When Trouble Comes (James 1:2-4) by Phil Johnson
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When Trouble Comes (James 1:2-4) by Phil Johnson
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Trouble has a strange way of feeling like a curse. Phil Johnson makes the case from James 1:2–4 that for the Christian, it's actually the opposite.
Working through one of the earliest letters in the New Testament, Johnson identifies the James who wrote it: not the apostle, but the Lord's half-brother who became the leading elder in the Jerusalem church. From there, he turns to the text itself, "consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials," and unpacks why that command isn't naive but deeply theological.
Johnson works through the Greek word behind both "trials" and "temptations," distinguishes between testing from God and enticement from the devil, and draws on the suffering of Job and Peter's failure and restoration to show that affliction is never random. It's purposeful, sovereignly governed, and aimed at one outcome: maturity that lacks nothing.
Three convictions anchor the message: trouble is a blessing, not a curse; tribulation tests us rather than punishes us; and trials perfect us rather than defeat us. For anyone wrestling w
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