Sermon Tone Analysis

“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.”[1]

James wrote one of the most pointed books in all the Bible.

We Christians tend to either dismiss his words as not applicable to our own situation, or we are sufficiently disturbed by what he wrote to respond humbly to the Word.

Whatever our reaction may be, few Christians are able to remain neutral toward James’ words.

James’ primary concern is that Christians honour God with their lives.

Unfortunately, godliness does not just happen because we have trusted Christ.

Godliness requires effort, and when godliness is lacking among the people of God, conflict results.

James spends a surprising amount of time addressing conflict within the Body of Christ.

James addresses Class Wars within the churches [*James 2:1-9*]—the case when a church confuses godly values with worldly values.

He also addresses Employment Wars tolerated within the churches [*James 5:1-6*].

These are conflicts that arise in part over the same issues that dictate class wars among Christians, but this has the added factor that power is abused so that the labourer is left at the mercy of bosses who act unrighteously though are part of the Body of Christ.

In *James 4:11, 12*, we are warned against engaging in Personal Wars.

Among the churches to which James wrote, saints were speaking evil of one another and judging one another.

Here, we see an example of the wrong use of the tongue.

Christians are commanded to speak “the truth in love” [*Ephesians 4:15*].

We are not to speak evil in a spirit of rivalry and criticism.

If the truth about a brother is harmful, then we should cover it in love and not repeat it [*1 Peter 4:8*].

If a brother or sister has sinned, we should go to that one personally and try to win him back [*Matthew 18:15–19*; *Galatians 6:1, 2*].

James also wrote to warn against Church Fights [*James 1:19, 20*; *3:13–18*].

Apparently, the believers to whom James wrote were at war with each other over positions in the church, many of them wanting to be teachers and leaders.

When they studied the Word, the result was not edification, but strife and arguments.

Each person thought that his ideas were the only right ideas and his ways the only right ways.

Selfish ambition ruled their meetings, not spiritual submission.

James is not forbidding us to use discrimination nor even admonishing us to avoid evaluating people.

Christians need to be discerning [*Philippians 1:9, 10*], but they must not act like God in passing judgment.

We likely will never know all the facts in a case, and we certainly never know the motives that are at work in men’s hearts.

To speak evil of a brother and to judge a brother based on partial evidence and (probably) unkind motives is to sin against him and against God.

We are not called to be judges; God is the only Judge.

His judgments are just and holy; we can leave the matter with Him.

In each of the situations James addressed, one great, grievous result was the loss of spiritual vitality.

The Christians caught up in the various conflicts James describes were not walking according to the will of God, and they sacrificed intimacy with God.

In the text before us, James points out one other serious deficit resulting from the internecine conflicts among the churches—they no longer received answers to prayer.

We believe what James wrote, but we believe better than we behave.

*The Tyranny of Human Passions* — */What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you/?

/Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you/*?

The English word “passions” translates the Greek term “*/hēdoné/*,” from which we obtain our English term “hedonism.”

Hedonism is the doctrine that argues that one’s own pleasure or personal happiness is the greatest good.

Today, we hear the concept of hedonism trumpeted in the advertising assertion, “If it feels good, do it.”

Obviously, the concept has great persuasive power since it is so pervasive throughout modern society.

It is a depressing commentary on church life that even in that early day James could write to a scattered people[2] and make the same general comment about Christians.

Remember, the letter James wrote is perhaps the earliest book to have been included in the Canon of the New Testament.

James seems to take for granted that the peace of the churches is by no means unbroken.[3]

Tragically, hedonism—the pursuit of our own personal desires without considering the impact of our choice on others—frequently marks the lives of Christians as much as it marks the lives of those outside the Faith.

Even the most conscientious Christians struggle against desires that seem always at war within each of us.

We tend to imagine that our strength and our abilities are absolutely necessary to build the church and to advance the Kingdom of God.

We would never openly dismiss the necessity of including fellow Christians in building the congregation to which we were added by the Spirit of God, but we often appear to imagine that some among us are less essential, or even non-essential.

In fact, we sometimes think that we alone are indispensable.

When we are miffed—when we don’t believe that we are receiving the recognition we deserve, or when we don’t “like the direction the church is going,” we say, “I’ll just stay away.

Let’s see how */they/* like that!  Let’s see what */they/* can do without ME!”

We draw a circle that excludes almost the entire church, making ourselves into a congregation of one.

Perhaps we imagine that we alone are pure, and those benighted saints who don’t see things our way will just have to be forced to do what */we/* know is right!

Through such attitudes and actions, we injure ourselves and dishonour Christ; nevertheless, many saints persist, gathering a cabal to agree with them to wage war and to organise a putsch against those who fail to recognise their importance.

When angry, we seldom consider the quiet, gentle members of the Body of Christ or those who are exploring the Faith whom we injure when we attempt to force the congregation to do our will.

The congregation becomes increasingly unstable and weaker members drop out, but we persist.

As we force the issue and the church is coerced through our unrighteous demands to choose sides, we notice that fewer people are coming and the Spirit seems to die.

Nevertheless, like pit bulls we continue to force our will on the church.

“All our desires and passions are like an armed camp within us,” says Alec Motyer, “ready at a moment’s notice to declare war against anyone who stands in the way of some personal gratification on which we have set our hearts.”[4]

Within the Family of God, there are ultimately no personal decisions that have no impact on the remainder of the Body!

Thus, our own desires cause quarrels and fights within the Body.

My ministry among the churches of British Columbia has been primarily to factitious churches.

Frequently, it was because a church had been choosing sides that I was asked to come.

Factionalism often lies immediately beneath the surface; and we are as susceptible to this malady as any congregation.

Since I have served in Dawson Creek, I cannot think of a single evangelical church in our fair community that has not suffered fissures in the fellowship as result of internal conflicts.

When we Christians have been ruled by feelings for such a long time, it is almost impossible to cease demanding that others accede to our desires.

Consequently, when things don’t go our way, or when we imagine that they are not going the way we want them to go, we will retreat to what is familiar—permitting our passions to rule over us.

The tragedy of doing things the way we have always done them is what results when we have surrendered to our feelings.

Quarrels and fights are the immediate result when we are ruled by our feelings.

The reason this is so is that every member of the congregation has feelings—opinions and views; and the opinions all differ.

Only as we submit to the reign of the Spirit of God is there hope that “with one mind” we will strive “side-by-side for the faith of the gospel” [*Philippians 1:27*].

Though Christians tend to cloak our church fights in spiritual language, fighting among believers is nevertheless an outrageous evil.

A church fight is a tragedy that can cripple a congregation’s internal ministries and external witness for years before a measure of healing and purification becomes evident.

None of us wishes to admit that we possibly are at fault during a conflict, so we justify our actions by appeal to spiritual motives.

Like soldiers during the Crusades, our belt buckles proclaim, “God is With Us.”

However, we must bow before James’ stern words that confront our inward passions.

“[Scripture] says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’

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 … and purify your hearts…  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers” [*James 4:6-11*].

Alec Motyer is correct when he writes, “All would be well except that in us ‘pleasures,’ ‘desires’ and strong longings are allied to, and at the service of, a sinful nature.

Consequently, the sinful self, setting its heart on this satisfaction or that, will not allow anything to stand in its way…  The condition becomes a practise.”[5]

If I surrender to my passions and personal desires, malice, envy, and hatred will mark my life [see *Titus 3:3*].

The ultimate choice in life lies between pleasing oneself and pleasing God; and a world in which man’s first aim is to please himself is a battleground of savagery and division.

Christians are not exempt from this dreadful malady.

However, we must resist the temptation to surrender to our own desires, seeking instead to please the Lord.

And what pleases the Lord is unity among the saints, time spent in His presence, and doing everything possible to build one another in the Faith.

*Three Questions that Must be Answered* — */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/*.

James is not speaking of disagreements—healthy conflicts that should be expected in a church, especially when ministries are set to expand or when changes are occurring.

Rather, he is writing about fighting among church members, which is “earthly, unspiritual, demonic” [*James 3:15*]’ and he will excoriate those willing to engage in warfare within the church as “adulterous people” [*James 4:4*].

James has already stated that earthly wisdom is expressed through “jealousy” and “selfish ambition,” and accompanying these evils are “disorder and every vile practise” [*James 3:16*].

We should rightly conclude that conflict that advances a personal agenda is immoral and wicked.

Such actions and attitudes stand in opposition to godly wisdom.

“With ‘you fight and quarrel,’ James returns to the point at which he began in *verse one*.

We therefore have something of a chiasm in *verses one and two*: