A Father Who Has Passed The Test

James 1:12. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Father’s Day Sunday, June 21, 2026.

Men in general and fathers in particular have taken quite a beating in our culture.  It is not that women and moms do not need to be honored and encouraged, they surely do.  However, we do not need to trash men and fathers in order to do that.  The truth is that we need to encourage each other in the right things.

As our culture has deteriorated, the challenge for believers has always been to remain faithful to Christ and his word.  God knows how He has designed us and what makes for our good.  When we work with God’s design and purpose, we remove a lot of problems from life that are self-inflicted.  It doesn’t make life a piece of cake, but it does cooperate with the One who can help us through it.

God’s design is for a wife and a husband to help each other pass the tests of this life, even the test of life itself.  When we do this, we will build better families, a better church, and a better society.

Let’s look at our passage.

A blessed man (1:12)

James uses a formula that harkens back to Psalm 1:1, “Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the wicked…”  It was also used by Jesus in Matthew 5:1-12 in what we call The Beatitudes.

Jesus shows us that many things which cause us to feel like we are disqualified, even by God, are the very things which God values.  God has you in mind, and part of that is to bless you.  The man who mourns is blessed because God has comfort for him.  The man who hungers and thirsts for righteousness is blessed because God will satisfy him.

Notice that Jesus does not put these in the future tense.  He does not say those who mourn will be blessed on the day God comforts them.  You are already blessed because God is the one who both decrees and helps you towards the good that He intends.  He is watching over you and out for you.

We should not complain about our lot in life and tell ourselves that we are cursed or unloved by God.  Rather, we should look to God, trust in Him, and rejoice in the good purpose that He has put before us.  We should also rejoice that He is present with us in all of His goodness before we ever reach it.

James is speaking of a person who perseveres under trial.  Persevering is the patience of endurance.  It means to stick under the heaviness of the trial.  The devil wants you to quit, and your own flesh often wants you to quit.  But God has a blessing in it and encourages you to persevere.

Being a father will, if anything, take perseverance.  It is a different kind of heavy load that doesn’t test our physical muscles but rather tests our internal fortitude.  How can we stick in there when we are tempted to give up?  We must look to Jesus who was crushed under a heavy load for each one of us.

Jesus didn’t use the word for a trial in the beatitudes, but he did use it in the prayer he taught them in chapter 6.  “Do not lead us into temptation (test/trial), but deliver us from evil (or the evil one).”  The sense is a prayer that we not be led into trials and left at the mercy of evil.  It is a prayer for God to help us be victorious.  All people face trials in life, but we can sometimes run away from them.  When we run away from a trial, we are only running towards the next one.  In fact, our refusal to face this one makes it easier for us to run from the next one.  God wants to bring us through the trials in victory.

Whether you think of this as a trial or as temptation, they are both related.  Every trial is both a test and a temptation.  The poor in spirit are tested or tempted by choosing spiritual arrogance.  Those who mourn are tested by their loss and tempted to give up on God.

The trial is not easy and pleasant, but the best response is to trust God and His way through it.  The best response is to say no to the temptation to go another way.  None of us do this without any failure, but Jesus did.  He is our model but also our forgiveness and our help in the trial.  The blessed man is one who is looking to Christ to help bring him through the tests, trials, and temptations of life.

James then gives us the phrase “once he has been approved.”  This approval is not our own approval or the approval of other people.  It is the approval of the Lord.  This approval can be thought of in two senses.  There is an approval of God in our decision to trust in Jesus.  John 3:16 makes it clear that to do this is to obtain eternal life.  However, one who follows Jesus in faith must persevere to the end of this life in faith.  Thus, there is a final approval for those who have endured in the faith to the laying down of their physical body in death.

No man finds the approval of God on his own merits.  Jesus is the foundation upon which we can be approved.  However, we must exercise faith in our life.  It is Jesus who makes the grace of forgiveness and salvation available to us.  In fact, we must be careful of thinking that failure in a trial somehow ends the trial.  Repentance and reconciliation are part of the trial and the approved life.  Yes, it would be better for us to not fail in the trial.  However, we must not fail to repent and turn to Christ for strength to endure and grow.  He can redeem every situation when we repent and put it in his hands.

What do I do with the failure of others?  Just as I should respond with repentance to my own failures, so I must respond with the mercy and love of God at the failure of others.  Speak the truth in love.

Raising kids for Jesus is no easy task and will try every man’s heart.  Yet, you can persevere, ask God for help, and trust Him.  The challenge of God to us is this.  Are you willing to keep walking in my blessing by faith?

James then tells us that, once we have been approved, we will receive the crown of life.  The crown of life is speaking of the eternal life of God.  This eternal life is like a victor’s crown (a prize or award) upon the believer.  Similar to our approval, we can see this in two senses as well.  When we put our faith in Jesus, we are connected to God’s eternal life.  Yet, there is a future fullness of this eternal life that will occur at the resurrection.  We should aim to walk in this life with the approval of God.  We should face the trials victoriously as He would have us.  Yet, our ultimate victory will be at the resurrection.

The final phrase is “which the lord promised to those who love Him.  So far, we have focused upon the blessed man.  The focus here is on the Lord.  The Lord has made a promise of blessing to those who love him. This is a promise that anyone can receive because the Lord makes it to “whosoever would believe in [Jesus].”  You can step into that place of promise, that place of blessing, at any time.

Jesus will keep his end of the promise.  If you will look to him, he will enable you to be victorious over every trial, test, and temptation.  Each of us may lose a battle here and there, but we don’t have to lose the war.

All fathers are able to be a blessed man, not because we have it in ourselves to be so but because we have a God who made us precisely for this.  Don’t be discouraged; God is with you and will help you to glorify Him in the facing of every test.  Don’t you know that you are blessed?

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