We should be prepared and not caught off guard when a sudden trial comes upon us. James wants believers to know to expect “trials of various kinds” (James 1:2) in the Christian life. He calls believers to develop a new and improved attitude that considers trials from God’s perspective. The word count is a financial term, and it means “to evaluate.” When James says to “count it all joy,” he encourages his readers to evaluate the way they look at trials. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2–4, ESV). It is the first command James gives in his epistle to understand what he means by it, we must look at the full passage and surrounding verses: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.In some English translations of the Bible, James 1:2 contains the clause count it all joy. This is what we will mean when we say with Paul, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” John Piper ( is founder and teacher of and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. But to be a follower of Jesus, to be a true Christian, means that these four ways of dealing with “everything” will be the settled, joyful, defining resolve of our lives. None of us loves Christ this perfectly, or lives so consistently. This is what I believe it means to find Jesus so all-sufficient and all-satisfying that (1) we count everything as loss (Philippians 3:8), (2) renounce all our possessions (Luke 14:33), and, (3) “sell” all we have to possess the treasure of Christ (Matthew 13:44). “To become a Christian is to find Jesus all-sufficient and all-satisfying.” That is, in smaller losses we will not grumble (Philippians 2:14), and in greater losses we will grieve, but not as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Renouncing all (counting all as loss) means that if we lose any or all the things this world can offer, we will not lose our joy, or our treasure, or our life - because Christ is our joy and our treasure and our life. We will seek to live the paradox of 1 Corinthians 7:30–31: “Let buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it.”Ĥ. That is, we will hold things loosely, share things generously, and ascribe value to things in relation to Christ. Renouncing all (counting all as loss) means that we will seek to deal with the things of this world in ways that show that they are not our treasure, but rather that Christ is our treasure. That is, we will embrace everything pleasant by being thankful to Christ, and we will endure everything hurtful by being patient through Christ.ģ. Renouncing all (counting all as loss) means that we will deal with everything in ways that draw us nearer to Christ, so that we gain more of Christ, and enjoy more of him, by the way we relate to everything. That is, even though God does not bring us to the crisis of either-or at every point, nevertheless, we are ready, and have resolved in our hearts that, if the choice must be made, we will choose Christ.Ģ. Renouncing all (counting all as loss) means that, if we must choose between Christ and anything else, we will choose Christ. In everyday, practical terms, what does it mean to do this? It means at least these four things:ġ. So, to become a Christian is to awaken from the blindness of spiritual death and find Jesus so all-sufficient and all-satisfying that (1) we count everything as loss, (2) we renounce all our possessions, and, in parable-language, (3) we sell all we have to possess the treasure of Christ. Selling all you have with joy, in order to have the treasure of the kingdom, is a parable-way of saying: count everything as loss in order to gain Christ. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44). He describes this conversion in a parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. “Counting everything as loss happens in conversion. Renouncing all we have is the same as “counting everything as loss.” This is what happens in conversion. This is confirmed in Jesus’s words, “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). It is not advanced discipleship it is basic Christianity. And a few verses later he said, “Brothers, join in imitating me” (Philippians 3:17). “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). What does it mean to count everything as loss for the sake of Christ? What does it mean to renounce all that we have for Christ’s sake?
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