James 1:4

And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:4

Hmm. This verse seems a little sketchy. Endurance can produce a perfect result. I can accept that, but if it says that the perfect result is perfection, then I don't know if I agree. I mean, I'm not about to say that I disagree with the Bible, but my mind disagrees because it doesn't understand and is unable to reconcile Scripture-truth with "philosophy-truth." Maybe the second term (philosophy-truth) isn't the best choice of words, but it's the best I could come up with on such short notice. The reason I can't grasp that concept (of us becoming perfect) and have to grapple with it so much is because of the fact that perfection is, or so I believed, only to be achieved in Heaven. In fact, Salvador Dali once said, "Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it" (or something to that extent).

Because endurance is a "spiritual" virtue and because the context seems to be more ethereal I doubt the promise of "lacking in nothing" is a material promise. In fact, it contradicts other declarations of the New Testament that warn us that we will indeed suffer. Of course, those promises were for the Church and this book (James) was written to dispersed Jews (the diaspora). But that is a delicate argument as well, and I dare not wade into those muddy waters. So I return to the topic at hand. It is not a material promise. We will not lack nothing in the sense of physical or material riches (some might call them "blessings"), but we will not lack nothing in a spiritual sense. And, yes, I realize it is not lack "anything" and not, not lack nothing. I was simply trying to prove a point and do it more scripturally, if ungrammatically.

Basically I walk away with endurance is a very good thing. It is something we should pursue. Not that we should pursue trials to test our endurance, but that once in trial we should earnestly pursue endurance as our goal. To bear up under whatever it is that we have to deal with and to come out on the other side victorious is, I think, what endurance is about. So let's have at it. Let's endure under trial (or temptation) and be victorious because the promise is that the better we are at that and the more we develop that the more our own spiritual life develops so that in the end we will not lack anything (we might even be perfect).