Lit., having become approved. See on trial, 1Pe 1:7. The meaning is not, as the A. V. suggests, when his trial is finished, but when he has been approved by trial. Rev., rightly, when he hath been approved.
The crown (στέφανον)
See on 1Pe 5:4.
Of life (τῶς ζωῆς)
Lit., the life: the article pointing to the well-known eternal life. The figure is not that of the athlete's crown, for an image from the Grecian games, which the Jews despised, would be foreign to James' thought and displeasing to his readers. Rather the kingly crown, the proper word for which is διάδημα, diadem. In Psalms 20:3 (Sept.), στέφανος is used of the royal crown. In Zec 6:11, Zec 6:14, the reference seems to be to a priestly crown, forming part of the high-priest's mitre.