SOME TOUGH STUFF

James 4

When I first began to fly commercially, I had trouble adjusting to the not-as-smooth-as-I-had-anticipated flight. In fact, the plane felt a whole lot like a bus! And then the pilot announced, “Please put on your seatbelts. There’s some turbulence ahead.” If you got a seat belt, handy, you might want to put it on before diving into Chapter 4 of James. This will be a rough

ride, I guarantee!

We have a lot of trouble with the idea of God as a jealous lover, but the Bible is pretty clear on it. One of my seminary profs often commented that God’s wrath is the flip side of His love! Reject His love, and He reacts with anger. Reject all that Christ offers us through the Cross and resurrection and wrath is all that remains.  The Bible portrays this situation as God’s being jealous over an adulterous people. The OT prophets repeatedly have the LORD saying things like “all day long I have held out my hands to an adulterous and rebellious people.” Unfaithfulness to God is compared to unfaithfulness to a spouse. Thus, someone rebelling against God is called prostituting themselves or committing adultery.

 To kick off the chapter, James raises the question why they were fighting all the time. It sounds to me like he’s talking about the Christians who receive his letter! Perhaps there were various groups like Paul described in 1 Corinthians. “I’m Peter’s disciple. No, I follow Paul. I prefer James. I’m holier than the rest of you, I just follow Jesus!” There were indeed several strands of Christianity trying to pull away from the disciples’ message focused on Jesus. James says the reason they fought was their unwillingness to submit to Christ and follow Him. Many were trying to ride two horses at once: God’s way and the world’s way. James says you can’t do that.

If you’re trying to be a friend of the world, you are an enemy of God.

You can’t serve God AND Satan.

You can’t run with the crowd and follow Jesus.

You can’t give in to peer pressure and stand for Christ.

AND YOU’RE TRYING BY YOUR OWN STRENGTH TO GET WHAT ONLY GOD CAN GIVE YOU!

And all you have to do is ask.

Oh, but you say I asked, but He didn’t answer.

NO is an answer.

WAIT is another answer.

We want yes and we want it now. So, we turn our backs on God and try to get it another way. If the God of the Bible won’t give it to me, maybe the gods of this world will.

FAT CHANCE!

James says your prayer life is selfish. You’re not praying to find God’s will, you are praying to get stuff to satisfy your cravings. That’s backwards!

WE ARE CALLED TO FIND AND DO HIS WILL. HE IS NOT HERE TO DO OUR WILL!

NOTE ON PRAYER: Verse 3 -  you are wrong in asking God for something you intend to spend on your “passions,” fleeting desires.  But whatever happened to the promises about “whatever you ask, I will do it?” Context, people, CONTEXT! Interpretation of any kind of Bible verse begins with the context. Even the promises. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” All things? In context (Philippians 4) Paul just said he had learned how to live life by accepting whatever life threw at him, all the ups and downs. This was Paul, who was on mission for Christ. He was convinced God would get him through whatever it took.

The context of all of God’s promises is that He will grant them to us first of all if we are on mission to do his will. “I am with you always” as you go into the ends of the world with the gospel. God’s will is like a mighty river that carries you downstream under its power. Try to swim upstream against the current, and you will find yourself working against the Lord.

Verse 7 – God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Somewhere along the way the church created the idea of The Seven Deadly Sins. The first one is pride, placing yourself first. Many theologians and ethicists teach that pride is the root of all sin. After all, doesn’t all sin begin with the idea that we know better than God? He thinks I would be better off by avoiding this behavior, but I think I would enjoy it, so guess what? I’m going to do it anyway!

One of the constant battles of the Christian life, my friend. “I’m better than you, and God should show me favoritism.” Yes, that’s blasphemy. So tell me you’ve never thought that way.

The path to true religion and knowing God! Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you!

How do you draw close to God?

            Cleanse your hands.

            Purify your hearts

            Repent – big time! – to the point of crying and mourning. Get serious…very serious.

            Humble yourself – I’m not sure how to do that. Neither was Ben Franklin. He decided to

cthe appearance of humility instead. He determined to ask questions rather than make assertions. I suspect a truly humble person doesn’t know it.

Don’t speak evil or judge your fellow Christians. He means a fault-finding attitude. Pharisees still          walk among us. Don’t be one!

James cautions against pride in another way. We’re always predicting what we’re going to do, and how that’s going to be tremendously successful. James cautions, “Not so fast! Only if THE LORD WILLS, will you do such and so. Islam has built this concept into their daily language. If I remember right, they like  to say “Insh’allah,” meaning if God wills, and they say it often.

Otherwise, you are boasting, and boasting is arrogance, which is pride! Don’t!