Submit to God's Love - James 4:1-10

Introduction/Seeing the Need

We are told that pride is an essential element to making things better. In the Bible however, pride is often seen as a corrosive personality trait, something to be avoided. What the Bible means by pride (when seen negatively) is similar to boastful arrogance (). It can also be linked to vanity or vainglory, a distorted sense of one’s value and importance in the world (). Pride can even be related to envy, covetousness, or greed - the belief that your desires are more important than those of others ().

Those to whom Jame wrote apparently had problems with pride; they lacked humility. Many Christians and churches today suffer the same malady, so Jame’s words are timely and vital to us.

There are at least four and possibly five men by the name of James in the New Testament. The one who wrote the book of the New Testament that bears his name was the brother of Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph (; ). James was not a disciple of Jesus during his ministry, but after the resurrection he became a believer () and a leader in the Jerusalem church . Yet James humbly describes himself as a “servant of God” (), seemingly reluctant to use family credentials.

The recipients of the letter are evidently Jewish believers, as indicated by the reference to the scattered “twelve tribes” (). Perhaps they were members of the original church in Jerusalem who were forced to flee due to the persecution spawned by Stephen’s martyrdom and thus were no longer centered in one location. It would be natural for James, were he their former spiritual leader, to encourage them in the midst of their trials.

James held very high expectations for his readers. He specifically wanted them to tone down the rivalries in their communities, some of which involved conflicts between rich and poor. This fits well with the theme of humility to which James turns in chapter 4. James makes clear that receiving Christ doesn’t automatically instill in Christians attitudes from above.

War of Covetousness -

James 4:1–3 NRSV

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

James begins this section with tough language, noting the internal disputes within his addressees fellowships. There are fights and quarrels. The first term implies strong adversarial relationships relationships of confrontational nature; the original Greek can signify battles between armies. The second term has the sense of verbal spats, nasty exchanges between rivals.

James points to the root cause of these troubles: your desires that battle within you. This battle originates internally, inside the hearts of the combatants. Church fights often result from personal, individual issues, from the strong-willed individual who has selfish motives and tolerates no other opinions. Rather than forbid fighting, James goes after the root causes behind these struggles.

The evil, lustful desires of some adversaries are so strong that their outcome might be murder, although the use of kill may be figurative for hate. Whether the animosity among believers has escalated to the point of murder, which is unlikely, James’ warning is no target. This is a dangerous and regrettable situation.

James shifts his focus from the contentions and destructive desires of the adversaries to another aspect of the problem: lack of prayer. The reader’s personal rivalries are not getting them what they want. So they fight over a pie without enough pieces to satisfy everyone. We can interpret this to mean that envy and greed are the root problem. This might indicate quarrels over the funds of the congregation. Such battles can be the nastiest of all church fights.

James teaches us them that the underlying problem is to be found in their prayer practices. Their prayer requests are made with wrong motives, reflecting envy and jealousy. Their requests in prayer are for things that they can consume to satisfy their desire for pleasures.

God will not honor prayers made from evil desires or selfish motives. To pray correctly, effectively, means the selfishness that is fueling the fighting must be quelled. Aligning prayers with the will of God will remove the motives tearing apart their community.

What can you do to make your prayers more effective?

War of Pride -

James 4:4–6 NRSV

Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, “God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

James moves from conflict caused by envy to another problem: pride. Just as we should not be at war with fellow church members, we must be at war with the pride in our own souls. James begins this line of thought by introducing a stark choice: his readers must choose between friendship with the world and friendship with God. They cannot have both. If they choose the world, they choose to be an enemy of God.

James begins this verse with an epitaph for those who have fallen into conflict: they are adulterous people. James uses “adultery” in a way common for the prophets of the Old Testament. They often used adultery as a metaphor for unfaithful Israel, the bride of the Lord. For James, to choose the world over God is to commit spiritual adultery.

Christians will find it difficult to win the world for Christ if they withdraw from the world completely. Community participation and having non-Christian friends and neighbors is not spiritual adultery. The danger lies in allowing one’s love for God to be eclipsed by one’s love for the world. Our loyalty and commitment must be to God and to him alone.

James loves the word of God and is a master of using it to add context and authority to his teaching. It is unclear what Scripture James now refers to. James asks if the readers think the spirit God has caused to dwell within them is naturally prone to jealousy. Was God negligent or inept in creating us? As with the first question, the answer is a clear no. God did not make men and women to be driven by envy, thereby destroying the unity of the church.

The possibility of God’s misbegotten making of us as designed to be controlled by envy is countered by James’assertion that God has given us grace. We are vessels of grace, not envy. Our envy and pride issues do not have their source with the Lord. Our problem cannot be pinned on God, for he has shown more than enough grace and mercy to us to make our envy obsession seem out of place.

Human pride kindles the wrath of God. Pride is self-exalting, but only the Lord is to be exalted. The flip side of the coin is that while God brings down the proud, he does not ignore the humble. Those who lack the pride that God abhors will be given the sustaining grace of the Lord to get them through their difficult circumstances.

Pride is wrapped self-love. Pride is a type of self worship, allowing our personal selves to become idols. This is every bit as much spiritual adultery as the love of money or power. God does not call us to hate ourselves, but our sense of self-worth has limits. How do we escape from the insidious, ever tightening grip of pride when we are trying so hard to follow the Lord? As James reminds us, we can escape pride only by recognizing we are saved by God’s grace. We are not saved by how much better we are than others at figuring out how to live the Christian life.

How can we successfully control our pride without losing self-confidence in the process?

War with the Devil -

James 4:7–10 NRSV

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. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Next James tells his readers to submit to God. Pride is self-exalting, while submission is self-lowering, self-yielding, self-denying. The word James employs has a military background, used to describe the submission of a soldier to his superior officer. It means you take orders from someone higher, and that when you receive an order, you obey it.

Considering Jesus’ submission in , what plan can you make to overcome the conflict between pride and submission? What role should prayer play in overcoming this conflict?

The other side of our submission to Gd is our resistance to the devil. There is another who seeks to be our master, our partner in spiritual adultery. James uses the word resist, which is similar to “opposes” used in the previous verse to characterize God’s actions toward the proud. Here it is the opposite of submit. Resistance to the devil is refusal to submit to his temptations or his influence.

This command comes with a promise. The devil can be a persistent adversary, but James promises that if we resist him, he will abandon us as a target. We must remember that while the devil is a powerful spiritual being, he is not all-powerful or in any way equal to God. As a created being, his power and influence are limited and must be employed strategically. When we keep resisting the devil, he will redeploy his evil assets to a more productive target.

What strategies you can recommend to resist the devil?

The previous verse tells us that our lives are best lived when we are in submission to God and resist the devil. James returns to our relationship with the Lord, refining his command to submit and offering a promise for those who do so. If we come near to God, James promises us that God will meet us. God is already near to us and meets us when we seek him.

This is opposite of the devil, who flees when we resist him. God will never flee, even if we neglect our relationship with him. How do we come near to the Lord? The rest of the verse gives us these directives we must have deeds that honor God (clean hands), and we must have the proper commitment to him (pure hearts). These qualities define the proper worshipper of the Lord. Worship is to focus on God and no other. There can be no double-minded approach to worship. We must worship “in the Spirit and in truth”.

In verses 9 & 10, James presents cleansing of the heart. When we repent, we do not laugh and rejoice. We have a deep sorrow that brings mourning and a heavy heart. Times of repentance are not celebrations. They are funerals in which we put our pride to death, smother our envy, an swallow our stubbornness. To jest about sin or wink at wickedness is contrary to any sense of repentance. This is a root problem among James’ readers. They have become comfortable with sin among their members and have failed to repeat.

Repentance is related to self-humbling. When we repent, we do not justify our wrongs, but admit them. Admission of wrongdoing is never easy, and some people seem nearly incapable of this simple act, preferring denial or excuses instead. We should notice that James is not talking about being humbled by other people or unfortunate events. He advises us to humble ourselves, to lose our pride and arrogance.

What practices can you adopt to ensure you don’t become comfortable with sin?

Our self-humbling will not go unnoticed by God. He will lift us up. When we truly repent, God lifts our hearts by forgiving us and restoring our joy. We do not humble ourselves to be rewarded, but our humility will be blessed by the Lord - an oft-repeated principle in the Bible.

Selfish pride and arrogance risk everything if they characterize our relationship with God. Pride of comparison falls flat when applied to us versus the Lord. We can never compete with the one who created the universe. The Bible teaches that God’s intolerance for human pride is consistent and unyielding. Only by laying aside our arrogance are we fully able to be lifted up by the Lord.

Conclusion

Humility and pride are strange bedfellows indeed. Humility, by its nature is a private act, a personal practice. Drawing attention to our humility is like a peacock strutting after its tail feathers have been plucked. How can we practice humility? First, meditate on the greatness of God. Realizing the vast expanse of God’s creation - its beauty and intricate design - should make you feel very small by comparison. Second, remember the undeserved love Go has lavished upon you. Paul said that while we were still sinners enemies of God, Christ died for us. Third, let us find ways to serve that are unrecognized.

May we lay down our crowns, our claims to greatness - and pick up our crosses, our submission to God’s will, so that God may lift us up in his perfect timing.

Prayer

O God, help us to repent of and change the attitudes and behaviors that keep us mired in conflicts and disputes, so that we may be in friendship with you. May we humble ourselves with sincere love for you. We pray in the name of the one who humbled himself on the cross. Amen.