The Source of Quarrels
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning - please keep your bibles open to James chapter 4.
This morning’s passage is a difficult one to approach because James doesn’t mince words.
His goal is to get to the heart of conflicts between believers within a church body.
Show me a church free from conflict, and I will show you a church without people. When people gather together, conflict is sure to follow because people - as a hard-and-fast rule, carry vestiges of worldliness and sin inside of us that the Lord wants to sanctify us from. We will not have full deliverance from this until we are reunited with our savior after death or rapture.
Since this is the case, we would do well to remember that James is writing to remind Christians to live lives worthy of our calling in Jesus - to behave in a manner that honors Christ.
Not all people are cantankerous, crotchety or persnickety. But all people are sinners -
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
As such, where people gather together, conflict is sure to follow. James is diagnosing the cause of this for us in our passage today, and we would do well to approach this text with humility and an open heart. The further into James we go, the deeper into us he goes, and it’s not always comfortable, but it is always worth it.
Today, we are going to look at the source of quarrels among believers in the body of Christ. It is well represented in the person of King Saul. Saul was anointed by God to be king and he served God faithfully until his desire to maintain power led him to compromise in ways that God didn’t want him to compromise in. Saul would ultimately abandon his loyalty to God and focus his life on maintaining political power. Whether we are seeking political power, financial success, social influence or even being able to have a more prominent voice in the church, we need to make sure we are keeping our desires in check - always submitting our desires to the Lord and making sure that worldly desires do not permeate and replace our desire to serve the Lord.
Big Idea: Quarrels and conflicts reveal a heart aligned with the world, but God calls us to humble submission, loyal devotion, and transformed speech that prove we belong to Him.
Today we are going to look at 4 points that will hopefully draw us nearer to the Lrod by reminding us of the perils of following in the example of King Saul:
The Root of Our Conflicts (4:1–3)
The Danger of Divided Loyalties (4:4–6)
The Call to Humble Resistance (4:7–10)
The Test of Transformed Speech (4:11–12)
The Root of Our Conflicts (4:1-3)
The Root of Our Conflicts (4:1-3)
1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?
2 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.
3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
If we were to boil down what James is saying about the cause of fighting within the church, the most concise way I can think of would be “frustrated desires.” Desires that are frustrated in the sense that they remain unfulfilled.
Biblical counselors will often go to this passage with people to help them realize the potential under-lying reasons for their conflicts. What James is basically saying is that you want something you are not getting, so you are quarreling with others because of that lack of satiation - and those things that you want are to satisfy yourself - not to honor the Lord.
I’m sure, if given the opportunity to really look inside, we can all probably identify things that we are wanting and not getting that cause us some level of stress. In marriage, this is a very typical problem - husbands feel like their needs are neglected and they react in unloving ways towards their wives; or wives feel that their needs are being unmet and they respond to their husbands in anger - it goes both ways and every marriage is prone to seasons where communication is great and where communication is not so great. Times where things seem to be working together well, like gears in a watch; and times where it doesn’t seem to be working at all, like an engine without oil.
Notice, though, how James further describes the condition of warring believers. He says in verse 2 that you do not have because you do not ask. There are two ways people have generally thought of this verse - that it describes not having our needs met by others because we don’t communicate what our needs are. That seems simple enough! After all, it would be difficult for my wife to know that I need 15-20 minutes to sit and relax when I get home from work if I don’t communicate - “Hey, I need a few minutes to recoup after work…” However, if we read this portion in context within the chapter, we see that it is not a lack of communicating with others what we want, but it is a lack of asking God to provide for our wants and a failure to align our wants with what He wants for us. James even gives a caveat that says that when we do ask, it is with impure motives - to spend what we would get on our own pleasures. It’s as if to say that we are so desparate to fulfill the desires of our flesh that we are even willing to risk offending God by praying he would grant us these things that are against His will for us.
James notes a failure within the church, as humanity throughout all time has had a propensity to do, is to turn to anyone but God for fulfillment.
Our fulfillment should come from God and God alone. Our desires should reflect a life that is lead by Him, but the kinds of desires James is pointing out are opposite of that - they are selfish desires - desires that would elevate ourselves instead of the Lord! An example of this would be the Prayer of Jabez.
10 Jabez called out to the God of Israel, “If only you would bless me, extend my border, let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm, so that I will not experience pain.” And God granted his request.
Jabez was a man in the Old Testament who prayed for God’s blessing in order that God would be glorified and that he would be counted among God’s covenant people. Many in the prosperity-gospel movement have taken this to mean that God wants us all to be happy, healthy and wealthy and have even written books about how to pray like Jabez in order to have an abundance of possessions and wealth in this life, but they miss the point all together! There is nothing wrong with praying that our work be successful and fruitful, but the heart behind it is of key importance! Are we asking for success to be rich or that God would be glorified and that we would be definitively identified as belonging to Him?
God should be our source for contentment, peace, joy… everything! But we often look literally anywhere else for it. How many of us, if we were to be honest with ourselves, could admit that we find more than an appropriate amount of fulfillment from our job? Or from our children? Or from even our service to the church? Our fulfillment should come only from God - knowing he gave us these things - our kids, our jobs, our ministry, etc. - to accomplish His purpose for us and to use us in the lives of those around us. The underlying substance of James’ argument is that we can be a selfish people - resisting God by not find our fulfillment in him and looking to other people and other things for fulfillment instead of Him - and when we go unfulfilled, conflicts arise between people because of these frustrated desires.
In his book, Making Peace, Jim Van Yperen said this:
Conflict is the result of unwarranted and unfilled desire. It is unwarranted because the desire is for personal pleasure and self-promotion, not for understanding or seeking God’s will. It is unfulfilled because our motive, like our desire, is self-seeking.
Jim Van Yperen
Wars and quarrels among the members of Christ’s body are a symptom of self-centeredness.
Commentator, Kurt Richardson says…
“…conflicts with one another are symptomatic of conflict with God. All conflict resolution should begin by a renewed submission to God by the internal act of submission to him.”
Kurt A. Richardson
Quarrels should not happen in the church - period. Jesus made it clear that his desire is that we would be one like he and the Father are one:
20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word.
21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.
It is a self-seeking heart that causes quarrels because it goes against God’s desires for us - it reveals a problem within us of divided loyalties…
The Danger of Divided Loyalties (4:4-6)
The Danger of Divided Loyalties (4:4-6)
Read with me again, starting in verse…
4 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.
5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?
6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Here, we get to the meat of what this entire passage is about - namely in verse 4:
4 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.
What he has been talking about so far is the sinful tendency people have to separate themselves from God - In the first section, people are separated by having wants and desires outside God’s will - being motivated by selfishness and pride.
James goes on to say that it is an issue of divided loyalties. We cannot ride the proverbial fence of obedience to God - especially giving any mentionable foothold to the world in our lives. Notice the phraseology he uses: “You adulterous people…” He calls these Christians adulterous because of the fact that they are in covenant relationship with God and have committed adultery against God - their covenant partner - by seeking relationship with the world. He clarifies this by saying, “friendship with the world is hostility towards God…” We cannot have both God and worldliness - we have to chose. It is not too far away from the call that Joshua made in
14 “Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord.
15 But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”
James is giving us the same demarcation line - serve God or serve the world, but we cannot do both. And the reason for this is in verse 5:
5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?
Have you ever heard the expression that God is a jealous God? It is found in initially in Exodus 20 with the 10 Commandments, that we can worship no other gods because God is a jealous God - and his jealousy doesn’t end with idol worship - no! It extends to our loyalty being to him and being like him, or our loyalty being for the world and being like the world - if we belong to him, our loyalty cannot be to the world - we must acknowledge that we are strangers in a strange land and citizens of heaven and only here temporarily.
Let me ask you a question - I am going to give you a name, and if you’ve studied your history at all, it might make sense where I am going with this - but what is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say the name Benedict Arnold?
(ask for response)
Generally, history regards Benedict Arnold as a traitor to America. He was a high ranking Colonial Army soldier who tried to surrender West Point to curry favor with the British before switching sides completely. All of this was because he wasn’t being paid enough by the Continental Congress for all his efforts in the war. We would end up getting a commission as a British Officer and would ultimately end up fleeing to England instead of returning Connecticut where he was born and raised. His name was synonymous with treachery because his loyalty to America, and specifically, General Washington was divided.
I’m not saying that we are all Benedict Arnold and facing the gallows for our treason against God - James goes on to say that for those of us who have fallen into worldliness that God’s grace is still available to us - but we have to come to him in humility.
6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
This is James’ call for us to humble ourselves before God and repent of the sin of divided loyalty and humble ourselves before God who bestows grace! He’s telling us to cast aside our loyalty to the world and surrender ourselves completely to God! It is…
The Call to Humble Resistance (4:7-10)
The Call to Humble Resistance (4:7-10)
7 Therefore, submit 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, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be miserable 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.
Remember that when a section starts off with “Therefore,” we want to investigate the context to discover what it’s there for. James had just said that God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud - so… therefore… submit to God. He said that the humble receive grace - what do the humble do? Submit! If we are truly humble, then submission is a natural reaction. This is the thrust of the entire passage today.
We are supposed to put away self-seeking desires and live in active submission to God. We should consider where our loyalties are and submit to God, aligning ourselves with him! The entire book is centered around the idea of living lives in a manner worthy of our calling in Christ. This begins with humble submission to Him! It goes on to say that the next logical step is to resist the devil - saying, in the words of famous bumper stickers everywhere, “Not today, Satan!” What’s the promise that James makes here? That if we resist the enemy, that he will flee. That is predicated on submission to God. We can’t be indulging our sin and lusts and expect to have victory against the enemy?! At that point, he would have seemingly already have won! No - first, submit to God, then resist the devil, then the devil will flee.
This next part is extremely meaningful and makes up the substance of what the Christian life is all about -
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
It is reminiscent of what Jesus said in John 15:4
4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.
The word “Remain” here is often translated “Abide,” which gives a better understanding of the word. To abide means to stay close and dependent on God. It is continuing in close relationship with Him. James is saying that if we draw near to God that he will draw near to us. How do we draw near? Through the humble submission to God that James was just talking about. We can see more ways of drawing near to him through various spiritual disciplines, like
Reading and Studying the Bible
Prayer
Fellowship and regular church attendance
Journaling
Fasting
I wont belabor the topic of spiritual disciplines too much here, but to give a brief definition, Spiritual disciplines are practices that cultivate spiritual growth and closeness to God. A book that I would highly recommend on this topic would be “With Unveiled Faces” by Keith Drury.
There is a roadmap to freedom from all our vices in this passage:
Submission to God, Resisting the Devil, Drawing near to God and Repenting of our sins and eventually, we will see God exalt us, or lift us up. I can think of nothing greater than being exalted by the one to whom all creation owes its existence. It comes at the end of the roadmap - Submit, Resist, Draw Close, Repent.
By turning to God in humble repentance, believers experience His sanctifying work—echoing Christ's victory over sin and inviting believers to share in His triumph.
The Test of Transformed Speech (4:11-12)
The Test of Transformed Speech (4:11-12)
11 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.
12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
James concludes this section by getting back to the topic of quarrels. A common quarrel within the church happens through unfair criticism and judgement. He gives us a sort of test that we can use to bring us back in line with God and cast off our past allegiances to the ways of the world. One of the ugliest things we can do is be critical of one another. We are all guilty of sin and all deserve damnation in hell for the sins we commit. We have been given grace by God through Christ and the gift of faith through the work of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us back to God by the will of God for the glory of God alone! James is pointing out how ridiculous a notion it is that we would think that criticizing and casting condemning judgement against a brother or sister in Christ is ever appropriate behavior for a believer in Jesus. As recipients of Grace, we should pay grace forward and - remembering what James said earlier in the book, to see people’s value in the sense that they are image bearers of God and have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. We should leave judgment to Christ and Christ alone!
After all, Jesus said
18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
Christ is the only one with the authority to Judge and the only one with the commission from God to judge.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Why would we heap sin and shame on ourselves by being critical of others in the body? That is the worldliness that James has been talking about this whole time. This is a test that we can use to see if we are being worldly: Are you unduly criticizing another believer? If so, then there is worldliness in you that you need to repent of. I know this is something that hits close to home - I have experienced a lot of hurt within the church and there have been times that instead of dealing with that hurt in a way that honors God, I retreat into myself and allow my own worldliness to dictate how I respond instead of letting Christ’s judgement over them be sufficient for me. That hurt has motivated me to worldliness and driven a wedge between me and Christ - and I cannot allow that to happen! We cannot allow that to happen! We must guard our relationship with Christ and let nothing come between us!
The humility that James spoke of earlier is critically important! Not only do we humble ourselves before God, but we operate in our day to day with humility empowered by God through the Holy Spirit living in us so that we can coexist with one another in the unity and harmony Christ desires for his church.
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.
Conclusion
Conclusion
If we find ourselves at odds with another believer - especially another believer within our church, it is a symptom of divided loyalty with Go. Somewhere, within the web of conflict, someone’s loyalties are divided between God and the world. This is a hard position to be in - whether it is our loyalties that are found to be divided, or if we become the target of another person’s worldliness.
James’ entire thrust in this book is that believers everywhere live lives in a manner worthy of our calling in Jesus Christ. We are his ambassadors. People should see us and see a love that is evidence of our faith in Christ -
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The church should be a place of love, but it unfortunately has seasons where worldliness rears its ugly head and makes the church a den of judgement and vitriol that looks no different than any other social club the world would have to offer. Jesus has an expectation for our behavior - that we would be holy. Holiness should permeate every aspect of our lives - including our interactions with one another in the church. If we are going to be like Jesus, we should live among one another with love and humility instead of pride and judgement. Pride and judgement are a symptom of divided loyalties between God and the world. If we are to live in a manner worthy of our calling in Christ - we must abandon worldliness and draw near to God!
4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act,
6 making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday.
Resist the devil’s schemes that try to pull us away from God, that create rifts within the church.
How many of us have ever witnessed a church split? They happen often, and not always for good reasons. Many times, it is because people in the church have more connection with the world than they do with God - and that is what James is writing about in our section today. We need to be on the lookout for worldliness and divided loyalty within ourselves. We need to be aligned with the will of God and the desires God - submitting ourselves to his Lordship in our lives. We should use our speech and the way we treat one another as a test that helps us gauge if we are being worldly or godly in our interactions with one another.
My prayer for each of us listening to this is simple - that we would fall so deeply in love with Jesus that worldliness would fall by the wayside and that we would interact humbly with one another and that conflict within the church would fizzle out completely. We know that conflict is inevitable, but how we react to conflict shows what is happening on the inside.
When we are mentally, emotionally and spiritually stretched too thin, we get on-edge in a whole hurry. We don’t want to live like that and we don’t want that kind of life to define who we are - we want to be people who are known to be disciples because we love one another the way Christ commanded. We will fail, but God’s grace is greater and he give it freely to the humble!
Take time to take inventory of your hearts and souls today to see if your loyalty to God is divided and partially given to the world. If it has, don’t wait another minute - get right with God by humbling yourself before him, confessing your sin and remember his promise to purify you from that sin. Submit to Christ and one another in humble obedience and watch what God will do within the body here at Sprague. It will take all of us working together to pursue humility and holiness, but that is what the church is for!
Let’s do this together and follow God, where ever he may lead us!
Let’s pray.
