Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Thursday, September 4, 2025

SOAP 18/21 - Testing and Maturity (Jas 1.2-4)

 

SOAP 18/21
Testing and Maturity
James 1.2-4

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT 5

For the next 21 days, let's commit to feeding yourself spiritually by reading and reflecting on a passage of Scripture each day using the S.O.A.P. method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer). Keep a brief daily note of what you learn and how you might apply it, and at the end of the 21 days, share your biggest takeaway with someone else. 

Testing and Maturity
James 1.2-4
Faith Under Trial
James begins his letter with a startling exhortation: to consider trials a source of joy, because testing produces endurance, and endurance brings maturity. These verses reframe hardship not as meaningless suffering but as part of a formative process. The Christian life is not sheltered from pain but transformed through it.


James 1.2-4 (ESV)

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Greek Word Study

  • πειρασμοῖς (peirasmois) – “trials” (v. 2). Can mean external afflictions, temptations, or tests of loyalty.
  • δοκίμιον (dokimion) – “testing” (v. 3). Like refining metal; proves genuineness and strengthens what is tested.
  • ὑπομονή (hypomonē) – “steadfastness/endurance” (vv. 3–4). Patient perseverance, not passive waiting; active resilience.
  • τέλειοι (teleioi) – “perfect/mature” (v. 4). Complete, whole, mature; not sinless perfection but wholeness of character.


Historical Situation

James (likely mid-first century, before 70 CE) addresses Jewish Christians scattered in the diaspora, facing economic hardship, social marginalization, and persecution. For this struggling community, trials were not abstract: poverty, exploitation, and exclusion pressed heavily. James reinterprets these experiences, not as signs of abandonment, but as opportunities for growth into steadfast faith and communal maturity.


Observation through Three Lenses

1. Traditional (Catholic / Orthodox / Protestant Mainstream)

Tradition sees trials as part of the ascetic and sacramental path to holiness. Suffering is not sought but received as purifying fire, forming virtue and leading toward perfection (teleiosis). Monastic traditions especially emphasize endurance in prayer, fasting, and humility as pathways to maturity. In this view, joy in trials reflects union with Christ’s suffering, often mediated through liturgy and sacrament. The risk, however, is that endurance becomes overly associated with self-denial as a virtue in itself, which is not what this means.

2. Evangelical (Conservative Protestant)

Evangelicals highlight trials as tests of personal faith. Hardship becomes the proof of genuine conversion - whether one remains faithful or falls away. Endurance is cast as daily obedience under pressure, the hallmark of authentic discipleship. Joy in trials is tied to confidence in salvation and assurance of God’s sovereignty. Yet this often risks slipping into legalistic self-measurement: trials as constant examinations of whether one “truly believes,” making discipleship feel like probation rather than promise.

3. Process Theological (Relational, Whiteheadian)

Process theology reframes trials not as divine testing but as the inevitable tensions of becoming in a world of freedom, novelty, and risk. God does not impose trials, but God is present within them, luring each moment toward resilience, creativity, and growth. Endurance (hypomonē) is not stoic survival but co-creative partnership with God, where suffering can become transformed into deeper compassion, relational wholeness, and maturity. Joy does not come from pain itself but from trust that even pain can be woven into the larger story of healing.


Application through Three Lenses

1. Traditional

Do I receive my trials as opportunities for virtue, praying that God may use them to shape me into maturity?

2. Evangelical

Do I remain steadfast in faith under trial, trusting that endurance proves my discipleship and strengthens my walk with Christ?

3. Process Theological

Do I allow my hardships to become occasions for co-creative growth with God? This passage heals by showing that trials are not punishments from God, but openings where love, resilience, and wholeness may emerge in partnership with the Spirit.

Prayer

God of steadfast love,

In trials we are often weary, anxious, and afraid. Yet You meet us in our struggles, not as a harsh examiner but as a gentle companion. Teach us endurance as resilience, shape our maturity through Your love, and help us find joy in knowing that nothing - not even hardship - is wasted in Your renewing presence.

Amen



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