Conflict: The Pathology and Prescription for Church Fights

Intro

Fighting is nothing new to God. From before the foundation of the world, God was dealing with fights. and inform the reader of God’s Word of God’s experience with fighting in Heaven. The devil, whom God named Lucifer (light bearer) was envious of God (source of light) and attempted to ascend to place of God. And the Lord had to deal with a fight. Abram, whom God chose to be the father of His nation, had his nephew Lot’s herdsmen begin to contend with his own herdsmen for prime grazing grounds and God had to guide Abram through a fight. From the time that Abram’s grandsons, Esau and Jacob, were in the womb, there was contention. For a significant portion of their lives, there was discord between them; battle brewing beneath the surface, so that when they met as mature men, God Himself, would have to navigate their circumstance to avoid a fight. In the NT, the disciples had issues with who would be greatest, there was conflict. Peter cut off a man’s ear, the disciples wanted to call fire from heaven on those whom they didn’t recognize as followers of God. I said God has always dealt with fights, even among His people. So even in 2017 when there is a fight among God’s people, we don’t have to panic, we don’t have to get beside ourselves, we don’t have to leave the church, because this is nothing new to God. He’s seen it before, He’s dealt with it before and if we are willing to receive His Word, He can empower us to deal with it and move forward through it in our own lives in a way that God can receive glory.

James writes to a group of believers in Jerusalem. He is writing to instruct the church to live out faith. His desire and thrust is that believers be doers of the Word and not hearer only! But he’s writing in an environment of conflict. There is social conflict; conflict between rich and poor. But there is also spiritual conflict -conflict between different factions in the church. Cliques if you will. I’m encouraged this morning that the Holy Spirit moves James, not to shy away from confronting the issue but gives him a word that is applicable to us today even on the other side of a fight.

This morning I just want to deal with the pathology. It’s my desire next week to allow God to give us the prescription.

Pathology

James first ask a question. Where do wars and fighting or brawling come from? Beloved, this is significant. You see we must understand that in order to adequately deal with any problem, in order to sufficiently confront it, we must address its source. Yes, we can make our statements, we can shake hands and say it won’t happen again, we can say she said this and he said that. The truth is in those instances we are just dealing with symptoms. Unfortunately however, if we only address symptoms and don’t allow God to access the source, we’ve still got problems! James say the source is in you and I, namely our malignant desires.

James first ask a question. Where do wars and fighting or brawling come from? Beloved, this is significant. You see we must understand that in order to adequately deal with any problem, in order to sufficiently confront it, we must address its source. Yes, we can make our statements, we can shake hands and say it won’t happen again, we can say she said this and he said that. The truth is in those instances we are just dealing with symptoms. Unfortunately however, if we only address symptoms and don’t allow God to access the source, we’ve still got problems! James say the source is in you and I, namely our malignant deires

Malignant Desires

The word James uses is transliterated “lust.” The word articulates a hedonistic mindset. This means the person described here is one who is consumed with his own pleasure. Don’t get it twisted, although many times our minds run there, this is not limited to sexual fulfilment. This is pleasure is all inclusive. It’s anything that caters to self even when it’s caustic to others. Watch it, this mindset is consumed with comforting the flesh even if it corrodes the soul. Consequently, there is an internal war that James describes.

Remember James is speaking to Christians. He is confident that they know what is right, even if they are not doing what is right. Essentially, there can be no war unless they know what’s right. So the battle is between the selfish desires and spiritual desires. This battle is described in . Paul says, the spirit and the flesh stand in opposition. The flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit fights against the flesh.

spirit- reconcile flesh -retaliate

spirit -release flesh -remember

spirit -family flesh -enemy

spirit -Savior flesh- self

But it is when the flesh begins to dominate the war internally, that the malignant desire overflows and leads to fighting externally.

Malicious Methods

Notice the nature of the interaction of those whom James characterizes as lustful. Here he uses another word, suggesting a fixation on something. Watch it, possessions, position, prestige, or praise -its definitely personal. The evidence is seen in the methods, which is the focus of this verse. Watch the method of obtaining their desire. The method is anything but godly. He points out wicked and futile attempts to secure the desire of their fixation. He says they covet, fight and murder (2). Although, this murder is probably not literal, this strong language is used to characterize the intensity and gravity of this conflict. It highlights hostility, manipulation, division and dissension. Clearly, this kind of attitude has a focus on the individual will rather than the church’s collective well-being. We see assassination, attacks; we know there is anguish. Beloved, this kind of posture is ungodly. Why you ask, because it minimizes relationship, with God and one another. We can’t have relationship with God and sever our relationship with one another. The word of God, instructs us to “be kindly affectioned on to another. “

attacks -no affection

anguish inflicted on one another -no affection

assassination -affection

The word says “continue in brotherly love.” These malicious methods toward our brothers and sisters, again, don’t reflect God. Perhaps the most glaring point of godlessness is that this individual does not seek God at all. James says you ask not! This helps our understanding. The reason our communication with one another is broken, is because our communication with God is broken. Prayer is how we access God. We talk to the Lord through prayer. We receive our power through prayer. We are enabled by God’s Spirit through prayer. We can do nothing without prayer because we can’t access Christ without prayer. When we forfeit prayer we forfeit Christ. It’s a sad Christian, who tries to do anything without Christ. Alicia Keys had it right when she said, i ain’t nothin’ without you. Take Christ out Christian… All we’re left with is our methods and James teaches us, they become malicious. I hear you though, you say I’m not like that, I’m praying...

Misaligned Prayers

James says you might be praying, but you’re not praying right! the Lord says we’re asking amiss. This means your motives are off. Somehow, what we’re requesting and what God wants to release is not lining up. Why? The Spirit helps us, It’s because we ask amiss. In other words the motives of our prayers have been perverted. Our prayers have become focused on gratifying ourselves, rather than glorifying God. The focus is on our need, desire, agenda, with a sprinkle of God. When want meal, while giving God leftovers. Beloved we must understand God always answers and His desire is to answer is to say “Yes!” (ESV)

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Therefore, saints of God, when God answers “No,” understand it’s Him lovingly nudging you in alignment with His will. Sometimes however we refuse to listen, we refuse to submit. What follows is meandering affections.

Meandering Affections

When I pondered on this text, I first thought of malfeasant behavior, because malfeasance describes the action of a wayward public official. characterizes the Christian as an ambassador for Christ. However, when we begin to allow our own gratification to over shadow our representation of the Lord, we are malfeasant. But beloved there is an even more intimate betrayal. James says it is adulterous. This behavior is adulterous in the context of our spiritual marriage. James wrote to a church steeped in Judaism. They were Hebrew converts, still living in Jerusalem. The only scripture they had would have been the OT. They understood the concept of Israel being married to God. Moreover, we understand the concept of being the bride of Christ. So then adultery can only arise from meandering affections. We begin to get cozy with another god. describes this audacious behavior. He says in verse 32, not only did we become whorish, but we are stupid whores, (34) because at least a prostitute gets paid, but we give away our gifts.

God has given us gifts that we allow to be used not for His glory, but we become sidetracked by our own gratification and in the process we give the world our love and Satan our light. God says, our meandering affection cause disruption in our relationship with Him.

Close

What is worth allowing your relationship with God to be disrupted? What is worth jeopardizing intimacy with the Lord? I suggest nothing. Yes, we have issues. We have problems. But in comparison to the glory that comes from God, Paul called them light affliction. .

Church fights are not new. But I’m thankful that God gives us grace. He gives us grace for our waywardness. He give us grace to know better. He give us grace to do better, through His Son, Jesus Christ. He looks beyond our faults and sees our every need. We see the pathology, we’ll talk next week about the prescription.