James 4

We left off with James speaking of the wisdom of God

James 3:17 ESV

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

James is now going to address the obstacle to James 3:17

Summed up by pride and selfishness

We demonstrate our love with how we treat each other

A couple of reminders

James is talking to Christians

Jesus left His disciples with some parting commands

John 13:34–35 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

But James’ audience was forgetting the most basic of Jesus’ commands

James shows them what this reveals about their commitment and theology

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?

These Christians lack self control

They are willing to destroy the credibility of the church

Not over doctrinal disagreements

But over their own selfish desires

James 4:2–3 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. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Selfish ambition is the cause of their distress

They also approach God with selfish ambition

They may be unaware of their own selfishness and how it drives their actions

James 4:4 ESV

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

We cannot be friendly with the world and a friend of God

So many of us try to sit in a middle ground between the world

not possible

making your life harder

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Does this describe a people hanging our halfway between the world and God?

So we must be careful

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”?

Weird translation

don’t know the reference

the structure is vague

But we make God jealous with our flirtation with the world

He paid a heavy price for us

Thank God He also continues to demonstrate amazing grace

James 4:6–10 ESV

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves 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, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

He waits patiently for our commitment

But He resists the proud

The only answer is to humble ourselves

Notice how inward focused James’ solution is

It is for our own safety

James 4:11–12 ESV

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against 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 only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Back to the tongue

Christ’s Law commands us to love one another

We become judges of that law when we decide it is not good enough for our situation

There is only one judge

And He can condemn with the same power that He saves

James 4:13–16 ESV

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Our pride blinds us to the brevity of life

We act as though we decide or predict the events

The only important thing we can hope to accomplish is the will of God

James 4:17 ESV

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

And we know the right thing to do

Galatians 5:22–26 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Pride is the heart of division

Pride is the center of church problems

We place preference above scripture

We have an affair with the world out of selfishness

Humility is the best answer

remember our commands

remember our God

Don’t let your pride prevent you from experiencing freedom

from the world

from quarrels

This includes salvation