This Is War Series

One of my favorite bands is the group “Switchfoot.” While I like their sound (it is unique and often very easily identifiable), what I like most is their lyrics. Switchfoot is a band that is made up of Christians. Their lyrics and songs have made their way onto both Christian and secular charts and into both Christian and secular movies.

One of the reasons I like their lyrics so much is that they have a way of weaving words that make you think. They have a way of speaking into culture and speaking to the heart of the individual.

Their Christian message may not be as overt as some would like, but it is very thought provoking.

While their song “The War Inside” is not one of my favorite songs - either lyrically or musically, it does have a profound message. One part of the song says:

I get the feeling that we're living in sci-fi

I get the the feeling that our weapons are lo-fi

Ain't no killer like pride

No killer like I

No killer like what's inside

And the chorus says:

I am the war inside

I am the battle line

I am the rising tide

I am the war I fight

Eyes open, open wide

I can feel it like a crack in my spine

I can feel it like the back of my mind

I am the war inside

The song really seeks to look at the battle within - specifically the battle with pride.

One of my lyrically favorite songs of theirs is one called “The American Dream.” Where “the war inside” deals with the battle within ourselves for first place, “The American Dream” deals with the battle we face in the world - the struggle with materialism and the bondage that materialism entails.

When success is equated with excess

The ambition for excess wrecks us

As the top of the mind becomes the bottom line

When success is equated with excess

Another part of the song says:

I want out of this machine

It doesn't feel like freedom

This ain't my American dream

I wanna live and die for bigger things

I'm tired of fighting for just me

This ain't my American dream

The battles we face - both inside and outside of us - are age old battles.

Jesus said in Luke 16:13

Luke 16:13 NKJV

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

While that word mammon is rendered as money in other translations - it has both the connotation of wealth and the powers that exist behind all sorts of materialistic gains.

Now, as we come to the next several verses in our study of the book of James, it seems like both pride and materialism are elements that James has in mind as he alerts us to the war that we face. If you have your copy of God’s Word, let’s open them to James 4.

As you know, over the last several weeks, we have been reflecting on this letter to exiles, as James challenges them to have a fully integrated faith - a faith that is lived and visible.

This week, in the Midweek Email, I encouraged you to go back about a chapter and a half in James’ letter in order to look at a bigger picture than just the few verses we are considering today. Let’s briefly jump back there.

In James 2, he addressed the sin of partiality as some people were favoring those who could help them get ahead. Partiality is a sin because it both fears other humans more than God and looks to those people to supply the things that God supplies. Then he urged us to have a visible faith - a faith that is evidenced by our works - both toward other people and our works toward God. If our faith is a private matter and not publically seen, then we are walking hypocrites. We again show that we fear humans more than God. We live an inconsistent and disjointed life.

In James 3, he focused on teachers and leaders who, in their pride, could lead a church astray. He also focused on individuals as we wrestle with how we use our words, noting that we can cause a great deal damage with a few poorly placed comments.

James seems to get more specific and clear regarding the sources of our struggle as we discussed the root, attributes, and fruit of two different kinds of wisdom - worldly wisdom and godly wisdom.

As we turn the page to chapter 4 of James’ letter, it certainly seems like his argument is getting more direct and pointed (as if it wasn’t direct and pointed already). His point of application gets even clearer. He essentially tells us that we are at war and that war is within us. Whereas pride and materialism are elements of that, as James and Switchfoot tell, there is much more.