πειρασμός (pi-ras-mos'): “Lead us not into testing”—Part V: James to Revelation

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Summary Synthesis

The final occurrences of peirasmos in the NT focus on the particular providential testing, the end goal of which is ultimately to refine us more and more into the image of Christ, the firstfruits of the New Creation. And this assured reality should cause us to take the longterm view whenever we are faced with trials and testing, such that we actually come to rejoice in the knowledge that our peirasmos is the exact reality that will produces in us patient endurance (hupomone) and through that endurance a fullness of character.

As this mindset takes hold in a community to the degree that it is being continually built on the foundation of love in Christ Jesus, then that community will finally endure. And when it is tested, the peirasmos will not overwhelm them, but rather work to display in them the eternal praise and glory of our Lord to the surrounding world.

Detailed Analysis

James

From the hypertesting of the demonic realm which is intended to destroy, we come to the genuine testing of our Lord which is given to refine. And this type of testing, to which the Apostle James bears witness, should cause us to actually rejoice.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (πειρασμοῖς [peirasmos], Jam 1:2).

But why exactly?

“Knowing that the testing (τὸ δοκίμιον [dokimazo]) of your faith produces patient endurance (ὑπομονή (hupomone).

The testing, the trial, and simply bearing under the weight of it can itself become the very means that enables in us the ongoing reality of endurance.

Yet the Apostle adds a further word lest we fall short of this fullness:

But let patient endurance (hupomone) work fully and completely in you (κατεργάζεται, From kata + ergazomai), that you may be perfect and complete (ὁλόκληροι [From holos + kleros], Lit. “that which comes out of every possible lot in life” [such that you are]), lacking nothing” (Jam 1:2-4).

Perfect and complete—This is why the Lord not simply allows peirasmos in our lives but, moreover, specifically uses them to bring about in us a fullness which would not have been possible any other way. Or to put it a different way, without the testing of our faith, we will remain incomplete.

Abba Anthony in the late 3rd c. would even say after decades of intense spiritual warfare and trials (2-13):

“Whoever has not experienced testing cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven,” even adding “Without testing, no one can be saved.”

From perfection through trials, James goes on to speak of the perfection of wisdom (1:5), warning against falling short of its fullness (1:6-8). From here the Apostle then addresses the root of instability in the Christian life. And like Paul in I Timothy (6:9), following Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 6:19-25, μεριμνάω, from μερίζω), he identifies the division in one’s spirit that results from riches. Having just spoken of us as having “two-souls” (δίψυχος, 1:8) whenever we waver in our faith (1:6), James extends this division in our souls to community life, which itself can become divided by wealth.

And he opens with the corrective,

“Let the brother who is low (tapeinós) glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation (tapeínōsis, 1:9-10).

And why should this possibly be the case (especially as much of our cultural project is founded on the resources open to us in wealth)?

”Because as a flower of the field he will pass away…So the rich man also will wither away in his pursuits” (1:11, cf. Dan 5:25-31).

That is to say, we in community must take the longterm view of Psalm 37, where our view of ourselves and one another is not rooted in temporal wealth that will pass away, but rather in the foundation of love for God.

This foundation then ensures our ability to endure all the trials that come upon us:

“Blessed is the man who patiently endures (hupomeno) testing (peirasmos);

For when he has been tried and approved (dokimos), he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him (1:12).

One further word

James then closes this section with a five-fold repetition of the root verb, peirazo. And here may be the only occurrences in the NT where this verb should be translated as “tempted”:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God” (1:13a);

And why? Because

”God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (1:13b).

Then James gives the root of our temptations:

“But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (1:14).

And the result:

“Then, when desire (epithumía) has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (1:15).

This is the peirazo that will destroy families and communities—the peirazo of fleeting desire and destructive lust on which infernal communities are built and, we might add, can be momentarily maintained.

The community, however, of the Kingdom of God can and will finally endure as it is continually built upon the foundation of the love of Christ, and in this way becomes, in James’ words, the “firstfruits” of God’s new creational community (1:18).

With this we come to the final four occurrences in the NT. And as we have seen before, the words of James flow perfectly into those of Peter.

I Peter

As James links vital community life to that which is being formed through and in Christ into the new creation, so Peter opens his first epistle with a divine blessing that ties life together in community to Jesus’ resurrection, Who becomes for us the firstfruits of new creation, which ensures our patient endurance to the end:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (I Pet 1:3-5).

With this eternal beatitude, Peter then shows how it is actually worked out in us—and not surprisingly, it comes through trials. And just as James before, he contends that this reality should be a cause for rejoicing:

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if it is necessary, you have been grieved (lupeó) by various trials (peirasmos, 1:6)

And why “is it necessary” for us to go through grievous and painful testing?

That the genuineness (dokímion) of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire (dokimázō), may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:7).

While Peter in no way diminishes the reality of pain within the trials that come upon us, he, nevertheless, keeps pointing us to see in them the eternal beatitude of God’s grace in Christ.

“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial (pýrōsis) which is for your testing (peirasmos) as though some strange thing happened to you (4:12);

But rejoice.

And again, we ask, Why?

In answer to which Peter gives us the key to understand how the fires of trial work in us to either destroy or refine:

“To the extent that you partake of (koinōnéō) Christ’s sufferings,

That when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

And how is this so?

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you (Mt 5:10-12), for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

II Peter

And if the “Spirit of glory and of God rests upon” us, then He will always know “how to deliver the godly out of testing (peirasmos) and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment (II Pet 2:9).

And with this word of eschatological hope, we are brought to the final occurrence of peirasmos.

Revelation

Here we clearly and finally see that our “endurance” (hupomone) is ultimately assured as God works in us to keep His “Word of hupomone” (λόγον τῆςὑπομονῆς), which keeping reveals that God Himself “will also keep” us “from the hour of trial (peirasmos) which shall come upon the whole world, to test (peirazo) those who dwell on the earth” (Rev 3:10).

This final testing will overwhelm those outside of Christ; but to those vitally united to Christ and to one another (that is to say, to His Body), this peirasmos will only serve to draw us into a deeper and unbreakable and eternal union.

May it be so!