Pride promotes Strife

Intro:

Last week I shared with you about heavenly vs. demonic wisdom, and how the primary issue of life is the source of wisdom that we draw from.

Earthly carnal wisdom is rooted in a prideful spirit of competition, and it is polluted, disorderly, unyielding, without mercy or good fruit, full of partiality and hypocrisy.

While wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, merciful, full of good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

Today, in James 4 we are going to continue to look at the contrasting effects of the two sources of wisdom.

James presses deeper into the result of carnal wisdom by addressing pride, the need for humility, refraining from judgement of one another, the presumption of boasting, and in the beginning of James 5 oppression through dishonest employment practices.

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Submit:

Before we jump into this I want to take a moment and revisit kingdom perspective. Acts 17:28 reminds us, “for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”

In Matthew 4:17 Jesus said, “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Everything we have studied so far in the book of James is about alignment of our lives, actions, and speech with the kingdom of God. Remember that the kingdom is about the King’s domain. A kingdom has four things. Person, place, power, and culture.

Every kingdom has a king. They have place in which there is a territory of their rule and reign, within their kingdom their is power and authority, and they have a specific culture of what is acceptable and unacceptable in life and conduct.

When we say yes to Jesus we are stepping into the kingdom of God. We are intended to die to ourselves and live according to His ways. Not only are we brought into the family of God, but Paul presents us a bride to Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:2. “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

This union between Christ and the Church is cause for us to align ourselves with Him because a house divided against itself cannot stand. We will never be able to live one foot in the world and the other in the kingdom.

As James continues to challenge and display the conflicting nature of earthly vs. heavenly wisdom we need to remember to view what he is saying through the lens of the kingdom of God. I think its easy to look at these things as list of do’s and don’ts when in reality he is attempting to help us understand the nature of the culture of the kingdom of God. James 4:1-6.

Let’s Jump into the word:

James 4:1–6 “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.””

What is this portion of scripture revealing? A life rooted in carnal wisdom that is actually in opposition to the kingdom of God. The initial question of James 4 I believe is a direct outflow of the earthly carnal wisdom in James 3:16 which says, “For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.”

Quarreling and in fighting had arisen between themselves because of Unbridled lust- which is an intensity of desire to have something, murder- which is premeditated and thought through in advance, covetousness- which is a jealous desire for what someone else has, and the pursuit of pleasure.

James says, you do not have because you do not ask. This statement reveals that those who he is talking about trust in themselves and not the Lord. When they finally get around to asking its a last resort to help them get what they haven’t been able to get on their own. Their motivation is wrong. Seeking the answer is just for pleasure not purpose.

With what James describes in the early church, doesn’t it sound familiar for our culture today? Absolutely, it does, and why is that?

Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1:9 “That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.”

We have to be mindful not to fall in the same trap of using God to get what we want.

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Apply:

What both James and Solomon are revealing is that the nature of fallen man does not change with time. The only thing that has an effect on man is being born again by the spirit into the kingdom of God.

The nature of the born again man or woman should be evidenced in our lives through righteous patterns of living, renewed speech, and faith demonstrated through actions in serving God and others.

This is one of the things that I love most about the word of God. It speaks to the fallen heart of man in every generation. It spans cultural boundaries, languages, and its not limited in its potency to specific times in history.

The word of God is universal to every tribe, nation, and tongue because it deals with the heart of man and not merely his cultural or national identity.

What James is addressing in the early church applies equally to our lives today.

Fights and quarrels still originate in selfishness and self-seeking. The attempt to provide for and justify self before God stands in direct conflict with the nature of the kingdom of God. For those who have confessed Jesus as Lord it is unrealistic to believe that we can live in right relationship with the Lord, and simultaneously live selfish and self-seeking.

Paul in his letter to the Corinthian church expressed that he had espoused the church to one husband and that is Christ. With this in mind James actually calls those who are self-seeking adulterers and adulteresses. What does he mean by that?

Living in friendship type relationship with the ways of the world puts us in opposition with God. If we want to be a friend of the world we make ourselves an enemy of God. The use of the word friendship speaks of someone who is in regular communion with someone. Their is a heart that is joined to the friend.

We simply can’t have it both ways. The Spirit of God within us yearns jealousy for us. Think of it in the sense that a husband is jealous for his bride. He desires her and doesn’t want to share her with another. This is the same passionate desire the Lord has for us. He doesn’t want to let pride or selfish ambition stand in the way of our relationship with Him.

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Closing:

In order to have an unadulterated relationship with the Lord, James addresses a few issues.

1. Pride. In the scripture is defined as an excessive love of one’s own excellence. James 4:6. Isaiah 14:12-17.

James 4:6, “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.””

We can see the effect of pride in Isaiah 14:12–17 ““How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit. “Those who see you will gaze at you, And consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms, Who made the world as a wilderness And destroyed its cities, Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’”

Pride is what caused Lucifer to fall away from God and rebel. That same root is what pushes us away from the Lord also.

2. The remedy of pride is humility. James 4:7-10.

James 4:7–10 “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, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

The key to humility is submission to God. Pride and arrogance are rooted in self exaltation, self righteousness, and vanity.

Submission to God means that we don’t give place to the devil. We cut off the friendship. Ephesians 4:27.

Ephesians 4:27 “nor give place to the devil.”

We put on the whole armor of God. Ephesians 6:11.

Ephesians 6:11. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

We pay attention to the course and conduct of our life. 1 Peter 5:8.

1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

3. Do not judge a brother. Matthew 7:3-5.

Pride and arrogance cause us to speak evil of others. In doing so we become a judge over their life. In the kingdom we must remember that there is one judge.

Matthew 7:3–5 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

We can certainly inspect fruit, but we will never stand in the place of judgement over peoples lives.

4. Do not Boast about tomorrow. James 4:13-17.

James 4:13–17 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

We do not know what tomorrow holds. If we are to boast let it be in the goodness of God in our lives. The reality is that even if we accomplish great things in our lives, one day our lives will end and the boasting will cease. The world will continue and most will become nameless. We are to live ultimately for God’s glory, and not our own. Boasting originates with self-glorification.

5. If you are wealthy do not use it to oppress others. James 5:1-6.

James 5:1–6 “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments 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 heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.”

When we surrender to the wisdom of the Lord and walk in humility everything changes. We are justified by His grace, and that grace empowers us to lay down our lives for one another. Where we are no longer self seeking, but empowered by the Love of God to give of ourselves freely. The result is that God gets the glory.

This is my prayer for us today.

Let’s Pray!

God help us to surrender in every part of our lives.

Salvation