James 4

Verse 1, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?” It is unfortunate that the church is full of warring and fighting among people who profess to be Christians. All this fighting stems from carnal desires that convert to bitterness and self seeking. If people were just submitted to God's will, this would not be the case. Verses 2-3, “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” Lusting and coveting lead to bitterness, jealousies, and murdering (in the heart). If these people would just seek God about what they want and give Him an opportunity to set their hearts right on the matter, they could be content in His will if the answer is "no", and might actually receive if the answer is "yes." Sometimes we ask for things with wrong motivations and God may not want to fuel our selfish appetite to fulfill lusts of our flesh, which can never be fully satisfied anyway. A parent might not allow a child to have cake for dinner, but it is what is good for the child. Your child also needs to learn how to accept a "no" answer from you, and learn to yield to authority. Giving in to them will only train up unruly self-seekers. We all need to go to God with our requests in faith, and trust that He will do what is best for us, no matter what the answer is.

Coveting is idolatry, pure and simple! When people want these things more than God (and you can tell by how hard they pursue them compared to their pursuit of Him), they have become unfaithful. Verse 4, “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” It is not just those who are friends with the world that are against God, it is even those who desire to be friends with the world who are in adultery, and have made themselves enemies of God. Have you ever felt bad when you were left out or not included in a group, or longed for things the world has to offer that you do not have, especially when you see others with them? Or wonder why others get things that you cannot have you? If so, then you have experienced wanting to be part of the world, which is covetousness. We are called to be separate from the world, realizing that this is not our home. Being in prayer helps get our eyes and hearts adjusted on eternal things, and God will pour out His grace on us to get us through the difficult times, if we come to Him in humility. Remember that the covetous will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Verses 7-10, “Therefore submit 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; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”  In light of who God is and that He will resist the proud and give grace to the humble, we better not dare approach Him with requests for anything with pride in our hearts. Being double minded is more common than you may think. If every time a test or trial hits, you experience doubt and fear and instability, than you may just be double minded. You cannot only have faith and walk uprightly only when everything is going your way. It is when your faith is tested, and you do not get your way, that you can really see whether your faith is genuine. Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Doubting who God is, and taking matters into your own hands to get what you want, is adultery. You have now become your own God, and you are no longer submitted to Him and under His authority. Often during these times, we stop going to God because we don't really want to know what He thinks, because we want our way...not His. Then when it gets really bad and we've made a complete mess, we may look to Him for wisdom, but it doesn't work. James 1:6-8, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” You cannot expect for God to show up on your behalf only when you call Him, like He's at your disposal on your command. It doesn't work that way. He IS God, not you; and you need the proper fear and reverence for Him that He is due!

Pride is just plain gross. You ignore your own sin and shortcomings, but want to illuminate others' to make yourself look and feel even better. Your heart is not to restore a brother/sister and you judge by standards you are unwilling to live up to yourself. Sometimes you even create your own standards that are outside the Bible, in order to judge the upright. The bitter fruit of unrighteousness abounds in your heart, and then will overflow through your speech. Verses 11-12 says, “Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?” This judging is from a place of arrogance, and you are the self appointed judge and jury. Remember that you will be judged by the same measure you use. Matthew 7:2-5, “For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” The point here is that we are not told to ignore the speck and leave it alone. We just need to be in the right place in our hearts to help another remove theirs. Hypocritical and prideful judging are wrong. Nothing works better to humble us then to examine our own sin and yank the plank from our own eye first.

Verse 17, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” We have a responsibility to act on what we know, and the more we know, the greater the responsibility we have. If the Lord has convicted you of sin, especially if He has used another to confirm it, now is the time to act! The Lord will not delay His coming indefinitely, and His delay does not mean He accepts your sin. We need to be ready.  Luke 12:42-48, “And the Lord said, 'Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.  But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”