JAMES 4

            1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

            2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

            3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

            4 Adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God. So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

            5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intently?

            James is confronting a very serious situation among the people of God. They are fighting, waging war, coveting, and murdering one another. Murder! “The word kill [murder] is startling and meant to startle. James sought to force his readers to realize the depth of the evil in their bitter hatred toward others.”[1]

            What was the reason for this unrest among them? Their passions for things, stuff. Bitterness, hate, and envy often accompany strong desire for things we don’t have but want. We find fault with what we do have and become bitter; we envy others who have what we want; and at its height, we covet, steal and murder to get what we want. James addressed desire in the first chapter when he said, “When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.”

             First, James reminds the Israelites that they don’t have because they are not asking God. They are not praying for what they want. Second, if they are indeed praying, they are praying with wrong motives, so that they may spend it on their pleasures. How often do we fall into these categories?

            Jesus set a great example of praying for something with the right motives. On the night he was arrested, he was praying in the garden, asking God to take this cup (the crucifixion he was facing) away. He sweat great drops, like blood dripping on the ground. He was restless, terrified, and full of dread, yet he prayed further submitting to God’s will. “…nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42)

            Now, I don’t have it all figured out, but as I learn to trust God, I realize submitting to His will is not only necessary but the only way I want it. I may resist at first and not understand His plan, but I have found that His plan is trustworthy. God knows things we don’t know. There is a spiritual world going on that we do not see or fully understand. Some things have to take place. Sometimes, God has to say, “No.” to our plans and desires. It truly is for our good and, most importantly, His glory.

            James called these passion-driven Israelites adulteresses. Why? They are seen by God as the bride of Christ. An unfaithful bride would be an adulteress. God’s people, in their desire for the things of this world were unfaithful to God.

            James 4:5 says that the Spirit God has made to dwell in us envies intently. God loves us so much that he sent his son to die for us a brutal, traumatic death. He passionately loves us as a groom loves his bride. He wants all of us. Exodus 34:14 states, “…He is a jealous God.” The Spirit he has made to dwell in us burns with jealousy when our hearts are drawn elsewhere. He must be center. “God is not to be moved off to the circumference, but he must take pride of place in our national, social, and personal lives.”[2]

           

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[1] Heibert, via Guzik BLB

[2] Briscoe, “Here am I, Lord…Send Someone Else,