In view of how God uses trials in our lives we should persevere in the will of God joyfully. The Christian who perseveres under trials, who does not yield to temptations to depart from the will of God, demonstrates his or her love for God.43It is those who persevere under trials out of love for God that He will reward with the crown of life. Only the person who endures will receive the blessing.44
". . . James has begun the sentence with blessed' makarios, like a new beatitude recalling Matthew 5:3-10 and especially 5:11-12, where Jesus encouraged perseverance in trials because great is your reward in heaven.' . . . the crown of life would be the ultimate reward, the fulfillment of eternal life and the exaltation with Christ which will be enjoyed by those who, because of faith in Christ, have loved God enough to live faithfully, obeying him even through trials."45
"It is evident that this life that God has promised' is more than the eternal life given to every believer at the time of his salvation (John 5:24). Since it is a reward for an accomplishment subsequent to initial faith, it must refer to a still higher quality of life."46
"Many Christians are presently following the same path which Esau took (considering the birthright to be of little value), and such Christians will one day come to the end of the matter in the same position as Esau. They, although presently in line to be blessed as the firstborn (every Christian is a firstborn child of God), will have forfeited this right; and they will be rejected for the blessing."47
"The idea that all Christians dolove God is a fiction. Even our Lord felt it necessary to exhort His inner circle of eleven disciples on this point (cf. John 14:21-24). . . . In no circumstances more than in trials does the presence or absence of love for God in a Christian become more apparent."48
The other "crowns"to which the New Testament writers referred are probably also references to the fullness of the qualities mentioned in their contexts. They are probably not material crowns (cf. 1 Thess. 2:19; 2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 2:10). In other words, we should probably interpret them as metaphors rather than as literal crowns. Those who demonstrate their love for the Lord by persevering under trials will receive life to its fullest potential in the present and in the future.
