James 4:1-12

James 4:1-12

4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.

Christmas time.  People are showing off their gifts.  Have you ever seen what someone received, that you did not receive, and said, "I hate you."  I do realize that phrase has become part of American culture, but be careful.  1 John 3:15 says if you hate your brother you are guilty of murder.  For most of us, that is the principle on which James is speaking.  You want something in your heart and you hate those that have it.  You do want ever you can to get it including racking up debt.  How many fights in a marriage start with money?

You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Let's face it folks.  Our greed list grows very fast here in America.  Please understand I love my country, but we have turned our backs on God and turned to "stuff".  We stopped asking God because we know he is a good parent and will say "no".

⁴ You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?

Do you really want to be an enemy of God?  

The Holy Spirit lives within each one of us who has accepted Christs payment for our sins.  When we choose to sin, He is forced to witness what we do.  This is the Spirit of God. He wishes for communion with God the Holy Spirit, yet we are forcing the Holy Spirit to witness filth.

  ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”

Grace.  Praise God for grace.

⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

When I stared listening to a Bible program that will help me through the Bible, I began to relax.  The Word was like salve to me.  God came near as these verses promise.

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. ¹² There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Some people will take these verses and accuse anyone who approaches them about sin in their life as judging them.  Not so. Matthew 18 is very clear on how we approach a brother or sister who is acting in a fashion contrary to scripture.  Mathew 7 warns us make sure we are not guilty of the sin we are about to approach our brother or sister about.

I believe this paragraph refers to those Christians who decide that a person is not saved.  Or they decide the person is beyond hope.  These Christians act like they are God and condemn the other.  We are NOT God.  We were sinners.  God chose us with all our faults and filth and gave us grace.  We need to extend that grace to others.  I smile at how appropriate the verses I close each days lesson with are today.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.