James 4:1-12 "Whose Friend Are You Anyway?"
By Rev. Mark Hiehle
When my children were small, I loved sitting with them and teaching them the songs I learned as a child. It was wonderful to sing with them; "Jesus Loves Me, Deep and Wide, Only a Boy Named David, This Little Light of Mine and He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands." Those songs are simple songs, but they are filled with truth that we want our children to know and remember. Another song which comes to mind is "Jesus Loves the Little Children." Jesus does love all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are all precious in his sight. This morning can I ask the question, "Do we see others the same way Jesus does?" We are to be just like Jesus. So, do we sing that little song only or do we live it? As I became a teenager, I went to summer camp and we would sing songs around the camp fire. One of the songs we sang was, "They Will Know We are Christians By Our Love." Does the world really know you and I are Christians because of how they see us love each other? James looked at the church, and he did not see love and believers treating each other as being precious in their sight. The church that James wrote to was filled will fighting, quarreling, gossip and slander. The church had a problem that needed to be addressed and James did not sugar-coat his dealing with those in the church.
As Chapter 4 begins, James asks a question that is both direct and alarming. "What causes fights and quarrels among you?" The church is to be known by love. However, more often than not, the church is just like the world in the way people relate and deal with each other. In verse 11, James even calls the people on the carpet by saying, "Brothers, do not slander one another." The problem was real and it was infecting the church just as it still does today. But why? Again James does not pull his punches as he reveals the truth behind their behavior. James answers the question of why, with a question and then goes on to expound further. "Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God." The problem centers within. Outward behavior is always an indicator of the condition within. It is a heart problem. In other words, the fruit that is seen displayed on the outside, reveals what has been sown inside the heart. God is telling us through James that the problem of fighting, quarreling and slander in the church is due to self-centeredness. Paul set forth this problem very clearly in Galatians chapter 5. In Galatians 5:19-23, the fruit of two kinds of sowing are seen. When someone sows seeds of selfishness, they are sowing seeds of the sinful nature which produce fruit after its own kind. "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery: idolatry and witchcraft: hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy: drunkenness, orgies and the like." Whenever you witness a believer who exhibits these kinds of behaviors, God’s Word tells us that the reason is because they are following their sinful nature. Instead of keeping in step with the Spirit, they are gratifying the desires of the sinful nature. In fact, God says, that they are at that point, more in love with the world than they are with him. James says the same thing by stating that, you are more a friend of the world than a friend of God. And from God’s viewpoint, if you are a friend of the world and its ways, (which is self-centered and sinful) then you are literally an enemy of God. The cure to no longer being a friend of the world, and stopping those kinds of actions in a believer’s life, it is by repentance, renunciation and reliance upon God’s grace and power.
REPENTANCE
When a believer realizes that they are involved in gratifying the desires of the sinful nature, the correct response is not to ask God to help them do better, but to repent. Ask for forgiveness, because they have involved themselves in sin. As born again believers, we were called to die to the sinful nature and live after the Spirit. If not, there would be a continual battle within. (Gal 5:13-18) Repentance is defined as a turning. It is being sorry, not that you were caught, but sorry enough to quit what you were doing and do that which is right. Repentance is a complete 180 degree turn in your thinking and behavior.
RENUNCIATION
Renunciation of your sin goes hand in hand with repentance. Repentance is having deep sorrow for committing sin and desiring to turn from sin. Renouncing that sin solidifies the change of heart and mind. What I have found in the counseling office is that a verbal confession needs to be made for a real change to occur. There is power in our words. If we will confess our sin, with our mouths, out loud, a spiritual dynamic comes into play that does not happen otherwise. It is like when your child has hurt another child and you tell them to say that they are sorry to the one they hurt. You don’t let them just say they are sorry, but you have them say what they are sorry for. It makes the apology not only more meaningful to the hurt person, but it becomes more real and hopefully lasting to the offender as well. In the same way, when there is a repentant spirit within a person for a wrong they have committed, a verbal renunciation or confession brings about a stronger and lasting change. The reason is because not only is the heart longing to feel forgiven, but the mind determines future actions.
RELIANCE
With the desire to be forgiven and have your heart and mind change, (so that the sinful behavior would not continue) the third step is to rely upon God’s grace and strength. The way to do this is to consciously make the decision to die to the sinful nature. Therefore, keep in step with the Spirit and you will not follow the desire of sin. How do you do that? James tells us in verses 7-10. When the devil is tempting you to follow after the sinful nature, which is self-centeredness, seen evidenced in the fruit of the sinful nature, first submit yourselves to God. If we are to experience the reality of the promise, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" we must do what the beginning of the verse says, "Submit yourselves, then, to God." Submitting to God is the key to spiritual victory and living by the Spirit. Totally relying upon God’s grace is the door to victorious Christian living. Not running ahead of God or lagging behind, but keeping in step with the Spirit. Submission - constant, continual reliance upon God’s Lordship and leadership. The way to not live by the sinful nature, but experience the fruit of the Spirit, is by fully submitting to God’s will and not your own.
What if you look at your life and see that you are seeing the fruit of the sinful nature instead of the Spirit? What should you do? Verses 8-10 tells us exactly what to do. First James says, "Come near to God and He will come near to you." Realize that you have walked away from God and you need to return. Call out and He will be there for you. Just as Peter called out to Jesus as he was beginning to sink, the Bible says that "immediately," Jesus lifted him from the water and together they walked back to the boat.(Matt 14:22-32)
Second, "Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double-minded." You need to become clean. Stop doing that which you know is sin and ask the Father to wash you, inside and out. Your heart needs to turn to God and you need to love God before anything or anyone in this world, even yourself. It all comes down to a matter of the heart. When Jesus reinstated Peter, what did He ask him three different times? " Peter, do you love me?"(John 21:15-18) Do you really love God? Jesus said, "If you love me you will keep my commands."(John 14:15) Can we go even deeper? I John 3:6 tells us, "No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him." What does that mean? If we make the conscious choice to keep on sinning even though we know it is against God’s Word and His will, we are actually saying that we do not love God and we really do not know him at all. If that is you this morning, you are double-minded and James tells you what you need to do. "Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up." Repent, Renounce and Rely upon God for forgiveness and grace. Tell God you are sorry and that you really do not love him as you should, but you want to. You want to change but you can not do it on your own. Thank him that he loved you enough to die for you and now you want to die to yourself so that you can truly know Him and love him. Let’s pray and be serious before God.
