James 4.1-12

Introduction

IVAN STORY

What causes quarells and strifes in my intense tuesday night soccer league

is the same thing that causes quarells and strifes in our church.

The passions.

James is livid in this letter. He's writing to a church — or churches — that are fractured, divided, and struggling. And his diagnosis is blunt: all of your problems stem from the passions.

I. The Passions (vv. 1–3)

James 4:1–3 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 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. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Define: The passions — what are they? (Bring Evagrius of Pontus)

Two key terms to know:

virtue: taking the gifts and faculties God has given you and turning to Him in love and becoming like Him due to this.

passions: we take those same faculties and gifts and turn toward something that is temporal, that is created, instead of using them towards the Creator.

The essence of sin is this latin term: incurvatus in se

translation: to be curved in on oneself.

Virtue curves us outward toward God and neighbor.

Passions curve us inward until we go mad.

These passions can be:

gluttony, lust, love of money (avarice), anger, sadness or despondency, vainglory, and pride. Some lists add self-love as the root of all the others.

There is this early christian monk named evagrius of ponticus.

He wrote a book called “talking back” as a handbook for renouncing the demonic temptations of the passions.

modeling it after our Lord’s tactic to recite scripture in the face of temptation.

He says,

“It is not in our power to determine whether we are disturbed by these thoughts, but it is up to us to decide if they are to linger within us or not and whether or not they are to stir up our passions.”

Think of a bird landing on your head.

It is not your fault if the bird lands on your head.

It is your fault if you let it plant a nest in your hair.

Being tempted is not sin, letting that temptation rest in your mind and indulging in it is a sin.

But, the passions do not just effect our own lives, but the lives of others.

When sin happened in the Garden, it didn't just sever our relationship with God. It severed our relationships with one another. It severed our relationship with ourselves.

James isn't picking at small problems. He's summarizing everything wrong with these churches and tracing it back to one root: sinful desires that are not being uprooted through virtue.

Virtue can actually become a habit. But, like any habit, you have to start.

So that you dont punch people in soccer games, so that you will be a faithful wife or husband, a faithful employer.

But virtue is not gained by white-knuckling, but rather through union with Christ.

prayer, fasting, community and the Scriptures.

You are the average of your 5 best friends, make Christ Jesus dwelling in your heart number 1.

the problem with us churched people is this: we are not too bad and not too good.

we are not too bad, meaning we arent living a lavish lifestyle of sin.

but we arent too “good.” we are just constantly in the middle of “dont be unholy, but dont be too holy.”

I tell you that Christ did not die on a cross for us to be mid at the spiritual life.

The first miracle Christ did was turning water into wine, not raising the dead or healing the sick, why?

Because abundant joy is the result of Christ’s ministry. Is that your reality? Most of our spiritual life feels like crappy welch’s grape juice instead the wedding guests at cana’s words: the best wine.

II. Friendship with the World (v. 4)

James 4:4 ESV

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.

The world should be crucified to us. It shouldn't fascinate us.

Is sin still fascinating to you? Do you envy the lives of people who don't follow Jesus — who can sleep in on Sundays, who don't have to deny themselves anything?

James gives us two options, and only two: friendship with God, or friendship with the world.

But — and this matters — this does not mean everything the world produces is evil.

Every person is made in the image of God. Within every human soul, no matter how far from God, there is a hint of the divinity that made them.

Example: Stories. Every culture that has ever existed tells stories — from remote tribes in Papua New Guinea, to Ancient Greece, to the United States. Stories are human. And if you look closely, every story has hints of Christianity buried inside it.

This is why we don't throw out the world entirely. We don't hate it, we don't ignore everything it produces. We look at it through a Christian lens.

The underlying Christian philosophy: the Good, the True, and the Beautiful — because God called creation good, Christ is the Truth, and God himself is beautiful.

So when I read Harry Potter, watch a Marvel movie, or listen to a secular song, I'm looking for the hints of God in it:

How does the main character show Christian virtue?

How is this story displaying love — and how does it compare to the Christian definition?

Is this beautiful? Is it lifting my heart toward God?

Reading fiction actually helped me read the Bible better — because the Bible is a library, with different genres, different authors, different voices. Getting better at reading other kinds of books helped me understand Scripture from a narrative point of view.

On music: I like classical, jazz, house music, sad early 2000s emo, and reggae — and I don't think God wants to smite me for it. Every good and perfect gift is from above.

But — some of y'all are listening to garbage music. And truth be told: garbage in, garbage out. Not all music is profitable. Not all shows are worth your time. Disney is trying to brainwash you into its ideologies. Spoiler alert.

Have discernment. Pray about it. Ask your parents. Ask a friend. Ask me. But most of all — be more engaged in the Christian story than any other story, and interpret everything else in light of the great story.

C.S. Lewis loved mythology and fairy tales long before he was a Christian. When he came to Christ, he said: "Christ is the myth come true." The fulfillment of every story we've ever told.

III. The Spirit is Jealous (v. 5)

James 4:5 ESV

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”?

The Holy Spirit earnestly desires your undivided allegiance.

Salvation is more like pledging allegiance than saying a prayer at a summer camp full of emotions and iPhone deprivation.

One of the Spirit's roles is to strengthen us — and to point out when we have idolatrous rivals. God is a jealous God.

That show you know you shouldn't watch. The bitterness you've been holding toward someone. The sin pattern you keep returning to. The Spirit looks at all of it and says: "Give it to me. Don't be owned by this."

IV. He Gives More Grace (v. 6)

James 4:6 ESV

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

And maybe you feel the weight of that conviction right now. Good. But don't stop at verse 5 — verse 6 gives us enormous hope:

"He gives more grace."

(Goose story)

Goodness and mercy and grace are always following us. The hound of heaven.

V. Draw Near (vv. 7–8)

James 4:7–8 ESV

Submit yourselves therefore 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.

So — feeling that conviction — here's what you do:

Submit to God

Renounce the enemy

Draw near to God with confidence

(On praying on your knees)

Most of your problems may not be a spiritual attack — but some of them could be. Don't be naive about that.

Think about the thief on the cross: confidence and humility, held together in the same breath.

Do we clean ourselves up before we come to God? No — we clean ourselves by coming to God. By submitting to him.

VI. Contrition and Humility (vv. 9–10)

James 4:9–10 ESV

Be wretched 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.

This is what genuine contrition over sin looks like. God is not impressed by our self-sufficiency. He is drawn to humility.

Mourn your sin. Let it be heavy. And then — let God lift you up.

VII. Don't Play God (vv. 11–12)

James 4:11–12 ESV

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

Don't speak evil against anyone — especially other believers. When you slander a brother or sister, you've placed yourself above the law rather than under it. You've made yourself the judge.

There is one Lawgiver. One Judge.

It's not you.