A couple of years ago, The Wall Street Journal published a piece by Alex Janin titled “The Longevity Clinic Will See You Now—for $100,000.” Apparently, practices calling themselves “longevity clinics” have been opening all around the country. People, mostly wealthy people between 40 and 60, are paying up to $100,000 a year for what Janin says are “sometimes unproven treatments, including biological-age testing, early cancer screenings, stem-cell therapies, and hair rejuvenation.”
Normally, new drugs and therapies go through three rounds of exhaustive testing, beginning with dozens, and then hundreds, and then thousands of volunteers. The results of this testing are reviewed by the FDA throughout the process. Only after this three-stage testing process is complete and the data reviewed can the product be submitted for approval.
The Bible has a word for something (or someone) that has been tested and approved. It is an important word to understand, for it describes a process that is crucial to spiritual formation in Christ. It is not easy to translate into English, as contemporary versions have discovered. The NIV translates the word differently in different verses: “approved,” “tested and approved,” and “stood the test.” Other versions have “proved,” “been proved,” “passed the test,” “tried,” “tried and true,” and more.
The word is “dokimos” in Greek and provides insight into the process that God uses to develop people. It alerts us to the fact that God desires that all his people receive approved status. But, of course, that means all his people must undergo testing. Ugh!
But the testing process is necessary. It instills confidence in the person being tested, which is crucial for happiness and success. It also assures people outside Christ that the approved person is reliable. As such, this process is a key component in the spread of the gospel.
Last evening, my wife and I watched Olympic figure skating (ice dance) and saw a married couple from the U.S. take silver and skaters from France take gold. I’ve read that Olympic ice dancers routinely practice on the ice for 4 to 6 hours a day and do conditioning training for an additional 2-3 hours a day. By the time they compete for gold, they have been tested thoroughly, both in training and in competition. They skate out onto the ice equipped with both skill and confidence.
We all have products in our homes – hair dryers, clothes dryers, refrigerators, circular saws, dehumidifiers, coffee makers, extension cords, etc. – that have a label with a UL symbol. This means that the product line has been extensively tested and approved by Underwriters Laboratories. That symbol gives merchants and consumers confidence in the product they are selling and buying.
God wants his people to have confidence in him and in his work in them. And he wants their friends, neighbors, and co-workers to be able to trust them. But confidence comes at a price—just ask those Olympic skaters! That price is testing.
We think of testing as a bad thing because it is hard. But testing, when it is intended to make us strong and confident and happy and productive, is not a bad thing, though it remains a hard thing. Sometimes it is so hard that we don’t think we can endure it. But God knows our limits and he is careful to protect us.
What kind of trials do people go through to achieve approved status? One word that shows up in connection with dokimos is the Greek word thlipsis, which the NIV translates as “trouble,” “affliction,” “distress,” “anguish,” and “persecution.” Its principal idea is of pressure or stress: something that either squeezes us or threatens to pull us apart. Such experiences act as clinical trials. The trials are not intended to prove our resilience, strength, or intelligence. They do not test for spirituality, at least not directly. They test our faith (James 1:2-3; 1 Peter 1:6-7). The question for which such tests provide an answer is this: How long will we continue to trust God as the pressure rises.
Becoming “dokimos” is akin to be vetted for a position or responsibility. To be “dokimos” is to be battle-tested, field-proven, reliable under real world strain.
But it is not only hardship that tests us. Wealth is another test of faith. So is flattery, as the proverb makes clear: “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives.”
God wants his children to have the experience of being certified as “dokimos.” We should want it too, for with it comes effectiveness, confidence, and joy. But that means we should thank God for our trials and do our best to trust him while they last, for we have this promise: “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test” (literally, “when he becomes dokimos”), “he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12).
The Way Home 
Leave a comment