John cox does a great job of handling the topic of joy. If you click the picture above, you'll see what I mean. What I want to do in this nugget, though, is to break down James 1:2-4 a little bit. It's quite famous, as you'll see in a minute, but that often means we sort of glance over the verses and miss out on extra nuances and meanings. Here's the Word:
James 1:2-4 (KJV)
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
The area I want to really zoom in on is this idea of "counting it all joy when you fall into various temptations." Looking into the Greek words, we see that the root word for "count" in this verse is the word "ago." It means "to bring, drive or induce." The root meaning is extended and becomes a word for "leadership, command, consideration, government and judgment." Now, for the sake of time, let's review just one more word: "temptations." Here, the word means "a proving of that which is good through experience and adversity." Are you starting to see how our view of a scripture can be limited by traditional interpretation? It's so very important to study for ourselves. Okay then, based on just these two word studies, we can tweak the language of this verse and find a very solid set of fresh insights. Here is my Kingdom Paraphrase of verse 2: "My brothers, those born again by the same Spirit, sharing a common identity in God's family, take leadership over your experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly. Drive adversity like a herd of cattle straight into a whole new classification: JOY! That's right, no matter what the experience is, you are the governor of your own perspectives; and every situation is to be embraced with absolute delight." Wow! If you've never looked at that verse in this way, you can see why such a study has so much value. Take some time and study the words of verses three and four on your own. See what you discover, and why joy is the best atmosphere for all of life's experiences.
Here's one of my favorite online study tools:
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