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- Dec 18, 2008
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James 4:1; What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?
James 4:2; You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.
James 4:3; You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
This chapter starts off asking the question... "what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?"
I have often wondered why we as Christians fight and argue with each other. What is the source of our disagreements?
James says "is not the source your pleasure".. (that wage war in your members) ...
In other words, isn't it the things we "want" to do.. the things that give ourselves pleasure... that cause conflicts between the members of the church?
What a revealing statement. If I really look at this, and I scroll back through many debates here on TalkJesus... I see the truth in this.
Many "Christians" will tell you Fornication is OK, Adultery is OK, Drunkenness is OK, Masturbation is OK, Homosexuality is OK, there seems to be a number of threads about the sins that God is OK with.
So obviously.. how many arguments and debates this leads to. I have to wonder, at people who so vigorously defend sin.
James 4:4; You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
James 4:5; Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?
James 4:6; But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
James goes on the say here, the worldly pleasures... if you pursue them... if you make friendship with the world... this is hostility towards God.
Verse 4 above actually says, if you make yourself a friend of the world, you make yourself and enemy of God. An enemy of God. Do you really want to be an enemy of God?
Verse 5 says "He jealously desires the Spirit". Our God is a jealous God ( Exod 20:5; Exod 34:14; ) He wants you, He doesn't want to give you to the world.
James says "You adulteresses". James equates choosing the ways of the world over the ways of God is adultery!! He views this just like a husband or wife being unfaithful in a marriage.
Do you really want to commit adultery on God? This is addressed to believers. Unbelievers already belong to the world, they can't commit adultery with God, because they've never been the bride of Christ.
So then, how do we do this? The verse above says God gives greater grace. This isn't more grace to us, so that we can sin more.. this is grace to us, so that we can give it to others.
Quit being so proud and selfish, humble yourself before God. That's how you get this grace.
James 4:7; Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
James 4:8; Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
A well known passage, many of us have quoted this more than once. But do we actually do it?
Do we really submit to God? Really? Do we really resist Satan? Really? Always?
Do we always draw near to God? Do we seek God in moments of weakness and temptation, or do we submit to Satan and the world?
James 4:9; Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
James 4:10; Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
Be miserable? Mourn? Weep? Gloom? What in the world is James talking about here? Doesn't God want us to have joy and be happy?
2Cor 7:10; For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.
There is a worldly sorrow, the Bible says it produces death. But there is also a Godly sorrow that produces repentance.
Have you really broken down and repented? Have you cried tears of repentance? Have you felt the pain of the nails on the cross? Have you stopped to consider what Jesus did
for you, and how much pain He went through for you? Have you cried and wept over your selfishness and defiance to God? Have you repented?
Now in verse 11, we get back to where this chapter started... quarrels an arguments between Christians.
James 4:11; Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.
James 4:12; There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?
The NLT Bible put verse 11 like this...
4:11; Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you.
James 4:13; Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”
James 4:14; Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
We all have plans, I once saw a bumper sticker.. It said "If you want to see God laugh, tell Him your plans". I wonder how many of had plans in our lives? Plans to marry, have children, live here or there. To get this education, to get this job,
to make this much money, to get this car, to take this trip. How many of them happened.. (probably some of them) but how many of them didn't happen.. at least not in the way you planned it.
Your life is just a vapor. Man oh man.. how true is that? If you're young (under 35) and you're reading this, you may think you have your whole life in front of you. But when you get my age, you start realizing how short life really is.
Just this last year, I have lost 8 people who were close to me. One of two of them were in the hospital with sickness, but most of them, I saw them at their house, or at church just this week, you turn around and suddenly they are gone.
None of us are promised tomorrow. Get right with God today!!
James 4:15; Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
James 4:16; But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
James 4:17; Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Instead of boasting about what plans we have, and telling everyone what we are going to do. We should say.. "If the Lord wills".. then I will do it. How different our lives would be, if we just did what "the Lord wills".
It says here that we boast in arrogance.. Yes I myself am guilty here as well. It such such boasting is evil. It isn't just something we shouldn't do. It's evil.
This chapter concludes with the sin of omission.
If you know the right thing to do, but you don't do it... it is sin. Now you might be thinking, well I didn't kill anybody, I didn't steal anything, I didn't cheat on my wife... well maybe not...
but are you still boasting about your plans? Are you still friends with the world? Are you still arguing with fellow Christians?
Sin isn't just what you do, sometimes it's what you don't do.
James 4:2; You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.
James 4:3; You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
This chapter starts off asking the question... "what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?"
I have often wondered why we as Christians fight and argue with each other. What is the source of our disagreements?
James says "is not the source your pleasure".. (that wage war in your members) ...
In other words, isn't it the things we "want" to do.. the things that give ourselves pleasure... that cause conflicts between the members of the church?
What a revealing statement. If I really look at this, and I scroll back through many debates here on TalkJesus... I see the truth in this.
Many "Christians" will tell you Fornication is OK, Adultery is OK, Drunkenness is OK, Masturbation is OK, Homosexuality is OK, there seems to be a number of threads about the sins that God is OK with.
So obviously.. how many arguments and debates this leads to. I have to wonder, at people who so vigorously defend sin.
James 4:4; You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
James 4:5; Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?
James 4:6; But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
James goes on the say here, the worldly pleasures... if you pursue them... if you make friendship with the world... this is hostility towards God.
Verse 4 above actually says, if you make yourself a friend of the world, you make yourself and enemy of God. An enemy of God. Do you really want to be an enemy of God?
Verse 5 says "He jealously desires the Spirit". Our God is a jealous God ( Exod 20:5; Exod 34:14; ) He wants you, He doesn't want to give you to the world.
James says "You adulteresses". James equates choosing the ways of the world over the ways of God is adultery!! He views this just like a husband or wife being unfaithful in a marriage.
Do you really want to commit adultery on God? This is addressed to believers. Unbelievers already belong to the world, they can't commit adultery with God, because they've never been the bride of Christ.
So then, how do we do this? The verse above says God gives greater grace. This isn't more grace to us, so that we can sin more.. this is grace to us, so that we can give it to others.
Quit being so proud and selfish, humble yourself before God. That's how you get this grace.
James 4:7; Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
James 4:8; Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
A well known passage, many of us have quoted this more than once. But do we actually do it?
Do we really submit to God? Really? Do we really resist Satan? Really? Always?
Do we always draw near to God? Do we seek God in moments of weakness and temptation, or do we submit to Satan and the world?
James 4:9; Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
James 4:10; Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
Be miserable? Mourn? Weep? Gloom? What in the world is James talking about here? Doesn't God want us to have joy and be happy?
2Cor 7:10; For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.
There is a worldly sorrow, the Bible says it produces death. But there is also a Godly sorrow that produces repentance.
Have you really broken down and repented? Have you cried tears of repentance? Have you felt the pain of the nails on the cross? Have you stopped to consider what Jesus did
for you, and how much pain He went through for you? Have you cried and wept over your selfishness and defiance to God? Have you repented?
Now in verse 11, we get back to where this chapter started... quarrels an arguments between Christians.
James 4:11; Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.
James 4:12; There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?
The NLT Bible put verse 11 like this...
4:11; Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you.
James 4:13; Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”
James 4:14; Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
We all have plans, I once saw a bumper sticker.. It said "If you want to see God laugh, tell Him your plans". I wonder how many of had plans in our lives? Plans to marry, have children, live here or there. To get this education, to get this job,
to make this much money, to get this car, to take this trip. How many of them happened.. (probably some of them) but how many of them didn't happen.. at least not in the way you planned it.
Your life is just a vapor. Man oh man.. how true is that? If you're young (under 35) and you're reading this, you may think you have your whole life in front of you. But when you get my age, you start realizing how short life really is.
Just this last year, I have lost 8 people who were close to me. One of two of them were in the hospital with sickness, but most of them, I saw them at their house, or at church just this week, you turn around and suddenly they are gone.
None of us are promised tomorrow. Get right with God today!!
James 4:15; Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
James 4:16; But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
James 4:17; Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Instead of boasting about what plans we have, and telling everyone what we are going to do. We should say.. "If the Lord wills".. then I will do it. How different our lives would be, if we just did what "the Lord wills".
It says here that we boast in arrogance.. Yes I myself am guilty here as well. It such such boasting is evil. It isn't just something we shouldn't do. It's evil.
This chapter concludes with the sin of omission.
If you know the right thing to do, but you don't do it... it is sin. Now you might be thinking, well I didn't kill anybody, I didn't steal anything, I didn't cheat on my wife... well maybe not...
but are you still boasting about your plans? Are you still friends with the world? Are you still arguing with fellow Christians?
Sin isn't just what you do, sometimes it's what you don't do.
