James Chapter Four and Five: Final Warnings
Notes
Transcript
Handout
James closes out his letter with some final wisdom. He does this in what is called a Chaism. This is a poetic form of writing in the Bible where you introduce a topic leading to your main point and then work backwards until you get back to your first point. If you were to look at it like a rhyme scheme in poetry it would be a, b, c, d, c, b, a. With D being the central idea of the passage. All throughout the book of James, he has been remixing Jesus’ sermon on the mount. These two chapters we will look at today are heavily connected to what Jesus taught at the end of Matthew chapter 5 going into chapter 6.
What are some of the highlights of what Jesus is teaching in these passages?
Hatred of your brother is murder in your heart
Reconciliation and forgiveness
Looking at someone with lust is adultery in your heart
It’s better to cut out your eye and go to heaven than to go to hell with both eyes
The elevation of marriage
Not fulfilling oaths
Not making promises we can’t keep
Not taking revenge but showing love even to enemies
Caring for others
Praying like we should
Honoring God through fasting
Storing up treasures in heaven not being greedy on earth
James uses all these themes to point to one primary truth. We cannot have two masters. We either follow Christ or we follow the world. We cannot do both.
Friendship with the World and Enmity to God and Weak Prayer
What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you? 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.
Why does all this conflict and brokenness exist?
People’s relationships are broken by lust, adultery, hatred, murder, divorce, greed, pride. Where does all that come from? I think for the people James is writing to, they may have looked at their sin and brokenness and said things like, “well the devil made me do it” or It’s not my fault they’re the reason this happened“. James cuts through all the excuses we might make for sin and gets straight to the heart of the problem and it’s the same place Jesus ascribes blame. Conflict and brokenness come from our hearts. It is the source of the problem.
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
James is teaching us that we are responsible for our own sin. Nobody makes us sin, in fact Jesus offers us a way out of every temptation.
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
Despite a way of escape our hearts are still drawn to sin. James says it is our passions waging war inside us that causes it to boil over into our actions.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.
What Paul describes here is being a slave to sin. We know what is right and we desire to do what is right but we end up doing the things we don’t want to do. We become stuck in this cycle of trying hard to obey the laws of God, falling short due to our evil hearts, only to fall into shame, guilt, and condemnation. We try harder, thinking maybe this time I will do what I should only for us to fall by the hands of our sinful desire and passions at war inside us. That is a sorrowful place to be. But Paul offers us hope in the next verse.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
Jesus breaks this cycle in our life by giving us a new heart. Where guilt and shame once stood now stands only grace. We are made new and forgiven of every sin we have ever committed and ever will commit. Despite being free, it is easy for us to fall into our old self. Rather than allow Jesus to take His place on the throne of our hearts we allow our passions to govern our lives. Following Christ means putting to death the passions inside of us so we can live for Christ.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
One place our sinful passions can show up is in how we pray.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
James warns us that it is a sinful heart that comes only to God in prayer to ask for stuff. A pastor once said that if we only come to God for Him to fulfill the desires of our sinful hearts we don’t worship God we worship an idol. True worship is submitting yourself to God’s will and His desires for you. James’ audience for this letter only wanted a God who would give them what they wanted, and what they wanted for their lives was the opposite of what Jesus wanted for their lives.
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. Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?
Being a friend of the world means that you are an enemy of God. You cannot have it both ways. We must choose. Following Christ means dying to this world and all that it offers. Fame, popularity, sex, money, power. Choosing to follow Christ means being poor in spirit, mourning, being humble, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, showing mercy, being pure in heart, being peacemakers, it means being persecuted for righteousness sake. Following Jesus is a costly thing, but it isn’t without hope.
Jesus responded to them, “Do you now believe? Indeed, an hour is coming, and has come, when each of you will be scattered to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
That’s a bold claim for someone who was about to be executed. Yet the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead yearns and envies for our hearts. The world wants nothing more than to use us and dispose of us when it is done with us, but God’s desire for our lives is to find our hope and rest in Him, not in the fleeting friendship of the world.
But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. 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, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable 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.
God’s grace leads to heart change. His grace leads to repentance and a longing for the presence of God. Grace produces and demands within us a humbling of our hearts. Less of me more of Jesus. Not my will but your will be done. I must decrease so that He may increase. It means a season of mourning the old self and our mocking laughter be turned to gloom. God’s grace fills us with sorrow because we are confronted by our brokenness and our sin, but that sorrow blooms into joy and exaltation, because Christ does not leave us in that lowly state but exalts us into a status of righteousness. He fills us with His Spirit and leads us to a place of everlasting joy.
Judging Others
Without humility we become judgmental of others.
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. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
When James talks about judgment he isn’t talking about calling people out in their sin or holding people accountable. That is Biblical. We have a responsibility to help our brothers and sisters in Christ and sometimes that means calling them out in their sin. That goes for sharing the gospel too. If we never warn people of their sin and their need for the Gospel than our evangelism will be weak. The power of the Gospel is that even while we were sinners Christ died for us. People who have no understanding of sin have no need for a savior. What James means is when show condemnation to others. People do dumb things all the time, but it’s not my place to condemn or serve as a judge over their actions. That is God’s job. My place is to lovingly speak truth and help them best I can. My job is to love and serve them even if they’re my enemy. God has shown us grace despite our sin. We need to extend that grace to others. It would be backwards for us to receive such amazing grace only to turn around and condemn others.
Arrogant Planning
Without humility we become arrogant planners saying, “I am master of my future not the Lord”.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
A lot of these things are attitudinal. It is about how we see God in our life. Is He sovereign in our hearts and attitude? God is in control of time and our futures.
Misuse of Riches
Without humility we become the very thing that God hates. You cannot serve God and money. You cannot love the world and Jesus. This is the culmination of everything James has been talking about.
Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you. Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Armies. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous, who does not resist you.
The person James describes is the ultimate friend of the world. They have grown in wealth at the expense of everyone around them. In their pride they have stored up treasures for themselves and dealt unjustly with others. James says in feeding the wickedness of their hearts they have made their hearts fat for the slaughter. All the things James has been warning the church of is manifested in this person. They have sought to satisfy the passions of their hearts, they have judged others and shown harsh condemnation while boasting in themselves and ignoring God’s will and plan for their life. All these things have set them up, not for success, but for the swift and violent wrath of God’s justice. James paints a picture of rejected grace and the life of a man who wants nothing to do with Jesus. Now watch James walk backwards through what he has taught us.
Arrogant planning vs. Trusting in God’s Planning
Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
Rather than trust in our own plans James calls us to trust in the Lord and His timing. Like farmers waiting on the crops to grow and who is patient on the rain, we are to wait on the Lord and His coming. A fat heart is a weak heart, but a heart that waits on the Lord is strengthened.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight. Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.
Judging Others vs. Christ Our Righteous Judge
Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.
Rather than looking and judging what everyone else is doing we need to focus on our own lives. Job’s friends were quick to condemn Job for his actions, but that didn’t stop Job from honoring God with his life. Our priority shouldn’t be what others think about us it should be on loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Friendship with God and Enmity to the World and Powerful Prayer
The Power of Prayer is not in self service but in the intercession of others.
Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. Elijah was a human being as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit. My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
Prayer is a powerful tool of the church. One of the most powerful prayers we can pray for is for the lost. There is hope in Christ for the sin sick heart. Nobody is too far gone where God can’t reach them. Like Elijah praying for rain, God can move in even the hardest of hearts. God hears the prayer of the righteous and works to restore friends of the world and turn them to friends of God. I would go out on a limb and say that if you are a Christian it is because someone prayed for you on your behalf. That God would work in your life and stir your heart to trust in Him.
Who can you pray for?
How might God use you in story of redemption?