Charles Ellicott Commentary James 1:2

"Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations;" — James 1:2 (ASV)

Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations (James 1:2).—Better, Account it all joy whenever you fall into divers temptations—that is, trials; but even with this more exact rendering of the text, how can we, poor frail creatures of earth, it may well be asked, feel any joy under such? Do we not pray in our Savior’s words, Lead us not into temptation? (See Matthew 6:13, and the note there.) Yet a little consideration will reveal the teaching of Holy Scripture very plainly.

The Apostle here is following the same line of thought as that expressed in Hebrews 5:14. By use (or habit, more properly) our senses may be exercised to the discernment of good and evil. The grace of God given to the soul is capable of growth and enlargement, like the powers of body and mind. If either is unemployed, weakness must follow, and eventually decay and death. And just as the veteran who has proved his armor well, and learned to face habitual danger as a duty, is more trustworthy than a raw recruit, however large of limb and stout of heart, so it is with the Christian soldier.

He must learn to endure hardness (2 Timothy 2:3), and bear meekly and even gladly all the trials which are to strengthen him for the holy war. Innocence is a grace indeed, and yet there is a higher stage of the same virtue, namely, the purity which has been won by long and often bitter conflict with the thousand suggestions of evil from without, stirring up the natural impurity within. Temptation is not sin. “You cannot,” says the old German divine, “prevent the birds flying over your head, but you can from making nests in your hair;” and the soul victorious over some such trying onset is by that very triumph stronger and better able to undergo the next assault. The act of virtue has, in truth, helped to build up the habit, from which, when it is perfected, a happy life cannot fail to spring.

The interpretation of our Lord’s prayer is rather the cry for help to God our Father in the trial, than for actual escape from it: Lead us not, that is, where we in our free will may choose the wrong and perish. And there is a strangely sweet joy to be snatched from the most grievous temptation in the remembrance that God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

On verses 2-27:

Immediately after the salutation, and with more or less a play upon the word which we translate “greeting” (rejoice,James 1:1; count it all joy,James 1:2) there follow appeals on behalf of patience, endurance, and meekness.