James 1:3

that the trying of your faith The word for "trying" implies at once a "test," and a "discipline" leading to improvement. The same phrase meets us, in conjunction also with "divers temptations," in 1 Peter 1:7. Each was, perhaps, quoting what had become an axiom of the Church's life.

worketh patience The Greek word always implies more than mere passive submission, the " endurance unto the end" of Matthew 10:22; Matthew 24:13, the perseverance which does not falter under suffering.