Formative Assessment

James 4:1-17

The New Revised Standard Version Friendship with the World

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2 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. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 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. 5 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”? 6 But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says,

“God opposes the proud,

but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Warning against Judging Another

11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting about Tomorrow

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.

Have you ever wanted something you can’t have or maybe could never afford? What lengths would go to have it?

During my lifetime there has been a shift from not being able to have something because you don’t have enough money to this world of credit. Where in theory you can have any TV, car, house or mobile phone provided that you would have the means by some point in the future.

In the 90’s we used to get these big catalogues with everything you can imagine and there was various payment methods the actual price and the weekly price which could be paid over various time periods. So you could get a brand new top range TV for £5 per week paying it off over 5 years. The problem was that this meant for lots of families they wanted and needed the latest any and everything and would constantly inundated with the latest offers for the latest stuff and if they could not keep up the repayments they could risk losing it all.

What the Apostle James is talking about here is not all that different of wanting something you cannot have but suggest some would go as far as committing murder in order to obtain it. Now presumably James’s readers had not killed anyone but the use of rhetoric proves the point.

Having said that the limited edition sport shoes endorsed by Michael Jordon - Air Jordon saw people beaten up and some even died because they had managed to obtain a pair.

Therefore, in this passage James is calling his readers to submit to God by doing being humble by doing three things - Praying with the right motives, drawing near to God & being humble.

Pray with the right motives

I suspect we have all fallend foul to not praying with the right motives. ‘God if only I hmad more money, a better job, a slimer waistline etc.’ But this does lead us to the tricker topic of unanswered prayer do we simply not get the answer we are looking for because of wrong motives? For instance, why did God not heal in this situation? This is not to say that God does not hear but simply that we do not receive. Some commentators believe that right motives come from wisdom (found Jas 1.5). However, the prayers James is referring to is one that comes from a self-centred heart, based on an individualist agenda. Therefore, the heart of prayer is found in humbleness of heart.

Drawer near to God

We do this by drawing near to God and yes this does mean rejecting the world and its passions. This is done through humility and what prevents us is pride. Here we read, ‘God opposes the proud but give grace to the humble’ - now it has been said if God says something once, he means it, if says something twice he really means it, if says something three times he really, really means it!’ This verse is mentioned in at least two other places but as James says it is only possible with grace but also requires something from us a decision to live in that grace by submitting to God. So how do we do that? James tlels us resist the devil, wash your hands you sinners, grieve, moune and wail, humble yourselves and God will lift you up! It’s not hard to see why the Puritans would have loved this!

But what about joy, hope and living life to the full? To understand this we must understand that James was writing to Jewish Christians: Old Testament texts often connected mourning and self-humiliation with repentance (Lev 23:29; 26:41), especially when confronted by divine judgment (2 Kings 22:11; Joel 1:13–14; 2:12–13). The exaltation of the humble was also a teaching of the prophets; see comment on Matthew 23:12 those who humble themselves will be exaulted.

Keener, C. S. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary: New Testament (Jas 4:9–10). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

So when we humble ourselves we find true live not in ourselves but in God.

Being humble:

Finally, being humble is about embracing fullness of life which is only found in truly submitting ourselves to God. On one hand it is about giving up things, worldly things, things that will make us spiritually sick. But on the other hand we find true life found humbling ourselves and surrendering to God so we may find a truer, deeper, wider, higher, and stronger.

As Augstine said: "If you plan to build a tall house of virtues, you must first lay deep foundations of humility."

Or Rick Warren: "True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less."

And that essentially is what the rest of passage is about that it is better humble and gracious, than it is to be right. Let’s examine ourselves when we tempted to tear someone else down or criticise someone else and ask ourselves are we doing this in love and in humility. Humility therefore, comes from a posture being.

Conclusion:

Finally, let us submit to God by doing three things - Pray with right motives - not selfishly but from humblness of heart. Drawer near to God in authentic humility knowing that in surrender we find true life in him. Finally, be humble put others above ourselves and just ‘be’ content in God’s grace. Amen