| The Christian Life | December 1943 |
If Found Worthy
Tested Then Rewarded
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love Him.”—James 1:12
AS CHRISTIANS, our covenant with the Lord is to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are to love up to this standard in the spirit of our minds so far as we are able relying on divine assistance in times of need, and relying on the merit of the precious blood of the Redeemer to cover our unavoidable deficiencies.
The great adversary, working through the desires of the flesh, and in conjunction with the world, endeavors to lure us away from the standard of full love and devotion to God. He would have us love other things more than we love the Lord. Without temptations along this line our allegiance to God could never be shown. Self-love for example, might be reigning in our hearts, and we would not recognize it.
It is easy to assume that we love the Lord more than anything else, even our own lives, and to conclude how much we would like to do for Him; but not until we come to grips with the counter-influences of self-love, do we have an opportunity to demonstrate the genuineness of our consecration and devotion. We may say in our hearts, “I love Thy will, O God,” but when we are severely tried along one line or another we find out that our love for His will needs further development and a firmer anchorage.
It is not a matter of enduring merely one or two trials, or temptations. It is not until we have endured unto the end—“faithful unto death”—that the crown of life will be given to us. The Christian’s entire life is one of trial, or testing, to prove the depth of his sincerity and loyalty to God. We have covenanted to sacrifice all to follow the Master, and our endurance of temptation is by virtue of actually fulfilling that covenant faithfully even unto death.
We should not expect any easement from trials, much less a cessation of them, while tabernacling in the flesh. The Lord may temper the heat, as it were, if, in His wisdom, He sees such would be best for us. But we can meet temptations confidently, knowing that regardless of what our natural infirmities may be, we shall be given strength sufficient if we demonstrate our loyalty of heart by our very best endeavors to stem the tide of selfishness, and to turn a deaf ear to the appeals of Satan by which he endeavors to divert us from the way of sacrifice. Let the trials continue to come, then, and by God’s grace we will endure unto the end, in confidence that we will receive the crown of life.