James 4:1-3 - Conflict arises out of unfulfilled selfish human desires
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction: James is about building a life of wholeness and purpose through authentic faith in Jesus
Introduction: James is about building a life of wholeness and purpose through authentic faith in Jesus
Conflict and quarreling
Song
Song
I. We fight because we have unfulfilled selfish desires
I. We fight because we have unfulfilled selfish desires
1 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.
Fights and quarrels are caused by our own passions
This isn’t necessarily negative - it simply refers to desires and pleasures
But there is a clear recognition in all of scripture and throughout James’ culture that our desires tend to have a malicious pull to them
Jewish literature from between the OT and NT
4 Maccabees 1:25-27
25 In pleasure there exists even a malevolent tendency, which is the most complex of all the emotions. 26 In the soul it is boastfulness, covetousness, thirst for honor, rivalry, and malice; 27 in the body, indiscriminate eating, gluttony, and solitary gormandizing.
There is a malevolent control over us exerted by our desires and pleasure
It is expressed in the soul, heart, personality, etc as “boastfulness, covetousness, thirst for honor (recognition), rivalry, malice
James might argue bitter jealousy and selfish ambition (James 3:14)
In the body it might be expressed as gluttonous satisfaction of the body’s appetites, whether for food, drink, or sexual intimacy
The terrifying reality of our desires is that they actually come to desire us
Tyler Durden in Fight Club: “The things you own end up owning you.”
What we desire actually desires us
The point is that your desires are not neutral - they tend toward idolatry and self absorption
These are passions “at war in our members” - it is our selfish, sinful desires waging war on us
In Genesis, the Hebrew word “תְּשׁוּקָה” tushuqah is used first in Genesis 3 about Eve’s desire or longing and then in Genesis 4 about Cain
Genesis 3:16
16 To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”
Eve’s desire is seen to be “toward” or really “against” her husband
His response is rule and dominance
This is all incredibly tragic, because it’s a depiction of desire that results in conflict and sin
Genesis 4:6-7
6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Sin actually “desires” or longs for Cain
He is supposed to rule over it
But he does not, and so he nurses resentment and bitterness against his brother until he ultimately murders him
There is at all times a war raging internally for our affections, our thoughts, our actions
James has just gotten through teaching about true wisdom vs. false wisdom
Selfish ambition vs. humble obedience to God
In the Apostle Paul’s terminology, this would be “flesh” vs. “spirit,” particularly the Spirit of God
Galatians 5:13-17
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
Spirit vs. flesh, wisdom vs. foolishness
The point is that you need to recognize that at all times there is a fight raging for your life and soul
This is why God is not at all interested in simply “giving us what we want” because very often, what we want will consume us and ultimately kill us
This is why God does not tip toe around our idols; he smashes them, sometimes in a way that is painful for us
This is not God’s anger; it is his love. He will not allow you be consumed by your idolatrous desire without a fight
The problem, of course, is that a part of you actually loves your idol, and thinks that God is so unfair to deny you keeping it
And this is where quarreling comes from: Our selfish and idolatrous desires that spill out onto other people.
II. Our unfulfilled sinful desires spill out on other people
II. Our unfulfilled sinful desires spill out on other people
1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
Dual meaning of passions “at war within you”
The Greek phrase “within you” lit. means “among your members
This likely refers primarily to the war raging within each person
But it also has the imagery of human passions and desires erupting out into conflict with another person’s passions and desires
James 4:2
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.
This is likely an allusion to the Genesis narrative of Cain and Abel, and also to Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount on how anger and abusive speech = murder
James is talking about desires that a person comes to hold so strongly that they are willing to do anything to satisfy them, up to and including murder
So here’s what is happening in any human conflict
Someone has a desire that they so strongly that it becomes an idol
This desire is left unfulfilled
Because it is idolatrous and God will not give us our idols
Because other people will not bow down to our particular idols
Because all idolatry is actually at rock bottom, the worship and chasing of something that has no substance - you will never have it
The desire twists a person into being able to self justify anything, any treatment of others
This inevitably results in conflict
There is good evidence that the conflict in James’ readers was about the desire to be important, well regarded, and to be right
He has already told his readers that not many should be teachers (James 3:1), he has condemned their false estimation of their own wisdom (James 3:13-18), and he has told them that if they lack wisdom, they should ask God for it (James 1:5)
Seemingly, they had an idolatrous desire to occupy the place of honor in the community through the role of teaching that resulted in conflict and quarrels
This can work itself our practically a few different ways that we need to have the wisdom to discern
The desires of some people being used to justify oppression of other people
Example: The Israelite slavery in Egypt
Exodus 1:8-14
8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
The people and leadership of Egypt had a reasonable desire for safety and security
They came to see the Israelites as a threat to that safety and security
Their desire for that safety and security became so strong that they were able to justify enslaving an entire people group
Eventually, the very conflict that they feared happened because of their out of control desires
All human tyranny and oppression arises from people who have perhaps even well intentioned desires that nonetheless become idols and twist people into justifying horrendous oppression and exploitation of others
The mutual reality among two or more people that they all have idolatrous and selfish desires that conflict with each other
Example: Marriage
You have a desire for your spouse to respect you and take you seriously
You find yourself in a situation where your knowledge or understanding of something is being questioned
You interpret “respect” and “take me seriously” as “I have to be right”
Your spouse does not agree with your idolatrous interpretation of respect
All of a sudden, a fight has erupted over the most absurd of things that doesn’t even matter
It doesn’t take a marriage relationship for this to happen: It is likely to happen in any interpersonal relationships
We need very careful, thoughtful discernment to know the difference here!
One of these is oppression and tyranny that must be stood against and spoken against
One of these is common fault that needs to be humbly acknowledged and repented of
Risks of misunderstanding these
If we look at a one sided conflict of oppression or injustice and see it as a conflict from mutual idolatry, we risk blaming those who are oppressed for their suffering instead of rightly speaking against those who would oppress and exploit others
Or we may miss the fact that we are just being a jerk by blaming someone else for our mistreatment of them
If we look at a conflict of mutual idolatry and see it as a one sided conflict of oppression, then someone is missing the need to repent
Transition: Our desires cause so much difficult and destruction, and I know that some people will ask: “are you saying desires are all bad? Doesn’t the Bible say that God gives us the desires of our heart? Doesn’t Jesus say that if we ask we will receive?
Psalm 37:3-4 - God will give you the desires of your heart
Matthew 7:7-11 - ask and you will receive
Back to the situation in James’ readers
They desires the honor and respect that came from the role of teacher, and so they desired and even idolized the wisdom required for that role
James says that which they covet (wisdom), they don’t have because they don’t ask.
And he has already said in James 1:5 that if anyone lacks wisdom, they should ask God for it because he gives generously without finding fault
So as soon as James says, “the reason you don’t have what you desire is because you don’t ask,” he knows that someone out there will say “I did ask!”
And so James seeks to answer the question of why God doesn’t always give us what we ask for
III. We need the discernment to know what we need rather than simply what we want
III. We need the discernment to know what we need rather than simply what we want
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
James acknowledges the tension of the person who did ask God for something and didn’t receive it
Think about when you have asked God for something that never happened and you didn’t receive
There’s a real heart tension in that, isn’t there?
What James says here may sound harsh but I think it’s actually from a place of love
By the way, he’s going to get way more harsh next week
We do not have what we ask of God because we ask for the wrong things for the wrong reasons
They ask wrongly
They ask for wrong things, or;
They ask for the right things for the wrong reasons
They ask to “spend it on their passions”
They desire the gift of God in order to consume it to satisfy their own desires
They do not desire the gift of God in order to share freely with others and use for godly purposes
Example of wisdom in the community of faith
Wisdom for the sake of building up the people of God, serving them according to will of God for godly purposes
Wisdom for the sake of me looking good and having the place of honor and respect in the community
Commentator: “God bestows not gifts only, but the enjoyment of them: but the enjoyment which contributes to nothing beyond itself is not what He gives in answer to prayer; and petitions to him which have no better end in view are not prayers.”
We need to learn how to ask God for the things that he is delighted to give
Not to simply satisfy our own foolish, short sighted, idolatrous desires
The kind of prayer that exists only to satisfy my own idolatrous desire is not the kind of prayer that God hears and not the kind of gift that God is delighted to give
Prayer should be aimed at gaining that which we ultimately need
The teaching of Jesus in Matthew is about asking God for the kingdom of Jesus, for entrance into it, for life, for God himself
Psalm 37:3-4
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Ultimately our prayers should be about asking God for more of God
More of his goodness, justice, and mercy in the world
More of his presence that we would learn from him and become more like Jesus
More of his kingdom present on earth as it is in heaven
We need to spend less time asking for the stuff that we desire and instead have our desire transformed to be for God himself
We need to spend less time asking for the gifts of God and more time asking for God
The more that our selfish and idolatrous desires give way to the pure desire for God himself, the more we will see our petty squabbles and quarrels fade into irrelevance
Transition to Communion
The great hope of the Christian faith is not that through Jesus we get a bunch of cool stuff, although Jesus is the giver of good gifts and does bring a whole host of blessings: justice, righteousness, peace, wholeness.
The great hope of the Christian faith is that God, in Jesus, is giving us himself. In Christ, God has come near so that even more importantly than gaining all of the gifts God is delighted to give, we gain God himself as our Father.
The cross is where all of the barriers between us and God were torn down so that we are able to be reconciled to God, indwelled by His own Spirit, transformed to become more like Jesus, that ultimately our idolatry would be defeated, our desires would be purified, and our fighting would cease.
Dismissal
Dismissal
Board Meeting Thursday at 6:30PM
We will be talking about reopening our church for public services
We hope to do that within the next month, sometime in June
Please tune in for that conversation
Meeting ID: 858 3039 7785
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