James 4.......wars and fightings
Wars and strife have been a blight on humanity, and the people of God are not immune from them as history has revealed. From the first recorded division in Genesis chapter 13 to the present day there have been outbreaks of strife leading to permanent division. One of the enemies of Israel, Midian, subdued the people of God for seven years, the result being their impoverishment and subjection. Midian means “strife” and the lesson is there for all to learn in Judges chapters 6-8; the effect the war had on all Israel, the multiplication of enemies as a result, the intervention of God required for deliverance and the means employed to rid the nation of this evil. According to James and others the early church was plagued with this problem to their spiritual detriment, and remedial action was encouraged. God’s work progresses best in peaceable conditions, and strife and bitterness (chapter 3 v14) are a hindrance to blessing. It seems that wars (polemos) refers to actions, and strife (mache) to attitudes or words, and both can have a devastating effect on the saints. He deals with this problem in three ways and challenges us all to ponder our ways.
War within ourselves (4 vv1-3) He traces the source of this evil, for that is what it is (v11-3 times; v16). “From whence.....?”. In chapter 3 he traced the source of bitterness and strife to hell and the devil (verses 6 and 15), and emphatically it is not of God. It rears it’s ugly head “among you”, that is the community of saints, but it comes from deep within....”..of your lusts(pleasures) that war in your members.” These are our inward cravings to satisfy ourselves at the expense of others. There is a spiritual war raging within us. This inward conflict affects all our members, that is every part of our being (for the new testament use of “our members”, refer to Romans 6 v13 and v19). There is no part of us where this conflict is not raging. The essence of it is we crave self satisfaction, self promotion, self vindication and we don’t mind whom we hurt in the process. There is hardly a new testament book of the 27 where this behaviour is not condemned, so it is a deep rooted and widespread problem. James puts it like this:
“Ye lust and have not...” epithumeo translated as “set your heart upon”; it is classic covetousness, wanting something we cannot have. Not content with what we have we want more and we are denied it for it is not for us.
“Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain....”. The restlessness of discontent is very strong and we are prepared to kill, that is remove anyone who is an obstacle to our passion. Killing can refer to actual murder or destroying one’s reputation by malicious slander. The poison of the tongue (chapter 3 v8) is very potent for evil purposes.
“Ye fight and war yet ye have not because you ask not....” Self dependence and independence of God. This could be an indictment to all of us....YE ASK NOT!! rather we would fight and war by ourselves than seek His bounty. How many prayerless Christians are there who want to plough their own pathway leading to vanity? To how many will He say in the glory “you didn’t ask”. Trusting ourselves rather than God.
“Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts”. From failing to ask, to asking amiss, and for the wrong reasons. God is not at our beck and call to give us whatever we ask, for all we ask is not in the will of God. The motivation is wrong, therefore the request will be wrong. The motivation is “pleasure” for our own desires which are not fixed on the will of God.
War with God (4 vv4-10). Wrong within myself because wrong with God. This section is emphatically stating that Christian believers can be at odds with God. Consider the words....verse 4 “enmity with God”; verse 6 “God resisteth the proud...”; these terms are unmistakable, God is at war with His people, because they are living at enmity with Him. We shall see the reasons why in the next few verses. James calls them spiritual adulterers and adulteresses. Note he mentions both genders thus underlining very personal responsibility. Spiritual adultery is heinous in the sight of God and is an abandonment of loyalty to Christ to whom they are betrothed as chaste virgins. Friendship with the world constitutes us as the enemies of God in a practical way, although , judicially God will be true to us. The world is of course the world of men in rebellion against God. We have to live in it, we have to warn it but not befriend it. God has condemned the world system in opposition to Him and it says elsewhere “ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him”(1st John 2 v15).
Verse 5 has given rise to much controversy, but there is no need because the flow of thought is undisturbed. There is no actual quotation from scripture, simply a summary of the message of scripture and it is this. God does not want us to share our hearts with a sinful world for He wants all of us not just a part of us. “The spirit that dwells within us lusteth to envy”. Whether we think of it as the Holy Spirit within us or the human spirit God has resurrected in us in regeneration, it comes to the same thing that God will brook no rival for the affections of our hearts.....”My son give me thine heart” (Proverbs 23 v26). When there exists competition in our hearts, there will be conflict, for having regenerated us He will have us living anew as Paul said in Galatians 5 v17 “...for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other...”. The whole of scripture makes clear that God is a “jealous God” and He will have no rival in the hearts of His people. In verse 6 he emphasises this even further “God resisteth the proud....”. This word is a military term and means God sets armies against the proud, those who rise against Him by befriending a hostile world. Yet He also gives grace to the humble, those who submit to His will. He opposes rebellion, He rewards submission! He then defines what is involved in this humility in verses 7-10:
“Submit yourself to God.......the devil will flee from you” verse 7. This will involve a humility which accepts only God’s word, and God’s will. It will involve resisting the devil, who will attempt to draw you away from the true paths of conformity to God’s will. He does this through the enticements of the world system which he controls. Submission to God and resistance to the devil go together for we cannot defeat the devil in our own strength. The supreme example of this is the victory of Christ in the wilderness when He opposed the devil by the word of God three times, and the record shows “..then the devil leaveth Him...” (Matthew 3 v11). In a similar context in Ephesians 6 v17, Paul advises Christians to “...take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the (spoken) word of God”. The devil cannot fight God and he will flee.
“Draw nigh to God.....He will draw nigh to you” verses 8-9. Get on speaking terms with God, do not live at a distance from Him. Seek to get close to Him, in order to become like Him, to reflect His glory to turn from harmful evil. This will mean a) cleansing your hands; Stop whatever you are doing that is sinful, God will not remain close while we are practising sin. “Clean hands and a pure heart” are the minimum requirements for close fellowship with God (see Psalm 24 v4; Matthew 5 v8; 1st Timothy 2 v8). b) purifying your hearts rid yourself of double standards, double speak, worldly values mixed with godliness. In chapter 1 he already said this leads to gross instability; single mindedness is required; c) afflicting your souls The whole point of the day of atonement, the annual ceremony demanded of the nation was that they were to “afflict their souls”(Leviticus 16 vv29-30 and 23 v27). They were to do this because of “the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins...”Leviticus 16 v16. The need for soul searching is evident in every life as we seek to draw near and to enjoy His presence. This will mean taking in a dose of reality, that we are practically deficient before God, even if judicially perfect. Repentance is required to change the attitude of carelessness “Be afflicted and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning and joy to heaviness”. Flippancy, nor complacency, becomes the believer who seeks the friendship of God. Reverence and godly fear is the attitude, just as Jesus taught His disciples to pray, the first approach being “Hallowed be thy name..”.
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up”. Always in the things of the Lord, the way up is to be the way down. We do not exalt ourselves, we humble ourselves and He will exalt us in His time. This is a scripture wide principle and is never altered. Luke 14 v11 “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted”. This is the key principle for the Christian. Psalm 34 v12 says “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit”. He is the Lord, our Sovereign, and we take our place under His guidance.
The evil of self exaltation(4 vv11-12) The writer returns to the abuse of the tongue and we are to avoid speaking evil of, or speaking against, one another. This portrays a heart out of sorts with the Lord who has justified every believer. We are not to speak evil of anyone, but we are not to speak against one another even if some are in the wrong. Back in the Numbers chapter 23 Balaam the false prophet was sent to curse Israel, and he could not, saying in verses 20-21 “Behold I have received commandment to bless and He has blessed and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has He seen perverseness in Israel”. A profound statement from a false prophet, how much more should we who have been blessed of God see that perspective in each other. It is too easy to find fault with others and we have quite forgotten we are under obligation to love them and “Love covers a multitude of sins”. It is not godly to publicise the faults of God’s people, yet it is common practice even today. James argues that if we do that, if we curse whom God has blessed we are breaking the law which says “Love God and love your neighbour”. We are arguing with the law, we are judging the law and we are breaking it, and this is self exaltation which we are told to avoid. There is only one lawgiver, that is God, “Who art thou that judgest another?” In modern parlance we are “playing God”, and we neither have the status nor the knowledge to judge another. We can judge evil but not motives nor the person, God alone is the judge. Somehow we need to find the difference before we risk “consuming one another”.
The evil of self reliance (4 vv13-17) We have seen that we need to break off friendship with the world, that we need to draw nigh to God, that we must cease exalting self, now we must learn how to make our way in practical terms. He speaks of the complexity of life....”today and tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain...”. Decisions, decisions, about where to go and what to do. God has given us the whole earth to explore(Genesis 1 v28), in modern parlance “the world is your oyster”. It is true He determines “the bounds of our habitation” (Acts 17 v26), yet He can guide us in these important matters. He speaks also of the uncertainty of life “..and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what is on the morrow...”. Scripture encourages enterprise and frowns on inactivity, yet when all is done we are all in the providence of God for a profitable outcome. The wise King Solomon penned this advice under inspiration “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who makest all. In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that...”(Ecclesiastes 11 vv5-7). We are to do our best but the outcome is in His hand. He reminds them also of the brevity of life “..For what is your life? It is even as a vapour that appeareth for a little time then vanisheth away”. 70-80 years or even 100...but a fleeting wisp of smoke that appears then disappears, so is our life on earth in the light of eternity. Moses who wrote Psalm 90 expounds this in the context of the timeless existence of God “Even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.....for a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past.....so teach us to number our days and apply our hearts unto wisdom” Psalm 90 vv1-12.
Verses 15-16 should read like this according to the weight of the manuscripts...”Instead of you saying, as we ought to say, “if the Lord will and we shall live and do this or that”, you are boasting in your achievements and all such boasting is evil”. Independence of God, trust in self or in man is futile, planning our future (which is in His hands alone), mapping out our pathway in life without reference to God is unwise. The rich man in Luke 16 laid out his plans for years into the future, the reality was this, he had no future “...this night thy soul shall be required of thee!”
Verse 17 is a terse warning that our tenure on earth is to do good, God created us anew to do good works. What good works am I doing that I know I should be doing?
“The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord” Proverbs 16 v33
Wars and strife have been a blight on humanity, and the people of God are not immune from them as history has revealed. From the first recorded division in Genesis chapter 13 to the present day there have been outbreaks of strife leading to permanent division. One of the enemies of Israel, Midian, subdued the people of God for seven years, the result being their impoverishment and subjection. Midian means “strife” and the lesson is there for all to learn in Judges chapters 6-8; the effect the war had on all Israel, the multiplication of enemies as a result, the intervention of God required for deliverance and the means employed to rid the nation of this evil. According to James and others the early church was plagued with this problem to their spiritual detriment, and remedial action was encouraged. God’s work progresses best in peaceable conditions, and strife and bitterness (chapter 3 v14) are a hindrance to blessing. It seems that wars (polemos) refers to actions, and strife (mache) to attitudes or words, and both can have a devastating effect on the saints. He deals with this problem in three ways and challenges us all to ponder our ways.
War within ourselves (4 vv1-3) He traces the source of this evil, for that is what it is (v11-3 times; v16). “From whence.....?”. In chapter 3 he traced the source of bitterness and strife to hell and the devil (verses 6 and 15), and emphatically it is not of God. It rears it’s ugly head “among you”, that is the community of saints, but it comes from deep within....”..of your lusts(pleasures) that war in your members.” These are our inward cravings to satisfy ourselves at the expense of others. There is a spiritual war raging within us. This inward conflict affects all our members, that is every part of our being (for the new testament use of “our members”, refer to Romans 6 v13 and v19). There is no part of us where this conflict is not raging. The essence of it is we crave self satisfaction, self promotion, self vindication and we don’t mind whom we hurt in the process. There is hardly a new testament book of the 27 where this behaviour is not condemned, so it is a deep rooted and widespread problem. James puts it like this:
“Ye lust and have not...” epithumeo translated as “set your heart upon”; it is classic covetousness, wanting something we cannot have. Not content with what we have we want more and we are denied it for it is not for us.
“Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain....”. The restlessness of discontent is very strong and we are prepared to kill, that is remove anyone who is an obstacle to our passion. Killing can refer to actual murder or destroying one’s reputation by malicious slander. The poison of the tongue (chapter 3 v8) is very potent for evil purposes.
“Ye fight and war yet ye have not because you ask not....” Self dependence and independence of God. This could be an indictment to all of us....YE ASK NOT!! rather we would fight and war by ourselves than seek His bounty. How many prayerless Christians are there who want to plough their own pathway leading to vanity? To how many will He say in the glory “you didn’t ask”. Trusting ourselves rather than God.
“Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts”. From failing to ask, to asking amiss, and for the wrong reasons. God is not at our beck and call to give us whatever we ask, for all we ask is not in the will of God. The motivation is wrong, therefore the request will be wrong. The motivation is “pleasure” for our own desires which are not fixed on the will of God.
War with God (4 vv4-10). Wrong within myself because wrong with God. This section is emphatically stating that Christian believers can be at odds with God. Consider the words....verse 4 “enmity with God”; verse 6 “God resisteth the proud...”; these terms are unmistakable, God is at war with His people, because they are living at enmity with Him. We shall see the reasons why in the next few verses. James calls them spiritual adulterers and adulteresses. Note he mentions both genders thus underlining very personal responsibility. Spiritual adultery is heinous in the sight of God and is an abandonment of loyalty to Christ to whom they are betrothed as chaste virgins. Friendship with the world constitutes us as the enemies of God in a practical way, although , judicially God will be true to us. The world is of course the world of men in rebellion against God. We have to live in it, we have to warn it but not befriend it. God has condemned the world system in opposition to Him and it says elsewhere “ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him”(1st John 2 v15).
Verse 5 has given rise to much controversy, but there is no need because the flow of thought is undisturbed. There is no actual quotation from scripture, simply a summary of the message of scripture and it is this. God does not want us to share our hearts with a sinful world for He wants all of us not just a part of us. “The spirit that dwells within us lusteth to envy”. Whether we think of it as the Holy Spirit within us or the human spirit God has resurrected in us in regeneration, it comes to the same thing that God will brook no rival for the affections of our hearts.....”My son give me thine heart” (Proverbs 23 v26). When there exists competition in our hearts, there will be conflict, for having regenerated us He will have us living anew as Paul said in Galatians 5 v17 “...for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other...”. The whole of scripture makes clear that God is a “jealous God” and He will have no rival in the hearts of His people. In verse 6 he emphasises this even further “God resisteth the proud....”. This word is a military term and means God sets armies against the proud, those who rise against Him by befriending a hostile world. Yet He also gives grace to the humble, those who submit to His will. He opposes rebellion, He rewards submission! He then defines what is involved in this humility in verses 7-10:
“Submit yourself to God.......the devil will flee from you” verse 7. This will involve a humility which accepts only God’s word, and God’s will. It will involve resisting the devil, who will attempt to draw you away from the true paths of conformity to God’s will. He does this through the enticements of the world system which he controls. Submission to God and resistance to the devil go together for we cannot defeat the devil in our own strength. The supreme example of this is the victory of Christ in the wilderness when He opposed the devil by the word of God three times, and the record shows “..then the devil leaveth Him...” (Matthew 3 v11). In a similar context in Ephesians 6 v17, Paul advises Christians to “...take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the (spoken) word of God”. The devil cannot fight God and he will flee.
“Draw nigh to God.....He will draw nigh to you” verses 8-9. Get on speaking terms with God, do not live at a distance from Him. Seek to get close to Him, in order to become like Him, to reflect His glory to turn from harmful evil. This will mean a) cleansing your hands; Stop whatever you are doing that is sinful, God will not remain close while we are practising sin. “Clean hands and a pure heart” are the minimum requirements for close fellowship with God (see Psalm 24 v4; Matthew 5 v8; 1st Timothy 2 v8). b) purifying your hearts rid yourself of double standards, double speak, worldly values mixed with godliness. In chapter 1 he already said this leads to gross instability; single mindedness is required; c) afflicting your souls The whole point of the day of atonement, the annual ceremony demanded of the nation was that they were to “afflict their souls”(Leviticus 16 vv29-30 and 23 v27). They were to do this because of “the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins...”Leviticus 16 v16. The need for soul searching is evident in every life as we seek to draw near and to enjoy His presence. This will mean taking in a dose of reality, that we are practically deficient before God, even if judicially perfect. Repentance is required to change the attitude of carelessness “Be afflicted and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning and joy to heaviness”. Flippancy, nor complacency, becomes the believer who seeks the friendship of God. Reverence and godly fear is the attitude, just as Jesus taught His disciples to pray, the first approach being “Hallowed be thy name..”.
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up”. Always in the things of the Lord, the way up is to be the way down. We do not exalt ourselves, we humble ourselves and He will exalt us in His time. This is a scripture wide principle and is never altered. Luke 14 v11 “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted”. This is the key principle for the Christian. Psalm 34 v12 says “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit”. He is the Lord, our Sovereign, and we take our place under His guidance.
The evil of self exaltation(4 vv11-12) The writer returns to the abuse of the tongue and we are to avoid speaking evil of, or speaking against, one another. This portrays a heart out of sorts with the Lord who has justified every believer. We are not to speak evil of anyone, but we are not to speak against one another even if some are in the wrong. Back in the Numbers chapter 23 Balaam the false prophet was sent to curse Israel, and he could not, saying in verses 20-21 “Behold I have received commandment to bless and He has blessed and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has He seen perverseness in Israel”. A profound statement from a false prophet, how much more should we who have been blessed of God see that perspective in each other. It is too easy to find fault with others and we have quite forgotten we are under obligation to love them and “Love covers a multitude of sins”. It is not godly to publicise the faults of God’s people, yet it is common practice even today. James argues that if we do that, if we curse whom God has blessed we are breaking the law which says “Love God and love your neighbour”. We are arguing with the law, we are judging the law and we are breaking it, and this is self exaltation which we are told to avoid. There is only one lawgiver, that is God, “Who art thou that judgest another?” In modern parlance we are “playing God”, and we neither have the status nor the knowledge to judge another. We can judge evil but not motives nor the person, God alone is the judge. Somehow we need to find the difference before we risk “consuming one another”.
The evil of self reliance (4 vv13-17) We have seen that we need to break off friendship with the world, that we need to draw nigh to God, that we must cease exalting self, now we must learn how to make our way in practical terms. He speaks of the complexity of life....”today and tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain...”. Decisions, decisions, about where to go and what to do. God has given us the whole earth to explore(Genesis 1 v28), in modern parlance “the world is your oyster”. It is true He determines “the bounds of our habitation” (Acts 17 v26), yet He can guide us in these important matters. He speaks also of the uncertainty of life “..and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what is on the morrow...”. Scripture encourages enterprise and frowns on inactivity, yet when all is done we are all in the providence of God for a profitable outcome. The wise King Solomon penned this advice under inspiration “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who makest all. In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that...”(Ecclesiastes 11 vv5-7). We are to do our best but the outcome is in His hand. He reminds them also of the brevity of life “..For what is your life? It is even as a vapour that appeareth for a little time then vanisheth away”. 70-80 years or even 100...but a fleeting wisp of smoke that appears then disappears, so is our life on earth in the light of eternity. Moses who wrote Psalm 90 expounds this in the context of the timeless existence of God “Even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.....for a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past.....so teach us to number our days and apply our hearts unto wisdom” Psalm 90 vv1-12.
Verses 15-16 should read like this according to the weight of the manuscripts...”Instead of you saying, as we ought to say, “if the Lord will and we shall live and do this or that”, you are boasting in your achievements and all such boasting is evil”. Independence of God, trust in self or in man is futile, planning our future (which is in His hands alone), mapping out our pathway in life without reference to God is unwise. The rich man in Luke 16 laid out his plans for years into the future, the reality was this, he had no future “...this night thy soul shall be required of thee!”
Verse 17 is a terse warning that our tenure on earth is to do good, God created us anew to do good works. What good works am I doing that I know I should be doing?
“The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord” Proverbs 16 v33
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