True Faith That Works: Loving God Faithfully, Loving Your Neighbor Jealously, and Resisting the Devil Always James 4:1–6

“Alas, how easily things go wrong! A sigh too much or a kiss too long. And there follows a mist and weeping rain, and life is never the same again.” George McDonlad

Donald Barnhouse told a story of young man who had fallen into the temptation of adultery. This young man was in his thirties spending a lot of time at his office. His normal secretary was replaced by a younger secretary and a mutual attraction ensued. It started with a subtle caress of her hair by his face as she handed him papers. Then and innocent touch of hands at her desk. Eventually a he gave into the temptation of adultery.

Barnhouse described the war inside the young man his own words:

“I hated what I was doing, but I kept on. I had the greatest desire to push her (the secretary) from me, but I kept pulling her to me; my body was doing one thing and my mind was doing another. Before a month had gone by I realized that my lust and my love were in a terrible battle. When I came home, there was everything I wanted in life. When I went to the office, the machine of my body seemed geared to something terrible that was purely mechanical, and which I wanted to get out of more than any fly ever wanted to get off flypaper.”

The man recognized what he was doing was wrong, but the lure of adultery battled hard and eventually won out. He was unfaithful to his wife who loved him faithfully.

Adultery is an act of unfaithfulness. Adultery breaks the marriage covenant between husband, wife, and God. God condemns such treachery in the seventh commandment of his law. He hates adultery so much that he made it punishable by death in the Old Testament. Adultery is the antithesis to marriage, which is the very picture of God’s faithful love to save sinners by sending his Son to die for them.

James Bolick notes that “the Word has a lot to say about adultery among the human relationships. It is the scarlet sin in the social realm today. It is an awful and terrible sin that blights lives, wrecks homes, and damns souls. Gal. 5:19–21; 1 Cor. 6:9–11. But worse than this scarlet sin in the social world is the spiritual adultery being committed by those who are married to God.”

James confronts such spiritual infidelity in chapter four. He calls his hearers adulterers in James 4:4a

James 4:4 (ESV)

You adulterous people!

He is not speaking of physical adultery. There is no mention is sexual sin in the letter. James is speaking to something even more serious and consequential. He is speaking to their spiritual infidelity to God. The church was in jeopardy of being lured away by the lust of this world just like the man who was lured away by his lust for his secretary. Their conduct toward each other was the evidence their hearts were teetering with unfaithfulness.

Spiritual Unfaithfulness has always been a problem...

God has always had to deal with people he loves being tempted toward unfaithfulness. When James calls them adulterers, he is alluding to the Old Testament view of Israel as the bride of Yahweh (Isaiah 54:5-6) who commits spiritual infidelity when she chases after other gods, (Isa 57:3,7-8; Jer 3:6, 20; 13:27; Ezek 16:35-38; Hos 9:1). Her spiritual infidelity was so bad that God told Hosea to marry the prostitute Gomer as an object lesson of Israels whoring herself out to false gods.

In the New Testament, the church is called the bride of Christ (Eph 5:25-27; Rev 19:7-8; 21:2,9). And when the church chases after the world, she commits spiritual infidelity. Her unfaithfulness stifles her love for God and disrupts the unity of the church. Just like adultery ruins family relationships, so does spiritual infidelity ruin love between brothers and sisters in Christ.

This morning through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, James will reveal to you that spiritual unfaithfulness is friendship with the world and is the source of disorder in the church. Therefore, brothers and sisters,

You must love God jealously, your neighbor faithfully, and resist the devil always to protect the unity of the church.

We will begin in verse 4, where James calls his readers adulterers. Then, he explains what spiritual adultery is in the following verses, 5-6. Next, we will look back at verse 1-3 to see the consequences of spiritual infidelity. James calls you to action in James 4:7-10.

Spiritual unfaithfulness is friendship with the world (James 4:4a)

James 4:4 (ESV)

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

James defines spiritual adultery by using a rhetorical question. Don’t you know Christians, friendship with the world is enmity with God? The answer should be a resounding, YES! But there seems to be some confusion. So James explains what friendship with the world is in relation to God.

In the context of James’ readers, friendship carried the idea of a strong allegiance to one another politically and socially. It was an intimate relationship that shared the same goals, standards, and sought the same pleasures. Its comparable to what conservatives and liberals experience in their political party. There is a deep camaraderie among its members that bonds them together to fight for their cause and the way of life they feel will flourish.

When James speaks of the world, he is not speaking of the cosmos such as the created order. He is speaking to the world system- the people constituting the world whose values, beliefs, and morals are in distinction and rebellion to God’s.

Jesus describes the distinction of the world this way when he said

John 8:23 ESV

He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

Paul describes the wisdom of this world as foolish in comparison to Gods when he says,

1 Corinthians 3:19 ESV

For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”

Furthermore, John reveals that the world system is ruled by the devil. He says

1 John 5:19 (ESV)

the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Friendship with the world means to share an intimate relationship with the world that is in rebellion to God and is ruled by the devil in order to pursue the same goals, standards, and pleasures as the world would pursue.

What kind of goals, standards, and pleasures does the world pursue? I think John sums it up with the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:20), desires of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). It’s everything that God abhors.

The bride of Christ shares the same standards for living, the same goals for flourishing in this life, and the same pleasures as her husband. What business has the church with seeking love and intimacy outside of her covent marriage to Jesus?

Christian, you are to be in the world but not of the world (John 17:11). The bride of Christ is regarded as dead to the world (Gal 6:14; Col 3:2,3). You are separated from the world (James 1:27). To befriend the world is to forsake your relationship with the Father (1 John 2:15).

John is clear, if you love the world you do not love the Father,

1 John 2:15 ESV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Friendship with the world is to forsake your love for God and give it to the world, like the man who gave his love to his secretary instead of his wife.

You cannot serve two masters. You will love the one and hate the other (Matthew 6:24). You commit spiritual adultery when you give your heart to the world. You will love the world and hate God. James says as much. He says, friendship with the world makes you God’s enemy.

Spiritual adultery makes you an enemy to God (James 4:4b)

James uses a strong word in 4a to describe the consequence of your infidelity. Its the word enmity. It is is military term the describes the hostility between two enemies at war. Later in the verse 4b, he calls the adulterer an enemy. Paul clues us in to the hostility James conveys in verse 4.

Romans 8:7 ESV

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

The word hostile is also translated enmity. Hostility in your heart toward God reveals itself when you refuse to submit to God’s law. You refuse to surrender like a defeated enemy would surrender to its conquerer. This is what a marriage looks like that has suffered at the hands of adultery. War consumes the home. The adulterer has put themselves at war with their spouse. Where their was mutual love and commitment there is now enmity. And James says this is how you become to God.

You put yourself at war with almighty God when you align yourself with the world. For the unchurched, this makes sense. Lost people do not surrender to God authority and law in their life. They remain an enemy and under his divine wrath. So, when the world acts worldly- when they don’t care for the physical and spiritual needs of the poor (James 1:27), when they are prejudice favoring the rich over the poor (James 2:1-13), when they refuse to work out their beliefs with good works (James 2:14-26), when they crave power (James 3:1), when they use their words to slander others (James 3:2-12), when they stir up conflict in the community and home (James 4:1-2), when they seek and indulge themselves in hedonistic pleasures (James 4:1,3), and when they criticize and backbite each other, that makes perfect sense and is par for the course. They are carrying out the shared goals, standards, and pleasures of the world.

When it happens in a church, however, its infidelity toward your relationship with God. Instead of being the bride of Christ, you act like his enemy, the devil. And fruit of the devils’ work is disorder and disruption.

Spiritual Adultery disrupts the unity of the church(James 4:1-3)

There are severe consequences for the church who befriends the world. James gets to the fruit of spiritual unfaithfulness by asking a question,

James 4:1 (ESV)

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

Keep James’ context in mind. the rich and poor are at odds with each other. Both sides are throwing hateful words around at each other. Words have consequences. Words can stir up violence. Although there is no evidence that says they were physically fighting, James suspected the tension was definitely leading to violence, especially if some of the poor in the church were part of the zealot group. In some ways, he is continuing his discussion on being a peacemaker (James 3:17-18).

James answers his question with another question. He lists three consequences of spiritual unfaithfulness.

Disordered Desires

James 4:1 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

The word for desires is the greek word hedone, which simply means “pleasure.” We get the english word “hedonist,” one who seeks pleasure. It typically carries a negative meaning in the New Testament. Jesus uses this sense of the word when he spoke of the third soil where the vine grew but was choked by the cares and pleasures of this life (Luke 8:14). Paul tells Titus that we were once enslaved to various passions and pleasures in this life (Titus 3:2).

In verse 2, James mentions coveting. Coveting is an excessive desire to have something or someone. Its closely connect e to idolatry, which is loving something or someone more than God. It is the selfish ambition James speaks of in chapter 3.

James uses more military language that describes the hedonistic desires as a “battle within you.” The battle is a spiritual conflict that wages war against your soul (1 Peter 2:11).

Unfaithfulness to God will loosen the restraint of your covetous zeal and selfish ambition. Your wrongful lust will covet what others have and it will disorder your relationships.

Disordered relationships

James 4:2 ESV

You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

Grant Osborne says, “This pictures hedonistic pleasure as an invading army trying to destroy us both individually and corporately.” Hence, the disordered relationships.

Your frustrated desire, says Douglas Moo, is what is breeding intense strife that is convulsing the community. Your unrestrained covetous zeal leads to violence against your brothers and sisters.

Consider the violence you have seen in the church: private argument, the business meeting outburst, the split and splinter of the body-the causes of them all can be traced back to covetous zeal for what others possess and a selfish ambition another's position.

Disordered Prayer

James 4:2–3 (ESV)

You do not have, because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Spiritual unfaithfulness disorders your prayers. Your selfish ambition either keeps you from praying or you pray self-centered prayers.

Spiritual infidelity hardens your heart so that it does not feel the need to pray. Selfish ambition is not dependent on God as much as it is on yourself.

Furthermore, if you are inclined to pray, it is because you want God to indulge your wrongful lust. The word “spend” in verse 3, carries the same negative sense as it does when Jesus uses the word to describe the prodigal son when he “freely spent” all of his Father’s inheritance indulging his flesh (Luke 15:14).

Spiritual unfaithfulness is friendship with the world. Friendship with the world is to chose an intimate relationship with the world that is in rebellion to God and is ruled by the devil in order to pursue the same goals, standards, and pleasures as the world would pursue in place of God. The consequence of your spiritual infidelity is make yourself an enemy to God. Spiritual infidelity in the church disrupts the unity of the church with disordered desires that lead to disordered relationships filled with conflict and centered prayers that will go unanswered.

Just like a family and a home is ripped apart and riddled with conflict and grief in physical adultery, so is a church when it is gripped with spiritual adultery.

Brothers and sisters, God has a better way for you. He calls you this morning to behold his love for you. He is pursuing you with a jealous love.

God is jealous for you!

James says,

James 4:5 ESV

Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

God yearns jealously over you with His Spirit.

James has said a lot about the jealous evil we have in our heart. Now he shows us what holy jealousy looks like to entice us to faithfulness.

There is place for jealousy in this life. When a man sees a another man flirting with his wife and he becomes jealous, that jealousy becomes a safeguard for his marriage. I’m not talking about overbearing evil jealousy. I’m talking about a man who loves his wife and his family, and he will see the threat and immediately do whatever it takes to protect what is precious to him.

A commentator once noted, “The jealousy of God is like the jealousy of a husband over his wife (2 Cor. 11:2-3). He would not let His wife be touched, go off after another one, or have her heart ruined by having something for anyone but Himself. This is why He wants to make His home in our heart.”

In the Scriptures, there are three things that linked to God’s jealousy, according to Kirk Wellum. God is jealous for his honor and glory, his holiness, and his love for his people. That is what James has in mind here.

J.I. Packer says,

“God’s jealousy is his holiness reacting to evil in a way that is morally right and precious…; it is a praiseworthy zeal on his part to preserve something supremely precious to Him.” J.I. Packer

God has always had fierce jealous love for his people.

He commanded Israel to have no other gods before him because he is a jealous God (Ex 20:5-6). He threatens the nations that try to lure her away from him with utter destruction from his jealousy (Zeph 1:18; 3:8). The same jealous love God had for Israel, he has for his church.

It was God’s jealous love that sent his Son into the world to save sinners. God proved his jealous love for you in that while you were a sinner, an enemy, with a heart at enmity with him, he sent his one and only son to die for you. And not only die for you, but was raised from the dead to give you eternal life and to empower you with his Spirit to live a faithful life filled with a jealous love for Him. He demands that you love him with the same jealous love that he has for you!

Love God jealously by depending on His abundant grace to love your neighbor faithfully and resist the Devil always (James 4:6-10)

James 4:6 ESV

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Draw Near to God

Repent & Surrender (James 4:7,9)

James 4:7 (ESV)

Submit yourselves therefore to God.

James 4:9 ESV

Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Placing yourselves under God’s authority. First, you surrender. Then you repent and seek God. Like the father of the prodigal son, so our Father eagerly awaits you t turn from your sinful infidelity and be faithful to him.

Resist the devil (James 4:7)

James 4:7 (ESV)

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

To submit to God is also to refuse to bow to the devil’s authority. The verb translated “resist” (anthistēmi) means “stand against” and can also be translated “oppose” or “withstand.”

Resolve to live a holy life (James 4:8)

James 4:8 ESV

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Rely on God to exalt you (James 4:10)

James 4:10 ESV

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.