seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
James 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so 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.
4 You adulterous people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, 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 he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”[c]
but shows favor to the humble.”[c]
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.
11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister[d] or judges them 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?
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 in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
a. James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.
b. James 4:5 Or that the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely; or that the Spirit he caused to dwell in us longs jealously
c. James 4:6 Prov. 3:34
d. James 4:11 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family
This is from the easy English site.
They were eager to get what they wanted for themselves. Their desires became the master of their hearts and minds. All this was true. But still they did not have what they searched for. They tried to obtain it but they could never find it. They became so jealous that they would murder to get it. It is hard to believe that these Christians did kill each other. But there were such strong feelings of hate that it was almost as bad as murder. They could never have enough. The more they had, the more they wanted. What they had could not satisfy them. Because they could not get what they wanted, they quarrelled and fought. They were going about it in the wrong way. That is the reason that they could not get it. Instead of fighting, they should have prayed to God. This does not mean that God would give them what they wrongly desired. Rather, this shows that they had turned away from God in their hearts. If they would look to him first, then he would change their desires. The primary need is to desire the right things. They needed to desire those things that God would want to give them. They should not pray to God for their own selfish desires but for his wisdom and help.
The choice we have to make is whether to please ourselves or to please God. If we choose a life of pleasing ourselves, it will not satisfy us. If we choose to please God, he will give us true satisfaction in life.
God is ready to answer the prayers of those who ask for what is right. Righteous people ask for what God wants to give. So he hears them. He hears those who repent of their sins and ask him to forgive them. He will answer those who pray with faith for that which is good. Some of these people prayed but with wrong desires. They did not receive what they asked for. They did not receive it because they asked wrongly. They asked God to give them more to satisfy their own desires. They wanted to please themselves. They did not want to please God or to bless someone else. God does not answer that kind of prayer.
Desire for the things of the world is friendship with the world. By its nature, friendship with the world is against God. He who is a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Christians cannot love God and be friends with the world. They have to choose between God and the world. They can be friends either with the world or with God, not both.
The humble are those who know their own weakness. They depend on God. He alone can give them the help that they need. They give themselves to God and desire to please him. They want to receive the loving help that God gives. No-one can receive this help until he or she accepts the need of it and comes to God for it. To these who come to him, God delights to give his loving help freely.
God gives help to the humble. So, the readers should be humble and come to him. That is to recognise God as the Lord and Master of their lives. They should give the control of their lives to him. As they give themselves to serve God, he makes them able to fight and defeat the evil one. Then James tells them to oppose the devil. These two actions are two sides of the same thing. They must turn to God and they must turn against the devil. The devil knows that his only hope is to draw Christians away from their trust in God. The cause of their failure is often that they are proud. The devil appeals to that. As strong as the devil may be, humble Christians can defeat him. As they say ‘no’ to his temptations he has to go away from them.
They should be sorry for their sins. They should be so sorry that it causes them to be sad. They should weep because of what they have done. They should no longer laugh at and enjoy the things of the world. Instead, as they think about their sins, they should be sad and unhappy. When they have come back to the Lord, then they will be able to laugh and be glad again.
The writer tells them to come, with a humble attitude, to God. They need to know that they are small and weak. And they need to know that they need God to help them. Only those who come to God like this can know his blessing. God has promised to lift them up, to forgive them and to make them strong.
In the church, there were those who said bad things about other Christians. What they said was unkind. And perhaps it was not true. They must stop doing it because they are brothers and sisters. To speak against a Christian is against the law to love him or her. They cannot speak evil about other Christians and at the same time love them. The person, who speaks bad things about another person, acts as a judge of that person. Those who do this also speak against the law of God. It is as if they say that the law is not right. It is as if they have put it aside. They have become judges of the law. Their own ideas are to them more important than the law of God. But our duty is not to judge the law but to obey it. Those who judge the law set themselves above the law. This is taking the place of God, who is the judge. Only God can be the judge because he alone is not under the law.
No human being has the right to judge another. There is only one person who can be the judge. That is God, who gave us the law. No man can put aside the law of God. It is for all people and for all time. God will judge all people by the law that he gave. The authority to judge belongs to God alone. God is the Lord of life and death. He alone is able to save life or to destroy it. He has the power to reward people or to punish them. Compared with the power of God, man is so weak. So it is foolish for a man or a woman to judge a neighbour.
It is not that they should not plan. It is good to plan. But, as they make plans, they need to know what God wants. They should accept that God alone knows what will happen. The only way to plan for the future is to trust God. They should not say what they will do. Instead, they should say, 'We will do it if God allows it.'
Sin is not just to do wrong things but also the failure to do right things. Think about a person who knows to do right. He sins if he does not do it.
This is one of those moments when I think the commentary missed the point of the chapter. I checked out other commentaries and they were longer than this. A lot of the commentaries go right to the adultery verses and blame adulterous people for the mess. Sexual immorality takes another seat at the top of the list for the commentary.... when I'm beginning to think it's the crud in the church that is the issue. In the time James wrote this, about 62 AD..... the Christian Church was expecting Jesus to return any day now. They thought Jesus was going to get His army and He was going to come back and run Rome out of Jerusalem. Nero wouldn't be fiddling if they had their way. Jesus would see to that..... but Jesus didn't return on their timetable. They started to get deflated. These men had sharpened their swords, left their girlfriends still planning their wedding party, and they were going to fight.... a soon as Jesus got back.... they were going to show those Romans what a Messiah can do.....
While some were getting ready for war.... others were sitting around wishing for things they wanted. Oh Lord.... bring me more sheep.... oh Lord.... bring me more wine..... Oh Lord.... give me this.... Oh Lord.... give me that..... Oh Lord... I just simply cannot survive another day without winning the lottery.....
James says.... stop fighting.... enjoy what we have.... life is not a negative battle for things that get thrown out when we pass..... Life is about enjoying what we have.... being thrilled with what we get.... after all... we're not going to be on earth much longer.... so why spend our time fretting and bugging God about stuff..... stuff is what we will leave behind when we go.... and Christians will go.... Christians are only on hold here.... Christians have eternal life.... so all this drama on earth is only a blip on the screen.... all this sin... is avoidable if we put life in perspective.
A few years ago I was taking five [5] different pain pills because of cancer. When the doctors told me I had finished my treatment... I was left hung up on the pills. So hubby and I devised a plan and I got off all the pills. I was sick for a couple days.... but I had a secret.... I knew I can handle anything for a few minutes.... so when the craving started to get bad... I was lucky enough to know..... I only have to endure this for a few more minutes.
Jesus gave us eternal life. Christians are going to live forever. When I compare 100 years to forever I can see how insignificant 100 years is. Most of us aren't even here for 100 years. When I compare 3 days to 100 years, I can see how insignificant those three days of withdrawal really are. Oh sure... they seemed to last forever, and a day, when I was going through them... but they went away.... and I've had a lot more good pill free days since then. On top of that.... the perspective I gained getting off the pain pills... I turned on cigarettes and chucked them too.
James says don't hang everything on a plan for tomorrow because tomorrow may not come. Today is when we need to do things. Today is when we need to show our Christian smiles and show others that we love them... because we're not guaranteed tomorrow.... today is the day we will be judged on.... yesterday is forgiven... today is what we are working on..... we have everything we need to get by... we don't need another tea set or golf club. We don't need a million bucks in the bank..... and we don't need the latest plaque from the back of that magazine...... we're only here for a little while.... and then it's on to Heaven for forever.... Heaven.
Don't fight.... Relax.... Feel the Peace.... We're only here for a little while.
