James 4:1-12_Pride → strife BUT humility → peace
29/9/24
Passage
James 4:1-12
Questions
James has already made the point [1:22, 2:17] that faithful Christians are to live in obedience to God’s law, done from the heart, as his brother Jesus [Matthew 5-7 etc.] and Moses [Deuteronomy 10:12-22, 30:6-10] taught all along. James has commended the wise who sow peace [3:13-18]. He now turns to the troublemakers…
1. Pride promotes strife [vv1-6]
1 From where are conflicts and from where are quarrels among you? Is it not from this, from your pleasures [ἡδονῶν] that wage war among your members?
What causes us to quarrel? Why can’t we tame our tongues?1
2a You desire and do not have; you murder and are filled with envy, and are not able to obtain; you fight [μάχεσθε2] and quarrel.
2b You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, in order that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Why are our prayers not answered?5
Spiritual adultery [vv4-6]
James describes such Christians as adulteresses…
4 Adulterous people [μοιχαλίδες]! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that in vain the scripture says, “The Spirit which he caused to dwell in us desires jealously”?
Why is rebellion against God the same as adultery?6
What does the Holy Spirit do inside us? How does encourage you in the seemingly impossible task of taming your tongue?
Consider…
14 For you will not bow in worship to another god, for ‘YHWH Is Jealous’ is his name, he is a jealous God, 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they prostitute themselves after their gods, and they sacrifice to their gods, and they invite you, and you eat their sacrifice, 16 and you take from their daughters for your sons, and their daughters prostitute themselves after their gods, and they cause your sons to prostitute themselves after their gods.
Exodus 34:14–16
Is jealousy an attribute of God? How about anger [Exodus 34:6; John 3:17]?
2. Humility promotes peace [vv7-12]
2a. Humility cures worldliness [vv 7-10]
7 Therefore subject yourselves to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
How do we see this in the life of Jesus before the resurrection?
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded! 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloominess. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” is a promise conditional upon what?7
2b. Do not judge a brother [vv11-12]
11a Do not speak evil of one another, brothers.
James has spoken very strongly calling his hearers adulteresses. Why does he now soften his tone by calling them “brothers”?
11b The one who speaks evil of a brother or judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of the law. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Why is there only one lawgiver and judge?8
Ἡδονα, pleasures, are where we get the word hedonism, the selfish pursuit of pleasure AND are in utter contrast to the kingdom Jesus brought. Where does this come from? There is war between our body parts! It’s a powerful metaphor and this tearing apart within us spills out into our relationships with one another. War spreads!
“μάχομαι (machomai): vb….clash severely, (whether physical or verbal) fight, quarrel, argue (Jn 6:52; Ac 7:26; 2Ti 2:24; Jas 4:2+).” James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
Martin, 144; cf. also M. J. Thompson, “James 4:1–4 A Warning against Zealotry?” ExpTim 87 (1976) 211–13.
There may have been BUT James’ brother teachers that hatred = murder. James, surely, is also thinking of Jesus’ teaching when he refers to asking and not receiving.
Being full of pride and lacking humility not only causes us to fight with one another BUT is severes our relationship with God. We do not pray. If we do it is only in hypocrisy. Why because we are seeking our own pleasure first and foremost NOT alignment with God’s will.
To understand this “adulteress” language of the Hebrew bible consider marriage. In marriage there should be righteous jealousy. Your spouse is forbidden to go with someone else. You should behave in such a way to preserve and promote the marriage covenant.
If we have dirtied our hands touching the forbidden fruit of the world we also have to purify our hearts. Eve did not accidentally touch the fruit, and so died. Her heart became proud thinking she could be like God, or the gods, knowing right and wrong. Adam followed suite. Their hearts became impure, tainted, despising YHWH’s command.
The first creation account [Genesis 1] places God above all else and that is his status “in the beginning” and to all eternity. He speaks and order is brought to chaos, light into the darkness. Only he has the power to utterly save or, if you resist, hand you over to the destruction that your sin has created.