The Anatomy of Conflict (Part 2)
James 4:4-5
Preached by Pastor Tony Miano
Pico Canyon Community Church
June 10, 2001
Introduction: For those of you who couldn’t be with us last week, we began looking at the anatomy of conflict. James gives us the details of that anatomy in the first six verses of chapter four. Last week we considered the characteristics of conflict with others, and we spent a good deal of time looking at the characteristics of the conflict each of us face, on one level or another, within ourselves.
This morning, as we continue our study of the anatomy of conflict, we’re going to begin to look at the worst of all forms of conflict—conflict with God. We’re going to look at how friendship with the world and ignorance to the truths of Scripture help to create this conflict. Next week we’re going to ask the question, “Are we too proud for grace?” as it relates to conflict with God.
Let’s read James 4:1-6 again.
The movie industry has made some pretty creative attempts at explaining conflict with god. For those of you that remember the movie “Caddyshack,” there is a scene toward the end of the movie in which a golfing enthusiast priest is playing the round of his life. As he makes his way around the links, the weather turns.
The movie depicts the scene as a battle between this priest in search of nirvana through a golf game and a insensitive and spiteful god that would thwart the priest’s quest for that perfect game. The scene ends with the priest defiantly raising his putter to the violent heavens and being struck down by a well-placed bolt of lighting.
I’m sure many of you have seen the movie “Forrest Gump.” Well, there is a scene in this movie about man’s conflict with god as well. In this movie, the character “Lt. Dan,” who lost both of his legs in a battle in a Vietnamese jungle, and was saved by none other than Forrest Gump, decides its time to have it out with god.
Forrest, by this time, is trying to make it on his own as a shrimp boat captain. Lt. Dan joins Forrest as his first mate. The two men manage only to salvage tires, license plates, and toilet seats from the ocean’s bottom. After several failed attempts, Lt. Dan asks Forrest, “Where’s this god of yours?”
As soon as Lt. Dan asked the question, god arrived in the form of a destructive hurricane. As the storm rages, we find Lt. Dan strapped to the top of the mast, next to an American flag, shaking his fist at god, daring god to try to destroy the boat, and cursing like a sailor. When the storm subsides, Lt. Dan and Forrest’s boat was the only one still afloat. Since no one else could harvest the shrimp, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company became a multi-million dollar industry. A few minutes later in the movie we find Lt. Dan at peace with the world. He had met god face to face, so the filmmaker would have us believe, and won.
Let me share with you one last example, one that I saw recently. The scene is found in the season finale of the popular television show “The West Wing.” President Bartlett, played by Martin Sheen, faces his major conflict with god.
The scene finds President Bartlett alone in the National Cathedral following the funeral of his secretary and long-time friend. The President orders his chief of staff to tell the Secret Service agents outside to secure the perimeter so he won’t be disturbed. After a moment or two of silence, Bartlett does battle with god.
Bartlett begins to curse god for, as he saw it, causing his friend to die in a car accident. He curses god and blames him for the other tragedies that have occurred up to this point, during his presidency. He defiantly lights a cigarette, takes a few puffs, and then tosses the cigarette to the floor, crushing it under his shoe as he gives god a dirty look.
The producers of the show set the scene the way they did in order to try to get the audience to feel sorry for Sheen’s character and respect his independence and defiance of god. It certainly didn’t work for me. In fact, I was so offended by the scene; I doubt I’ll watch the show again.
In all likelihood, and I think I’m on safe ground with this assumption, the producers of the shows I just described have spent little time studying James’ letter. From what we see often times in the media, conflict with god is portrayed as something god desires and causes.
More often than not, we find man as the hero in the conflict and god being the weak, unknowable force. In the media, when man comes to terms with god, it is more often than not due to man’s strength and god’s capitulation, not as a result of man’s submission to God’s will. Hollywood does not see conflict with God the same way James does, or the way we should.
If you go on-line and read the transcript of this portion of this morning’s message, you will see that when I describe these various scenes, I use a little “g” when I make mention of God. The reason is simple. In depicting man’s conflict with God, Hollywood shows quite brazenly that they have no idea who the God of the Bible is.
This morning, as we study God’s Word, we’re going to see what conflict with God looks like from God’s perspective, not man’s. James, inspired by God to write his letter, gives us three characteristics seen in conflicts with God, in verses 4-6. Hollywood would like us to believe that conflict with God is God’s fault. But the Bible teaches that the fault lies with mankind. When a person is in conflict with God, whether he or she is a Christian, a person who thinks he or she is a Christian, or is content with the fact that they’re not a Christian, conflict with God comes as a result of three things—man’s friendship with the world, man’s ignorance of the Scriptures, and man’s sinful pride.
And friends, all three things fall under one category—and you need to write this word in your sermon notes next to the three points—the category is sin.
Friendship With The World
James tone of voice was sharp in the first three verses of chapter four. It is as sharp or sharper in verses 4-6. He begins by saying, “You adulteresses.” Who is James referring to here? There’s been a great deal of debate on the subject. Some hold that James is talking to believers. Others hold that he is talking to unbelievers in the church. I don’t think we have to be particularly dogmatic in our decision.
I don’t think we are violating the “one true meaning” principle of Bible study by saying that James intended this passage of Scripture to impact genuine believers and those who were simply playing church.
We know by James’ repeated use of the word “brethren” in his letter that he wrote his letter primarily to Jewish believers. We also know through our study that there were those in the church whose faith was suspect, that there were those in the church that relied on their good deeds, their own perceived goodness as signs of true faith. We know from our study last week that James likely had those unbelievers that regularly attended the church in mind when he wrote about the intentions of those who pray and do not receive from God.
Theologians are virtually split down the middle on this issue. Through my own study, I think to take the higher ground is to take the middle road. James is writing to both believers who run the risk of not losing their faith, but neglecting it; and to unbelievers in the church who have deluded themselves about their spiritual condition.
James is speaking figuratively here. He’s not accusing any particular person of being engaged in adulterous relationships. Again, James is writing primarily to Jewish people. At the time this letter was written, the apostle Paul had not yet begun to evangelize the Gentile, non-Jewish world. With that in mind, it makes sense that James would choose a word like “adulteress” to describe the situation in the church.
James is taking his readers back to the Old Testament warnings about disobeying God. His readers would have been familiar with the covenant relationship God has with the Jewish people, a relationship that closely resembles the bonds of marriage. That’s why James uses the feminine form of the word for a person that commits adultery. James’ readers would also likely remember the words of the Old Testament prophets. For instance, in prophesying about the faithlessness of Israel, Jeremiah wrote, “And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also” (Jer. 3:8).
When prophesying about unfaithful Jerusalem, Ezekiel wrote, “’How languishing is your heart,’ declares the Lord God, ‘while you do all these things, the actions of a bold-faced harlot. When you built your shrine at the beginning of every street and made your high place in every square, in disdaining money, you were not like a harlot. You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband’” (Ezekiel 16:30-32)!
In fact, Jesus spoke about those who foolishly put their stock in their religion instead of true faith in God, as adulteresses. In Matthew 12 we read, “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’ But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign’” (Matt. 12:38-39a).
James is not talking about sexual, but spiritual unfaithfulness. Whereas in the first three verses of chapter four James is describing the heart condition of the people in the church, with these very strong words at the beginning of verse four James is calling his readers, all of his readers, to repentance. He is calling them to repentance for the sin he is about to describe—friendship with the world.
James asks his readers the question, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” With his words, James expresses a sense of surprise. It’s as if he was shocked to learn that his readers were claiming not to know the truth he has already conveyed through three chapters, and the truth of which he is about to remind them. James asks the question in such a way as to remind his readers of truth they already knew. He’s not going to let them get away with playing dumb.
The word James uses here for “friendship,” which comes from the Greek verb phileo, which means, “to love,” is found nowhere else in the New Testament. The word phileo is seen throughout the Scriptures to describe love. But unlike agape, another Greek word for “love,” which is best described as the kind of love that involves the act of sacrificing oneself to the object of that love; phileo is an emotional, deeply affectionate feeling for someone or something.
We see both of these kinds of love in Jesus words; “Greater love [agape] has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends [philos]” (John 15:13).
But unlike Christ, who sacrificially loved us to the point of death on the cross, some of James’ readers were, and, in all likelihood, some of us here today are, in love with the world. James’ readers—and all of us in this room are capable of this—capable of committing spiritual adultery when we seek to give our emotions and our affections to the world.
Now, the use of the word “world” in this verse has been badly misapplied by religious sects for generations. The friendship with the world that James is obviously painting in a negative light is not the same as friendship with people. “World” does not refer to the people that inhabit it, but the system that controls it.
The word does not refer merely to the physical realm, but to the spiritual as well. James uses the word to speak of a world system that is controlled by Satan, the father of lies. Jesus said, “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30).
Paul refers to the god of this world in his second letter to the church at Corinth. Paul wrote, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (II Cor. 4:3-4). And one last reference—the apostle John wrote, “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (I John 5:19).
With his question in the first half of verse four, James is letting his readers know that they should already be aware of the fact that giving our emotions and our affections to a world system currently under Satan’s control is tantamount to hostility toward God. The Greek word translated here as “hostility” also means “hatred.”
A person cannot claim to love God and know God while, at the same time, he or she is giving his or her emotional and affectionate love to a perishing, sinful world. Again we read in John’s first letter, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (I John 2:15-16).
James gives us the consequence of this worldly attitude in the second half of verse four. “Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” You can’t find any room in this verse for words like “sort of” or “kind of.” We can’t, for comfort sake, read the verse, “Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world kind of makes himself an enemy of God.”
James’ wording at the end of verse four is such that it pictures a person at the point of making a decision—a decision as to whether or not they are going to follow the lusts of their flesh, their desires that have no foundation in Christ, and be a friend of the world. Now, I know this idea of decision-making or choosing is going to perk some of the ears of those that are part of our Wednesday night Shepherd Group. We’re looking to the Scriptures to see if it’s God or man that chooses who will be saved.
What James is saying here does not contradict teaching elsewhere in Scripture about man’s inability to choose God. It compliments it. Man left to his own devices, to his own wisdom and understanding, is going to choose to do the very thing James is describing. He will choose to give his affections to the world so that he can please himself. And, in doing so, he makes himself an enemy of God.
There are no shades of gray, here. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t insist on living your life according to your will and desires and claim to be a follower of Christ. You can’t be a part-time Christian. If you profess to be a Christian, yet the fruit of your life shows that your commitment is to the world and to your own pleasures and desires, then you should honestly consider whether or not your faith is genuine.
It’s important that we understand that James is not saying that friendship with non-Christians makes you an enemy of God. James is not saying that reading the writing of non-Christian authors makes you an enemy of the Bible. James is not saying that if you listen to secular music you are an enemy of worship. James is not saying that if you take advantage of medical technology that you are an enemy of God’s provision. James is not saying that if you use a toaster, or a microwave, or a palm pilot you are sleeping with the enemy.
But, if you consistently justify to yourself or to others that reading books, listening to music, or watching movies that are diametrically opposed to the truths of Scripture, is harmless entertainment, you are living like a friend of a fallen world system and an enemy of God. If you never seem to have the time to read God’s Word, pray, or regularly gather with believers on Sunday morning for worship, if the sport of the season or activity of the week consistently takes precedence in your life over time with the Lord, then you are living like a friend of a fallen world system and an enemy of God.
Christians will occasionally fall into this trap. It’s often seen in their indifference to the things and lifestyles of this world, and they look at accountability as bothersome. But, for the true Christian, it won’t be a way of life. Friendship with the world and friendship with God is like oil and water—the two do not mix. You can’t be both at the same time. You will either be one or the other.
When writing to Titus, the apostle Paul instructed him “to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:12). And to the Colossians he wrote, “Set your minds on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth” (Col. 3:12). Those whose faith in Christ is genuine will deny ungodliness and worldly desires as a matter of course. Again, it’s not that the Christian lives a perfect life, but the genuine desire of their heart is to live for Christ each and every day, not for themselves or for other people.
Unbelievers live every day of their lives under the control of this ungodly world system. Some acknowledge the fact and don’t care. Others hold on to the world, but try to dress themselves up by going to church once in a while or calling themselves Christians. A hard truth that James is teaching here is that if you claim to be a follower of Christ, yet you consistently live your life in such a way that says, “I am a friend of the world,” the only person you are fooling is yourself. And if you are here today and this applies to you, James is calling for you to repent and turn to God.
Paul, agreeing with James, put it very plainly. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “For many walk, of whom I have told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things” (Phil. 3:18-19).
If we are having conflict with God, we should first take an honest look at the state of our relationship with the world. Where do our loyalties lie? How do we spend our time and money? Is it spent to show our love for Christ or is it spent to show our love for the world and our love for ourselves? If you want to understand conflict with God, first look at who or what has hold of the bulk of your affections, emotions, and attentions. Are the things of God the source of your pleasures or do you look at the things of God as a hindrance to the things you really desire?
Man’s Ignorance Of The Scriptures
One of the reasons believers sometimes see the line between godliness and worldliness as blurry or adjustable, and one of the reasons unbelievers don’t see the line at all, a line that when crossed leads to conflict with God, is a result of man’s ignorance of the Scriptures. When we find ourselves at odds with God, it can often be attributed to our lack of knowledge of His Word.
Statistics show that as many as 91% of Americans own as many as three different translations of the Bible. Yet over 50% of those surveyed cannot name five of the Ten Commandments, only one of the four gospels, and consider the Bible to be irrelevant today. Howard Hendricks, in his great book “Living By the Book,” writes, “ Even though the Bible remains the most sold book in the world, it’s also one of the most neglected ones. The Barna Research Group of Glendale, California reports that in a typical week, only 10 percent of Americans read the Bible every day. And even that figure may be high” (Hendricks, p. 9).
James apparently had to deal with the problem of Scripture illiteracy, which is probably an even greater problem in the Christian church today than it was then. James had to deal with not only a certain level of ignorance to what God’s Word says, but an attitude among some in the church of just flat-out ignoring with a disobedient heart the truths of God’s Word.
James writes in verse five, “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: ‘He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us.’” By beginning the verse with the word “or,” James lets us know that he’s going to emphasize the point he just made, but from a different direction. James words the question in the first half of the verse in such a way as to cause his readers to look in the mirror to see how much authority the Scriptures have in their lives.
When James writes, “do you think,” he is asking his readers if they continue to consider. It’s as if James is saying, “Do you still think the Scripture speaks to no purpose.” Theologian Ralph Martin translates the first part of verse five this way. “Or do you really imagine there is no ground in what Scripture says” (Martin, p. 149)?
In other words, James is saying, “It shouldn’t come as a shock to you that you do not receive the things you desire because you either fail to ask altogether and, if you do ask, your motives are all screwed up. Or, maybe the reason you are not satisfied is because you don’t understand or you are simply ignoring what the Scriptures teach.”
Think of it this way. When we were kids, we learned to accept a cramp in the leg as a growing pain. That’s what our parents would tell us to try to make us feel better. We were taught that if we fuel the growing muscles with lots of fluids, if we stretch and exercise those muscles, then the cramps will eventually subside. The same is true with our understanding of God’s Word.
If your mind cramps with the frustration of finding it difficult to understand the Scriptures, then you must fuel your minds with lots of prayer, and exercise and stretch your minds through the honest and consistent study of the Word and by submitting to the biblical teaching and accountability of other, more mature believers.
Now the cramps a child experiences growing up will eventually subside on their own, without taking any of the preventative measures I’ve mentioned, but it won’t be because they’ve gotten any stronger or healthier. It will simply be a result of growing older.
Likewise, if your mind cramps with the frustration of not understanding the Scriptures, you can do nothing and the cramps will eventually go away. But it won’t be as a result of growing stronger and healthier in your faith. You will simply become an older Christian that lacks the hunger and desire to know God’s truth the way a mature believer does.
Donald Whitney has written an excellent book entitled “Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life.” In fact, you will find a review of both the books I’ve mentioned this morning in the “Recommended Reading” handout on our resource table. Whitney writes:
“No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There is simply no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture. The reasons for this are obvious. In the Bible God tells us about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God.”
“The Bible unfolds the Law of God to us and shows us how we’ve all broken it. There we learn how Christ died as a sinless, willing Substitute for breakers of God’s Law and how we must repent and believe in Him to be right with God. In the Bible we learn the ways and will of the Lord. We find in Scripture how to live in a way that is pleasing to God as well as best and most fulfilling for ourselves. None of this eternally essential information can be found anywhere else except the Bible. Therefore if we would know God and be Godly, we must know the Word of God—intimately” (Whitney, p. 24).
Whitney goes on to give six steps for how a believer can intimately know the Word of God. The first is hearing the Word. Jesus said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (Luke 11:28). Reading God’s Word will help the believer to know it better. “Since ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness’ (2 Timothy 3:16), shouldn’t we read it” (Whitney, p. 28).
We should study God’s Word if we want to know it intimately. We should study the way the Old Testament figure, Ezra studied. “For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel” (Ezra 7:10).
We should memorize God’s Word to know it better. Memorizing God’s Word will help us to avoid sin such as the kinds that show us to be friends of the world. The Psalmist wrote, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you (Psalm 119:11).
We should spend a significant amount of time thinking on, meditating on the Word of God. Again, in Psalm 119 we read, “Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever within me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes” (Psalm 119:98-99).
And we should apply the truths of God’s Word to our lives. We have already learned from James we should be “doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude [ourselves]” (James 1:22). Jesus made this same point to His disciples during the Last Supper. Jesus said, “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them” (John 13:17).
Donald Whitney, like other Christian writers with integrity, will tell you to hear, read, study, memorize, meditate on, and apply the Bible before you read their books. Writers like Whitney understand that although their work can be used by God to encourage and instruct believers, it is but kindling in the fireplace when compared to the life-changing power of God’s infallible and inerrant Word.
Are you in conflict with God? Maybe it’s because you do not understand God’s Word or you are ignoring its truth. “Or,” to paraphrase once again what James is saying in verse five, “maybe you still think, or you imagine, that the Scriptures are irrelevant and speak to no purpose.” If this is the way you think, then it’s, again, reasonable to ask yourself, “How genuine is my faith?”
There are too many people in the world, both inside and outside the church, who are dying with this notion that the Scriptures speak to no purpose. As long as there is breath in me, I will be saying that there’s no truth to this idea. I know from my own experience that without the life-changing truths of the Scriptures to guide me and lead me to grow in my faith in Christ, it is my life that speaks to no purpose—not the Scriptures.
All right—let’s get back to the text. Verse five is considered by most theologians to be the most difficult verse in the Book of James to interpret. There are two reasons. The first is that when James writes “the Scripture,” we would expect this to be followed by an Old Testament quote. But the words quoted by James in verse five are not found in any particular verse in the Old Testament. The second reason this verse is so difficult to interpret is because of the words of the quote itself. Is James referring to the Holy Spirit or man’s spirit?
I could spend all day explaining the various points of view regarding the difficulties in verse five and we probably wouldn’t cover all of the different opinions. So, for the sake of time, I’m going to explain where my study has brought me. If you want to spend time talking about the different opinions, give me a call, take me out for a Coke, and will dig in together.
The point of view that I believe to be most accurate is that James is making a reference to a general theme in the Old Testament Scriptures. Ultimately, what we find here is one of the mysteries of Scripture that can leave us scratching our heads. There’s no way to know for sure the source of James’ quotation. But that doesn’t minimize in any way the fact that what James wrote here is inspired by God, true, and trustworthy. If we understand what James writes in the first half of verse five to be a reference to a general, Old Testament theme, then we have to decide to which theme James is referring. And that brings us to the next issue.
When James writes, “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us,” do we take the quotation to mean, “James is referring to God’s jealousy for his people, [which is the way the NASB has translated it? Or do we take the quotation to mean that] James is referring to the human tendency to be envious [and read it the way we see it in the NIV:] the spirit he caused to live in us envies intently” (Moo, p. 188)?
One of the difficulties in answering this question is that both points of view have significant support throughout the Scriptures. But I think that the best answer is that James is telling his readers that man’s spirit is corrupt and, when left to his own devices, will turn toward envy whenever the opportunity presents itself.
One of the keys to understanding this quotation in verse five is in our understanding of the word “jealousy” or “envy.” “In the New Testament it [is used to describe] life associated with the [unbelieving] world . . . [and] always has a bad connotation” (Kistemaker, p. 137). Remember, James just discussed friendship with an unbelieving world in verse four. It’s unlikely that James would associate a negative and sinful form of jealousy with a righteous and holy God.
As far as which spirit James is referring to, Holy or human, maybe this will help us understand. Since God is the giver of life, then He is also the one who has given us a human spirit. It’s that human, fallible spirit that will drift toward envy or bitter jealousy unless God’s Holy Spirit directs its way. Now, when James says that God caused this spirit to dwell in us, he is not saying that God is the cause of human sin. Sin is our responsibility.
“But in a real world of real human decisions and powerful temptations, without the guidance of heavenly wisdom the desires of the body will be guided by the [wisdom from below—that which is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic]” (Richardson, p. 180). By taking this interpretation we can see that James is saying, in effect, “Don’t you know, can’t you see, that the way you are living your life, living as a friend of the world and an enemy of God, proves the truthfulness of God’s Word, which teaches time and time again that the human spirit, if unredeemed by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, will envy and seek to please itself?
At the same time, it’s, as John MacArthur explains it, “virtually impossible to claim to hold the Scripture in genuine high regard as God’s own Word and yet not trust Jesus Christ for salvation. [The Lord had this to say about these kind of people], ‘You search the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life’ (John 5:39-40)” (MacArthur, p. 199).
So where does all of this truth find you today? Are you a believer, a person saved by the mercy of God’s grace, through Jesus Christ His Son, who is living your life as a friend of the world? Are you showing your friendship to the world through the priorities of your life? Where do Christ and His church fall in that list of priorities—not where you say it is on the list, but where does your lifestyle say Christ and His church is on your list of priorities? Is that where your conflict with God lies?
If Christ were to open your checkbook or your calendar, where would they show your friendship lies—with the world or with God? And what about your Bible, Christian? Is it worn because you’ve had it for a long time, or is it worn because you use it all the time?
Maybe your conflict with God lies in the fact that you’re living your life in such a way, as if to say the Scriptures speak to no purpose. Are you ignoring the truths of Scripture so you can hold on to your wants and desires in this world? If you hear the truths of Scripture, if they confront you about your conflicts with God, and you go away this morning and do nothing about it, whom are you solidifying your relationship with? Is it God or is it the world? The answer should be obvious.
And please, do not leave this morning thinking that the Scriptures speak to no purpose or think they are irrelevant and not applicable to your life. Whether you come to faith in Christ or not, whether you are a believer in Christ and turn your attentions away from the world or not; the truths of Scripture are seen in your life.
But which truth will it be? Will it be as we read in John’s gospel account just a few moments ago that even though the Scriptures speak repeatedly and clearly about salvation through Jesus Christ alone, you refuse to repent and believe? Or will it be the truth we find in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the first seven verses of chapter two?
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-7).
My hope is that we are beginning to have a better understanding about what conflict with God looks like and a biblical understanding of its source. May our time in His Word help us to shift our loyalties from the world to God and, as we will see next week, may the result be that we each receive the greater grace He has for those who, through genuine faith in Christ, love Him.
