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Introduction What's the stupidest fight you've ever been in? 11 years old - swim meet. I joined a group of kids who got mad at another kid for coming around. He was a tough guy and challenged us to fight. I stepped forward and got pounded. It was among the most embarrassing moments of my life. It was stupid because my motivations stunk - I wasn't protecting anyone from harm - this guy hadn't done anything wrong - I just thought I was pretty cool for being at a swim meet and he wasn't at the meet so he wasn't cool and didn't deserve to be there. Think about the fights you've been in - or just the quarrels - those little disagreements that seem so important at the time - but really aren't. Keep that in mind as we venture through today's word. James skewers me and all of us us big time in chapter 4 - calling into question our motivations, our values, our opinions and even our business decisions! Get ready for some self reflection and self assessment. Your Relationships, Motives, and Desires (verses 1 - 3) 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. If you really think about it - almost all wars, murders, fights, divorces, quarrels and disagreements come down to this: I want something. It may be land, it may be revenge, it may be a possession or money or for you to always see things my way - or … you name it. There is something inside of us that insists on getting its way. At best its maybe just dissatisfaction. At its worst it can destroy a person, or a country. James calls it DESIRE. "Desire" comes from a Greek word that means "to serve in the military" - not just fighting, but everything that comes from military service. Is it possible that the sensual desires in us rule with military type rules - breaking down the will of the person so they obey blindly and without question orders given to them. It's a battle of wills - and whose will is supreme - yours or God's? The bottom line here is: Make sure of your motivations. He's not saying you can never ask God for anything - Jesus told us to ask for daily bread - we just got through reading about "every good and perfect gift" coming down from God. The important thing here is to check why you want something. If it is something that could potentially harm another, or draw you away from your walk with God - then maybe you should question why you are asking. Further, perhaps we should ask for only those things that will enhance our relationship with God and further His kingdom. That means praying for strength, healing, forgiveness, knowledge of God, boldness - all good things. However, praying for a new Porsche because you think people will be impressed by you driving down the road - maybe you shouldn't expect an answer on that one. Or praying that you'll get the new Porsche that your next door neighbor has. You see - we are in a battle here - and its not just internal - our inner desires to have what we want fighting with God's desire to create His image in us. It's also an external battle - the world and the world's ruler: Satan, are out to claim your allegiance. Your Values and Allegiances (verses 4 - 10) 4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? Why does God call us "adulterous?" 1. We are in a relationship with Him 2. It is an exclusive relationship 3. We can't have it both ways - friends of both the world and the Lord "Friendship" means: fondness. God's not even talking about out and out loving the world - he's saying if you have a friendly attitude about the world system its like hatred towards God. How does it happen? o Mostly when we are not aware of it seeping in through osmosis o Its natural - it's a part of our old nature, our old man o Its diabolical - part of the enemy's plan to make us ineffective How do we know its happening? o You find out by how you react under stress o You find out how you react to instructions from God o You find out when you have to make a choice - the world or the Lord God is a jealous God The end of verse 5 should hit us square in the face - it says God "envies intensely". There's actually a problem in the way the NIV renders the two Greek verbs: envy and intensely. A more likely rendering is "Out of jealousy He longs for the spirit that He made to live in us." Remember the seed of the Word planted in us from chapter 2? When we came to the Lord He put something of Himself in us. Galatians 4:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." God wants HIS character, HIS Spirit to shine out from our spirits. When we take on the values and patterns of the world system around us we mask our true self. How do we stop it? Look at verse 6. 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." God understands our weaknesses. The answer is to get humble. Then God's grace abounds for us - pride puts His back up, humbleness brings about His compassion. To be humble means to get depressed - not depression in your mind, but depress your life before God - become lowly. There's more as we continue on: 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. We live in a world governed by passions - wanting something you don't have, then going after it, no matter who you trample over in the process. James is saying we need to turn away from that lifestyle and turn to God. He gives us 7 things to do: 1. Submit to God ("to rank under") o Allow the character of God to guide your decision making and value making. 2. Resist the devil ("stand against" or "withstand") o Put your back up against the temptations - don't nurture them o Don't put yourself in places where it will be difficult to resist o The enemy will "flee" (runaway or vanish) - our problem is we don't stand long enough for that to happen. 3. Come near to God o Instead try to put yourself in places where you will encounter God o Make it a habit to worship, learn, read, pray, fellowship o Don't let guilt or sin or weakness keep you away - that's what the enemy wants 4. Wash your hands o Keep short accounts with God o Keep a watch over your life - audit yourself o It denotes getting rid of moral filth - get out of the dirt of the world 5. Purify your heart o This denotes a purity of heart - once you remove yourself from the source of sin, take the time to let God's Spirit go deep inside and cleanse and purify you - remember 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 6. Repent o Take sin seriously o Sometimes it takes mourning over what we've done - crying and howling if necessary to change our attitude about sin, and our inclination for it. We will have to answer for our actions -even as Christians. 2 Corinthians 5:10 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. 7. Humble yourself o We come back to verse 6 - God gives grace to the humble - If you do all these things - submit, resist, draw near, wash and purify - you will be humbling your life to God's life in you. This idea of humbleness extends beyond our relationship to God, but our relationships to each other: Your Opinions and Conclusions (verses 11 - 12) 11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you-who are you to judge your neighbor? Slander means "to talk down". I think one of the favorite pass times of Christians is to say cutting things about each other. We do it without thinking - and it can lead to huge church splits and ruined lives. I've seen it personally a number of times and it makes me sick. This section is telling us to allow any kind of sin to exist and never call it into question. James here is saying that you are not the one to make a distinction over someone else's walk - "I'm better or more spiritual than you." Let's listen to what Paul said in the first 10 verses of Romans chapter 14 about judging each other. Rom 14:1-10 14:1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2 One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. What we learn here is: o Major on the majors, don't dwell on the minors o Let each person have his own walk o Help the weak in faith by example and encouragement - not judgment and condemnation o Don't stand in God's place - don't succumb to the temptation to pass judgment. o Do the work He has for you to do. And that leads us to the next section. Your Plans, Hopes, and Dreams (verses 13 - 17) 13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. The question I think God has for us as we go about our daily lives is: how much am I involved? Do we think about whether we are doing what God wants us to do as we drive to work or manage the house or go to school? Do we think that these things are too mundane and ordinary for God to worry about? How often do we think - I give God my quiet times, and when I go to church - but the other stuff is just business, or just school, or just shopping? Let God lead every aspect of your life. I think that's the essence of verse 17 - be open and humble to God in every aspect of your life, then when He speaks - put your faith into action and trust Him enough to obey. Now I'm not saying to do any silly that comes into your head thinking its from God - you have to practice what we read earlier in this chapter about drawing near to God and getting rid of sin and impurity - then you have to apply what you know of God's character and the wisdom from above that we saw earlier in James. But don't think there is anything too small for God to care about - its through obedience in the little things that He can shape you to do "great things for God." Conclusions 1. What do you want and why do you want it? Make that part of every decision you make. 2. Audit your life and your values on a regular basis 3. Make it a regular habit to draw near to God and put your back up against Satan 4. Be careful about criticism - remember the speck and the log that Jesus talked about. 5. Commit all of your ways to God - big and small - and He truly will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. |
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