruction.

 When James asks, “Is anyone among you suffering?” he already knew the answer. He is not asking for the purpose of finding out if they are suffering. He is asking to set the stage for the instruction he is about to give in this paragraph. From these instructions we find in verses 13-18 we find out exactly what we are to do when we find ourselves suffering. Let’s read these verses together.

 Notice the first instruction in our sufferer’s survival guide. James says the first thing we are to do is pray. The Greek construction is a present tense imperative. We are to always be praying. This is to be our first response, our ongoing response, and our never ending response in the midst of suffering. 

 When my back starts hurting, or something else hurts, which is a common occurrence with me, I try to avoid reaching for the ibuprofen. I don’t like to take the stuff so I wait until I just can’t stand it any more. While that is a good approach, I think, to taking medicine, it is a lousy approach when it comes to praying. In our suffering, I hope we are not trying to tough it out until we can’t stand it any more before we start to pray. Prayer should be our first response.

 Is this where we generally start? Unfortunately it is not where many of us start. Our first response is usually to grumble and complain about the source of our suffering. We may ask, “Why me?” Then we start to seek relief. We want to find out if there is an escape hatch, or an easy button we can push to get out of the suffering. If there is not, we may get angry. If our suffering comes at the hands of someone else, we may seek to retaliate. If our suffering comes as a result of our commitment to Christ, we may start to doubt, and question the goodness of God, and evaluate whether or not our commitment to Christ is worth it. Unless our conversion was truly the result of the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, we would walk away from the faith. Many do.

 If this is where we generally start, then what kind of wisdom is characterized by our response? It certainly is not the wisdom from above. And we certainly are not walking in humility. 

 James says that our first response to suffering is prayer. How many of you would be honest and say, “My prayer life could use some work?” I know mine could. I would certainly benefit from some intimate time of fellowship with my heavenly Father in prayer. Guess what? If your Heavenly Father has ordained some form of suffering for you, He has blessed you with the opportunity and occasion to spend that time with Him. He may have ordained our suffering because He likes the time we spend in prayer. He invites us to pray. Jesus told us how to pray. Peter tells us to cast all our anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 

And who knows. Maybe you will get the opportunity to ask God a few times to take away the sovereignly ordained thorn He has given you. And you may get to hear Him respond by saying, “No, My precious child. My grace is sufficient for you. For My strength is perfected in weakness.” I ask you, would that be a bad thing?

 The Greek word translated “suffering” in verse 13 is “kakopatheo.” It mean to suffer evil or affliction. Paul used this word in 2 Timothy 2:3 where he calls young Timothy to “suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” The words “suffer hardship” are translated from the same Greek word that James translates “suffering.” Paul calls Timothy to sign up for the very duty that brings hardship. Did Paul love Timothy? Did Paul want God’s absolute best for Timothy? I am sure he did. So loving Timothy as a son, and wanting God’s absolute best for Timothy, Paul called Timothy to jump into the fire of suffering. Paul used the same Greek word in verse 9. Paul is writing this from a prison cell. Nero is about to separate Paul’s head from his body. He knows he is at the end of the line. He says he suffers hardship (same word) even to imprisonment as a criminal.

 We rarely think of an opportunity to suffer or endure hardship as a good thing. The reality is that the New Testament, especially the letters to the churches where we are given our instructions on how to live the Christian life, does not tell us to look at suffering as a bad thing. I can’t say that we are told to go looking for opportunities to suffer, but we are told that we should expect that we are going to suffer in this world, especially for the sake of Christ. We are not told to run from hardship, or complain about it, or to get angry because it comes. We are told to pray. We are told to pray for wisdom. We are told to pray that God will be glorified in our suffering. If we do pray for relief, our prayer must be like that of Jesus when He asked for the cup of suffering to pass from Him. We must add to that prayer, “Nevertheless, not my will but Your will be done.” If we ask for removal of the suffering as Paul did in 2 Cor. 12, we need to be ready to hear the answer be, “No, My grace is sufficient for you.”

 We must admit that most of the suffering we are enduring as a church family has nothing to do with hardships which are the result of persecution. I don’t think it makes that much difference. The instructions are the same whether we are dealing with suffering that comes in the form of persecution, or suffering that comes from sickness or other issues. I am confident that this instruction should be the same. If we are suffering hardship or affliction, our first response is to pray.

 The second instruction in the sufferer’s survival guide is praise. First we pray. Second, we praise. Verse 13 says, “Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.” Did James completely change the subject? Did he get away from the subject of suffering? If he didn’t get away from the subject of suffering, what in the world is he talking about? Who is cheerful and ready to sing praises in the midst of suffering? I’ll tell you who. Anyone who has a right perspective on suffering and the glory of God will be cheerful and sing praises, even in the midst of suffering.

The word for cheerful carries the idea of someone who is cheerful in the midst of hardship and suffering. In Acts 27 Paul is being taken to Rome as a prisoner. He and his traveling  companions are on a ship that gets caught in a huge storm. Verse 21 says “Since neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm was assailing us, from then on all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned.”

 Verse 22 records the words of Paul to the men on the ship. He said, “I urge you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.” The words “keep up your courage” are translated from the same Greek word in James that is translated “cheerful.” It is translated almost exactly the same in verse 25 where Paul said, “Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told.” An angel of God had stood before Paul and told him that he and all with him would survive.

 The idea of cheerful is someone who is of good cheer and keeping up their courage even in the midst of hardship and suffering. How does someone keep up their courage and be cheerful in suffering? Look at 1 Peter 4:12-19. Peter tells us that the key to being cheerful in suffering is to keep a right perspective. We should expect suffering. Do not be surprised by the fiery ordeal. This is not some strange thing happening to you. This is what happens to those who follow Christ. Jesus told us to expect it. This is how we rejoice in it. Jesus said that we should rejoice and be glad when we are insulted and persecuted for His sake. Our reward in heaven is great. (Matt. 5:11-12) When we are suffering according to the will of God we shall entrust our souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. God always knows what He is doing.

 We have already learned this from our study of James. In the early part of chapter 1 we are told to consider it all joy when we encounter various trials. Trials, especially those that produce suffering, are an occasion to rejoice? Yes they are. And this is exactly what we are told to do. We are to praise God in the midst of suffering and the only way we can do that is if we have the right perspective on God’s purpose for our suffering.

 We must look at one more example of this in the lives of a couple of God’s faithful servants. Look at Acts 16. Walk through verses 14-34.

 Paul and Silas responded to this suffering with prayer and praise. Why? Because they had the right perspective on what they were enduring. It wasn’t about what was happening to them. The important thing was how God was going to use what was happening to them for His own glory. If they don’t have the right perspective, and their response is one of complaining, demanding their rights, and uttering threats of retaliation, there would have been a completely different ending to this story. It would not have resulted in salvation for the jailer and his family. It would have been death and eternal damnation for the jailer. There was only one reason all those prisoners didn’t flee when the jail doors flew open in the earthquake. The text doesn’t say this, and it is somewhat speculative on my part, but hardened criminals don’t sit around when prison doors are miraculously opened unless there has been a change in their hearts.

 James and Paul teach us something about these two aspects of the sufferer’s survival guide. When God’s people, who will inevitably suffer, learn to pray and praise in the midst of suffering, they don’t just survive, they thrive. The greatest advancement to the kingdom of God happens in the midst of God ordained suffering. God’s people are never thriving more than when they are being used of God to advance His kingdom.

 The right perspective on life in this world is that life isn’t about me. My life is about God’s glory. I don’t exist to be happy and comfortable and satisfied. I exist for God’s glory. Prayer expresses our dependence upon God in the middle of our suffering. Praise expresses our determination to glorify God in the middle of our suffering.

 Suffering survival tactic number one is to pray. Suffering survival tactic number two is to praise. Praising requires that we have a right perspective on our suffering. 

 I am going to stop here for today because the next point takes us very deep into an interpretational challenge that we will need some time to explore. Besides that, I have given you a tall challenge just from verse 13. I think we can get through the rest of this section next week, but we will see.

 Let’s pray.