In Harmony With Heaven Series

Russell Delany, professor of philosophy and evangelism at the

Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, has said that our

great need today is:

Not for better legislation, but for better legislators.

Not for better business, but for better business men.

Not for better banking, but for better bankers.

Not for better farming, but for better farmers.

Not for better teaching, but for better teachers.

Not for better preaching, but for better preachers.

In other words, he is saying that man's greatest problem is man.

He is trying to cut through the thick fog that has blinded man to the

real source of discord in the world, which is himself. James has done

the same thing for the church. He has diagnosed the problem as

secularism. He hasn't pulled any punches. We are compelled to

admit that the disease of secularism is a serious threat to our

spiritual health. It brings discord into our relationship with God and

man.

James has made it clear that the real enemy is the self. The

problems in the church have the same origin as all the problems in

the world, which is self-centeredness. This is the religion of the

world. Self is the idol in secularism, but God warns, and history

reveals that those who would put self on the throne will end by being

the monarch of a madhouse. Nietzsche, the German philosopher,

carried through completely the experiment of rejecting God, and all

meaning and purpose of life. He finished his experiment with a very

logical conclusion by going mad. Deny God, and life becomes a

discord. Someone has said that one of the best proofs for the

existence of God is what happens to life when you deny it. If all were

to forsake God for self, hell would begin on earth.

Listen to the philosophy that Max Stirner expresses, whose

religion is radical egotism. He writes, "My relation to the world is

this: I no longer do anything for it for God's sake; I do nothing for

man's sake, but what I do I do for my sake." Self is his god. In the

book Holy Barbarians a man looks into a mirror and says, "This is

the face of God you see. Why don't you relax and enjoy God? God is

you you fool." This, of course, is radical self-centeredness, but James

has made it clear that a modified and more subtle form of

self-worship can enter the church, and bring with it the resulting

disharmony and discord, for it is incompatible with agape, or selfless

love, and humility.

Pride blinds us to our self-centeredness, and to the reality that we

are the problem. A character in modern literature cried out, "It's

not my fault! It's not my fault! Nothing in this lousy world is my

fault!" He is saying that he has no responsibility, and any change

that is needed is not up to him. He is like the boy who said to his

father when he was scolded for fighting with his brother, "Well, its

his fault. He started it when he hit me back." I trust all of us can

recognize that we are a part of the problem, and none of us are

faultless. If there is anger, envy, lack of joy, loss of interest in the

Bible, and temptation to go after the gods of the world, the problem

is not God, the devil, the church, the preacher, or the government,

but it is you. The need is not for a better church for you, but a better

you for the church. The old Negro spiritual says, "It's not my

brother or my sister but its me O Lord standing in the need of

prayer."

If we are able to come to this conclusion, and see that the real

problem is the self, then we are ready for the answer. James not only

describes the sin that leads to discord, but he prescribes the solution

that leads to harmony with heaven. The solution to the sins of

selfishness, sensuality, and secularism, and all that is anti-spiritual is

submission. In verse 7 James says submit yourselves to God.

Submission seems to be the key word, for it involves humility, and

resistance to the devil, and drawing nigh to God in repentance. It is

interesting that James should use this word to describe the solution

to God's marriage problem, and of how to be in harmony with

heaven. Paul uses the same word to describe the solution for earthly

marriages and harmony in the home.

Paul says in Eph. 5:22 and in Col. 3:1, "Wives submit yourselves

unto your husbands as unto the Lord." This, of course, is followed

by the command for husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the

church. This is in parallel with our relationship to God. It takes two