Do Not Create a Win-Lose World
Squid Game Part 2
James 4:1-6
Steve Meenho Kang
www.evergreencommunity.org
We are in part two of this series, “Squid Game.”
The Netflix drama “Squid Game” became the number one show on Netflix in all 83 countries where Netflix streams.
“Squid Game” is a drama in which participants risk their lives to play a survival game to win a prize of 40 million dollars.
But why is this drama so popular all over the world?
One of the reasons is that it reflects the sentiments of the present age.
It created a consensus among many people.
Nowadays the COVID-19 crisis has made life more difficult for many people.
So many people believe that they have to compete and win over others to survive.
And this drama shows modern people’s life in a cross-section.
Everyone who participates in this game will play in 6 games in total.
They have to win each game to qualify for the next game.
In other words, you have to beat the other 455 players to become the final winner.
So, they play a game of survival to the end.
Many people feel that this game of survival is taking place in their own daily lives.
They struggle every day to survive in this hellish world.
The strong prosper at the expense of the weak.
And the weak perish at the expense of the strong.
But is this true?
Do we have to live according to the rule of the survival of the fittest?
So, imagine that James, the brother of Jesus, saw this drama.
Imagine also that he is looking at the society today.
He would be very sad to see people living by the law of the survival of fittest.
He would be so sad to see people who are trying to beat others so that they can win.
Therefore, if James saw “Squid Game,” he would say these.
I. We must stop fighting according to our desires (vv. 1-2a).
Verses 1-2a say this.
1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.
Instead of the climate of peace necessary for the production of righteousness, they were fighting and quarreling.
James asked, “What causes fights and quarrels among you?”
His answer is “Don’t they come from your desires?”
The Greek term “desires” is “hedonon” which means “pleasures.”
It is the source of the English word “hedonism.”
Hedonism is the philosophy that views pleasure as the chief goal of life.
James stated that these pleasures reside within them.
And they competed with others to gain satisfaction.
Pleasure was the overriding desire of their lives.
James said, “You eagerly desire something, but you don’t get it.”
And their desire was so strong that they were willing to kill and covet.
This is exactly what the people in “Squid Game” were doing.
They all wanted to be the grand prize winner.
They did whatever was necessary to beat others to win.
Since they were all going after the same prize money, that created fights among them.
They were even willing to kill others to get what they wanted.
They believed that in order for them to win, they had to beat others.
They thought that this world is a win-lose world.
They believed that, in order for them to win, others must lose.
They believed that it is impossible to have a win-win world.
People who function with this idea, wish for others’ failure.
They constantly compete with others.
They distrust others.
At the end, they will all lose.
But sadly, this is how people think nowadays.
This is how people in this world view others and treat others.
But this kind of thinking will lead everyone to fight with each other.
This kind of thinking will create a world that is impossible to live in.
People who think this way will cheat, lie, take advantage of the weak, use others, and even kill others.
And this is what we see in the daily news.
However, the followers of Jesus must live differently.
We must stop fighting according to our desires.
II. We must seek blessings from God (vv. 2b-3).
Verses 2b-3 say this.
You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
James repeated his assertion.
Even with all their consuming desires, they were not able to obtain what they wanted.
What was the reason?
It was not because they had wrong parents.
It was not because their spouse did something wrong.
It was not because of the lack of education.
It was not because of lack of luck.
No.
The reason was that they were going after it in the wrong way.
They did not ask God for it.
They were lusting and fighting rather than praying.
They were trying to get what they wanted on their own.
And they did not have God in their formula.
And even when James’ readers asked God for some things, they still did not receive what they requested.
Why?
It was because they asked with wrong motives.
Their purpose was to “spend” what they will get for their own pleasure.
In other words, they used prayer as a means of self-gratification.
This was what the participants in “Squid Game” were doing.
They thought that they are living in a closed system of money, power, and survival.
They had no room for God in their world.
They were living according to the principle of the survival of the fittest.
That was how most participants of the game believed.
However, there was one exception.
In “Squid Game,” there is a Christian guy who came to participate in the game.
He justified what he was doing, and prayed to God that he would win the game and get the money.
He prayed with wrong motives that he may spend what he gets on his pleasures.
However, God does not answer prayers like this.
But the disciples of Jesus should not act this way.
We must believe that God exists in our lives.
We must not try to achieve anything on our own.
We should not fight to make others lose so that we can win.
True blessings cannot be achieved in our own ways or through our own strength.
A true blessing is something that only God can give.
Worldly blessings can make us rich, but they cannot make us live richly.
Worldly blessings can buy us healthy food, but they cannot make us healthy.
Worldly blessings can buy us expensive cars, but they cannot protect us from car accidents.
True blessing is not something that we can manufacture.
We must seek blessings from God.
III. We must make God the Lord of our lives (vv. 4-6).
Verse 4 says this.
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
James already identified the source of the bitter fighting as the desire for pleasure.
Now he rebuked his readers for spiritual unfaithfulness.
In the NT, we are described as the bride of Jesus (Ep. 5:23).
Therefore, when we love the world and not God, we are committing spiritual adultery.
It is a blunt and shocking statement.
But the people who love the world are committing spiritual adultery.
For Christians, there are two objects of affection: the world and God.
These two are direct opposites.
James uses the word “world” to refer to the system of evil controlled by Satan.
It includes all that is wicked and opposed to God.
James was thinking especially of pleasures that lure people’s hearts away from God.
Therefore, “friendship with the world is hatred toward God.”
To have a warm, familiar attitude toward the evil world is to become God’s enemy.
The person who chooses to be a friend of the world, becomes an enemy of God.
Verse 5 says this.
5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?
When we believed in Jesus as our Savior and the Lord, God sent the Holy Spirit to live in us.
And when we love the world, the Holy Spirit will become jealous.
When we are jealous, we are envious of others’ successes because of our own interests.
However, when God is jealous, He is jealous of entirely different reason.
He sees us doing something harmful to ourselves and He feel jealous because He loves us.
Christians who are friends with the world is guilty of spiritual adultery.
Although their love and devotion should belong to God, they have fallen in love with the world.
But God jealously desires the devotion of His people.
Friendship with the world is enmity toward God, and thus it is spiritual unfaithfulness.
Verse 6 says this.
6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
God gives more grace.
God set a high standard for wholehearted devotion on the part of His people.
But He gives grace that is greater than the high demand He had made.
God, in His grace, gives His people the help they need to resist the temptations of the world and to remain loyal to Him.
Therefore, we must humbly submit to God’s desire for us rather than proudly insisting on satisfying our own desires for pleasure.
We must make Him the Lord of our lives.
Not just in some areas of our lives but in all areas of our lives.
But what does it mean to love God only?
Is it okay to love God and hate others?
Of course, not.
If we love God, we will love what God loves.
And that is loving other people who God loves.
To say that we love God and hate others whom God loves is not to love God.
Loving God and loving others cannot be separated.
This is why, after Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” He told us that, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:37-39).
We do not live in a closed system like in “Squid Game.”
We are not in an island where we have to beat others to win.
We do not have to kill other to survive.
We are not alone in this world.
We have God who loves us and wants to bless us.
We must make God the Lord of our lives.
Conclusion
People who participated in “Squid Game” had to beat others to win.
It is a I-Win-You-Lose World.
In their minds, there is no way to create We-Both-Win world.
The person next to them was nothing but a competitor, not a partner.
It revealed human greed.
They were using others as a means for the ultimate victory.
This is how many modern-day people live.
They believe that in order for them to win, others must lose.
But this is not true.
Especially, those of us who are followers of Jesus should never live according to the rule of the survival of the fittest
Animals live according to the law of the survival of the fittest.
However, we are not animals.
We are children of God who are created according to God’s image.
We must live by the law of love.
We must try to create Win-Win world.
This is the minimum we must do.
But this cannot be our ultimate goal.
As we grow as Christians, we must be willing to create I-Lose- You-Win situations.
We must sacrifice our interests, desires, and pleasures for others’ benefit.
Some of you might ask, “why?”
Why should we sacrifice our interest, desire, pleasure for others?
It is because this is what God did for us.
Because He loved us so much, He sent His one and only Son to us.
He sacrificed everything to love us.
For this reason, Jesus came into this world 2,000 years ago.
And later, He died on the cross to save us eternally.
As follower of Jesus, this is what we must emulate.
At the minimum, we must create I-Win-You-Win world.
But sometimes we should be willing to create I-Lose-You-Win situations for others.
The idea that I can only win when someone else lose is absolutely not a Christian idea.
We must not create a world where we win and others lose.
If we do, we will eventually create a world where everyone loses.
We must create a world where all of us win.
And those of us who want to be more like Jesus must do what Jesus did.
It is letting others win even if we lose.
This is the example that Jesus set before us.
