Warnings for the wealthy

Have you ever had a clash with someone, even someone you know is fundamentally on your side, and then thought, “where did that come from?” The Bible has an answer for you. Last week, Greg taught us that “followers of Jesus are called to use their words in healthy and life-giving ways”, with “the gentleness of wisdom”. And he pointed out, as our reading in the book of James did, of the absurd inconsistency of cursing others who are made in the image of God. And, as James “preaches itself” as Greg’s friend told him, we were reminded that there is nothing harder to control than our tongue. Not your desire for amazing food. Not your sexual desires. Not your desire to spend money you may not have on things you do not need. All those things, and more , can be difficult to control. But “the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.” (3:6) Wow. Strong stuff.

Here in chapter 4 of James’ letter, we see that he is addressing issues within the church. As we’ll read, he reckons that people’s tongues are setting the church on fire.

And, once again, he says, “the problem…is you”.

Let’s read it.

English Standard Version Chapter 4

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

2 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.

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

4 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.

5 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”?

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

7 Submit yourselves therefore 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, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Be wretched 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 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.

12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

So, straight of the back of “wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” and “a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace”, we get this rhetorical question — what’s with all the fighting and quarrelling? You kill! Now that’s almost certainly figurative, referring to words. Isn’t James overstepping the mark a bit here? A bit of unhelpful exaggeration? Well, not if you remember what Jesus said..

Matthew 5:21–22 ESV

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

The Problem is You and Me: Our words have the power to kill.

Words are killers. And God seems to give specific warnings to His people about what we say about others in the church family. The church is an outpost of God’s Kingdom. We don’t live like others. Our harmony, our kindness, our unconditional love is what God intends for us to set us apart. To be light to the conflicted world around us . But, as some of us know who have been in churches for a while know very well, we can fall short. Disputes happen. I am thankful to God for the overwhelmingly positive atmosphere and culture in our church. Let’s be on our guard. There are people in this room who have told me that they left a previous church due to issues going on there — leadership, money, power struggles, favouritism. Churches can descend into bickering and infighting. Mistrust takes root. Words are spoken. Gradually, or sometimes suddenly, spiritual life is killed. Others’ reputations may be killed. Some, it seems, have their faith killed off by such things. And for those of us who have been in church the longest, we need to be especially aware. Sometimes we are doorway to such things.

I was talking a while back with an experienced church planter about how we should set up some of our structures going forward as we’ll be doing in the next weeks and months. His comment — “don’t worry about the new people. They’ll follow you. The difficulties tend to come from the people who have been in church a long time” — people who understand very well that each one of us is created in the image of God, and that every Christian is saved from their sin by the grace of God alone, not by their own works, not by their own righteous deed. But still, we can demonize another. We can so easily justify ourselves and our actions:

what’s best for the church

stand for what’s biblical

being a good steward

the list goes on. All these things people can make their “cause”. But James calls it out — this isn’t about your love for God, but it is about your own desires. Verse 2: You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. Then he goes on and explains it. Look at the second part of verse 2: “You do not have, because you do not ask.3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. In other words, You pray, but it is not effective, because your motives are wrong. You are not seeking God’s will or God’s wisdom, but your own will: ‘God bless my plans.’

Our sinful self sets its heart on OUR satisfaction and OUR desires --- and our sinful self often does not allow anything to stand in its way: so, James says, you kill … so you fight and wage war. It becomes a habit. Normal.

Illustration — John Rowlands wondering how I knew he had been out of relationship for 25 years. It was not him, but someone else! So there were two cases in our church.

All our desires and passions are like an armed camp within us, ready at a moment’s notice to declare war against anyone who stands in the way of some personal gratification or personal desire upon which we have set our hearts. But we should never allow that to be “normal”.

By the way — praying together mitigates against this — it is really hard to pray with someone and for someone and continue to hold grudges or rivalries. This is why we need to be praying more as a church. I would like to start a pre-service prayer — just 10 minutes — to get us praying. Take a moment to pray with someone after lunch. Be a person who is quick to pray.

So when there are quarrels and disputes in a church, James say, the problem is one of personal desires or pleasures.

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

But God’s goal is not to give human beings what their own impulses demand; His goal is that human beings will learn to love what he loves. That means death to our own desires.

“God always gives you what you would have asked for if you knew everything that He knows.” ― Tim Keller Some people say that every sermon has to go via the Cross. And what they mean is, that if you don’t ground what you’re saying on the core Christian teaching that Jesus died for our sins and rose again on the 3rd day to give new life, then you’re just moralizing. Just telling people to work harder to be good. And that is a burden. So, here it is — death to our own desires, is about being like Jesus. What did he say in the the Garden of Gethsemane when He knew his crucifixion was coming fast — “not my will but thine be done”. That’s what makes a church healthy — when each of us can say “this isn’t about what I want, but what God wants. And God, empty me of my arrogance and self-will and pride.” We die to our own desires and come alive to God’s. And James is saying, there are two errors here:

Maybe we’re not asking God at all. “You do not have because you do not ask.” You’re not even seeking God on this.

You do ask, but your desires are so out of kilter that you’re asking the wrong things. And there’s no way God is going to bless that.

So, will we seek peace — wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” and “a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” — or will we seek our own desires and our own pleasures.

James goes on — and unpacks things.

You are an adulterer

Verse 4: 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.5 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”?6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Most of us here are married, and when you marry you make a very public commitment. I’ll have loyalty to you only. I’ll have eyes for you only. I’m committed to you only. James is, by implication here, calling on the metaphor that says the church is the bride of Christ. You know the old vows that we find awkward now — the Bride would vow to “love, honour and obey”. That still works for the church and Jesus. James is saying, “you’ve got your loyalties in two places”. In so much as you accept the wisdom of the world and its ways, you are an enemy of God. More strong language.

Then these tricky verses: Verse 5 — we don’t have a clear record of anywhere the Scripture says exactly this. Was it a lost text? Perhaps. The n we have this phrase “God yearns jealously” over the spirit He mad to live in us. You adulterer — giving yourself to the world with all its ploys for power and attention and status. God wants your spirit. He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

Editorial from Brian here — no ministry is more important than any other in the church. There is not a status hierarchy. We read it last week — want to be a teacher — good, you’ll get judged by God more seriously. Your identity is not in your status in the church, but in your status in Christ. You are much more sinful than you dare believe. And yet, you are much more accepted by God than you dare imagine. You are in Christ.

So, what do we do,

we who are tempted by our own desires,

our own self-will, our own sense of being wise apart from God,

our own habit of self-justification in order to insist on our own way,

our own tendency to adopt the thinking of the world around us?

Verse 6: But He gives more grace. We don’t have to continue this way. James says, when you cooperate with God, you can change. But cooperation with God is submission to God.

SOME PRACTICAL ADVICE — COOPERATION WITH GOD

Eden or Gethsemane?

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Remember in the Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve decided to take the devil’s advice. Just don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil or you will die. But the devil said, “no, you won’t die”. Adam and Eve bought that story, and trusted their own wisdom. And sin entered God’s perfect world. “Not your will, God, but mine.” Humanity has been saying that to God ever since. How’s it working out?

But in Gethsemane, Jesus said, “not my will but yours”. And the power of sin was defeated. That’s how you defeat it in your own life and how we defeat it in our church community. Not my will, Lord, but yours.

Pride or Humility?

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

Lots of Old Testament imagery there to Jewish people. Outward purification symbolized inward purification. You can still see this at a mosque, or a Buddhist temple — people washing with water.

James says “what your hands” — use them for holy purposes. Also your feet, your eyes, your heart. Don’t be double-minded. Is it God’s way or some other way? You can’t do both.

View Yourself Soberly

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

Knock off the self-justification. You can always find people who will agree with you. So what? You can always make your own convincing argument in the shower. So what? Take a sober look at yourself, James says. Mourn over your sin. There’s grace for that. Take it to God. Repentance changes how we think.

Embrace Anonymity

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

This is not about you. It is about God. Empty yourself of your need to be somebody. Allow God to use you how he wants. You are not Master of Your Own Universe. You’re a slave to God. That is where we find freedom and a fruitful life.

Don’t Judge Others!

11 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. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Who can stand over the law? A judge?