Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

The world is constantly talking about peace

Peace is universally wanted

James is telling us about 3 wars that are going on in the world.

He is also telling us how to stop these wars.

4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 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.

3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

4 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. 5 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”? 6 But he gives more grace.

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

7 Submit yourselves therefore 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, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Be wretched 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.

11 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.

12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.

But who are you to judge your neighbor?

At war with Each Other (4:1a, 11-12)

When you examine the early church, you realize they had their share of disagreements

Corinthians were suing each other

Galatians were biting and devouring one another

Ephesians were admonished to create spiritual unity

2 women at philippi had problems with each other

James mentions several disagreements among the saints

Class Wars (2:1-9)

Here is the age long rivalry between the rich and poor

Rich gets affection, poor man is ignored

If fellowship in a church depends on external things, the church is out of the will of God

2. Employment Wars (5:1-6)

Laborers not getting paid what they deserve

3. Church fights (3:13-18)

Selfish ambition ruled their church meetings, not spiritual submission

4. Personal Wars (4:11-12)

Evil with one another and judging one another

Christians must not act like God in passing judgment

If we are the same family and indwealt by the Holy Spirit, why are we at war with one another.

At war with ourselves ()

“What causes fights and quarrels among you?

Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (, niv) The war in the heart is helping to cause the wars in the church!

“But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth … For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work” (, ).

The essence of sin is selfishness.

Eve disobeyed God because she wanted to eat of the tree and become wise like God.

Abraham lied about his wife because he selfishly wanted to save his own life ().

Achan caused defeat to Israel because he selfishly took some forbidden loot from the ruins of Jericho ().

“We have turned every one to his own way” ().

Often we veil our religious quarrels under the disguise of “spirituality.”

We are like Miriam and Aaron who complained about Moses’ wife, but who really were envious of Moses’ authority ().

Or we imitate James and John who asked for special thrones in the kingdom, when what we really want is recognition today ().

In both of these instances, the result of selfish desire was chastening and division among God’s people.

Miriam’s sin halted the progress of Israel for a whole week!

Selfish desires are dangerous things.

They lead to wrong actions (“ye kill, ye fight and war,” ), and they even lead to wrong praying (“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures,” , niv).

When our praying is wrong, our whole Christian life is wrong.

It has well been said that the purpose of prayer is not to get man’s will done in heaven, but to get God’s will done on earth.

“Thou shalt not covet” is the last of God’s Ten Commandments, but its violation can make us break all of the other nine!

Covetousness can make a person murder, tell lies, dishonor his parents, commit adultery, and in one way or another violate all of God’s moral law.

Selfish living and selfish praying always lead to war.

If there is war on the inside, there will ultimately be war on the outside.

People who are at war with themselves because of selfish desires are always unhappy people.

They never enjoy life.

Instead of being thankful for the blessings they do have, they complain about the blessings they do not have.

They cannot get along with other people because they are always envying others for what they have and do.

They are always looking for that “magic something” that will change their lives, when the real problem is within their own hearts.

Sometimes we use prayer as a cloak to hide our true desires.

“But I prayed about it!”

can be one of the biggest excuses a Christian can use.

Instead of seeking God’s will, we tell God what He is supposed to do; and we get angry at Him if He does not obey.

This anger at God eventually spills over and we get angry at God’s people.

More than one church split has been caused by saints who take out their frustrations with God on the members of the church.

Many a church or family problem would be solved if people would only look into their own hearts and see the battles raging there.

God made us a unity; mind, emotions, and will should work together.

James stated the reason we are at war with ourselves and, consequently, with each other.

At War with God ()

The root cause of every war, internal and external, is rebellion against God.

At the beginning of Creation, you behold perfect harmony; but sin came into the world, and this led to conflict.

Sin is lawlessness (), and lawlessness is rebellion against God.

How does a believer declare war against God?

By being friendly with God’s enemies.

James names three enemies that we must not fraternize with if we want to be at peace with God.

The world (v.

4).

By the “world,” James means, of course, human society apart from God.

The whole system of things in this society of ours is anti-Christ and anti-God.

Abraham was the friend of God (); Lot was the friend of the world.

Lot ended up in a war, and Abraham had to rescue him ().

A Christian gets involved with the world gradually, as I pointed out in chapter 4 of this study.

First, there is “the friendship of the world” ().

This results in being “spotted” by the world () so that areas of our lives meet with the approval of the world.

Friendship leads to loving the world (), and this makes it easy to conform to the world ().

The sad result is being condemned with the world (), our souls saved “yet as by fire” ().

Friendship with the world is compared to adultery.

The believer is “married to Christ” () and ought to be faithful to Him.

The Jewish Christians who read this letter would understand this picture of “spiritual adultery” because the Prophets Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Hosea used it when rebuking Judah for her sins (see ; ; ).

By adopting the sinful ways of the other nations, and by worshiping their gods, the nation of Judah committed adultery against her God.