September 18, 2022
The Solution To The Rage Of Worldliness
James 4:1-12

TITLE: The Solution To The Rage Of Worldliness

The NT–of course–offers us a look into the problems of the Church in the first century. Much of the NT is not pretty regarding the state of the Church. The book of 1 Corinthians reveals the sinful anything goes spirit in the Corinthian church. Galatians and Colossians reveals the struggle with false doctrine and the people that taught it. James is no different. This book reveals the internal struggle of lust and the external struggle of “judgmentalism among the […] Christian congregations” of the first century. (Utley)

James continues his contrasting style of writing to his audience to get their attention. He transitioned from the peace that comes from the wisdom of God to what is breaking up the the peace in the Church at large in our passage.

Today is similar in spiritual ways to the first century. There are always consistencies: when we read the news we see wars across the world and wars across the street. (Barclay) There is a rage inside of the lives of men that never runs out of fuel.

When it comes to sin, we always needs to get to the root. This is how we gain the victory. Instead of looking at the symptoms we need to look for the cure. James is going to explain that the Church continues to carry this rage inside of itself during this life, and–more importantly–give the Church the tools it needs to stop the rage of the wordiness.

4:1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

• Quarrels = KJV and CSB have “wars.” That is what the Gk. word means (LSJ; Thayer)
• Fights = combat, contest, struggle (LSJ)
• Cause of infighting = passions = Gk: ἡδονή (hēdonē) = sensual pleasures (LSJ); by implication, desire: lust (Strong)
  • The lust and passions war within us and cause the external wars among others.
• “within you” may refer to the people in the Church or parts of the our physical bodies may be in view, so “external (problem in the church)” or “internal (fallen nature)” or both. (Utley)
• I see it as the problems we all face as humans from the fall.
  • Romans 7:23, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
  • 1 Peter 2:11, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
• Often the passions go unidentified and unconfessed.
• Barclay wrote, “The ultimate choice in life lies between pleasing oneself and pleasing God; and a world in which men’s first aim is to please themselves is a battleground of savagery and division.”

2 You desire and do not have, so you murder.

• desire = ἐπιθυμέω (epithymeō) = lit: turned upon a thing, hence (cf. our to set one’s heart upon) (Thayer); long for, covet (LSJ); lust (after). (Strong)
• Things turn our hearts from GOD!
• This is the central idea from this passage: lust for things is the source of all strife. People in the Church were not getting what they wanted, so they went to war, they fought, hated and murdered.
• “Murder” in verse 2 has caused much pause regarding comments.
• Some thought that James was broadening his message to the Jewish people at large momentarily. (cf. EBC)
  • To support this some cited Josephus’ account of murderous bandits in the first century (cf. EBC). They saw the these thugs still at work around and perhaps to some degree in the Church. ¹
  • This is convenient but dubious.
• Sutcliffe saw James’ writing as prophetic, He saw this as speaking to the future. ³
• Something that comes to mind is that James may have used the term “murder” in the place of “hate” due to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” (Utley)
  • I leave room for this interpretation.
  • Calling sin what it spiritually is might help us. EXPLAIN
• I take it literally.
  • James would have been getting reports from every source as to the state of the Church at large. It is at least somewhat likely that he had been given reports of a murder in one of the churches.
  • Illustration: 1994 Rwandan genocide
• The problem > turned hearts to things is the source of murder.
• Our hearts can be on things or God; not both.

2b You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

• Christians sometimes fall into the same want of the Exodus Jews. We do not ask God for what we need.

But I think verse 3 points to what we struggle with more: 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

• James quickly transitions to the selfish motive tendencies within us: we want more things to spend it on our passions [lusts]; not to help the kingdom of God.
• A selfless life is what our aim should be.
• 1 John 2:16, For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

4 You adulterous people!

• Adultery may be in view, but with the rest of the verse in context, spiritual adultery is what is most likely James’ point.
• Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
  • Wanting more more more for self self self is making oneself a friend of the world…
  • Carnality is in view
  • The term “world”–of course–is often used as imagery for “human society, organized and functioning apart from God.” (Utley)
  • Wanting more to spend on self is “friendship with the world.”
  • Wanting more to spend on self is spiritual adultery!
  • enmity = ἔχθρα (echthra) = hostility; by implication, a reason for opposition: enmity, hatred.

Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

• Wanting more to spend on self is to make an enemy of God.

• [Barclay wrote,] James is setting before his people a basic question–whether their aim in life is to submit to the will of God or to gratify their own desires for the pleasures of this world? He warns that, if pleasure is the policy of life, nothing but strife and hatred and division can possibly follow. (Barclay)

APPLICATION

• The highest level of sin is associated with coveting and the passions that live inside each one of us.
• Passion Desires Coveting = Friends with the world and enemies with God.
• If He wants us to have something He will give it to us.
• Ask Him for what you need and let Him answer.
• Forcing the issue outside of God’s provision is sin.
• Peace and contentment.

TRANSITION

Now that we see how coveting was causing heinous sins in the Church, let’s look at what God is always doing about bad behavior.

5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

• Many say the meaning of this verse is uncertain (cf. Constable, Utley, Sutcliffe, et al.)
  • Two interpretational difficulties are presented in this verse:
    • It arises from the question: is the “the spirit” the Holy Spirit or a believer’s spirit. (cf. Constable, Utley)
      • One interpretation “The [Holy] Spirit which He made to dwell in us jealously yearns for the entire devotion of the heart.” [244] (Constable).
      • Another–more abstract–interpretation is: “God jealously longs for the spirit that He made to live in us.” [243] (Constable)
    • The second difficulty in this verse is that James gave scriptural support for what he just asserted (v. 4). However he did not quote a particular verse but instead summarized the scriptural teaching on God’s jealousy in a new statement.[242] (Constable; he cited Laws)
• But James cites the “Scriptures” so one must place the meaning in the OT.
  • Exodus 34:14, (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).
  • Deuteronomy 5:8-9a, “‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.
  • Psalm 78:58, For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
  • The context of jealousy in the OT is that God is going to take action against persons who are living outside of his will because they are His people.
• Jealousy = ill-will or malice, esp. envy or jealousy of the good fortune of others; a cause for indignation, a reproach (LSJ). Which means God is going to express disapproval of, criticism of, or disappointment in (someone). synonym: admonish.
  • God is jealous for His truth to be lived out in our lives.
  • = God is going to discipline those who are out of step with coveting and the resulting outflow of sins.

HERE AGAIN people might throw rocks at James and call him a legalistic. It’s not true. Look at verse 6.

• 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
• Grace, grace, God’s grace.
• Romans 5:20, Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
• “‘But He gives a greater grace’ In respect to mankind’s sin problem, which seems to interpret James 4:5 in a negative sense, God gives even more grace … (Utley)
• GOSPEL

ILLUSTRATION

Robert Robinson, author of the hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” lost the happy communion with the Savior he had once enjoyed, and in his declining years he wandered into the by-ways of sin. As a result, he became deeply troubled in spirit. Hoping to relieve his mind, he decided to travel. In the course of his journeys, he became acquainted with a young Christian woman who asked him what he thought of a hymn she had just been reading. To his astonishment he found it to be none other than his own composition. He tried to evade her question, but she continued to press him for a response. Suddenly he began to weep. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he said, “I am the man who wrote that hymn many years ago. I’d give anything to experience again the joy I knew then.” Although greatly surprised, she reassured him that the “streams of mercy” mentioned in his song still flowed. Mr. Robinson was deeply touched. Turning his “wandering heart” to the Lord, he was restored to full fellowship. (H. G. Bosch - Encyclopedia of Illustrations #587).

APPLICATION

• God is jealous for us. He does not become indifferent to us even in our sin. He will take action due to His character and jealousy for us.
• Who hasn’t missed the mark with coveting?
• Constable wrote, “God has set a high standard of wholehearted love and devotion for His people, but He gives grace that is greater than His rigorous demand.”
• The Scriptures are always going to point us to perfection that was lived out perfectly in Jesus.
• Therefore we must always be looking to reset back to these perfect callings!

TRANSITION

Now that James has directly confronted the Church with its worldliness and carnality, we see that God does not give up on the Church. We will now see that James again has laid out an applicational path of repentance and reconciliation.

• I am going to take them out of order.
• # 2) Turn From Our Sin
  • 8b Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
  • Christian education = head, heart, hands.
  • A person’s holiness is in their court and it starts in the mind.
• # 3) Be Remorseful Over Our Sin
  • 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep.
  • 9b Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
  • 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
  • Notice all the actions believers need to take.
  • Brokenness over sin.
• # 4) Stop Judging
  • 11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.
  • The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
    • The term “law” here would seem to refer to the “law of liberty” and the “law of love” mentioned in James 1:25; 2:8,12–respectively.
    • James is pointing out sins, but he is not judging. The law and the believer.
  • 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
    • One lawgiver and judge = don’t put yourself in the place of God.
• # 1) Cultivate Relationship With God
  • 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
  • Notice the twin aspects of the verse: submission to God AND resistance towards the devil.
  • “submit” = a military term (Utley) which means to arrange under, to subordinate; to subject, put in subjection (OBU)
  • “Submit therefore to God” This is an PASSIVE IMPERATIVE (Utley)
    • We are passive in the process = submission is an act of God
    • We are given an imperative (commanded) to submit = Christian participation.
    • In other words, this “implies that believers must allow God to enable them to submit to His will.” ² (Utley)

ILLUSTRATION

• George Mueller was the famous director of the Orphanage at Ashley Downs in Bristol, England during the 1800s.

• When a man asked George Mueller the secret of his service, Mueller responded: “There was a day when I died, utterly died; died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends; and since then I have studied to show myself approved only to God.” (London Quarterly)

APPLICATION

• Submit, submit, submit to our General Hero.
• 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
• We don’t draw near in pride and sin.
• When we submit and draw near to God we have the promise of God’s word that God will draw near to us.
• Spurgeon said, “to resist him is to contend against one’s own advantage.”
• We need to pray: God what you want from my life is best and for my good. I trust you. I don’t want to chase things I want you. …
• The Solution To The Rage Of Worldliness: stop sinning by cultivating our relationship with our Lord God.

Notes

¹ Or again, as was suggested above, he may in this section be addressing the whole Jewish race, and not merely those who had become converts to Christianity; and in that case he may be referring to the brigandage and assassination which a combination of causes, social, political, and religious, had rendered common among the Jews, especially in Palestine, at this time. Of this evil we have plenty of evidence both in the New Testament and in Josephus. Barabbas and the two robbers who were crucified with Christ are instances in the Gospels. And with them we may put the parable of the man “who fell among robbers,” and was left half-dead between Jerusalem and Jericho; for no doubt the parable, like all Christ’s parables, is founded on fact, and is no mere imaginary picture. In the Acts we have Theudas with his four hundred followers (B.C. 4), Judas of Galilee (A.D. 6), and the Egyptian with his four thousand “Assassins,” or “Sicarii” (A.D. 58); to whom we may add the forty who conspired to assassinate St. Paul. {Acts 5:36-37; Acts 21:38; Acts 23:12-21} And Josephus tells us of another Theudas, who was captured and put to death with many of his followers by the Roman Procurator Cuspius Fadus (cir. A.D. 45); and he also states that about fifty years earlier, under Varus, there were endless disorders in Judea, sedition and robbery being almost chronic. The brigands inflicted a certain amount of damage on the Romans, but the murders which they committed were on their fellow-countrymen the Jews (“Ant.,” 17. 10:4, 8; 20. 5:1). (EBC)

² Utley mentiond here that “the PASSIVE VOICE was replacing the MIDDLE VOICE in Koine Greek. This text and James 4:10 and 5:19 may be explained by this grammatical transition.” So, if the middle voice is the case, both God and the believer do the action.

³ Sutcliffe wrote " St. James saw in the Spirit the bloody and cruel wars which would rise among christian powers, much the same as among the heathen. He had a clear conviction that the cause of wars is uniformly the same, namely, evil concupiscence, pride, avarice, revenge."

Bibliography and Works Cited

NOTE: These are helpful resources below. However, you are responsible for proper interpretation of the Bible. You must not relinquish your responsibility to any commentator. Therefore, one must use much caution in using the resources cited below. More mistakes are made the more humans speak and write. This author has not read everything published from the cited authors’ work. Therefore, authors may be quoted at times even though they may be heretical in some of their beliefs. This author is a true believer in “eat the chicken and spit out the bones.” One must use the Scriptures alone as the authority of all doctrine.

Please click here to access the web-page for all of the works cited–save those below under the “Other Works Cited” (if any). Most of the works cited on the web-page, correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of background information and other general reference citations, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with.

Scripture quotations [unless otherwise noted] are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Other Works Cited

The London Quarterly Review, Volume 92 (source: Ministry 127).