“HUMBLE LIVING.” JAMES 4: 1-10, 13-17.
JAMES 4: 1, 2-3, 4-5, 6, 7-9, 10, 13-15, 16-17,
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO JAMES 4.
You have so many references in your Bible of pride and humility that you will be taking home with you. I have prayed that you may gain others from “The New Dictionary of Thought,” such as “Pride is the first peer and president of hell.” “Pride, like the magnet, constantly points to one object, self.” “Pride is increased by ignorance; those assume the most, who know the least.” “Pride is to the character, like the attic to the house---it is the highest part, and generally the most empty.” Pride is the master sin of the Devil.” “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” “They that know God will be humble; they that know themselves cannot be proud.” “Humility is the genuine proof of Christian virtue.” “God walks with the humble.” Humility is the Christians greatest honor.” “Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.” “ Pride promotes strife.” “Humble Living brings Joy, Peace, and Contentment.”
Selfish pride is a universal evil. It pervades every hamlet, every home, every heart. It causes conflicts in churches, businesses, and families. Hostilities and broken relationships between people are usually evidences of conflict with God and His will for our lives. These conflicts come as a result of inner desires and cravings that we allow to get out of balance. The only way these problems can be resolved is through genuine faith in God that leads to humble submission to His sovereign purpose and plan in all areas of life---including relationships with others that demonstrate humility and grace.
The Biblical Truth in today’s lesson is that “persons with real faith in God overcome selfish pride by humbly submitting to Him.” James begins today’s lesson with a question.
“What is the source of the wars and the fights among you? Don’t they come from the cravings that are at war within you?
Notice Ch. 4 begins with “fights and quarrels. Many things in his letter in previous chapters show James was writing to people who professed to be believers. He referred to them as brothers. He spoke of their faith in Jesus Christ. He mentioned the church. Yet throughout the letter he warned of serious sins his readers either had committed or were in danger of committing.
In the three earlier lessons, he warned against hearing without doing the Word, favoritism in the church, failing to help needy brothers, and sins of the tongue.
Today’s verses follow up on James 3: 13-18, in which James contrasted true wisdom with worldly wisdom. In regard to the latter, he wrote in James 3:16, “Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.”
James 4:1 asks about the source of wars and fightings. When these words occur together, the first refers to a prolonged conflict and the second to outbursts of hostility. When used literally, he was talking about wars and battles. Generally the words refer to all kinds of serious prolonged conflicts and clashes. The appearance of conflict among the followers of Jesus stirred James to intense indignation.
The meaning of the words among you depend on whether James used you in a general way of society as a whole or of the believers to whom he was writing. If he used it personally, he was focusing on the prolonged warlike conflicts and periodic clashes of church people, that is, “church fights.”
The severity of James tone in this section is accented by the absence of the words “my brothers,” which James used so frequently in other parts of the letter.
The second question in vs. 1 identifies the source of all wars and battles among nations and for the conflicts and clashes among church people: Don’t they come from your lusts that war in your members,” or “Don’t they come from the cravings that are at war within you.”
The word for lusts often refers to sexual lusts, but here it refers to desires of any kind that lead to conflicts. Some Bible students think that members refer to church members, and it may: however, it probably refers to the members of the human body. James, like Paul, uses ‘members’ to speak of sinful, fallen human nature.’
In other words, the initial conflict is within each of us, but then it spreads to our relationships with others. The inner struggles between conflicting desires cause the inner warfare, which lead to strife with others. The conflicts within each person can lead to conflicts with others if we let selfishness win the inner struggle. The theme of vs. 1-3 is the evil that results from uncontrolled selfish desires. People think like this, “If the most important thing to me is to get what I want, I will do whatever it takes to get what I want.”
One of the most common complaints that people voice about their marriages, the people they work with, and their children is “We just don’t get along.” To get rid of the problem, James knew that his readers had to deal with the source of the wars and fights among themselves. As soon as he asked the question, James provided the answer: “Don’t they come from the cravings that are a war within you?” The cause of arguments is conflicting desires. One person wants one thing, and the other person wants something else. The one thing they have in common is that both are ruled by desires. Even before little babies can talk, this principle is at work and evident in them. They cry to get not just what they need but what they want. Marriage has plenty of areas for potential conflict. When two people live together, their differences of opinion and personal desires often cause discord and disagreement. Both parties enter the marriage with expectations and unvoiced demands that the mate could not possibly meet. This situation sets them up for failure and disappointment.
When we pray for God to grant our desires, we first need to make certain that our desires are consistent with God’s will for our lives.
PLEASE READ JAMES 4: 2-3.
Private feelings of dissatisfaction become public sentiments of rage. James presented three desires that cause conflict. The first longing is the desire to have things—the need for possessions. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. Such people feel that it they can just have one more thing they will be satisfied. How quickly yesterday’s desires become today’s donation to a charity! Things that someone could not live without eventually become yard-sale merchandise.
When needs and desires dominate people’s priorities and thoughts, they seldom stop at just wanting those things. They will go to any lengths to possess what they want. They will fight and war (figuratively at least) to get what they want, but after attaining the desired object they aren’t really satisfied after all.
While Abraham Lincoln was living in Springfield, Illinois, a neighbor heard his two younger boys, Tad and Willie, arguing loudly with each other and with Lincoln. “Why, Mr. Lincoln, what’s the matter?” The neighbor asked. Lincoln’s answer was: “Just what’s the matter with the whole world. I’ve got three walnuts and each boy wants two.”
James knew that Christians have a much better way to get their needs and desires met. All they need to do is ask their Heavenly Father. He sees their true needs and cares about them more than they care about themselves. When Christians rely on themselves, they miss the joy of seeing God supply their needs out of “His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4: 19). James rebuked such Christians by saying, “You do not have because you do not ask.”
In the process of asking God to met needs and supply desires, Christians often discover that God either changes their desires, provides what they ask, or helps them learn that having Jesus really is enough---even when other prayers go unanswered or other desires unfulfilled. The Christian life is a life lived in fellowship with God. When that communion with God is not renewed and expressed in prayer, a person is vulnerable to temptation.
Other people resort to prayer in an attempt to get what they want. They view prayer as if it is a magic lamp, and they view God as the “genie.” This is another sinful result of uncontrolled selfish desires.
Christians ought to enjoy life. The world belongs to the Christian because only those who know the Creator can fully appreciate what He has made. But we don’t really enjoy them when pleasure becomes the object of—rather than the result of—pursuing God.
Thus the antidote to conflict is to pursue God with all of one’s heart, to make Him the ultimate source of joy.
Many Christians may never have as much money as they want or as big a house as they desire, but they can always have as much of God as they want. Prayer is the key. All one needs to do is ask God for more of Himself. Prayerlessness is an evidence of pride. The peace that comes from prayer will get rid of the conflict that comes from selfishness and covetousness.
God refuses to grant our petitions when they proceed from evil desires. To pray from wrong motives is not to pray in faith. Rom. 14: 23 says, “whatever is not from faith is sin.”
PLEASE READ JAMES 4: 4-5.
James surely earned his readers attention with the harsh address, Adulterers and Adulteresses; a metaphoricall description of spiritual unfaithfulness. He used the words in the O.T. sense in which Israel was seen as the Lord’s bride whom He often accused of unfaithfulness to Him because of her idolatry.
In the same way, friendship with the world---flirtation with things that are contrary to God’s intention for His people---is hostility toward God. Spiritual adultery involves a love affair with a sinful world. James did not use the word world to refer to the good world of divine creation. Neither did he use the word to refer to the world of lost humanity, which God loved so much that He sent His Son as Savior. Vs. 4 refers to the world of selfishness that sets itself up against God and His way.
Every time a person desires something that is beyond the parameters that God has established for His people, he or she is saying that God is not enough and His love is not satisfying. This is a slander on God’s goodness, an affront to God’s providence, and accusation against God’s care for His own people.
God is a jealous God. He will not stand for someone He loves to be attracted to a world opposed to Him and all He is. As James put it, to be the world’s friend is to be God’s enemy. Thus God reminds us in 1 John 2: 15, “If anyone loves he world, love for the Father is not in him.” God leaves no room for a person to love both. The Spirit He has caused to live in us yearns jealously for us to be devoted and faithful to Him. We need to pick our friends carefully. The world cannot be the Christian’s friend.
Jesus prayed in John 17: 15-16 that His followers would be in the world but not of it. Too often we limit our definition of worldliness to sins such as drunkenness and sexual immorality. But the Bible defines worldliness more broadly to include all that results from our choice of selfishness instead of faith.
Paul’s list of works of the flesh in Gal. 5: 19-21 includes not only sexual immorality, drunkenness, and carousing but also strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, and envy. James in James 3: 16 already had warned of envy and ambition that lead to disorder and all kinds of evil.
In James 4:1-2 he condemned selfishness and covetousness that lead to conflicts. These are evidences of friendship with the world and enmity against God.
4. Teacher read James 4: 6. “But He gives greater grace. Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James followed up vs. 5 with the words “He giveth more grace.” What is the hope in the face of sin? It is God’s grace. The last part of vs. 6 is a quotation from Proverbs 3: 34. This is also quoted in 1 Peter 5:5. James warned his readers that God has declared war on selfishness and egocentric lifestyles. Those that exalt themselves with pride run directly into divine opposition. God has a unique and effective way of engineering the circumstances of life to challenge the pride that detracts from reliance on Him. Prov. 16:18-19 says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.”
The word proud denotes people who show themselves to be above others. This is the sin of pride that is such a part of every sin.
Pride makes a person feel that he doesn’t need God and that he is better than others. Humble translates a word meaning “lowly.” The Greeks considered this a quality to be shunned, but the Bible encourages it. Jesus made it the secret to greatness in God’s eyes in Mark 10:35-45.
God offers His grace to all, but receiving His grace depends on being humble. The proud are not looking for God’s grace. They think they have life under control. They feel no need for God and His grace. They receive no grace because they are not open to receive it. By contrast, the humble know they are dependent on God, their Creator and Father. They trust in Him, not in themselves. This openness to grace enables God to pour out His abundant grace on them.
5. PLEASE READ JAMES 4: 7-9.
In these verses James explained to his readers how they could achieve and display the kind of humility that would rid their lives of the conflicts that had caused them many problems. He gave them four specific steps to take that would result in an end to their fighting and divisions.
First and foremost, submit to God. This is the first step toward right relationships with others. Conflicts cannot be resolved apart from a willingness to do as God directs.
Life’s problems come from within a person, but life’s solutions come from without—specifically, they come from God as revealed in His Word. Submit yourself to God is the reasonable response to vs. 6. It identifies the basic issue since Adam and Eve. The basic sin has been trying to live without God. This is the crux of pride. The cure for conflict is a humble spirit which is rewarded by God’s unmerited favor.
People say: “I am my own person. I will not submit myself to anyone or anything, including God.” Many think of this attitude as commendable self-determination. They fail to realize who and what we are as human beings and who and what God is. We are creations of the loving God who wants only the best for us. Therefore, when we submit ourselves to God, we entrust ourselves into the hands of our loving Heavenly Father. Only then will we find life as it was intended to be.
The second step is to realize where the conflict comes from and get wise to the ways of the enemy. James instructed, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This is the negative exhortation and the promise. Since the Garden of Eden, the tempter has pictured God as the heavenly killjoy who withholds from us the good things of life.
Christians need to resist the devil and his lies. In James 1: 13-15 James emphasized that we are accountable for yielding to temptation. Here in 4:7 he emphasized the role of Satan in temptation. There is no contradiction between the two passages.
Satan tempts us to do wrong, but we are responsible if we do. We should resist him, but only as we have submitted ourselves to God. Too many people try to resist the devil in their own strength. This is doomed to fail.
Once people let God be Lord of their lives, then they must oppose all that the devil is trying to do. Satan wants to destroy marriages, ruin testimonies, split churches, and hurt relationships.
He loves to cause stress, distress, and conflict. Christians seeking to live for God will run head on into the Devil every morning; those who don’t simply demonstrate that they are going the same direction as Satan! To submit to God is by nature to oppose Satan. James provided an important insight into spiritual battle. Those who stand and contest Satan are guaranteed success. Christians don’t fight for victory but from victory already achieved by Jesus by His death and resurrection.
When David was a boy of about 15, he brought food to his brothers in Israel’s army. David found that Goliath was defying Israel’s army and bringing reproach on God’s people. Every day Israel’s entire army was paralyzed and remained in the camp rather than attacking the Philistines.
After David fought and defeated Goliath, the entire army rallied and routed the Philistines. The army enjoyed the benefit of the battle that David had already won. In the same way, Christians are unable to stand against Satan on their own, but because Jesus has already defeated him believers can participate in His victory.
Satan is powerful, but he cannot stand up to a believer who relies on Jesus Christ. Satan will always flee from the Christians who resists him.
Vs. 8 sounds like an evangelistic invitation, but here these words are addressed to professing Christians. “Draw nigh to God” is a call to worship. The promise to those who draw near to God is that He will draw night to you. So the third step in resolving conflicts in life is to “draw near to God.
Christians need to go to church and hear the Word. They should get involved in Bible study with others and read the Bible every day during a personal quiet time.
Prayer is another way that followers of Christ can grow closer to the Lord. Memorization of God’s Word and meditation of it are essential as well. Doing the things that draw them closer to God are important elements of the Christian life.
Isaiah 26: 3 says, “You will keep in perfect peace the mind that is dependent on You.” The wonderful thing is that the means for drawing near to God is also the means for defeating Satan—the Bible! Jesus knew the Word and quoted it to Satan when He was tempted in Matt 4:1-11.
God promises that He will draw near to those who want to get close to Him. The reward of striving to get closer to God is that He always responds positively. Rev. 3:20 says He has already been seeking us and awaits us right outside the door to our heart. He is never too busy. God wants to get close to every one of His children, so the only obstacle is that the Christian just doesn’t want to get close to God. That is when conflicts arise.
The fourth step to resolving conflicts is to clean up your act. “Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people.” James at times referred to his readers as “My brethren”, but in James 4:8 he called them “sinners” and “double minded.” James was pointing to the truth that allowing conflict to continue in one’s life is a sin and needs to be forgiven. He was writing to Christians, but he spoke frankly about their sins here and throughout his letter.
By referring to their hands, James rebuked his readers for their conduct. By mentioning their hearts, he corrected their character. James meant that they had been in sin and needed to repent.
Godly sorrow over their sin should make them be miserable and mourn and weep. Sometimes Christians act as if conflict between them is really no big deal. It should be expected and can easily be laughed off.
James indicated that conflict is no laughing matter: “Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow.” He did not mean that Christians should never be happy, but in the presence of arguments and quarrels between brothers and sisters in Christ there is no place for laughing and having a good time. Christians need to be about the business of conflict resolution---even if it is painful.
Joel 2: 12-13 calls for repentance using language like that used by James 4: 9; “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.” Repentance involves changing behavior. People may feel bad about their sins but not turn from them. On the other hand, godly sorrow leads to repentance. James was writing about the world’s superficial laughter. When you are out of fellowship with God, that is a time to weep. When we are near to God, we know the only lasting source of joy.
6. TEACHER READ JAMES 4: 10. “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up or exalt you.”
Vs. 7-10 consist of a series of short exhortations with the general theme of humble submission to God. Summing up everything, James reminded his readers, that at the root of most conflicts is selfish ambition. Christians should not be in the business of exalting themselves but rather of exalting Jesus. But just as God exalted Jesus when He humbled Himself and became obedient even to death on the cross (see Phil. 2:5-11), He will exalt you whenever you humble yourself before the Lord.
The end of conflict usually comes when someone surrenders his or her rights, desiring unity and harmony more than self-vindication. When Christians let God take care of their rights instead of demanding those things for themselves, they discover that God does a far better job than they ever could.
7. PLEASE READ JAMES 4: 13-15.
Vs, 13 sounds like a sales meeting in a modern business. Notice the aspects of their plan that they assumed: when they would launch their next undertaking (today or tomorrow); where they would go (into such a city); how long they would stay (continue there a year); and what they would do (buy and sell). They also took for granted that the venture would be profitable (get gain).
James was not anti-business. He was reflecting a consistent biblical warning against the dangers of forgetting the shortness and uncertainties of life. As James wrote vs. 14, he probably had in mind Prov. 27: 1: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
These business people in vs. 13 were like the rich young fool of Luke 12: 16-21, who was not condemned for being dishonest or for exploiting others; he was condemned because he was so preoccupied with his possessions that he left Go out of his life.
He made elaborate plans for future expansion and profitability, but death robbed him of his only treasures in life. Without a relationship with God, he had nothing beyond death.
James wisdom cuts through many incorrect assumptions about conflicts and get right to the core issues. People seldom realize that a large portion of the conflicts in their lives comes from a presumptuous attitude about the future.
Americans are obsessed with the future. They read tea leaves, fortune cookies, horoscopes, and palms to make sure hey have the future under control.
They attend conferences on planning and goal-setting, all because they are concerned about the future and want to control it.
James told his readers that they were often guilty of three basic mistakes about the future. The first mistake was that they made plans independently of God. “Today or tomorrow we will travel…and do business.” Nothing is wrong with making plans, but Christians need to understand that every moment of life is a gift from God and they must not presume that their time is their own. Prov. 16: 9 says, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.”
The second mistake Christians make about the future is that they forget that life on this earth is not all there is, that it does not last forever. The brevity of life should not cripple us, but it should motivate us to make the most of our time. No one knows what tomorrow will bring---what your life will be! Life is as temporary as a bit of smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes, leaving not even a trace behind. Because life is so brief and so intangible, Christians should display some humility about it.
When James asked, “What is your life?” he likely had in mind the many O.T. warnings of the shortness and uncertainty of life. James described life as a vapor or “a mist.” Or “as bit of smoke.” Elsewhere, in Scripture in Job 7:9, life is compared to a cloud and in Psalm 102:11 to a shadow.
Instead of presumption Christians should demonstrate their constant dependence on the Lord, which they acknowledge with an attitude that always says, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” The antidote to presumption is a constant reliance on the Lord.
James was not suggesting that all future planning is wrong because life is short and uncertain. He was not advocating a passive fatalism that waits around for death. He was warning against a worldly presumption; one which falsely assumes that life and its outcome, are under our control. This becomes clear in the verses that follow.
James 4: 16 contains an even stronger condemnation of the business people in vs. 13. They not only took for granted all the things mentioned in vs. 13, but they also were proud and boastful about achieving their goals.
James said, “Ye rejoice in your boastings,” or “You boast in your arrogance.” Boastings or “arrogance” translates a word that refers to empty swaggering. Such a person is guilty of ”boasting of what he does,” James declared. All such rejoicing or “boasting” is evil.
James told his readers that their lives needed to be lived in relationship with God and His will. People who know this but fail to do it are guilty of sin.
The principle in vs. 17, however, is broader in application than the issue in vs. 13-16. Most people know doing wrong is a sin. But James reminded us that failing to do right is also a sin. Earlier in James 2:14-17, James had condemned the sins of failing to help the needy, and in James 4: 2 of failing to pray.
But James was not the first in the Bible to condemn such sins. In 1 Sam. 12: 23 Samuel spoke of the sin of failing to pray for the people Israel. Jesus, in Luke 10:31-32, told of a Priest, and a Levite, who passed by a dying man. They did not rob and wound him, but they did leave him to die. Jesus, in Matt. 25: 42-45 also described people who ignored the needy, and thus ignored Christ Himself.
No matter which mistake one makes---presumption, miscalculation, or pride---these are all issues that impede the spiritual lives of those whom God has saved. Christians must realize that they depend on God not only for salvation from their sins, but also for the next breath, and the ability to do anything in this life.
James final warning is a stern one. Once a person has been warned and corrected, he or she is responsible to make the necessary changes in life. The person who knows to do good and doesn’t do it is guilty of sin before a holy God. Planning for the future is good, but presumption about the future is a sin.
NEXT SUNDAY WE BEGIN A FIVE LESSON SERIES TITLED, “CHALLENGES OF FOLLOWING GOD.” FIRST, WE MUST “SEEK GOD’S PURPOSE.” GEN. 12: 1-7, 10-18.
A.V. DAUGHERTY ,<altav@swbell.net>