James 4:1-10

All right, continuing our study through the letter of James. We are James chapter four versus one through ten. And the section deals with really an important topic in life. I'm sure you've experienced it yourself that a bickering, fighting, quarreling, conflicts, just hostility and relational dysfunction and strife. That's everywhere present in our world has been really since the dawn of time. And what is the source of this kind of problem? What's the source of fighting and arguing and conflicts, whether that's in a church, whether that's in a small group, whether that's in just some sort of social group, whether that's in a marriage, what's the source of fighting and hostility and conflict and quarreling? And that's the topic James takes up in James four, one through ten. This section can be divided into really two main parts versus one through four. Focus is on the problem and versus five through ten focus on the solution. So problem solution seems to be how this section is raised. And it fits in with the proceeding section where James talked about the wisdom that's from above, godly wisdom leads to peace. But the way of the world and the wisdom of the world leads to disorder and every evil thing he said there in James 3, 13 and following. And here it really follows up with that, helping us see that conflicts and fighting and all of that is really the way of the world and comes from being in relationship with the world and following the ways of the world and being full of the desires of the world. And then he offers a solution to that. Let's look at the details versus one through four as we said is the problem. So verse one begins this way really raising the subject of the whole paragraph. Verse one says, what's the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? And so the topic here is the source of quarrels and conflicts, the source of fighting and bickering and arguing, where does all that come from? What's the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Among you meaning in your midst, in this group of people, in your social circles, in the group of people that you're a part of. So what leads to that? And then he gives the immediate answer. He says in the second half of verse one, is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? Hey don't in Greek is the word we get our English word hedenist or hedonism from and this word pleasures is routinely regularly used in a negative sense in the New Testament. Luke chapter eight verse 14 speaks of the pleasures of the world that choke out the word of God. Our Titus chapter three verse three speaks of men being slaves to various lusts and pleasures or second Peter chapter two verse 13 say that people count as a pleasure to revel in the daytime to do what's wrong and live sort of lives in the daytime. And so the pleasures, these kind of illicit self-serving self-centered pleasures are the source of our quarrels and conflicts. And he says that is not the source your pleasures which wage war in your members and that's a little bit ambiguous. What does he mean by in your members? Well, it could be within yourself. Sometimes this word members is used for the parts of your body. So thus that wage war within you, you yourself, that your pleasures in the words of Peter, wage war against your soul could be that or it could be among the members of your churches. And there's that idea that members refers to groups of people, people within you and you have various pleasures and they're at odds with each other. And it's not totally clear. I think we should just leave it a little bit ambiguous. Maybe it even refers to both. Both are in a certain sense true. Your pleasures are within you within the parts of your body and your pleasures are impacting the people in your social circle. So both are really true and it probably doesn't make a big difference if we make a decision between how James intended it there. So ultimately the source is your pleasures that are stirring up strife and conflict among you. Now verses two through four amplify this issue as he really details the problem and put some flesh and bones on it. So look at verse two. James says, you lust and do not have. So you commit murder. Well, the first thing we need to notice is that word lust. We usually associate the word lust exclusively with sexual lust, sexual desire. But the word is epithemetto in Greek which just meant desire, strong desire. Sometimes that word is used for good desires in the New Testament. Sometimes it's used for bad desires, more often it's used for bad desires. So lust isn't exclusively sexual here. It just means desire. You have strong desires and you want things and you don't have them. So what do you do? You commit murder. That sounds a little harsh, but we know it's true. Just read the news that there are things you want you don't have and therefore you kill someone to get it. Sometimes in the New Testament that word murder is actually used for just anger and fighting. You see that in the sermon on the mount. And so literal murder, yes, maybe just fighting over things. Okay. But you lust, you desire things don't have. Next, he says, you are invious of somebody else. You look at someone else's life and you're like, man, why can't I have that? I wish my life for like that. I wish I had those things. You are invious and cannot obtain so you fight in corul. So he has kind of developed more fully amplify this idea of how our pleasures are really the source of our conflicts. And then he goes on and says, you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your own pleasures. Now, let's just clarify some things. Notice what he says. He says, you don't have because you don't ask. This is really important for us to realize the way God has designed the universe to work is to be an asking place. How do you get things? You ask for them. It doesn't mean you're always going to get everything you ask for. But the fundamental way we are designed to operate and relationships are designed to operate is by asking. That's true in our relationship with God. We ask for God, ask for things from God in prayer. It's also true in our relationship with others. We ask other people for things. That's the way God designed the universe to work. You hear that in the teaching of Jesus. Ask and you shall receive, right? This asking is just the nature of the universe. When we always told them, ask, don't demand. That's the way the universe is designed to work. You do not have because you do not ask whether asking God for them or asking other people for them. Then when you do ask, you ask and do not receive, he says in verse 3, because you ask with wrong motives. When you do ask, you don't receive because you ask badly whether you're asking God for things or whether you ask other people for things. That word translated wrong motives, that's a bit of an over-translation in my opinion. The word is simply bad. You just ask badly. You ask and do not receive because you ask badly. What does he mean by asking badly while he clarifies in the last little bit of verse 3? You ask badly so that you may spend it on your own pleasures. You're asking his self-centered. You're asking his self-serving. You're asking his full of self-interest. You want to spend it on your own pleasures and on your own selfish desires. It's a very self-serving, self-seeking kind of asking. That just doesn't work. That's what it means to ask badly is to ask in a self-seeking, self-serving sort of way. Verse 4, James points out how bad all of this self-seeking, self-serving, pleasure-seeking approach to life is for those who call themselves God's people and followers of Jesus. Look at verse 4, James writes, "You adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God." This idea of referring to God's people as adulteresses because they're really in love with the world is common in the Old Testament and that's James' heritage. You have that in, say, for example, the book of Hosea where really there's a lot of enacted kind of parable about this idea of Israel, God's people being adulteresses because they're in love with the world and they're living the world's ways. This heritage of referring to God's people as adulteresses, James picks up here and he says to his audience, "If you're living this way in this self-seeking way where you're just wanting to fill your life up with the pleasures of the world, you're a spiritual adulteress, you're unfaithful to God." And he states that more explicitly in what follows by saying, "Don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God?" When he says, "Friendship with the world," by the word, "the world" there, he doesn't mean the world. because God made the world and said it was good. He doesn't mean the world in the good sense, the natural world. What he means is the world's system, the fallen world's way of living and valuing and doing things. So the world's approach to life and the world's values and the world's priorities, friendship with the world's system and the world's way of doing things is hostility towards God because they're too diametrically opposed ways of living life, arranging life and ordering your life. They have two diametrically opposed sets of values that shape what's important to you. And so friendship with the world is hostility and antagonism towards God and that's why you're an adulterous. Then he goes on and says at the second half of verse four, "Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." So how can you be an enemy of God very easily? Just make your life all about the pleasures of this world and getting good things from this world and the values of this world. Do that and you will be an enemy of God because you will have set yourself up against God and God's ways and God's priorities and God's things. And so friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God. So there you go. That's the problem as James states it here. The source of quarrels and conflicts comes from your own self-seeking, self-serving pleasures and that not only puts you at odds with other people, it puts you at odds with God. And so this is the real problem. This is the root of the problem when it comes to arguing and conflict and fighting and bickering in our relationships with people. What's the solution? Well James begins to turn towards the solution in verse five and he'll get very explicit and really hard driving with the solution in verses seven and following. So he begins to turn here in verse five by saying this or do you think that the scriptures speak to no purpose? Literally, do you think that the scriptures speak empty, vainly, right? Without any effect or out any intent. And then James seems to paraphrase a theme in scripture. The next little section is really difficult to translate. Scholars have wrestled with it for a long time trying to figure out exactly what James is doing here. But James says this in this translation. It reads this way. He gelously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us. But what is he getting at? So do you think the scripture speaks to no purpose? Well, there's no scripture that says what James says word for word. But there is an Old Testament theme, i.e. a scriptural theme about God being a jealous God and being jealous forest people. And so the new American standard translation that I'm working out of here takes what James says that way. But it's a very difficult section and not always easy to understand. If you're interested in knowing all the details, you can pick up a written commentary. Commentary by Doug Mu has a lot of details on it in the pillar commentary series. You can pick that up and look at all the details if you want all those details. Let me just give you a few of the highlights of the challenge. And let me put it very simply. There are two main questions that's unclear and that we have to figure out how we translate and understand verse five. Who does who's jealous? Or who does the in-veeing depending on your translation? That's one question. The other question is what's the object of the in-veeing or the jealousy? All right. So what notice this translation I'm working out of says he jealous lead desires the spirit which he made it well in us. And the new American standard is capitalize that he and takes that as to be God being the one who's jealous. And the word translated jealous in Greek is usually translated in-vee. And so that raises some questions. Well, is that appropriate? That's not usually the word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for God's jealousy. So is that appropriate? Should we understand it that way? So it could be God who is jealous. It could be our own spirit that is in-veeing in a negative sort of way. The original in-ve back in 1984 took it that way. Could be the Holy Spirit who's jealous and so that would change kind of the way this works. And so there's that question. Who does the who does the in-veeing or who is jealous? The other question is what's the object of the jealousy? Well here in this translation it's the Holy Spirit. They've interpreted it that way that God jealousy desires the Holy Spirit that he's put within us. Or it could be our spirit that God desires our spirit to be loyal and faithful to him. Or it could be you know just sinful things in that original translation of the NIV where our spirit is jealous and in-veeing sinful things. And it's not a hundred percent clear in any of this and hence the reason for the difficulties. Here's what I think is best. And again, if you want all the details grab a written commentary. I think it's best to understand God being jealous for our spirit that he has made to dwell in us. That fits the Old Testament theme, the scriptural theme that he seems to be alluding to in paraphrasing very well when he says that our spirit is by choosing sinful things is right an adulterous as he said in verse 4. Well what God wants is for us to be completely loyal to him, completely true to him. So he's jealous of our spirit being loyal to him and having a peer devotion to him. I think that makes the most sense in context but again it's not a hundred percent clear. All right now James goes on in verse 6 kind of developing as even further he says but he, God, gives a greater grace. God gives a greater grace to us when we struggle with our pleasures. He gives a greater grace to us when we all of a sudden realize we're being disloyal to him and we're becoming a friend of the world. God gives a greater grace and this is how James explains that. He actually quotes from Proverbs 3 34. Listen to what he says in the second half of verse 6. He says therefore it says again the scriptures say God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. That's from Proverbs 3 34. God resist the proud. He resist those who are self-seeking, self-serving, who's whole life loops through themselves and they're always trying to get their own way and who are proud in that regard. Right. God resists those people and as opposed to people like that but God gives grace to the lowly. God gives grace to the humble and so now we're beginning to turn towards a solution. The solution is this self-seeking kind of proud, self-centered approach to life where we want our own pleasures. That leads to conflict and fighting and all of that. Well the solution is to humble ourselves. Right. God gives grace to the humble and so verse 7 now begins to detail what he means by God gives grace to the humble. What does it mean to be lowly before God? How does this receiving this grace from God and having God bless you with his favor and his grace work and what James really does in verses 7 through 10 is he gives in real quick fashion 10 commands 10 imperatives to really call us to turn our heart back to true loyalty to God. So if we find ourselves living for the pleasures of this world being unfaithful to God, James really provides a prescription here to this diagnosis. He says in verse 7 and finally we just read 7 through 10 so you can hear this kind of staccato approach to all these imperatives. He says submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners. Purify your heart. You double-minded. Be miserable. More, weep, let your laughter be turned to morning. Your joy be turned to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you. And so real kind of hard hitting call to repentance is what James has here in verses 7 through 10. So he says submit therefore to God. That's the first thing if you're going to you're going to humble yourself before God starts with submitting to him arranging your life under God in his ways. That's the idea of submit. So submit therefore to God. Resist the devil. Stand against the devil and his schemes and his ways. So resist the devil. And notice the promise that follows from that. So if you submit to God and resist the devil, the devil will flee from you. That he says draw near to God. So come close to God. That's the this imagery in James's thought world is the picture of coming towards God and worship drawing near to him in prayer, building your life around him. So draw near to God and notice the promise attached with that. And he will draw near to you. God's not going to you know play hide and seek in the sense of he's going to run away from you. If you draw near to him, he will draw near to you. So draw near to God and he will draw near to you. And when it says cleanse your hands that refers to your external actions, the actions of your life. So clean up your life, start doing what's right you sinners. Notice that phrase you sinners. This is one of the only places in the New Testament that it appears that people who have already made a decision to follow God Christians are called sinners. Most of the time they're referred to by more positive terms like saints, like God's people. Right? But James is making this really strong call to repentance for people who are compromising with the world and who are living for life's pleasures in this world and thus who are at odds with God. And so he calls them out on that says cleanse your hands you sinners. And then he says purify your hearts you double-minded. And so cleanse your hands your external actions. Purify your your heart you double-minded. We've already seen this word double-minded elsewhere in James. It's this idea of trying to have one foot in the world and one foot with God. And so you're divided your two soldier split is the idea and you're not completely loyal to God. So purifying your hearts mean set your heart solely on God. Don't be split in your loyalties and split in your allegiance and split in your actions. You have your heart fully set on God. So purify your hearts you double-minded. And then in this call to repentance in verse 9 James says three things that really sound at odds with the normal Christian life and that's why we have to remember this is a call to repentance. Verse 9 says be miserable mourn weep let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom like what a downer right like verse 9 is. And yet bear in mind what James is doing. Christians are supposed to rejoice the Apostle Paul, Philippians 4.4 rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice. James here however is speaking like an Old Testament prophet calling God's people who are being disloyal to him to repent and in that context be miserable mourn and weep this is a call to lament like not just token mourning over your disloyalty to God token mourning over a wrongdoing this is like realizing I have been living at odds to God. I've been going against his way. I've been finding my life in this world. I need to repent and return to my God fully and completely. And so in that context James's words are very important very powerful that be miserable mourn and weep let your laughter be turned into mourning. That spiritual adultery friendship with the world is not something to be treated casually. It's to be taken with the utmost seriousness and responded to with mourning and lamentation and sorrow that leads to genuine life change and that's what James is calling here. So be miserable mourn weep let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom. And then verse 10 kind of restates where all this began humble yourself in the presence of the Lord and he will lift you up right like God gives grace to the humble and so this bowing before the Lord submitting to the Lord drawing near to the Lord repenting of your spiritual adultery and becoming holy loyal to the Lord and saying God whatever you want that's what I will do that's humbling yourselves in the presence of the Lord and the promise that goes with that is when you do that God will exalt you God will lift you up so you take this low lowly posture of lowering yourself before God trusting his ways trusting his wisdom and when you do he in due time will lift you up well that's the solution to the problem of corals and conflicts and so James has said that the ultimate source of corals and conflicts in any relationship in any group of people ultimately is selfishness self-centeredness self-seeking self-serving so do you have corals and conflicts in your life well James would say the ultimate root of that is self-centeredness and self-serving and so by way of kind of self-reflection as we reflect on James's word the implication out of this is man when there is like regular ongoing sort of conflict in my life I need to look in the mirror and say what what self-serving desire am I trying to get trying to acquire or what selfish desire am I protecting on my behalf is there some sort of selfish way in me that's leading to this conflict leading to this coral with this person or with this group of people and organizationally as a pastor or a small group leader church leader we should look at our groups and we should say man what's what what selfish desires what self-serving is going on here that that is leading to the conflict work experiencing and then recognize that the solution to this is humility humility where we humble ourselves under God we want what God wants more than what we want and so we humble ourselves under God and we humble ourselves before God's people and we want to serve other people rather than serve ourself and get our own way and so that the solution to quarrels and conflicts is humility beginning with humility before God that leads to a hundred percent loyalty to him because selfishness and self-centeredness and pride is at the root of all fights and quarrels