Part 9: True Faith Controls the Pleasures

Introduction

Today's Best Illustrations, Volume 5 Alexander’s Great Failure

Cletus, a dear friend of Alexander’s and a general in his army, became intoxicated and ridiculed the emperor in front of his men. Blinded by anger, quick as lightning, Alexander snatched a spear from the hand of a soldier and hurled it at Cletus. Though he had only intended to scare the drunken general, his aim was true and the spear took the life of his childhood friend. Deep remorse followed his anger. Overcome with guilt, Alexander tried to take his own life with the same spear, but was stopped by his men. For days he lay sick calling for his friend Cletus, chiding himself as a murderer.”

1. The Surface Problem: Conflict (4:1)

James 4:1 NASB95

What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

War and Battles

“Quarrels and conflicts” = wars and battles - war imagery

In fact, “wage war” in second part of the verse lit. means “advance with an army or fleet.”

YLT: “Whence are wars and fightings among you? not thence—out of your passions, that are as soldiers in your members?”

This is quite the description of what evidently was occurring in some churches in the time of James. Of course, this is in line with what he has been teaching up to this point. He talked about the tongue, the words we use, and how it sets aflame an entire life. James has discussed how true faith works—in words, in controlling anger, treating people impartially, and so forth.

But to describe Christians as having a war with each other is quite telling.

This war, or conflict, is just the a surface problem, however. All the issues that James has brought up to this point are really just indicators of something much deeper:

The Real Problem: Pleasures

“Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?”

“Pleasures” = ἡδονή -ῆς, ἡ; (hēdonē), n. pleasure; where we get our word hedonism; often associated with sensual pleasures

Here, however, it’s more than merely sensual pleasures. James is talking about any kind of passion that is distorted by sin. In short, he’s talking about our sinful desires and passions.

The real problem that we as Christians have with each when their is quarreling and conflicts is US. It’s me individually. It’s you individually. We are being controlled by our old man (cf. Paul), sinful nature and passions, and lust of the flesh.

James 1:14 “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”

It’s what the Apostle Peter referred to when he wrote in his first letter:

1 Peter 2:11 “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”

The real problem, then, when Christians have battles and conflict among themselves is one’s own selfish ambitions and pleasures.

Illustration

1000 Fresh Illustrations Conflict

Back when church revivals were popular, a pastor (Al Grounds) was asked to preach a week-long revival at a church. And when the people responded, he gladly stretched the meeting to two, then three weeks.

When that church’s pastor resigned, the church’s leadership approached Al to become their next pastor. After all, everybody responded positively to him during the revival, they thought he’d make a great pastor.

At first Al resisted, but the leadership persisted until he finally said “yes.” And when he came, the church grew like a wildfire. People packed the building from as far away as 75 miles unbelievable for a small country church.

But some some of the locals didn’t like the growth and started holding back their tithe and launched a whispering campaign against their pastor, Al.

Finally it came to a head when one of the ringleaders of the resistance stood up in business meeting and said, “This church is full of people who don’t belong here. They don’t live here, they don’t know us, they don’t belong. Now it’s time for them to go.” She continued, “I make a motion that Al Grounds be removed from the position of pastor and that all names of those living outside the city limits be removed from the church rolls.”

The church didn’t dismiss Pastor Grounds that day, but the conflict didn’t go away either. A law suit, a suicide and a couple of years later, the church was shredded by strife, their witness destroyed.

—

What caused the war and battles in that church? The root of it was people’s sinful pleasures and passions. The sinful pleasures at play were wrong motives and rebellious attitudes against the spread of the Gospel. It was an attitude of inward focus rather than one of service and outward focus. It was a desire to keep the things the way they were and to not change. It was even the sinful desire to keep certain people out of their church.

Application

What kind of people have we been? What kind of church are we now? And what kind of church will we be? What is LCC known for?

The seventeenth-century Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza: “I have often wondered that persons who make boast of professing the Christian religion—namely love, joy, peace, temperance, and charity to all men—should quarrel with such rancorous animosity and display daily towards one another such bitter hatred, that this, rather than the virtues which they profess, is the readiest criteria of their faith.”

What kind of people are we going to be?

Note: it does not always have to be “out in the open.” There can be hidden wars and battles going on behind the scenes.

Kurt Richardson:

James (1) Their Source in Evil Desire (4:1)

Evil desire is a reality within every human being and must be confronted. This confrontation becomes all the more difficult and painful when it is raised within the fellowship of Christians who imagine they can be free from deformed desire in this life. The best that a truly religious, devout Christian can do is to keep the body “in check” (3:2) along with the tongue. But the struggle that must be won daily, in spite of much stumbling into sin, is the one every believer fights against deformed desire. When these desires are not kept in check, the worst of them blaze out of control and usher in the worst conflicts of coveting and envy.

What are some of these sinful pleasures that we need to keep in check?

2. Pleasures and Their Effects (4:2-3)

James 4:2–3 NASB95

You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious 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 with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Lust => Murder

“You lust and you do not have; so you commit murder.”

“lust” = it is not just about sexual lust; it is any distorted, sinful strong passion, desire, or pleasure.

Lit. it means “to set one’s heart upon a thing, long for” “to crave, to have an intense desire for some particular thing”

One can lust for another person’s status, money, car, house, just as much as for another person’s spouse. Lust is all inclusive here for any strong, driven sinful desire.

When one lusts and craves for something that another has, it can lead to murder. Note that the war imagery is continued here. What happens when one goes to war? People die.

Does James mean that there were actually people dying as a result of their lust? Perhaps. Look at what occurred in the church where Al Grounds preached at. Some ended up committing suicide. We have no idea sometimes how dramatic and serious the effect of our lust will be.

When someone lusts looking at porn, he or she often thinks that no one will get hurt. But studies have shown that such people oftentimes resort to violence against women. Studies show that marriages are destroyed. Depression and anxiety can result and much more.

When someone lusts, or craves, for another person’s iPhone, education, job, car, house, ____, it can lead to all kind of evil.

Another sinful pleasure:

Envy => Cannot Obtain the Desired Object

“You are envious and cannot obtain”

“envy” = jealousy

The very nature of envy a frustrated desire: wanting what someone else has because you do not have it. James says, in fact, that they cannot even get it.

It is said that “harboring envy and resentment are like drinking poison… and then waiting for the other person to die.”

Envy is so bad that it has been categorized as one of the 7 vices.

Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Envy, what Shakespeare referred to as “the green-eyed monster,” has often been the motivation for violence. People have killed others for their shoes, cars, money . . . you name it.

In 2010, a 25-year-old southeast Baltimore man was charged with fatally injuring an off-duty Baltimore police detective by throwing a piece of concrete at the officer's head. The reason? The officer had taken the parking space he wanted. The office died hours later.

Proverbs 14:30 “A tranquil heart is life to the body, but passion [envy, jealousy] is rottenness to the bones.”

James mentions a third sinful please:

Wrong Motives => Do Not Receive What is Desired

“You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

Prayer is such an integrative, important part of the Christian life. It is an honor and privilege to talk to God our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. There is no other blessing.

But sometimes our prayers can be hindered. As James tells us here, we can sometimes be in prayer to God asking with the wrong motives. We can be tempted and fall into asking God with self motives. In such times, we do not receive what we ask because it is not in accordance with God’s will.

There was a child who once prayed: “Dear God, could you please send Mikey Johnson to another summer camp this year?” [Greg Mohr Ministries, “Humorous Prayers of Young Children,” May 27, 2024; accessed 3/14/25 https://gregmohr.com/humorous-prayers-of-young-children/]

We laugh, but we adults sometimes pray something similar, do we not?

Do we ever pray for someone just to go away? Do we ever cry to God, asking for him to bring about something luxurious we want?

What is this doing to our relationship with God when we living according to our pleasures rather than controlling them?

3. Pleasures’ Enemy (4:4)

James 4:4 NASB95

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

God

Did you catch what James said first? A big punch to the gut: “you adulteresses!” Why does James compare us to someone who commits adultery?

The key to understanding: God’s relationship with Israel is compared to a husband’s relationship to his wife.

Jeremiah 3:20 “‘Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover, so you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,’ declares the Lord.”

Isaiah 57:3 “But come here, you sons of a sorceress, offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute.”

When we entertain our sinful pleasures and passions, those pleasures become an idol. We have made something other than God our “husband,” thereby committing spiritual adultery.

James even puts it in terms of friendship: “Whoever wished to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

We must get in control of our sinful pleasures (envy, lust, wrong motives, tongue, anger, etc.) lest we become enemies of God.

Application

We when we lust, envy, have bad motives, angry, or yell at someone, we often think they are the enemy. But James is telling us that is not the case. The enemy is actually God.

Moreover, the passions that we direct at others make us idolaters.

Colossians 3:5 “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”

So, what’s the answer here? How are we to live in light of James’ teaching here? It’s simply stated, but not simply executed:

4. Control the Pleasures (4:5-7)

James 4:5–7 NASB95

Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

James tells us first about how God desires us.

Note that there is nowhere in the Bible that states that God “jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us.” This, rather, is a summary of what Scripture says about what God desires: he desires our spirit (note: not the HS, as many commentators agree).

In other words: God desires us to be in relationship with him. He does not want us going after our sinful pleasures, which are idols. He wants us to go after HIM.

How do we go after God and not our pleasures?

By Being Humble

“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Quote is from Prov 3:34 (the Septuagint version).

Proverbs 3:34 “Though He scoffs at the scoffers, Yet He gives grace to the afflicted.”

This constant theme in the Bible:

2 Chronicles 7:13–14 “If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

When we humble ourselves and deny our pride, we come to recognize God as the sovereign king of all creation. We acknowledge our creatureliness, lowliness, and sinfulness. This enables us to control our sinful pleasures that all stem from our selfishness.

When we lust, use words to hurt others, envy, and pray with wrong motives, we are doing these things from pride.

Matthew 23:12 “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”

But we cannot humble ourselves on our own; we cannot control our passions/pleasures on our own. We must rely upon God.

By Submitting to God

“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

“Submit” - this is the only way can control and overcome our sinful pleasures.

Galatians 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

“Submission” is a bad word in our culture. We submit to no one. We are radically independent upon no one, so much so that we create our own reality and ourselves. We get to climb to the top of the highest mountain and declare to the world what the world is and what we are. We get to declare ourselves as God. We speak the world into existence. And we get to live out our passions.

And haven’t we seen the effects of this?

God wants us to have a faith that controls the passions, so that we can have a true life of abundance. We will never truly be fulfilled without submitting to God.