The World is My Freind

Scripture Reading Psalm 100

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We are starting the 4th chapter of James today. James has been getting more and more direct in his dialog with the church. As we have seen he is writing to a church that has some quite important issues. There are people in the membership of the church that are not believers. There are people that are deceived and following false ideas. There are others that are there for the wrong motives and there are others that have not to come to saving faith yet but are participating in the life of the church. James has been giving a series of contrasts on what a true believer looks like.

He has been dialing down to literally the heart of the issue. He has been going through a series of tests that reveal the truth of a believers words. Even in James time they could not trust the words of the people around them. This issue has not improved over the 2000 years since his time. What would a world look like where you could take people at face value. Where yo could walk up and ask a question and you would get an honest answer. No games, no lies, no exaggeration, no manipulation, no hidden meaning. What would it look like to turn on a tv and not have to worry about news stations controlling the narrative. Politicians hiding the truth. Bosses that mean what they say and say what they mean. Wouldn’t it be nice?

Unfortunately sin is a constant element of man until Jesus returns. But until that time there will be people in the church who will have the right words and even may have many of the right actions but is comes down to the heart of a person. In chapter 2 we saw that good works reveal the faith of a Christian. In chapter 3 it was the tongue or speech of a person that reveals their heart and last week we looked the wisdom of a person. The behaviors that come from applying the truths that a person receives. The behaviors are driven by the application of the truth from above or the application of the false truth from below.

When bitter envy and selfish ambition are in the heart of a person, then disorder and evil practices are born. But when the wisdom of God comes out of a true believer, then a person’s behavior is pure, peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense.

This is were we pick up today, stand with me as we read chapter 4:1-12

James 4:1–12 (CSB)

1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you? 2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. 5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?

6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says:

God resists the proud

but gives grace to the humble.

7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

James is picking up from chapter 3 and is going to address one of the issues in the church. After talking in generalities he will not hit this on the head. We can see that there were members of the church that were in conflict with one another.

James 4:1 (CSB)

1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

James does not tell us what the conflict is or who was doing it. He presupposes that the readers of this letter will know what he is talking about or us we don’t need to know the specifics of the situation just the teaching that goes with the correction.

Your bible may have quarrels and conflict. The word for quarrels or war is this long fight that continues to burn in the church and conflicts or fights refers to specific battles in a conflict. How do we know this is in the church? He says these are among you. or in the members of the church. These were long continuing fights and battles that should not be there in the church. We were already taught that peace and gentleness is a characteristic of true believers that are following God. Not conflict and strife.

Conflict is not part of God’s design for the church.

John 17:21 (CSB)

21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.

As Jesus prayed for the disciples in the upper room and for all disciples to come after him he prayed that those that follow him would be one, as the Father and Son are one. As the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father. We are to be in Christ as he is in us. We are to abide in him and his Spirit is to indwell in us. And for what purpose, that the world may believe that God sent Jesus. That the gospel is true. That the claims of Jesus are truth. Conflict within the church does not bring the outside world closer to this belief. This just isn’t the way we should behave.

John 13:34–35 (CSB)

34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

We are to love one another. Just as how… We are to love the way Jesus loved. Paul said imitate him and he imitates Christ. The world with know we are followers of Jesus by how we love.

1 Corinthians 1:10 (CSB)

10 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction.

This week is Thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for but for many Thanksgiving is a time of stress, conflict, and discomfort. I won’t ask but there are many who would rather to just stay home or not be in the same room as another person. Why is family so hard sometimes? Well it could be said that family are sinners we cannot ignore or run away from. We are obligated to entertain their ideas and thoughts. I hope this is the reality for very few of us here today but conflict on the holidays is more common than it should be.

We see that the source of conflict is actually pretty obvious when we think about it but the reality is we really don’t want to think about it.

Conflict Inside

The first source of conflict is the person themselves. It comes from inside the person. James says that it is inside you. The plural you, that there are passions, desires or wants that wage war inside of us.

You want and do not have. . the word passions or pleasure is referring to fleshly, natural, physical pleasure. The people James is talking about are people who live fully to gratify what ever passions they have at the time. This isn’t the believer that succumbs to the sin in their lives, who has a moment of weakness, or battles a temptation or addiction.

James 4:2 (CSB)

2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

They want what they do not have so they murder and covet. Whether this is actual murder or hate in their heart it is driven by the selfish ambition that drives evil practices.

Does this ring true today. People doing what ever they want to have any pleasure they desire. To constantly create new ways to get what they want. but this isn’t new.

2 Timothy 3:2–4 (CSB)

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

Well that is what we deal with today don’t we? James says these desires grow to hate and jealousy and the war inside the person then drives to conflict with the people around them. There is a battle inside every unbeleiver that creates conflict inside the person.

312,000 hospital visits for self harm, 45,979 suicides, 4.9 million emergency visits that have mental or neurological diagnosis.

24,576 homicides

He then tells them they do not have because they do not ask. These people are so confident in their abilities to control their own lives that they see no desire to ask God for anything. They are so arrogant that they got life by the horns and will live the way they want. And even when they do ask.

James 4:3 (CSB)

3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

These people see God as a way to feed their passions. They probably pray for more money, to win the lottery, to be in someones will. For a girl or guy that they are attracted too to respond to their attention. This all happens because as we get to the core of this passage these people are in conflict with God. This may take your mind to the prodigal son who took his inheritance and spent it on lavish living.

God’s Enemies

James 4:4 (CSB)

4 You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

Through out the bible God uses the metaphor of marriage to describe the spiritual state of his people Isreal. This is a letter to Jewish Christians “of the 12 tribes” so this wold have been something they have heard from old testament teachings. A relationship with the world or a relationship with God. Those are the only two options that the bible gave to the Israelites. The Gentiles were not described in this way since they did not have a covenant relationship with God to violate. He is talking to Jews that have not been saved by faith in Jesus. James calls them enemies of God which is never used to describe believers. This is the center of this letter. Those that do not have a saving relationship with God, those that are in conflict with him, who follow their own passions and desires bring conflict to the church. This is what James was vetting out.

2 Corinthians 6:14–18 (CSB)

14 Do not be yoked together with those who do not believe. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15 What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said:

I will dwell and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.

17 Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord; do not touch any unclean thing, and I will welcome you. 18 And I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me,

says the Lord Almighty.

James was addressing the Jews who were claiming to be Christians but were still enemies of God. Believers are not to be yoked to unbelievers. For us today this would apply in the body of Christ. We are to be loving and open to anyone who comes through these doors. We are to love anyone who comes to our home groups but we must be careful that those that are saved by grace are our leaders and decision makers. Anyone who does not know the Lord will have this internal conflict inside of them. I also means we need to be discerning in who we partner with or conflict will arise. This starts in our marriages, our business partnerships, and our church fellowship. In marriage this can be one of the hardest places to be. Sometime two people get married and neither one is a believer and one becomes a believer. Or maybe a couple really wasn’t following God and they let their wants to lead them to marriage and a pastor or someone was not able to steer you away from it. It happens in many ways but it will be difficult to be yoked to someone who is driven by their own passions. If this is you we need to come along side of you and pray for and minister to your spouse. Only the Holy Spirit will change the heart of a person toward God. We need to come along side because this will most likely be a hard place to be. And it can happen.

To and Jess

For those that are single. If you hear one thing today is write down this verse 2 cor 6:14-18 for you will have passions and desires but be patient for a person who is believer in Christ that exhibits the characteristics of a true believer.

James continues with a very hard verse to interpret

James 4:5 (CSB)

5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?

This verse has some issues in the Greek. For one the quote is not a direct quote from scripture and there are some other nuances that have lead to many commentators come to different conclusions. He is not in the Greek and spirit if it is capitalized in your bible is arbitrary. All of them come from trying to align this with other scripture so they are not wrong just not definitive. Some believe it has to do with the spirit of life given to man or the Holy Spirit. In the end the general consensus is that an unbeliever will not have regard for God’s scripture.

1 John 2:15–16 (CSB)

15 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. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Conclusion

What does this mean for us today. Well first we get to rejoice that we do not have to live in conflict with one another. That we have been transformed.

Titus 3:1–5 (CSB)

1 Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, 2 to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people. 3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.

4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

It is by the saving grace of Jesus that we have been made new. That we no longer are trapped by the inner passions of the natural sin inside of us. Will we sin again, yes, but we will not desire to stay there.

Understanding what we want is a huge part of our life as a Christian. When God says that he will give us the desires of our heart that is not that we get what we want it means he will change what we want. What brings a Christian pleasure will be different than what brought us please beforehand.

What would you say if I said that you could live in a home without wars and conflict? I am not saying without disagreements but long battles that rage week after week. That seem to be resolved to only rise up again? This is possible.

Philippians 2:1–4 (CSB)

1 If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

It is important that we know how sin and conflict work in te live of a person so that we can love the way Jesus loved, so that we can have empathy and compassion on those that do not treat us well.

Where are you at today?

See me after church.

Luke 22:19–20 CSB

19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Romans 15:5–6

5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.