FAITH – WHEN STRETCHED DOESN’T BREAK

 

THE EPISTLE OF JAMES – CHAPTER FOUR

THINGS TO AVOID

 

“1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?”

 

James starts out in chapter four of James with Biblical guns a blazing. As any godly man, he is apparently righteously angry at the quarrels, arguments, discord and conflicts that are taking place among Disciples of Christ within the local churches. When leaders discern that Disciples of Christ in a fellowship are not behaving as Christ would they have to confront the problem usually head on. James does not give us all the details and that is probably a good thing. If he picked particular confrontational examples of conflicts, then those Christians who weren’t acting out in those specific ways could always say…“Well that’s not me.” Unfortunately, sometimes even if we KNOW we are acting inappropriately as a Believer, we often avoid admitting our sinful actions and for sure our sinful thoughts. James identifies the source of such conflicts among the Disciples of Christ that he is writing to: PLEASURES THAT WAGE WAR IN THEIR MEMBERS!

 

Proverbs 23:6-7 has something to say about those who are selfish and not walking with the Lord Jesus appropriately. “6 Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies; 7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is.” He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.”

 

This expression means that what someone says or does is not necessarily what they think in their heart. People may be courteous or polite, but still have contentious thoughts and sentiments they hide within their heart and mind. Ultimately, what “a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” The book of Proverbs is known for such concise wisdom. People ruled by sin are influenced by the chief deceiver, Satan, and become deceivers themselves. While a Disciple of Christ may truly be a true Christian, it doesn’t mean that they are a mature Believer and walking appropriately with the Lord. It is also true, if we are honest with ourselves, there are times that we may have impure sinful thoughts, but we don’t verbally express them. We are all in a process of becoming more like Christ and hopefully less and less like who we were before we accepted Christ as our Savior and Lord.

 

James continues… “2a You lust and do not have; so you commit murder.”

 

It is very likely that James is not actually accusing Christians in the local church of murdering other Believers…but he is attempting to make the point that if you “think or feel” like murdering someone because of your out of control anger or selfishness you have committed murder in your heart and mind spiritually. This sin needs to be confessed to God and a new path of spiritual maturity should be sought out. Sinful thoughts contaminate your heart, mind and soul and will hinder your spiritual growth and goal of becoming more like Jesus. In such situations, coming under the mentoring of a more mature Christian can often be greatly beneficial. They can hold you accountable for your actions and thoughts. They can pray for you and give wise counsel as to how you can seek to listen to the Holy Spirit within you when you have such inappropriate sinful thoughts.

 

James continues… “2b. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.”

 

Here James confronts the sin of “envy” which can lead to a contentious spirit and a quarrelsome demeanor. The sin of envy (invidia) is characterized by an insatiable desire like greed and lust. It can be described as a sad or resentful covetousness towards the traits or possessions of someone else. When we pursue envying what others have…which can be their character traits or their possessions, we are expressing our frustration that we don’t have the traits of another person or possess what they have; possibly in wealth, status or power. We are jealous that God did not make us like them or provide for us as they are provided for. We, in essence, are questioning God’s wisdom and creativity as to how He has made us or blessed us. Eventually if we encourage this attitude we fight and quarrel with others and possibly even question God’s goodness in our lives.

 

Charles Swindohl defines “ENVY” as follows; “Envy is a painful and resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by someone else, accompanied by a strong desire to possess the SAME advantage. Envy sheepishly wants to have what someone else posses. jealousy exclusively wants to possess what it already has. Jealousy is coarse and cruel. Envy is sneaky and subtle. Jealously clutches and smothers. envy is forever reaching, longing, squinting, pondering, and saying sinister things.”

 

Romans 1:18-31 contains much truthful traits concerning those who are ungodly and unrighteous and one of such traits is envy. Below I quote this passage and as you read it, you will see that envy and lust for worldly things has a lot to do with all kinds of other sinful traits as well.

 

Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

 

James continues…

 

24 “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

 

28 “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

 

2c. “You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

 

Here in the second part of verse 2 and verse 3 James brings up two aspects of why we often do not obtain what we wish we had in life. First we don’t receive what we wish for because we don’t even consider consulting God about our wishes. There could be many reasons that we don’t pray to God about our needs. Here are a few:

 

     1. We’re not really walking with God in a spiritually relationship so praying to Him about our needs doesn’t even enter our mind.

 

     2. We’re focused on our needs so much we seek to fulfill them based on our own skills and abilities we don’t even consider praying to God. Very likely we hardly make any kind of effort to speak to God in prayer so it’s the last thing we might even think of to consult with Him in prayer.

 

     3. Possibly the things we want; be it material, physical, spiritual, relational or emotional are things that we might not wish to consult God about, because we already know we shouldn’t pursue seeking such things.

 

4. We know we are in rebellion to God in the way we think, act and live so we don’t think He would ever listen to us…and if He did…we might be convicted to seek His forgiveness for our attitude towards God and others. This brings up a crucial spiritual point. When you are convicted that you need to confess sin, we must follow through with praying to God and first: repenting of our sin and second: asking for forgiveness. We must humble ourselves and admit our sin…confess it and receive God’s forgiveness. This allows us to restore our spiritual relationship with God and can also restore our relationship with other Disciples of Christ. Sin which is not confessed to God or others festers and affects us not only spiritually, but also mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Secondly, we must confess and ask for forgiveness if our sin involved other people. This means fellow Believers in Christ, but also, and possibly even more important, to non-Christians as well. If we sin in any way against non-believers, we must confess our sins because we represent Christ and we tarnish His reputation from what we have done to another person. I have had several instances where I have spoken with non-believers and they share stories of how a Christian has sinned against them and have offended them but have never humbled themselves to ask for forgiveness for their attitude or poor actions.

 

James brings up a second point of why people don’t receive what they desire when they do pray “…they ask with wrong motives.” What would be types of wrong motives to ask God for answered prayer?

 

1. We are asking God for things that are we may not deserve. We might ask for more money, but are we handling money we do have, in a responsible manner? We might ask for a better job (nothing wrong with that), but what if we’re not really applying ourselves to the job we have and very likely are not deserving of a better job. Possibly we’re praying to meet someone of the opposite sex to have a loving relationship with. There’s nothing wrong with praying about that, but if our relationship history with others demonstrates that we are selfish, irresponsible or abusive, we need some growth in demonstrating respect and consideration of others before we are ready for a mutually loving and respectful relationship.

 

2. We are asking God for things that are not good for our well-being. Sometimes we can ask for things that to us are things we would love to have or experience, but because we aren’t wise or prudent in our judgment these things might actually put us in harm’s way or could lead us into temptations that would cause us to sin.

 

3. We are asking God for positions of responsibilities that are beyond our maturity or ability to handle. Sometimes we desire to be acknowledged for what we know or abilities we have, but do not have a balanced and mature perspective of our skills or knowledge. We do not rely on mentors or counselors to give us an honest opinion as to our abilities, we only listen to ourselves and our internal desires. Proverbs12:15 gives us counsel in this area, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.”

 

Another strong point to make about our prayers that we make as requests from God is we must remember that such prayers MUST be guided and governed by all Biblical teachings about prayer. There is no truth in the method of “NAME IT AND CLAIM IT” types of prayers. Below is a scripture verse that will help us when we are tempted to pray in the manner.

 

“Whatever we ask we receive from Him, BECAUSE WE KEEP His commandments and DO the things that are pleasing in His sight…This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 3:22; 5:14)

Basically James it WARNING against “PLEASURE-MOTIVATED, SELF-SERVING” prayers.

John the Apostle always encouraged “GOD-PLEASING” prayers.

 

As we continue in verse 4 of chapter 4 we see that James shares a very creative description of how some people interact with the world around them in a sinful way.

 

“4a You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?”

 

We usually would define an “adulterer” as someone who has forsaken their spouse and is having a relationship with someone other than their spouse. James is being dramatically creative here and his insinuation is that as Disciples of Christ we belong to God. When we are friends with the world we are not only attracted to the world, we take the next step and are not just flirting with the world and the sin that exists in it, we are actually ‘in a sense’ forming a relationship with the world. We are in a sense committing “spiritual adultery.”

 

In marriage where two people have committed themselves to be dedicated and faithful to their vows, infidelity, or cheating, is the act of being either emotionally or physically unfaithful to a spouse or partner, and breaking a commitment or promise during the act. Such actions dishonor our marriage, impact our intimacy with our spouse, cause many negative issues if we also have children and result in a dysfunctional marriage and family.

 

In our spiritual relationship to the Father, Son and Spirit we have committed ourselves to be dedicated to living as our Heavenly Father instructs us, to model our lives in all ways in the example that Jesus Christ lived and to be led by the Holy Spirit who resides within us. When we commit spiritual adultery we make sinful choices, contemplate sinful thoughts, take actions that dishonor our Lord and Savior dwell on sinful imaginations which often lead to sinful outward actions.

 

Just as marital infidelity will traumatizes your marriage, affect your family unit and degrade your reputation, spiritual adultery will traumatize and disrupt your relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit.

 

Two scripture parallel passages address this issue.

 

Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

 

Luke 16:13, 13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

 

James as well as Matthew and Luke are stating that you can’t serve God as a Disciple of Christ and also be associated with serving your lusts and allow your attraction for worldly things to take over your life!

 

James 4 continues with the following statement; “4b Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

 

This verse puts it rather bluntly…you can’t claim to be a Disciple of Christ if you are a friend of the world and all it represents. Not only are you failing to demonstrate that you are a child of God, a Follower of Christ; you are demonstrating damaging evidence that your true heart, mind and soul are committing spiritual adultery with the world. You demonstrate that you are not just attracted to the world, you seek to have a relationship with the world. You can’t have God as your Lord and Master and be involved in repetitive sins that reflect the commitment you have to the evil and perversion of the world.

 

James continues with this thought in verse 5. He hints at what God feels and senses when we commit spiritual adultery with the world. Verse 5 is known for being a very, very difficult passage to translate and interpret.

 

Several translations attempt to communicate the meaning of this verse as follows:

 

     NASB: “…He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us.”

 

     NIV: “…The spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely.”

 

     KJV: “…The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.”

 

     NET: “…The Spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning. “

 

     NRSV: “…God yearns jealously for the Spirit that He has made to dwell in us.”

 

Charles Swindohl shares his wisdom on the scripture as follows:

 

“The problem is that the words James uses for ‘jealously’ and ‘desires’ are neutral terms that can have either a positive or negative connotation. also, the word ‘Spirit’ in Greek can be either the subject of the phrase or the object!. So, is James saying that the human spirit, given to us when God created Adam ‘envies intensely’…or that God is intensely jealous for us to honor Him with our spirits…or that God’s Spirit within us is intensely jealous for our faithfulness… or that God in intensely jealous for us to honor Him by the Holy Spirit living within us?”

 

Charles Swindohl believes the following in his own words:

 

“I think the context of this phrase helps us clear up the confusion. Remember that James 4:4 accuses believers of being ‘adulteresses,’ those who cheat on God and His ways in favor of the world and its ways. Then James follows up with God’s response to believers’ unfaithfulness…or that God is intensely jealous for us to honor Him by the Holy Spirit living in us?”

 

“5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

 

I want to share my comments of interpretation on this verse first and then share some more information from “BibleRef.com” on this verse as well. I believe that In essence James in verse 5 compares our involvement with the world as a Disciple of Christ as an affront to His commitment to us. When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior we are also given the Holy Spirit to minister to and through us. The Holy Spirit helps us grow spiritually. He seeks to grow us to become more and more like Christ. The Spirit is dedicated to minister and guide us to enable us to seek holiness and purity. He seeks to grow us in Christ so that we can live as God intended His spiritual children should. God our spiritual Father is much like a loving father of any child. He loves us greatly, so much so, He gave His Son; Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins. When we commit ourselves to accept Christ as our Savior, we become a part of a spiritual family. As any human father would be jealous of his son or daughter seeking to commit themselves to those things that would be against the morals and ethics of the family, God is the same in many ways. God loves us and cherishes a relationship with all His spiritual children. When we sin against Him, we are rebelling against Him as our spiritual Father. We dishonor His name and all He stands for and believes. We are damaging our relationship with God the Father, Son and Spirit. The Holy Spirit is especially wounded when we sin, because He dwells within us. When we sin…we drag the Spirit along with us and expose Him to the impurity of the sin or sins we commit. We cause Him grief and we pay for it also. When we wound the Holy Spirit we hinder ourselves from being able to hear and listen to His holy promptings, convictions and encouragement. When sin begins to rule our lives we continue to push the Holy Spirit away and begin to be less and less able to hear His promptings of spiritual advice and conviction. We become callous in our spiritual nature and if we don’t turn from our sinful thoughts and actions we begin to walk the evil road once again.

 

Now for some further thoughts from “BibleRef.com.”

 

“In the previous verse, James said an alarming thing: There is an approach to life that feels normal to us as human beings. It can even become normal for Christians. And yet, the approach James condemns is cheating on God just as much as an unfaithful wife is cheating on her husband. It makes us God’s enemy.”

 

What is this approach? It is living according to the world’s wisdom, rather than God’s. It is allowing our lives to be driven by envy for what we want and ambition to get it at any cost. It is the attitude which excuses fighting, quarreling, and conflict with other Christians.

 

Now James asks another rhetorical question to make a point. Bible scholars note that this is one of the most difficult verses to translate in all of the New Testament. This is reflected in the various translations, which record it quite differently. This is not because of a confusion over the words themselves, but a question about the perspective James is speaking from. This translation issue has to do with how we read the original Greek text.

 

There are two ways to view this text. First, James may mean that the Old Testament says God is jealous for the spirit—our spirit or His Holy Spirit—which He has caused to live in us. If this is the case, James does not seem to be making a direct quote, but previewing a direct quote he will use in the next verse. The Second possibility is that James means that the spirit that God has caused to live in us—our human spirit—tends to become intensely envious.

 

As it turns out, the Bible teaches both of these ideas elsewhere. The question here is not whether or not either of these interpretations is valid. Rather, there is debate over which one James really intends. Scholars tend to agree that the first idea is what James has in mind. Namely, that God is jealous—in the sense of being concerned and involved—for the Holy Spirit He has made to live inside of those who have trusted in Christ.

 

In other words, if we continue to live according to the world’s wisdom, God takes our choice not to trust Him very personally. He is jealous for us. He won’t easily allow us to continue to lead lives of self-service and self-reliance when He has placed His Spirit in us.

 

Now we will move on to verse 6 of chapter 4 and discover that when we seek to be filled with the Spirit of God on an ongoing basis…this means daily, moment by moment…we are enabled to not only live in God’s grace, but also to give grace to others through the influence of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.

 

“6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

 

Verse 6 assures us that God’s grace is not a “meager grace” or a “weak grace” it is an “AMAZING, ALL-SUFFICIENT, OVERPOWERING GRACE,” because God’s love and grace are more than we can comprehend and sufficient to assure us that we are truly saved no matter the degree we have sinned in our life. If you wish to know the MAGNITUDE and ALL-SUFFICIENCY of God’s GRACE…consider what made such GRACE possible…THE DEATH OF HIS SON; JESUS CHRIST! In comparison, consider the grace we are encouraged to give those who wound, hurt or cause us trauma. Is it easy for us to give them grace? Not in our own power…especially if we have been deeply wounded. Do we struggle to give this grace to them? Yes much of the time we do, especially if the trauma we experience is extensive. As we mature in our relationship with God and become more like Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we grow in maturity and more empowered by the Holy Spirit within us; so that we can express the grace of God to those who wound and sin against us. James is writing this letter to Disciples of Christ who are struggling in their spiritual lives and not living as they should; as the Father, Son and Spirit would wish they would. Apparently one of the major issues they are facing is loving each other and forgiving each other when they wound one another. They have been living according to the wisdom of the world…the way they used to live as a non-believer. They have slipped in their dedication to Christ’s example and need to repent and rely upon the Father, Son and Spirit to give them the grace to love; as well as to rely upon each other to hold one another accountable in this love, by praying for one another and counseling each other in the Christian faith.

 

So how do these first century Disciples of Christ move towards “spiritual maturity?” How do they seek loving each other as Christ would? How do they rely upon the Holy Spirit to give them the capacity to think, act and walk spiritually like their Savior and Lord; Jesus Christ? Verse 7 gives us the TWO-PART answer.

 

“7 Submit therefore to God.”

 

FIRST, they must submit to God! When we are wandering from the instructions of Holy Scripture, not relying upon the Holy Spirit to guide our life and not heeding the counsel of other mature Disciples of Christ we begin to fail to submit to the Lord God. When any of us became a Disciple of Christ we submitted ourselves to the truth of God’s Word, we humbled ourselves and asked for salvation from God the Father through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. We also knew that upon confessing our sin and asking for forgiveness that God would forgive us and give us His Spirit to live within us. Our commitment was to put God the Father, Son and Spirit preeminent in our lives as we would seek to live by the Holy Bible. This submission we are to observe is not just a few weeks, months or years. It is FOREVER. Will we slip or stumble at times in our Christian life, yes and very likely at times, often. But we are to ask for forgiveness from our Heavenly Father and seek…with the Holy Spirit’s assistance…to get up and walk on in the grace and love of Christ.

 

Verse 7 through 10 continues with several important aspects of spiritual instruction to live a victorious and fruitful spiritual life:

 

“7 Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

 

It seems obvious that a Disciple of Christ should and would resist the devil, but we all know that temptations are at times numerous and frequent and Satan is very creative and persistent in seeking to tempt and lead astray God’s children. Satan is a created being so is not the antithesis of God. He is not equal in power or knowledge or abilities as God. But he is powerful in subtleties and creative ways to tempt us. We can resist his attempts to lead us astray and to sin by relying upon our prayers to our Heavenly Father, our commitment to live like Christ and also upon the Holy Spirit who lives within us to give us the power to resist the devil. Another very important resource is prayer to our Father in Heaven to assist us and to seek the prayers of other Disciples of Christ on our behalf when we are struggling or in a spiritual battle.

 

“8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you….”

 

Secondly, we should draw near to God in prayer and in our thought life. God is just a prayer away and He is CONSTANTLY available to any of us and POWERFUL to assist us any time of the day or night. Also remember, the Holy Spirit lives within us as a Disciple of Christ and He will also intercede for us, give us the ability to withstand temptations, give us the determination to stay on the straight and narrow path and enable us to withstand temptation as well as empower us to make godly decisions in the troubles and temptations we face.

 

James now gives a command or instruction which is to those this letter was written…but it also is a command to us who live today, if we have faltered in our dedication to the Lord or who are struggling with temptation.

 

“…Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

 

We all are well aware that we all sin outwardly at times. We also know that at other times we will allow thoughts and emotions to dwell in our minds and hearts that are not proper or godly. There are also times when we will admit that we can be “double-minded”…in other words…we know what we should do to honor God, but we debate, struggle, resist or wonder what we should do…when we already know what we really should do as a Disciple of Christ. Unfortunately double-mindedness when expressed in negative decisions or actions results in sinful thoughts and or actions. This is the double-mindedness that James is describing. When we struggle with being double minded prayer is the first route to gaining a more godly perspective and seeking to obey what we may already know is the right thing to do. If our judgment is clouded as to Christ-like action that should be done, we should pray, seek wise counsel and not proceed with actions that could result in sin. Consulting the Holy Scriptures for advice is also a good action to take, but if we are not well-versed in the Bible then seeking a mature fellow Believer would be a good course of action. In these situations we should also seek cleansing of our heart, mind and soul and pray to God to help us not be double-minded and seek God’s forgiveness for our wandering away from our commitment to Him.

 

Above all we should always remember the first part of this verse; “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you….” which you do through prayer!

 

Remember your commitment to submit to God being ruler over your life which includes your heart, mind, soul and behaviors. Remember that your commitment to God as your spiritual father, Jesus as your loving Savior and the Holy Spirit as God’s Spirit that lives within you. Also never forget that God’s Word is a wealth of advice and strength during times of temptation, testing and struggles in our lives as a Follower of Christ.

 

Verse 9 continues… ” 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.”

 

This verse describes what happens when you become aware that either you have been tempted to sin or have actually carried out a thought of sin into actual behavior or decisions you have made. You might ask…why should we be “miserable and mourn and weep?” This question may not require an answer, but if you understand your relationship to the Father, Son and Spirit, you will know that you have entertained a sin in your mind that you should have purged as soon as it was considered. This nips a sin in the bud before it can manifest itself in action and also cleanse you heart, mind and soul of such pollution. The result is that you retain your spiritual integrity and you do not give the thought a foothold in you heart, mind and soul.

 

If you begin to dwell on a sinful thought, often it doesn’t take much time for it to grow into a much larger temptation that can lead to actually outward sin that can affect others as well as yourself!

 

James states in verse 9 that we are ‘mourn and weep” because we should be convicted of the seriousness of our thoughts and actions of sin. We should mourn that we ever considered such evil and sinful thoughts. Why, you might ask? Because sinful thoughts pollute our heart, mind and soul. These thoughts can gain a foothold and can fuel further sinful thoughts. Just like physical pollution can stain and ruin soil, water or air; sinful pollution of thoughts can lead to physical manifestations of sin internally as well as outwardly. It can go beyond fantasying internally to seeking physical expression of sins outwardly. The real question that we face as people of God is; Do we wish to seek to be like Christ our Lord and Savior or do we desire to insult His sacrifice for our salvation and dishonor His death and resurrection?

 

James continues in verse 10 with his godly wise advice and a challenge for us.

 

“10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”

 

James seeks to confront those who dishonor the Lord with sinful thoughts and outward actions. He instructs them to seek humility before the Lord so that they can either return or remain in good standing with Him. This requires us as we read the book of James and take to heart the challenge to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness. It requires us to seek a different path of for our thought-life as well as our outward actions and behavior. What do we gain when we do this? We will receive forgiveness and a renewed strength to walk in a manner worthy of Christ’s love for us. God will exalt us for making the decision to forsake sin, avoid evil thoughts and ungodly behavior. Instead we are to live godly holy lives, depending on the Holy Spirit to guide us, the Bible to be our instruction manual for holy living and supporting each other in our spiritual walk and in our prayers.

 

Regarding verse 10 we might summarize some ways for Disciples of Christ to live out their faith as follows:

 

     1. Instead of Fighting in a situation…Put on Faith!

 

     2. Instead of Causing a Conflict…Nurture and Embrace Contentment!

 

     3. Instead of Throwing a Fit and Stonewalling God in your life…Willingly be Submissive and Submit to God.

 

Philippians 2:1-11 I quote below because it gives us advice in how to be like our Savior and Lord and to treat others as Christ would Himself. After all…we are called to seek to be like Christ and He will give us the power and will to live in that manner if we but die to self and live for Christ.

 

Philippians 2:1-11, “Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

James continues with other spiritual advice to those reading this letter.

 

“11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.”

 

Here in verse 11 James instructs us to avoid speaking against another Disciple of Christ. To speak against another Brother or Sister in Christ creates a situation where we begin to judge others by our own standards, thoughts or reasoning. A better course of action would be to pray for them or pray with them. We might seek them out to provide support or advice based on Biblical precepts, but always with a spirit of humility, for we very likely have our own problems with our how we walk in the Spirit or not. Remember the adage if you point at someone with your finger of judgment you must notice that there are 3 or 4 fingers pointing back at you!

 

In verse 12 of this chapter James continues with more spiritual wisdom inspired by God…

 

“12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?”

 

James reminds us that there is ONLY ONE “Lawgiver and Judge” who is the ONE who is able to save and to destroy. This is God Himself! He is the one who can save or destroy. In a sense James is saying; Who do you think you are to judge your neighbor? Are you God?!?

 

James now jumps to another topic which concerns how we take God’s oversight over our lives for granted. He brings up a point that we all are guilty of…which entails making plans for the future without having any knowledge of what the future may bring. Often we make plans without any consideration of what God would have us do, or in considering…should we pray before we plans, is it possible that whatever our plans…should we consider what God would think as best use of our time, resources or actions. Notice in verses 13-14 how James calls to our attention how we often make plans without consulting the Lord, without weighing options for our activities and what would be the most responsible action we should take.

 

“13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.”

 

I don’t believe James is implying that we have to pray about every action we take to see if God approves of it. Such a tendency would paralyze us and we would never be able to proceed with any plans at all. I believe James is implying that we need to walk moment by moment with the wisdom of listening for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. I believe we should follow the advice of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 where it states for us to; “Pray without ceasing.” If you think about it we probably spend most of our day, each and every day failing to consider what God would have us do. I don’t mean to say we should pray every minute of every day, but what if we were better at realizing that the Holy Spirit is always with us and ever ready to impact our lives with a prompting of what we should do and how we should do it. He can bring scripture to our mind to help assist us in making decisions. This brings up the question of; “How much do we read, meditate and apply scripture to our daily lives?” Do we seek to consult the Holy Spirit about our thoughts, actions and plans, or do we just do what we naturally do, not even thinking about what God would have us to do.

 

I believe this is what James is getting at. We just naturally fail to consider that God is interested in much of our daily life. We might be thinking that we can categorize our “spiritual” life into a category that is completely separate from our “work”, “recreational” and “hobby” interests. It is very likely possible that we consider attending church, an intimate bible study with others or our service in a ministry to others as our spiritual time and fail to think that our job, hobby interests and time spent with friends as something that God should be included in. Should we ask the question; If God means everything to us, should we in creative ways, allow Him to be in some way included in all aspects of our lives? Consider James’ next comment in verse 14;

 

“You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

 

This sentence is very humbling because it is so true. We aren’t on this earth for very long possibly 60-80 years or more. When compared to the span of historical time we are almost just as James describes…“a vapor…” that is here for a brief period of time and then ‘is no more.’

 

My point is, as I read this passage in the book of James, is that we need to be constantly aware of who we really are as a Disciple of Christ. The Holy Spirit is ever ready to influence our thoughts, words and actions. Do we consider listening for His promptings for what we say and do. Do we seek advice from God in how to respond to the needs of others as we go about our daily life? Do we seek the Spirit’s advice in how to make decisions regarding working with those who we work with at our job? Even more important possibly is do we squander our time each day, not realizing that once it is gone…it can never be reclaimed. Consider the following verse in Ephesians:

 

Ephesians 5:15-17, “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

 

Here in Ephesians the Apostle Paul is encouraging us to cease each moment we have to be careful and cautious how we walk through life. He encourages us to be wise in how we think, act, treat others and make decisions. The perfect source of wisdom is from the Holy Scriptures as well as through prayer to our Heavenly Father. Staying in fellowship with a local church not only beneficial and enjoyable, it also builds our capacity to be wise as we listen to sermons of our pastor. Belonging to a small group fellowship is also a greatly beneficial experience to our spiritual walk as we can be ministered to by others Disciples of Christ, but also minister to them as well. As we share our faith with other Believers in a small group we can support each other in prayer, give advice to each other, grow in our faith, pray for one another and build lasting relationships. One other group of habits we can commit to is our own personal devotional life if we wish to make the most of our time. Reading through the Bible through the year, studying passages and make sure we apply what we learn. Personal pray time builds on our relationship with God and as we pray for others we can see answered prayer come to pass. As we make the above suggestions of mine a reality in our lives we grow spiritually and fulfill the wise suggestions of James in his epistle.

 

James continues with instruction for being wise and not foolish in how we live. He suggests that very likely we plan our lives as if we were the “divine” master of our time and actions. If we are honest with ourselves we very likely take too much for granted. Why do I say this? Well I would propose the question…How often do we say; I’m going to such and such a town. I’m going to pick up some wood or groceries in the city. I think I’ll go hunting or fishing this weekend and I’ll be back on Monday. We all do this.

 

In verse 15 and 16 James writes the following:

 

“15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”

 

James is challenging us to be aware of how much we take for granted in declaring what we are going to do “such and such” or to say “going to such and such a place” when we have no idea what our future might be or what events might take place to force us to change our plans.

 

Very likely James would say to us that possibly we should say instead the following:

 

“Lord willing, I’m going to town to do some shopping.”

“Lord willing, I think I’ll go hunting this weekend.”

“Lord willing, I should pick up some groceries at the grocery store this afternoon.”

 

We might respond to this perspective that we really don’t mean to be avoiding asking God what we should do or not do, we just don’t think we should “bother” God with what we think are all the ‘mundane’ or ‘common everyday’ activities we are involved in. As I read and meditated on this scripture my practical though was that we should never take God for granted and assume that He is not interested in what we do through our activities.

 

Each of us will have to ponder these verses and come up with how each of us will consider the words of James. I think the critical point James is making is this: By not involving God in our day-to-day life activities we are regulating our time with God to only certain times. If we are truly walking in the Spirit and seeking to emulate the life of Christ, we should always be ready to respond to others with godly character and a willingness to minister to or pray for or assist and help those we meet. If we foster living our faith out as close to 100% of our life as much as we can we might be amazed at how spiritually blessed we would be and would see our impact on the lives of others full of blessings and love. I would challenge you as I challenge myself in living out life constantly as best as is possible to love and minister to others as well as emulate Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit was given to us to assist us in living like Christ.

 

An excellent verse to convict us about how much we should train ourselves to be aware of God in our daily life is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19:

 

“16 Rejoice always;

17 pray without ceasing;

18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

19 Do not quench the Spirit;…”

 

When you read and meditate on this scripture passage above, it seems to relate intimately to what James has just hinted at. We are to:

 

“REJOICE ALWAYS” – ALL THE TIME. – We should seek to be in a rejoicing state of heart, mind and spirit.

 

“PRAY WITHOUT CEASING” – FOSTER A HABIT OF BEING IN PRAYER AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

 

“IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS” – IN ALL OUR ACTIVITIES THROUGH THE DAY. – Despite whether our life is positive or negative to our liking, we should seek to comprehend that God is always watching over us. The Holy Spirit is always with us and Christ is always praying for us!

 

One last but MASSIVE REASON:

 

“FOR THIS IS GOD’S WILL FOR YOU IN CHRIST JESUS.”

 

WHAT IS THE RESULT IN OUR LIVES IF WE DON’T PRAY WITHOUT CEASING?

 

“WE MAY QUENCH THE SPIRIT!”

 

James ends this chapter with a profound sentence that should bring conviction to all of us.

 

“17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

 

I would say that verse 17’s application is as follows:

 

If we are convicted to behave, think, take some action or make some decision and we know what we should do such-and-such according to the Bible, something we know to be God’s will, or if we sense that the Holy Spirit is prompting us to act, think or choose a path we should follow through with this action or decision…otherwise we will be committing a sin.

 

But you might ask, what if we are wrong, how do we know for sure what God’s will is?

 

Several suggestions would help you make the best decision.

 

That is where consultation with the Bible would be a good decision.

 

Another good action would be to pray for guidance.

 

Another would be to ask another Christian you respect for their wisdom or their dedication to prayer.

 

Another action could be to wait and pray for God to impress upon you His will for the decision you are making.

 

Regarding the common and everyday activities we do without thinking…possibly it would be good to remember what James has just said and as we drive to the grocery store, contemplate how God might wish you to be ready for possibly sharing your faith with a checker at the store, helping someone who can’t find a product on a shelf, being open to sharing your faith with someone if you hear someone distraught with worry. We should be ever ready to change our laid out plans to be used to minister or to be led by the Spirit to reach out to others.

 

I am positive that as we go through our day we experience situations where we are confronted with a decision that requires us to make a choice? This action we face can be an inward thought or an outward action such as:

 

…To be honest or dishonest in a situation of temptation.

…To choose to show love or not towards someone we need to minister to.

…To lust for something or someone or not to let our lust overwhelm us.

…To steal something from work or not to.

…To gossip about somebody because we enjoy it or refrain from doing so.

…To do almost anything that we have a tendency to do, that we know is wrong.

 

To us, our choice might seem insignificant because it is not outwardly visible to others or no one but us knows, or its not that bad…but remember God is omniscient…He knows all, everything we say, do and think. In essence if we know the right thing to do, and don’t do it, we sin.

 

I also remind you that as a Disciple of Christ, the Holy Spirit is always with us. He is a witness as to what choices we make mentally, emotionally, spiritually…be it internal thought or outward action. Does the Holy Spirit within us as a Disciple of Christ witness through the day our godly walk or is He quenched and wounded by sinful thoughts and actions we make. Let’s respect and honor the Holy Spirit by being cautious not only concerning our outward actions but also our inward thoughts.