James, Day 4
FAITH WORKS and PRACTICE THE WORD
God is a Jealous God — James 4:1 – 10
Bring Your Speech in Line with Godly Views — James 4:11 – 17
Submit yourselves to God
James starts with the question in Chapter 4 directed at Christians (believers): “What causes fights and quarrels among you?” Then, he answers his own question:
- Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
- 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.
- When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
- 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.
- Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us?”
- Submit yourselves to God. Come near to God and He will come near to you.
- Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.
- Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it.
- Who are you to judge your neighbor?
- Stop making plans for the future and boasting about it. You should say, “If the Lord wills, I will do this and that.”
- Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
Application
You can sense in the tone of James’s writing that he is perturbed. He is talking about Christians who are displaying pettiness, boastfulness, selfishness, and are being judgmental. These things are causing quarrels and fights within the church. These same things can cause divisions not only in churches, but in marriages, businesses, and any organization that you might be involved with. During my tenure as a leader at FBC Allentown, I have seen conflicts and personal relationships damaged, ruined, and even come to an end — all because of pettiness, boastfulness, selfishness, and judging others. The sad part is when one offending participant gets convicted of their involvement in this sin, then repents, and one or some of the participants in this sin CAN’T forgive the repentant sinner’s heart. Then they retaliate and try to get even by delaying forgiveness in order to make the repentant sinner suffer for a while.
I will finish with Numbers 10 – 15 from above.
- Submit yourselves to God. Come near to God and He will come near to you.
- Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.
- Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him, speaks against the law and judges it.
- Who are you to judge your neighbor?
- Stop making plans for the future and boasting about it. You should say, “If the Lord wills, I will do this and that.”
- Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
Blessings from Carlton Ringer