James 1:3

OLBGrk;

Knowing this; considering. That the trying of your faith; the reason why he called afflictions temptations, as well as why believers should count it all joy to fall into them, viz. because they are trials of their faith, and such trials as tend to approbation, as the word (different from that in the former verse) imports. Of your faith; both of the truth of the grace itself, and of your constancy in the profession of it. Worketh patience; not of itself, but as a means in the hand of God, made effectual to that end. Objection. Romans 5:3, it is said, Tribulation worketh patience, and patience, experience, or trial; whereas here it is said, that trial works patience. Answer. The words used here and Romans 5:3 are different; here it is dokimion, which signifies actively, the trying itself, and this works patience; there it is dokimh, which is taken passively, for the experiment following upon the trial; or, as we read it, the experience, viz. of our sincerity, as well as of God's consolation, which may well be the effect of patience wrought by and under trials. And so both are true, that tribulation, as Paul speaks, and trial, as James, work patience; and patience, not a further trial, but rather discovery, or experiment, or approbation of what we are, which appears by nothing more than by patience under sufferings.