In our society one of the worst things that can be said of us is, “They are so divisive”. Our society is all about inclusiveness. We are all about acceptance; all about respecting differences; all about making room for all.
That is what makes preaching from James 4:1-12 difficult. It is so divisive. Listen to these words from verse 6:
"You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find."
Peterson, Eugene H. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005. Print.
Eugene Peterson may have tried to soften the blow a bit in his Message translation…but, the statement is still divisive, isn’t it!
Because of statements like these in the Bible, Christians are often accused of being divisive. But, what is actually causing the divisions? Christians? Non-Christians? Is God causing this?
Or is it the problem of sin?
A Definition of Sin
First John 3:4 “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”
This is the best definition of sin that there is in the Bible. When you see the word “is” think about working with mathematics. The word “is” is really an equal sign so you could say that “sin = lawlessness.”
That is, sin is the breaking of God’s Law…so everyone who sins is breaking the Law of God and in rebellion to God’s will.
And, as we will see shortly, that leaves us all guilty for we are all sinners.
Have you ever noticed you don’t have to teach your kids to be rebellious against you and your authority?
Starts around 2 years old…they learn the word NO
They want to establish their independence … that they are separate from Mom and Dad.
Continues into Childhood
Then, puberty…where the rebellion escalates to include all authority…whether parental or societal.
In fact rebellion remains with us for a life-time.
So, from the two year old shouting NO
to President Trump saying he has no need of forgiveness because he has never done anything wrong…
to the dying words of 1950’s actress Joan Crawford who, when a nurse attempted to pray over her as she was dying, said, “don’t you dare ask God to help me.”
we are living in a world that is in rebellion!
But why? Why is this true? Why is our world surrounded by chaos…and, rebellion…and, hatred…and war?
This is a good question because St. Paul makes a statement about sin and how it came to be a problem for humans:
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man,
and death through sin,
and so death spread to all men
because all sinned
(18)Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men,
so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,
so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Print.
St. Paul goes on to state,
What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2
By no means!
How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death,
in order that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
we too might walk in newness of life.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Print.
And, herein is the problem that we who are Christians are faced with:
We have experienced all of this grace…but, still have a tendency to sin.
And this is what James tackles in 4:1-12…Adam may have been the original sinner…but, what is the source of MY PROBLEMS? MY ISSUES? MY SIN?
James identifies three main enemies of our Christian, spiritual life…and, one GREAT antidote to failure.
1. An Enemy inside us and an enemy outside us.
Here is how James puts it:
“You adulterous people!
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world
makes himself an enemy of God…” James 4:4
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Print.
So, you may ask, What do you mean by The World?
Should I become a recuse?
Cut off relationship with family and friends?
Deny myself any pleasure at all?
No.
The “world”—this is a greek word Cosmos…which references the world system—is the man-centered way of life which ignores God, and operates by selfish principles and lives by ungodly standards.
This is the world we are called to forsake.
The philosophy of the world says that the only important thing is “this life.”
The principles of the kosmos are force,
greed,
selfishness,
ambition,
and pleasure.
The “world” (kosmos) is a system of values that make up a way of life which is exciting
and colorful
and seductive
and sweet and wonderful—
and as a result, we are constantly in danger of getting wrapped up in it, and in danger of giving spiritual values second place.
This 1 minute video clip—I think—summarizes what James is warning us against.
VIDEO (Greed is Good clip)
We know how James would react to this video clip, but how do other writers in the New Testament view it?
John writes, (1 John 2: 15-17) “Do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world—
the desires of the flesh
and the desires of the eyes
and pride of life—
is not from the Father but is from the world.
17 And the world is passing away
along with its desires,
but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Print.
James tells us in v1, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Print.
John expands on this and calls those passions the Desires of the flesh:
Our five senses tell us nearly everything we know about our world.
— talk about my loss of two senses: Smell and Taste.
—talk about how the Doc told me “it still lights up the pleasure centers in the brain”.
Desires of the flesh is a craving for anything that gratifies the senses…lights up the pleasure centers of the brain.
We are talking about something far from being a legitimate satisfaction of bodily needs, this happens when we glut our senses, we become obsessed with pleasure, and the pursuit of pleasure becomes animal-like self-indulgence.
It is when we allow the appetite for food to become excessive to the detriment of our health.
It is when we permit the exercise of sexual relationships to become an illicit pursuit of conquest that demands more and jumps outside of the God ordained boundaries of marriage to seek fulfillment.
All these are examples of the desires of the flesh.
—My Dad’s sermon about brainwashing
—My experience in Ghana
The desires of the eyes:
We are bombarded daily with messages about stuff we don’t need…and, we respond accordingly.
The “desires of the eyes” is nothing more than materialism.
It is that covetous itching to own what we see.
It is the selfish desire that rises when we see things which we really don’t need but want.
It is the longing to possess,
the desire to get,
the eagerness to acquire.
The “lust of the eyes” is dreaming about that new “something” which we someday hope to get
and being willing to tell any lie,
cheat any person,
destroy any reputation,
steal anything to get what we want.
One writer put it like this: it is the undue desire to get things we don’t need,
to buy them with money we don’t have,
in order to impress people we don’t like.
The Pride of Life:
Story: Young preacher and first sermon.
The “pride of life” is nothing more than our own egotism!
It is the desire to enhance one’s own prestige and to push ourselves up.
It is the hankering to inflate our own reputations.
It is an attempt to get the spotlight shining on ourselves.
The “pride of life” is putting on an air of “being somebody”—a vain display of who we are—perhaps by the way we talk, or how we dress, or how much money we spend on a wedding, etc.
These are the enemies that arise from with us…
And, from the world…outside…
BUT WE HAVE
Our Stubborn Adversary: The Devil
James tells us simply, “…resist the devil…”
STORY: Flip Wilson/Geraldine “The Devil Made Me Do It.”
It got a lot of laughs…but, the Devil is no laughing matter.
We learn from the Bible that Satan is the commander of a large force of evil beings—demons—who are opposed to God.
This evil dominion of Satan and his demons is dedicated to the task of defeating God’s authority in the universe
and enslaving those who have accepted the Lord’s salvation.
The Bible describes him as a deceiver, a liar, a murderer, an accuser, a tempter, a prince, and an evil one.
He seduces, opposes, and deceives.
He hinders and tempts and blasphemes.
He is personal; he is intelligent; he is destructive.
He has his own synagogue (Revelation 2:9).
He has his own gospel (Galatians 1:6).
He has his own ministers (2 Corinthians 11:14,15).
He has his own doctrine (1 Timothy 4:1).
He even has his own communion service (1 Corinthians 10:21).
Satan will do all he can to hinder our Christian lives.
He is constantly battling for the soul of the sinner as well as for the life of the follower of Christ.
But the Apostle Peter expands on this in his letter when he writes, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God
so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7
casting all your anxieties on him,
because he cares for you. 8
Be sober-minded;
be watchful.
Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Print.
STORY: What I learned about this passage from an Acholi pastor in the North of Uganda…
STORY: What I learned from visiting the Maasai in Kenya….
But, Satan’s temptations do not always come in open and easily observed ways.
They are usually subtle and crafty.
He is not a monster that carries a pitchfork.
He can come, as the Apostle Paul observed, as an angel of light.
It would be much easier to identify and defeat the devil and his temptations
if he would come to us and say something like,
“Good morning, I am the devil,
and I want to get you involved in something that will bring misery and wretchedness,
and in the end will dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ.”
It would be easy then to say, “Get thee behind me, Satan”—but he doesn’t come in such an open way.
Satan uses the allurements of the world
and the appeal of the flesh—our first two enemies
—to try and get us to do what God forbids.
Or, he may use another of his techniques like bringing you discouragement.
He wants us to become downhearted and to lose confidence.
He works hard to bring depression and despondency into our lives.
At some point along life’s pathway, the devil will do his best to implant in your mind
the thought that you have been a complete failure.
How are we to live? How are we to relate to one another?
How are we to relate to this world?
How can we overcome a powerful and persistent foe like Satan?
Both Peter and James give us the antidote for the poison the world, the flesh, and the Devil bring in to our lives.
The antidote?
Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.
How are we to deal with the desires and temptations that work constantly to draw us away from our relationship with God?
Humble yourself…James tells us
“Submit yourselves to God.”
That means accepting God’s judgement about the world
and the pleasures of the world.
That means accepting the Law of God.
That means realizing you aren’t alone…
that others, too, are fighting the same battles…
that others, too, suffer under the onslaught of the enemy.
That means adopting God’s view of sin …
rather than the world’s view of sin…
But what results come from that!
HE WILL EXAULT YOU!
He will himself restore you!
He will himself confirm your faith
He will himself strengthen, and establish you.
As the words of this gospel song remind us.. 11
In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.
To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Print.
