James 4:11-17

Intro:

Recap on last week

v. 4:4-10,

Christians are called to total submissiveness to God and absolute resistance to the world, the flesh, and the devil; Christians are in a covenant relationship with God. Humility is an important attribute of the Christian; God exalts the humble and brings down the proud. Humility is at the helm of repentance. It leads us to draw near to God and in response, God will draw near to us. Mourning, grief, and gloom should be the response of all sinners and wayward Christians.

“ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” -

A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

Heart attitude manifesting itself in our actions; ill-motives hindering our prayers to God

Observations:

v. 11-12, Slander is not to be found among Christians. To speak/judge a brother, is to speak/judge the law. To judge the law is to not be a doer of the it, but a judge of it. This is problematic, since there is only one Lawgiver and Judge. The One who is able to save and destroy. If this is His position, who are we to judge our neighbor (note, what does this mean in light of judging false teachers or calling brethren to repentance?)

v. 5-6, God’s Word is clear and makes no mistake when it demands our obedience and faithfulness; as the NLT translates, “[The Scriptures] say that God is passionate that the spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him.” James begins to turn this conversation up to this point into a call for humility. His audience is a people of favoritism with no love for the vulnerable in their midst, talking the talk with no walk, uncontrollable tongues, driven by the wisdom of the world, flesh and devil, filled with conflict and strife. Such sinfulness must be cut off at the head, by that sharp blade of greater grace, but it is only possible for the humble. What then is the solution for these proud, stiff-necked Christians?

According to Moo, “a. ‘He jealously longs for the spirit/Spirit he has caused to dwell in us’… Ultimately, we therefore favour the first option. Contextually, the appropriateness of a reference to God’s jealousy for his people outweighs the undoubted linguistic difficulty posed by phthonos… If we adopt this general view, it remains unclear whether pneuma refers to the human spirit, put in us at creation, or the divine Spirit, given to us at conversion. In either case, the phrase reminds us that God has a claim on us by virtue of His work in our lives.

v. 7-8a, Submission unto God and resistance to the devil. Belief and repentance. Enduring through the trial of satan, driven by submission to God, will cause the devil to flee. This is the remedy for Christians trapped in their sin, trapped in the snare of the deceiver and tempter who seeks to separate us from God: draw near to God! Come to Him! Seek His presence and His presence you shall have!

According to Moo, “ Whatever power Satan may have, Christians can be absolutely certain that they have been given the ability to overcome that power.

Instead of succumbing to the devil’s desire to separate us from God, we should come near to him. God, James promises, graciously responds by drawing near to us in turn. It should, of course, be obvious that James is not here talking about salvation, but about the repentance of those who are already Christians. Those who sincerely repent and return to God will find him, like the father of the prodigal son, eager to receive back his erring children.”

v. 13-16, To those who make their plans and schedule out their year with no regard to the One who numbers their days, this is rooted in arrogance and as such, is rooted in an evil not to be found among God’s people. We are vapor (note Ecclesiastes) that will soon disappear; we are not immortal and our days on earth are finite and it should be conducted as such with humility, acknowledging God’s sovereignty (not superstitiously, but in humility) over the accounts of our days and plannings.

v. 8b-10, the state of worldly Christians should be met with mourning and grief over their sinfulness. James calls his audience to cleanse themselves, their hands and hearts, to be deeply grieved by their wicked ways, to replace their laughter with mourning, joy with gloom. Sin should devastate us. The only right response at this point is humility.

v. 17, In light of all of this, do what you know to be right. To neglect what we know to be right is sin.

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Head- What does it mean? (10-15 min.)

v. 11-12,

his people outweighs the undoubted linguistic difficulty posed by phthonos… If we adopt this general view, it remains unclear whether pneuma refers to the human spirit, put in us at creation, or the divine Spirit, given to us at conversion. In either case, the phrase reminds us that God has a claim on us by virtue of His work in our lives.

This leads to the next point, Christians cannot be in friendship with the world and God.

God’s Word is clear and makes no mistake when it demands our obedience and faithfulness; as the NLT translates, “[The Scriptures] say that God is passionate that the spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him.”

According to Moo, “a. ‘He jealously longs for the spirit/Spirit he has caused to dwell in us’… Ultimately, we therefore favour the first option. Contextually, the appropriateness of a reference to God’s jealousy for his people outweighs the undoubted linguistic difficulty posed by phthonos… If we adopt this general view, it remains unclear whether pneuma refers to the human spirit, put in us at creation, or the divine Spirit, given to us at conversion. In either case, the phrase reminds us that God has a claim on us by virtue of His work in our lives.

Slander is not to be found among Christians. To speak/judge a brother, is to speak/judge the law. To judge the law is to not be a doer of the it, but a judge of it. This is problematic, since there is only one Lawgiver and Judge. The One who is able to save and destroy. If this is His position, who are we to judge our neighbor (note, what does this mean in light of judging false teachers or calling brethren to repentance?)

According to Moo,

“Slander translates the Greek katalaleō, a word whose etymology suggests the idea of ‘speak against’ (see nasb). The word denotes many kinds of harmful speech: questioning legitimate authority, as when the people of Israel ‘spoke against God and against Moses’ (); slandering someone in secret (); bringing incorrect accusations (; ). The context here in James, with its focus on dissensions within the Christian community (3:13–4:3), suggests that James is referring to personal attacks and slanderous accusations—the kind of inner-church debates that too often degenerate into name-calling and even the questioning of one another’s Christian convictions.”

Moo, D. J. (2015). James: An Introduction and Commentary. (E. J. Schnabel, Ed.) (Second edition, Vol. 16, pp. 192–193). Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.

On the matter of Christians judging, what is not being prohibited is the proper, and necessary, discrimination that every Christian should exercise (calling out a false teacher or rebuking a brother or sister who is in sin) . In keeping with immediate context, this is judgment that stems from a quarrelsome, bitter, selfish, jealous, censorious spirit that speaks to condemn others as being wrong in the sight of God.

Note, slandering a brother or sister in Christ is equated to judging the Law, which is contrasted with doing the Law. If we are slandering another, we are participating in a makeshift attempt to kick the True Lawgiver and Judge off from His position. Slanderous judgment does not keep the Law, it calls the Law insufficient.

v. 13-16,

To those who make their plans and schedule out their year with no regard to the One who numbers their days, this is rooted in arrogance and as such, is rooted in an evil not to be found among God’s people. We are vapor (note Ecclesiastes) that will soon disappear; we are not immortal and our days on earth are finite and it should be conducted as such with humility, acknowledging God’s sovereignty (not superstitiously, but in humility) over the accounts of our days and plannings.

According to Moo, “ Whatever power Satan may have, Christians can be absolutely certain that they have been given the ability to overcome that power.

Instead of succumbing to the devil’s desire to separate us from God, we should come near to him. God, James promises, graciously responds by drawing near to us in turn. It should, of course, be obvious that James is not here talking about salvation, but about the repentance of those who are already Christians. Those who sincerely repent and return to God will find him, like the father of the prodigal son, eager to receive back his erring children.”

v. 17,

the state of worldly Christians should be met with mourning and grief over their sinfulness. James calls his audience to cleanse themselves, their hands and hearts, to be deeply grieved by their wicked ways, to replace their laughter with mourning, joy with gloom. Sin should devastate us. The only right response at this point is humility.

In light of all of this, do what you know to be right. To neglect what we know to be right is sin.

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Heart- Do I buy it? (20-30 min)

Is there anything in this passage that challenges your worldview?

Is there sin in your life right now that you are currently unbothered by? Are you content-fully:

unloving to those in your community (apathetic to their needs and well-being)?

What does slander look like for a sailor?

nominal in your faith (talking the talk with no walk)?

Is planning without any kind of acknowledgement to God a sin?

a slanderer? a gossip? crude? contentious? a back-biter? against your peers or chain of command?

living your life without God’s wisdom? does God have the final word in how you are living your life right now? or are you sharing the throne of your heart?

What are you going to do tonight to change that? What does submitting to God look like in your life right now? What does it look like for you to resist the devil?

How does this apply to us in the Navy when it is Big Navy doing all the planning unto us?

These are questions for Christians. If you are not a Christian, if you are not in a covenant relationship with God through Christ, what we are talking about is the least of your worries.

Do you agree that you’re just a vapor? Here for now, gone tomorrow?

If you intentionally lived everyday as though it were your last, how would that impact your relationship to Christ?

Hands- So What? How then should I live? (10-15 min)

Walk with God as though you had no other chance tomorrow.

Keep Christ first as though you had no other chance tomorrow.

Keep sin out of your life as though you had no other chance tomorrow.