James refers to himself as "a servant of God". Now he was the brother of Jesus, but he makes no mention of this. His relationship to Christ was now one with Christ as Lord. The twelve tribes scattered among the nations indicates that the letter was written to Jewish Christians throughout the nations.
These people would be facing trials on two fronts. Christians anyway were likely to have a hard time, and Jewish Christians doubly so because they would also face opposition from the Jews who would consider them traitors. Now instead of showing sympathy, James says "consider it pure joy". We come against situations and circumstances in a different spirit. Look at the life of Jesus, He reacted differently to all sorts of situations. When there were five thousand needing fed and they had five loaves and two fish, He told His disciples to feed them. When He was the victim of a show trial He reacted with calmness, authority and mercy. We need to be on our guard against our natural human reaction to events and situations. Instead we need to look for the Jesus reaction.
Note also that it says "trials of many kinds", that means it includes the trials you and I might be going through just now. Every trial is an opportunity. This is because we do not live just in our own strength, but in the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of God. Jesus came to make our lives different, to make us different. Trials are often the situations where this becomes most apparent.
More on this tomorrow.
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