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The reference to Job in connection with the "end of the Lord" is enlightening, for in
the experiences of the patriarch we see worked out the blessedness of temptation when,
through it, patience has its perfecting work. Turning now to chapter 1:, we see there the
lesson summed up in verse 12:
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the
crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him" (James 1: 12).
The teaching of this verse is comparable with that of II Tim. 4: 7 and 8, where the
apostle speaks of a "crown of righteousness".
As a good example of the confusing of things that differ, we quote the following
comment on James 1: 12:
"Life, in James, is the result of endurance to the consummation. Hence it is figured by
the victor's wreath. We cannot boast of our life in Christ, but in the kingdom life comes
to those that overcome."
If this comment be true, we might just as well say of II Tim. 4: 7, 8:
"Righteousness, in Paul, is the result of endurance to the consummation. Hence it is
figured by the victor's wreath."
Such a comment would be a monstrous perversion of the truth. Anyone who confuses
"hope" with "prize", or "gift" with "reward" cannot help but lose his way and mislead his
followers. James deals with "perfecting", as does Paul in some places, but Paul also
gives basic teaching which James, in his one epistle, does not give.
Those to whom James wrote had been "begotten" (James 1: 18) and to speak of their
"life" as the "result of endurance" is unscriptural. "The crown of life" is the award
granted to those who endure the test, and to those "who loved Him", just as in
II Tim. 4: 8 "the crown of righteousness" is for those "that love His appearing". Life is
a necessity before it is possible to exhibit love.
The law that James has in view is not "Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage" but
"the perfect law of liberty"--"the royal law" (James 1: 25, 2: 8). "The perfect law of
liberty" means "the perfect law which is (the law) of our (Christian) liberty". It is not the
Gospel as contrasted with the Law, but the rule of life which obtains under the gospel
dispensation, and which Paul and James declare to be the law of love (Gal. 5: 13, 14;
James 2: 8) or the state of being "under the law to Christ" (I Cor. 9: 21). If James
actually teaches that those believers to whom he addressed his epistles were justified,
while still sinners, by works, then we must believe that we have in view here a company
that differs fundamentally from the rest of the redeemed, whether they be Jew or Gentile.
Under Paul's ministry the Jew, equally with the Gentile, was justified by faith without
works. Those to whom Peter ministered were not justified by works, for he speaks of
Christ as having died "the just for the unjust" to bring them to God (I Pet. 3: 18); and
certainly no one can think of intruding justification by works into the epistles of John.