War and Peace
James 4:1-10
James begins the fourth chapter of his epistle with the question, “Where do wars and fights come from?” Have you ever stopped to consider that question? I thought about it as well. I read the following statistical data this week regarding national and international wars and their points of origination. A conflict between two cities in France almost a thousand years ago started as the result of a conflict over a water bucket. One Chinese emperor went to war because of a broken teapot. A war broke out between Sweden and Poland in 1654 because of a copyist’s error involving the number of times the words et cetera were listed following one of the king’s names. One of the many conflicts between England and France originated with the spilling of a single glass of water.
As we come to this fourth chapter of James’ epistle, though, there is more at stake than international conflict. James was addressing yet another test of a person’s profession of faith. This time, however, he was interested in the way a person’s faith was lived out with regard to personal desires. He stressed that a person could not please God and at the same time satisfy himself. Sound familiar? Maybe it’s because that’s the same thing Jesus said in the sixth chapter of Matthew. Listen to these words: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). The only way for a person to resolve this conflict, James taught, was to set one’s devotion entirely on God and maintain a humble, contrite relationship with Him.
I see six lessons in these verses today. Like our study last week, they are a contrast between the war produced by our sinful flesh and the peace that can only be found in a right relationship with God. While the outward appearance of the Scripture may seem complex, the message is clear: we must make a choice. Let’s examine these lessons together.
LESSON ONE: War originates in our lustful lives (v.1). I have heard it said that a person “had a lust for life.” This was meant as a compliment, and I can understand why. Thoreau said that too many men “lead lives of quiet desperation.” The world needs more people who go after life with a passion, a zeal. There is virtue in adventurous living. That kind of living gave us men and women like David Livingstone, Lottie Moon, Bertha Smith, William Wallace, and a host of others. This is not what James meant when he said that wars and fights are the result of lusts within us.
The kind of lusts that James was talking about was lusts leading to self-gratification. These lusts are driven by the question, “What’s going to make me feel good?” I have learned the hard way that it is a bad idea to go to the grocery store when I am hungry. James could write of me, “From where do the extra bags of Barbecue Frito’s and Dr. Pepper’s at your house come? Do they not come from your desires that struggle within you?” In a trivial sort of way, this describes the problem. But the matter is greater still than this.
We cannot avoid the struggles within the church in this context. My favorite color is red. I am comfortable with the thermostat on 67 [degrees]. I like to sing loud. But suppose that your favorite color is not red but blue, and you like the thermostat on 70 [degrees] instead of 67, and you like to sing quietly. We have some differences, wouldn’t you say? Could we possibly have a conflict over these things? The answer is obviously yes to both questions.
It ought not be true in the church, but it is. So many of the conflicts in the body of Christ originate in fleshly desires and our selfish determination to have things our way. We like to see our little church kept the way we like it and we will fight to keep it that way come Hell or high water. It reminds me of a story I heard only this week:
A poor farmer came to the large downtown church and presented himself for membership
the first Sunday that he attended. The pastor met him during the invitation and suggested he pray
about his decision for a week to be “absolutely sure.” The farmer agreed. He returned the next
Sunday and presented himself again. A second time, the pastor urged the farmer to pray about his
decision. A little disappointed, the farmer agreed and left the service. Finally, on the third Sunday,
the farmer made his way to the front and greeted the pastor.
“Preacher, God spoke to me about coming to your church this week,” the farmer said.
“Really!” the pastor replied. “What did he tell you?”
“Only this, preacher,” came the reply. “He wished me luck, because he’s been trying
to get in here for years, and he ain’t been able to get in yet.”
I wonder if our lusts and desires could be so great as to keep the Holy Spirit from our fellowship. Could it be that our own struggle to assert ourselves might be the very thing that quenches the Holy Spirit? I believe that is exactly what James is suggesting in this first verse of chapter four. We are sinful creatures, driven by a host of sinful desires that are ever struggling to make themselves known in our lives. Still, there is more about us that is at war.
LESSON TWO: Our lusts carry us down a slippery slope of sin (vv.2-3). In verses two and three, James describes a vicious cycle of desires and actions, all with no satisfaction. He describes sin as a sort of bottomless pit, always looking for more but never able to be satisfied. Let’s break these verses down in more detail.
He begins by saying, “Ye lust, and have not.” Have you ever noticed that no matter how much you have, it is never enough. We humans are like that. I read the story of a king who was having trouble sleeping. He was told that if he could wear the shirt of a truly satisfied man for only one night, he would be cured of his insomnia. His officials searched the entire kingdom and finally found a truly satisfied man. There was only one problem, however: the man had no shirt.
As long as we have something, there will always be something else to want. Is this not the reason that Satan was able to tempt Adam and Eve so easily in the Garden? They had everything EXCEPT the right to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was such an easy step to take that one thing that God had excluded from them. Yet, we say that they had everything else. Why was that such a big deal? Simply because they did not have it. It is not what we have that presents the problem. It is what we DO NOT have that presents the problem.
The next words James uses are, “Ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain.” People will even commit murder to fulfill their selfish lusts. I cannot escape the death of the sister of one our members two weeks ago. She was murdered in cold blood by a drug-crazed young boy who needed money for a fix and found that she did not have it. A few hours later, when the boy came to his senses, he took his own life. As shocked as we are by all this, there is no shortage of murderers on death row, people from all walks of life who have taken the life of another for what often seems inconsequential reasons.
Suppose we were to ask any of these death row murderers if they felt satisfied after committing their crimes. How many of us would tell us that they were? Few, I doubt, if any at all, would tell us that their crimes brought them any satisfaction. That is exactly the nature of sin. There is a momentary pleasure, but then even that satisfaction is gone, and the need for pleasure returns all over again.
The last clause of verse two says, “Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.” I have seen that some people love a good fight. There is a story of a general who, having defeated his last enemy, wept at the thought of having no more conquests. Some people are driven by a need for conflict. Let me say today that there is no place for this kind of struggling in the church.
Are there battles to be fought? Against the devil, yes. Against those who attack the cause of Christ, yes. Against those who deny the Scripture and its claims, yes. Against the world and its influences, yes. But the battle is never to be among brothers and sisters in Christ who are earnestly seeking to advance the Gospel and reach the lost with the message of salvation. That is the issue James is addressing in this clause.
Verse three hearkens to earlier references in the Gospels in which Jesus told his disciples that whatever they asked God for in his name, they would receive the same. James tells these believers that the things they ask for are not the things they need, and they are driven more by their selfish desires than any hint of obedience to God. How many of us have not experienced this very thing?
We are too late for a deadline at work, and we pray for grace. We failed to study for a test, and we pray for superhuman recall. We pull in the parking lot as the store is closing, and we pray for mercy from the storekeeper. In every situation, our motives are questionable. We are trying to avoid the consequences of our own failures when in fact we deserve them. I remember going to band contests in high school and knowing how badly I had performed and yet standing there saying, “God, please let us win. You know we could really use the encouragement. And think about how happy it will make our director.” I used to really think I could tug on God’s heartstrings with prayers like that.
How often when we pray for miracles are we asking, as James says, “amiss.” Most of the time when we do this, it really is just to satisfy our own personal desires and has nothing to do with the will of God. It’s like praying for a cheese pizza to fall out of the sky while lying out in the hammock in your back yard. That’s exactly how flippant and selfish many of our prayers are, and that is exactly why they often go unanswered.
We’ve seen the truth of our lustful lives and the slippery slope of sin. Now let’s look at James’ next target.
LESSON THREE: Spiritual adultery keeps us from a right relationship with God (v.4). I have been accused of a lot things in life, but I can’t recall being accused of spiritual adultery. Look at the words James uses in verse four. He paints a vivid picture of a person having an affair. Throughout the Old Testament, God referred to Israel as his wife. You will recall that, in the book of Hosea, God used the adulterous activities of the prophet’s wife to paint a picture of Israel’s unfaithfulness to Him. In the same way, the church is called “the bride of Christ” in the New Testament. In this example, God accuses believers of spiritual unfaithfulness by our flirtations with the world.
This verse is rife with images of infidelity. Obviously the words “adulterers and adulteresses” need no explanation. “Friendship” and “enmity” on the other hand, deserve some more interpretation. The first word literally implies flirtation. I envision the lifestyle that is looking for an opportunity. It’s what tells us to dress suggestively, hang out in the wrong places, and look for an opportunity. The second word suggests hostility, a withholding of affection, even a coolness. It doesn’t deny the relationship, but it does everything in its power to build a wall. It’s as simple as a relationship of appearances.
Think about the implications of both words. I picture a person who gives the outward appearance of religiosity. This person is a regular church attender, enjoys the social circles of the church, and gives twenty dollars every other week. But hidden behind this façade is a dark side, invisible to everyone at church. The spiritual adulterer keeps a little wine and beer in the refrigerator “for unwinding in the evenings,” doesn’t mind being alone with a married friend of the opposite sex, keeps a little “spicy” reading on hand just to “see what all the fuss is about,” and enjoys a regular trip to the movies to see who’ll win the Oscar this year.
Never mind the fact that this person is exposing others to alcohol, including children who may have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. Never mind that most affairs happen between friends and acquaintances who “never meant for it to happen.” Never mind that pornography is one of the top-grossing businesses in the United States today, with revenue in the billions. Never mind that most PG-rated movies today contain more profanity and violence than an R-rated movie of twenty-five years ago. Could it possibly be that the person I am describing today is you?
James says plainly, “You cannot be a friend of the world and be in love with God.” We are called as believers to live lives of holiness before God. It affects what we buy, where we go, what we do, and how we live. I am serious about the need to be careful in every relationship. No one should have ever heard the name Monica Lewinsky a few years ago, but we did. No one in the Bible should have ever heard the name of Bathsheba, but we did. My pastor used to tell me, “You can’t wallow with the hogs and expect to stay clean.”
Spiritual adultery is the most difficult and painful of sins to admit. This is mainly true because it affects every one of us to some extent. But what are we to do? This leads us to the fourth lesson in our passage today.
LESSON FOUR: Peace begins with the Spirit’s divine desire (v.5) This verse is translated a number of ways, but I prefer The Living Bible’s paraphrase, which says, “Or what do you think the Scripture means when it says that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, watches over us with tender jealousy?” (James 4:5, TLB). Tender jealousy. Those are powerful words.
The Holy Spirit is the only one with truly pure lusts, because he longs after us. It is the kind of longing that the Loving Father had as he watched daily for the return of the Prodigal. It is the kind of desire that tugs at us when we are seeking God’s will. The Holy Spirit draws us to the Father with tender bands of love. It is he who can overcome our selfish longings with his own pure lusts.
Look at what the Scripture says about the Spirit: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth in our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26). In Ephesians, Paul writes, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit . . .” (6:18). It is the Spirit who knows us and loves us and lives in us. He knows our hearts and knows our needs. It is he who can bring peace to our lives when we allow him to have his way with us.
As a child, I used to lose things all the time. When I went to my mother for help, she inevitably would tell me, “It’s wherever you left it.” Surely enough, as soon as I had retraced my steps, I would find the missing object. I carried this strategy with me into the classroom as a middle school band teacher. I cannot begin to tell you the number of “stolen” and “lost” musical instruments that turned up in the locker room or behind a classroom door. The response of the students was always one of shy embarrassment and not a little bit of remorse.
I wonder how often we forget the great indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and go running off to accomplish some great thing for God, only to find that our efforts are powerless and our conquests forgettable. Like my mother, God reminds us that the Holy Spirit is right where we left him. He will go with us in the ways that God intends and no further. He will empower and encourage us in the plans of God, if only we will let him. The Bible says he has a “tender jealousy” for us. That deserves an unqualified, “Wow!”
LESSON FIVE: Humility is our first step to receiving God’s grace (v.6). Although this statement is best made in verse ten, I want to begin by addressing it in the context of verse six. We are all quick to want to talk about God’s grace. It is something with which we are familiar. We cannot explain it, but we know how it feels, what it does for us.
Is it any wonder that we love to sing, “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. ‘Twas blind, but now I see.” Grace has a powerful effect on our lives. I have heard it defined as an acronym, “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” Various commentators have used words like “unmerited favor,” “love without measure,” and the like. But what of this stipulation on grace?
Is there anything we can do to merit God’s grace? To read verse six, you might think that our attitude comes into play. But how can something undeserved be gained in such a way? The answer lies in the context of the discussion. The dispensation of God’s grace relies on our willingness to receive it. God will not give it to people who don’t think they need it. What those folks need to realize, however, is that we all stand in need of God’s grace.
It isn’t just for filler that Paul wrote, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Even as far back as Isaiah’s day, prophets were talking about our need for God’s grace: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (64:6). If for no other reason than this, we stand in need of grace. But how do we get it?
This is where James answers the question. He says, “God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” When we come before God, denying any merits we might have, acknowledging our inadequacy and his sufficiency, then we are able to receive grace. There is nothing we can do but receive it. We can’t dress grace up. We can’t make it any more attractive than it already is. There is no way human beings can improve upon grace. All we can do is simply take it and say, “Thank you, Lord.”
But this issue of humility is important. As a musician and a frequent flyer on Ego Trip Airlines, I know the necessity of humility. It is easy to have things go well and find yourself feeling pretty self-sufficient. You find a pattern that works for you, a way of living that is comfortable and gratifying. Pretty soon, you don’t need God as much as you used to, maybe that hour in prayer isn’t as pressing as it was before, and maybe that extra time for spiritual disciplines isn’t absolutely necessary. It doesn’t matter now how you treat your spouse, or that you pray for your children, or that you share your faith. Congratulations are in order, because you have just boarded a one-way flight to nowhere.
Do you remember the verse in Proverbs? Let me quote it now: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (16:18). Whenever you and I are riding high, get ready for a sudden dose of humility. It is at these precise moments I recall Hebrews 12:6, which says, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” If you can continue in pride and arrogance without feeling the chastening hand of God, watch out! That same passage in Hebrews goes on to say that those who are not disciplined are not children of God at all. If we’re going to followers of Jesus, then we can expect to be disciplined when we become filled with pride. That is where humility enters into it.
LESSON SIX: Restoration is the goal of God’s penitential plan (vv.7-10). The last four verses give us eleven imperatives for repentance. Most of us do not know what repentance is, let alone how to go about doing it. Let’s define repentance in God’s terms. Then we’ll examine the process James outlines for doing it.
Biblical repentance comes basically in two parts: realizing the problem and turning away from it. It’s the same thing as making a u-turn in a car or doing an about face in a military maneuver. There is a realization that the direction we are headed is compromising at best, deadly at the worst. Then there is an evasive maneuver that doesn’t simply carry us around the problem, but in the opposite direction. It’s why Paul tells the Thessalonian believers, “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22). He is telling them not to even go near it.
Now let’s consider the imperatives James give his readers. The first is direct. He says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God.” Not just your mind or just your body, nor your possessions or your money. The implication is that we give all that we have and all that we are to God. We are called on to make Jesus the Lord of everything pertaining to us. There is a sense that we place ourselves under the scrutiny of God and make ourselves open to his judgment in all areas. This is the kind of submission required of us.
Secondly, James tells us, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Let’s face it, folks. Proud people are easy targets for the devil. Humble, submitted people are not quite as easy to trip up. Have you ever noticed the process by which Jesus was tempted in the Gospels? He was baptized, then led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. He neither ate nor drank for forty days and nights. And Satan showed up to tempt him. In every situation, Jesus used the Word of God to counter the devil’s attacks. In a time of perceived weakness, Jesus was strong. In a time of personal attack, Jesus relied on God’s Word. We would do well to remember this in our times of temptation. May I say to you today that, if for no other reason than your ability to withstand the attacks of the devil, it is vitally important to know and do the Word of God. You and I need more of the Bible in us every day. The battle demands it.
James tells us next to “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” How we go about doing this is found in our disciplines. If you want to be close to someone, it is important to do two things: spend time with him and communicate with him. I cannot say enough about the need for a personal time of prayer and Bible reading every day. If I want to know what Billy Graham is like, I can read his autobiography and listen to his sermons. But in order to really know who Dr. Graham is, I would need to either call him on the phone or drive to Montreat and sit down on his porch and talk with him. It is the same way with God. Only through prayer and reading the Scriptures can we come to know God in a personal way. And do you know what is best about all this? James says that if we will come close to God, he will come close to us. That makes the effort worthwhile.
The next imperative deals with outer change: “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners.” I have never figured out why a child can go out and literally roll in the dirt all day, but when supper time comes around, it’s the hands that have to be washed. There have been some times I wanted to stick Samantha in the tub before I let her sit down at the table, but it was always the hands alone that won the battle. What James was saying is that our hands represent our physical bodies. He was saying that a key part of repentance is the cleansing of our physical sins, sins that affect the body. These include sexual sins, gluttony, laziness, poor stewardship of the body, and anything that leads us astray physically. But he doesn’t stop there.
The remainder of our being is addressed next: “Purify your hearts, ye double minded.” This area affects our minds and ultimately, our souls. The Bible tells us to be anxious about nothing, yet many of us worry. It tells us that to have sexual lust is as bad as committing adultery, but how many of us take it that seriously. The Scriptures teach us that uncontrolled anger is a sin worthy of hell-fire. And the list goes on. James tells us that, just as we are to be cleansed of our physical impurities, we must also be cleansed in our minds.
Verse nine begins with three connected emotional responses: “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep.” He is reflecting here the essence of godly sorrow. Look with me for a moment today at 2 Corinthians 7:9-10. It is important for us to remember that, in 1 Corinthians, Paul chastised the Corinthian believers for the way they were tolerating sin in their fellowship. He was harsh. He addresses their response in these verses, where he says, “Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” Folks, when we see the seriousness of our sin before God, it ought to make us sorry. There is a reason to feel guilt. It is not unacceptable to weep over our sins before God. I believe we are often too quick to shrug off sin and try to seek God’s forgiveness without knowing why we are asking. It ought not be this way.
The next two phrases build on this plea for genuine repentance: “Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and you joy to heaviness.” The preacher in Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance” (3:4). It is entirely appropriate to be moved over our sins. How long has it been since you sensed the awful seriousness of your sins before God and were moved to tears by your shame? I know it has probably been too long in my own life. They tell us that our churches used to have mourner’s benches for people who were dealing with their sins. They tell us that in the old days people used to confess all their sins before asking Jesus to save them. Maybe it’s time to get back to the ways things were in the old days.
Finally, James says it plainly, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord.” I heard a song a few years ago that said, “If we ever needed the Lord before, we sure do need him now.” Brothers and sisters, those words are so true today. We need the presence of the Lord. We need the power of the Lord. We need the protection of the Lord. We need the promises of the Lord. BUT we will have none of those things until those of us who know him humble ourselves in his sight, submit ourselves to him, resist the devil, draw near to him, cleanse our hands, purify our hearts, experience affliction and mourning and weeping, turn our laughter into mourning, and turn our joy into sorrow. We need a good dose of godly sorrow that produces repentance in our day, because when that happens, then we will see the glory of the Lord. We will see the power of the Lord. We will experience the majesty of the Lord.
This passage concludes with five words I love to quote: “He will lift you up.” These words remind me of the words of the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (v.31). When you and I are finished with our fighting, done with our desires, loosed from our lusts; when we are filled with godly sorrow, humbled in God’s presence, submitted to God’s power; THEN, and only then, can we experience the hand of God as he lifts us from our faces to our feet. THEN we can know the mind of God as he carries us on eagles’ wings. THEN we can experience the strength of God as he sustains us in our coming in and our going out. THEN we will know Him even as we are known. But it cannot begin until we acknowledge our problem and seek his solution.
