James addresses the twelve tribes in the dispersion. This designation has from ancient times referred to the Jewish people, but should we understand that James is addressing only Christians from among the Jews? Since the content of the letter concerns all Christians, by the twelve tribes we are entitled to understand the brothers who make up the Church, the people of God of the New Covenant.

The call to rejoice in temptations initially makes a strange impression. One can, of course, find a reason for joy in the fact that if the powers of darkness attack you, this means that you do not belong to them. But such awareness can lead to self-satisfaction, then to self-deception and proud self-exaltation, and that is itself a satanic trap.

So it is not temptations themselves that we should rejoice in, but the fact that the Lord gives us strength to cope with them, to stand firm against enticements. We should not fear them and lose our heads out of fear, but we should recognize them in time and be ready to receive help from above.

James's mention of wisdom in connection with endurance may at first glance appear somewhat strange. But it can appear that way to us today, because wisdom for us today is often connected with something bookish, philosophical, abstract. Wisdom, however, as the Bible understands it, was always something practical rather than abstractly speculative. The corresponding Hebrew word, like its Greek equivalent, denotes above all art, skill, first of all practical skill. A skilled craftsman who knew how to make a beautiful thing from stone, wood, or metal could be called wise: here both the practical skill of a worker and the sense of beauty proper to an artist were needed. Wise was also the name given to someone who knew how to govern, whether his own household or an entire country.

Here skill was connected no longer with a craftsman's mastery, but with the experience that makes it possible to build relationships with people, take account of each person's interests, and see that the task set is solved, not by infringing on someone's interests, but for the common good. But the highest form of wisdom was the wisdom of the righteous person, the experience and skill of righteous life. It would seem that righteousness is a gift of God, and little depends on the person here. But every gift must be received skillfully, and the skill of righteous life is connected precisely with this ability. How can one follow God despite one's own sinfulness, and follow Him in such a way as to stumble less?

The wisdom of the one seeking righteous life was connected with the answer to this question. This is the wisdom of which James speaks. And the steadfastness he mentions, which would be a more accurate translation of the Greek word rendered as "patience" in the Synodal translation, plays a significant role in acquiring it. The spiritual core on which a person's whole life, inward and outward, rests can be strong only when external events do not wash it away or destroy it. And James advises asking God how to make it so. This is understandable: after all, it is God who makes a person righteous, opening to him the road into the Kingdom.

Today’s reading from the Epistle of the Apostle James is devoted almost entirely to what our proper attitude toward temptation should be. Of course, there is nothing good in such experiences; moreover, a person often emerges from situations of temptation drained, battered, and wounded, even if not defeated. Yet the Apostle considers it important to draw attention to the need to endure temptations with patience. The need to withstand powerful attacks of evil coming from different directions and disguised as good, and the steadfastness and firmness this demands, enable us to gain clarity of vision and mind—and consequently clarity of faith. It is precisely this clarity that makes it possible to overcome doubt when we greatly desire to yield to evil but understand clearly that nothing good will come of it. We usually excuse ourselves by saying that the temptation is too strong and we cannot resist it. In doing so, we forget that only the one who resisted to the very end can know the full force of evil’s attack: not the one who fell to the ground at the first gust of wind, but the one who remained standing through the storm. We are obliged to stand to the end, because the first One who stood firm died on the Cross for our life.