Study of James: What We Want Again?
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Peace to Live By Study of James: What We Want Again? - Daniel Litton
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James chapter 4, starting in verse 1: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.“ (James 4:1-2, ESV)
Today James is moving into some unpleasant territory—not that he hasn’t touched on some unpleasant things already—but we are looking at church affairs. Namely, we are focusing now on the relationships between believers, whether those relationships take place within church walls or whether outside, it doesn’t matter. The reality is, is that we as Christians still can get in quarrels and fights. We can still have passions that are ungodly, worldly passions. I don’t think James is talking about believers versus unbelievers here within the church, as some have purposed. I think the heart of this passage does indeed focus on believers in the literal sense.
Let’s define quarrels and fights to get started here. What are some quarrels and fights? Well, they can be arguments, altercations, commotions, complaints, disapproval, disputes, rivalries, feuds, falling out, objections, ruckus, misunderstandings, vendettas, selfish ambition. So, basically in summary they are disagreements, but they are disagreements that have gotten out of control. And what has caused them to get out of control? It is that jealous and selfish ambition that James talked about at the end of chapter 3. Remember? Those are what fuel the quarrels and fights, and of which are summarized as passions here by James.
But are passions bad? I mean, is it wrong to have passion toward anything? Well, of course not. Passion in and of itself isn’t bad. An athlete has to have passion to compete. I have to have passion to write these sermons. Passion is only bad when it becomes too strong, or is aimed at the wrong thing to begin with, something of which God doesn’t approve of. For instance, if we have passion for sin, whatever that sin is, that’s not going to work. But I think more likely for us is the fact that we have passion for things we think are good, which actually in and of themselves are good, but our passions are too strong for those things. We want whatever it is too much, and because of this it causes us to quarrel and fight with our fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus.
We have the passion for all kinds of things. We can have passion to be in a certain group at church, like the elders or the deacons, we can have passion to be on a certain committee or in a specific ministry, we can want to be recognized by certain people, we can desire a certain amount of money be assigned to our task, or for a certain person to like us in return, or to be the friend of a certain leader—you get the point. There are passions and desires among Christians, and these, when not fulfilled in us, can cause us to fight and quarrel. That of course only works for discord in its mildest form, or in more severe cases can cause us to do angry and stupid things which hurts ourselves and hurts others.
The people in the world who don’t know God have a way of getting what they want in life. We know those ways. They are called sin. James points the finger here in saying that ultimately when we hate our fellow brothers or sisters in Jesus that we are actually murdering them. This is what we do when we go against them. Rather than setting our passion or desire aside, we kill to get it in the figurative sense. We hurt others and push them out of the way. We don’t allow others to get what is their due. We take that which isn’t ours out of our selfish ambition. We see what others have and get jealous of it, and try to get it for ourselves. It’s all about us when we are driven from our strong passions and desires. We, as believers, end up looking poorly behaved.
How is it that we bring our passions and desires under control? Again, it’s not that passions and desires are bad; in fact, they can be quite good. It’s only when we want them too much that leads us to due stupid things. Therefore, we have to what? You guessed it. We need to Give Up Control of our passions and desires. How do we do that? We do it by the simple acknowledgment that, “If I get what I want, I am okay with that. And if I don’t get what I want, I am also okay with that.” Do you see? This is complete surrender of the situation. “If I get the position of elder at church, that’s good. But’s also good if I don’t.” “If I get the money for my ministry that I need, that’s good. If I don’t, that’s okay.” “If the pastor recognizes me for my work in this area, that is good. If she doesn’t, I am okay with that.”
One example James brings up for us is using the method of coveting to try to obtain something. Why doesn’t that work? Well, obviously if we are coveting something, we want it too much, and on top of that, we are wanting something that we don’t have a right to have. It’s not a proper way to go about getting something. And since it’s covetousness, in James’ example we don’t get what we want. What’s sad, is all we had to do was give up the desire for whatever it is we wanted. In this case, if we want something that is not rightfully ours to have (assuming we haven’t realized this fact), an alternative would manifest itself. The American way is one of hard work, struggle, and even sacrifice. This is sometimes referred to as the Protestant Work Ethic. However, this is not, I repeat, this is not the way God operates. God is a giver, and he gives us what we want when are attitudes are right. Yes, you heard that right. It’s that simple. He gives us what we want, when our attitudes are right.
So James gets to the bottom of the solution to the problem, which is asking God for what we want. Yes, again, it’s that simple. You might say, “But I’ve done that hundreds of times, and most of the time it doesn’t work.” Yes, I know what you’re talking about. The problem is that usually when we ask we have too strong a grip on whatever it is we want to happen. Say, for example, we have the strong desire for a person to come into personal relationship with God. We pray, “God, please save this person. Please help me to talk to this person,” and we want it badly. Why does it so often not happen? Isn’t the request pure and noble, coming from the very heart of God? The problem is us typically. We care too much, dare I say. We should be able to walk away from our prayer feeling that it’s okay no matter what happens, whether we know, ourselves, that the person becomes saved and whether we have the opportunity, ourselves, to talk to them. Last time I checked, we are not superhero’s that people must have an experience with to be saved. Trust God; let him work as he decides to.
Now James points to another problem in our asking scenario. Verse 3: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
Perhaps the real reason why we ask God to give us an opportunity to talk to someone we want to share with is simply because we want to have a story to go back and tell our friends. Or, maybe, in fact, it is because we believe we are commanded to do so, and therefore have to meet a certain quota in order to satisfy the God of the Universe on his laid out instructions. This is all so pointless. God looks down from heaven and laughs. He laughs because we have taken such a great responsibility upon our shoulders, as if it’s all up to us to make sure people come into relationship with him. Do we feel the Holy Spirit has retired, and doesn’t do anything anymore? Has the power been given to us? The reality is, there is no need to worry and fret about these matters.
It’s not just good things that we can have too strong of a desire for, but it can also be for things that could harm us in the long run. James is going to tell us in the next verse that we are striving after the world. So, now we have a desire that is based in a worldly pursuit. It could be to marry a certain person, or to advance in one’s career. Neither of these things is inherently bad, in and of themselves, but let’s consider them. If we have the strong desire to marry a certain person, that’s good. Only, the desire needs to be given up. It’s not the end goal that so much bothers God, no, it’s the too strong of a desire. It’s like we are trying to control God. You don’t want to be controlled, do you? Well, God doesn’t want to be controlled either, and when we have strong emotions about something, God doesn’t feel free.
The same is true for the person who wants to advance in their career. We say, “God, please help me to get this position at work. It would really advance me up the ladder. I really want you to do this.” However, our proper response should be, “Well, if God does it, I will be happy. And if he doesn’t, I will still be happy.” That’s giving up the attachment of wanting the new position. This frees up God to help us if he decides to. The other way, by wanting it too much, in doing that we are cutting off God’s power. Even if we do end up with the job, it will have been obtained through unnecessary struggle and sacrifice, by doing things we didn’t have to do in order to get. When we use our own power, things are hard. When we allow God to work on our behalf, things are easy. Remember, Jesus said, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30, ESV).
The fear is, is that we think that by giving up the passion, giving up the strong desire, that we will prevent ourselves from getting that which we want. But if you stop and think about it, that really doesn’t make sense. How does desiring something strongly get us what we want? It cannot. Have you ever noticed that very successful people, whether they have a beautiful lady or a good career, have you noticed what they lack? A lot of times they lack the strong desire. By not having that inner passion, they can identify what they want and then get it because they don’t get in their own way. Let me take an obvious example that we all know. We know that a lot of times at the end of a football game, a kicker is called upon to make that winning field goal. What happens? If he wants to make the kick too badly, he ices himself. However, if he plays it like a normal kick, with little pressure, what happens? Usually he makes it. Yes, we have to give up the desire and by okay with whatever happens. This is the best way of achieving what we want in life.
Next, we read: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4, ESV)
When we have passions and desires that are too strong, we are busting up the commandments of God. First of all, we are in violation of the first commandment, recall, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3, ESV). Second of all, we are breaking the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17, ESV). But James also says here that we are violating number seven, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14, ESV). And depending upon what are request is, we may be violating even more. The point is, is that we are really messing up with our strong passion and desire. James also says that by being this way, we are being like the world, and thus becoming a friend with the world. We are acting like people who were never saved in the first place. So, we become like those who are not in proper relationship with God, and God doesn’t like that.
We know that James is telling us to avoid the bad things of the world. The world, in and of itself, as God has made it, is very good, as Moses tells us in Genesis chapter 1. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a wonderful world. We also know that the people made in God’s image, which is every human, are also good, again, as Moses tells us. So, what is the problem? We are aware that there’s this thing called ‘sin.’ Sin is doing things in a different way from the way God wants them done. Therefore, when we choose to make major life decisions, take positions, go in particular ways, any of those things that aren’t approved by God are going after the ‘world.’ It is going about life without reverence to what God desires from us.
Yes, I would say the main channel by which the world operates is off of working hard to achieve what one wants. Psychologists commonly call this the ‘Protestant Work Ethic’ or ‘Protestant Ethic Virtues.’ The problem is that even though this is the way that a lot of our society is set up, and even though a lot of people follow this path of working hard, it’s not the way God works. It’s being a friend of the world’s self-righteous system. The higher we are on the levels of consciousness, the higher God’s power flows in our lives, and good things naturally occur. Life flows with ease and comfort. As I stated at the beginning of our study, this is because we are no longer going against the current of the river but with the current. God’s grace toward us depends on how we view him.
Certainly, there are all kinds of ‘external’ ways we can be a friend of the world and then find ourselves an enemy of God. We can have bad thoughts toward our brothers or sisters, be angry with them, be jealous of them, compare ourselves incessantly with them on Facebook. We can speak malicious things about them, we can say things that aren’t true, and we can believe the worst about them. We can choose to see ourselves as totally awesome, as having arrived at a good, enduring faith, as having no need to grow, as being better than most, as being better than this guy, or that guy. We can not listen to what our mom or dad tells us, we can act like total fools, we can not care about how our actions affect others, we can not show sympathy when sympathy is needed. We can never read our Bibles, hardly go to church, not spend time with any Christians, not spend time with God, forget to pray, and even choose to not believe in God anymore altogether.
How is it, then, that we don’t make ourselves an enemy of God, but rather make ourselves God’s friend? Notice, first, that James informs us that we can make ourselves an enemy of God. It isn’t that James is only talking about a person who doesn’t believe in Jesus versus a person who does. That would be the easy way out. Rather, he is telling us, or really warning us, that we can make ourselves an enemy of God. How do we, though, do the reverse of this? Is it not what I’ve been talking about from the very beginning of our study here? It is through the power of Giving Up Control, the power of surrendering, giving up and surrendering those thoughts which are contrary to the truth, contrary to what God wants. Yes, it is from our minds that behavior comes, and if we are going to have the right behavior, then reasonably that would mean we got to have the right thoughts flowing in our heads. If we let the bad thoughts flow, we are making ourselves an enemy of God.
Again, it’s so simple, and I think the easiness of this can make some people think it’s not going to work. If we are observing our thoughts—the thoughts we don’t want and of which we want to go away—if we observe those thoughts and let them pass, they will indeed pass after a brief moment of time. The thought will lighten and go away. This is really important because it is the world who is dominated by thoughts they don’t want to think. Interesting isn’t it? Everyone, no matter who we are, has thoughts they don’t want to think about. We have thoughts we know we shouldn’t think about, and we are told in Scripture the thoughts we should allow to flow freely in our minds—those thoughts which God approves of. To be God’s friend and not his enemy, all of that (really, stop and consider this), all of that comes from our minds. If we allow ourselves to dwell on, contemplate, roll over, consider, and whatever else, those thoughts on regular basis, there is no way on this green earth that we can be pleasing to God, and really be his own that he is proud of.
The next verse says, “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"? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
God wants us to be helping ourselves; that is why he gets upset and jealous when we aren’t doing what is good for us. Moses noted God saying this in Exodus 20. There he recorded in discussing people worshipping false idols instead of God: “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5, ESV). You see, when we have made a commitment to God, he wants us to be his and wants what is best for us. To understand this, we can just place ourselves in God’s shoes, or try to. Suppose for a second your son or daughter goes to a friends house for an evening and has a good time. Then the child comes home and says, “My friend’s dad was really nice. I wish you were like his dad.” What is going happen? You are going to feel jealous of the other guy, aren’t you? Well, it’s no different with God. If we say, “I like living in this particular sin; yes, I really like it.” God’s going to get upset and jealous of our lack of devotion to his truth.
It’s a wonderful thing, however, that we have God’s grace. Let’s stop for a moment and reflect, what is God’s grace? How could we define it? Grace is deferment of what we really deserve, it is the suspension of what is coming to us, it is his patience in waiting to see if we well change our course, it is his reprieve of judgment. Grace is God’s favor toward us, his generosity in all kinds of ways; it is his wanting what is the best of us—which is often times what we really want. It shows us God’s blessings, and how he is approving and kind toward us, how he assists us, and supports us, and is biased in our favor. The bottom line to all of this, and we really need to come to grips with this, is that we are children of God. Sounds fancy. You hear it often. But we are as God’s own, personal children, as if he were our father standing right before us, and we standing right before him, his sons and daughters. Get the visual image; understand this is a real thing, and not just something that looks good on paper or sounds good to our ears.
We can choose to be self-righteous, to be proud, and in that case we won’t have need of God’s grace. Isn’t that what we are required to do? We recognize God as holy, and we ourselves not so holy. We recognize we need God’s grace. When we have this attitude, we are able to approach God with the right heart attitude. When we then we have reached grace, though, when we no longer need it anymore, that’s when the real problem starts. Yes, we think we have believed in Jesus, received salvation from our sins, are in right relationship with God. Then, at that point, some people think they’ve arrived. After all, they’ve read the whole New Testament ten, maybe twenty times. They have familiarized themselves with not only the commandments of God, but all those other nit and gritty details presented in the Books. And, the belief is present that most of the commandments are adequately followed most of the time. So, there’s really no need for God’s grace. You have arrived at awesomeness. You believe you have it down; your way is the best way, and it is the only way.
It’s not just the world who is proud; it’s not just the Hollywood folk. Yes, unfortunately, even to this day, all around us in this great city of Columbus and around the rest of the country, yes indeed, are the self-righteous Christians who think they have it all. They know it all; they have the correct way. Thankfully, in God’s grace, there are also the humble, there are those who know they need God’s grace. There are those who know their way isn’t the only way, or even the best way. No, these Christians, why, they accept all the different ways of following God under Jesus. They see this church here, and then that church other there, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Catholics, the Lutherans, the who-evers, and as long as the heart is right, they’re cool with that. These people are their brothers and sisters. They are not of those of who say, “’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will [Jesus] declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:22-23, ESV).
The most lawful are the lawless.
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgments:
Psychologist David R. Hawkins
James chapter 4, starting in verse 1: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.“ (James 4:1-2, ESV)
Today James is moving into some unpleasant territory—not that he hasn’t touched on some unpleasant things already—but we are looking at church affairs. Namely, we are focusing now on the relationships between believers, whether those relationships take place within church walls or whether outside, it doesn’t matter. The reality is, is that we as Christians still can get in quarrels and fights. We can still have passions that are ungodly, worldly passions. I don’t think James is talking about believers versus unbelievers here within the church, as some have purposed. I think the heart of this passage does indeed focus on believers in the literal sense.
Let’s define quarrels and fights to get started here. What are some quarrels and fights? Well, they can be arguments, altercations, commotions, complaints, disapproval, disputes, rivalries, feuds, falling out, objections, ruckus, misunderstandings, vendettas, selfish ambition. So, basically in summary they are disagreements, but they are disagreements that have gotten out of control. And what has caused them to get out of control? It is that jealous and selfish ambition that James talked about at the end of chapter 3. Remember? Those are what fuel the quarrels and fights, and of which are summarized as passions here by James.
But are passions bad? I mean, is it wrong to have passion toward anything? Well, of course not. Passion in and of itself isn’t bad. An athlete has to have passion to compete. I have to have passion to write these sermons. Passion is only bad when it becomes too strong, or is aimed at the wrong thing to begin with, something of which God doesn’t approve of. For instance, if we have passion for sin, whatever that sin is, that’s not going to work. But I think more likely for us is the fact that we have passion for things we think are good, which actually in and of themselves are good, but our passions are too strong for those things. We want whatever it is too much, and because of this it causes us to quarrel and fight with our fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus.
We have the passion for all kinds of things. We can have passion to be in a certain group at church, like the elders or the deacons, we can have passion to be on a certain committee or in a specific ministry, we can want to be recognized by certain people, we can desire a certain amount of money be assigned to our task, or for a certain person to like us in return, or to be the friend of a certain leader—you get the point. There are passions and desires among Christians, and these, when not fulfilled in us, can cause us to fight and quarrel. That of course only works for discord in its mildest form, or in more severe cases can cause us to do angry and stupid things which hurts ourselves and hurts others.
The people in the world who don’t know God have a way of getting what they want in life. We know those ways. They are called sin. James points the finger here in saying that ultimately when we hate our fellow brothers or sisters in Jesus that we are actually murdering them. This is what we do when we go against them. Rather than setting our passion or desire aside, we kill to get it in the figurative sense. We hurt others and push them out of the way. We don’t allow others to get what is their due. We take that which isn’t ours out of our selfish ambition. We see what others have and get jealous of it, and try to get it for ourselves. It’s all about us when we are driven from our strong passions and desires. We, as believers, end up looking poorly behaved.
How is it that we bring our passions and desires under control? Again, it’s not that passions and desires are bad; in fact, they can be quite good. It’s only when we want them too much that leads us to due stupid things. Therefore, we have to what? You guessed it. We need to Give Up Control of our passions and desires. How do we do that? We do it by the simple acknowledgment that, “If I get what I want, I am okay with that. And if I don’t get what I want, I am also okay with that.” Do you see? This is complete surrender of the situation. “If I get the position of elder at church, that’s good. But’s also good if I don’t.” “If I get the money for my ministry that I need, that’s good. If I don’t, that’s okay.” “If the pastor recognizes me for my work in this area, that is good. If she doesn’t, I am okay with that.”
One example James brings up for us is using the method of coveting to try to obtain something. Why doesn’t that work? Well, obviously if we are coveting something, we want it too much, and on top of that, we are wanting something that we don’t have a right to have. It’s not a proper way to go about getting something. And since it’s covetousness, in James’ example we don’t get what we want. What’s sad, is all we had to do was give up the desire for whatever it is we wanted. In this case, if we want something that is not rightfully ours to have (assuming we haven’t realized this fact), an alternative would manifest itself. The American way is one of hard work, struggle, and even sacrifice. This is sometimes referred to as the Protestant Work Ethic. However, this is not, I repeat, this is not the way God operates. God is a giver, and he gives us what we want when are attitudes are right. Yes, you heard that right. It’s that simple. He gives us what we want, when our attitudes are right.
So James gets to the bottom of the solution to the problem, which is asking God for what we want. Yes, again, it’s that simple. You might say, “But I’ve done that hundreds of times, and most of the time it doesn’t work.” Yes, I know what you’re talking about. The problem is that usually when we ask we have too strong a grip on whatever it is we want to happen. Say, for example, we have the strong desire for a person to come into personal relationship with God. We pray, “God, please save this person. Please help me to talk to this person,” and we want it badly. Why does it so often not happen? Isn’t the request pure and noble, coming from the very heart of God? The problem is us typically. We care too much, dare I say. We should be able to walk away from our prayer feeling that it’s okay no matter what happens, whether we know, ourselves, that the person becomes saved and whether we have the opportunity, ourselves, to talk to them. Last time I checked, we are not superhero’s that people must have an experience with to be saved. Trust God; let him work as he decides to.
Now James points to another problem in our asking scenario. Verse 3: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
Perhaps the real reason why we ask God to give us an opportunity to talk to someone we want to share with is simply because we want to have a story to go back and tell our friends. Or, maybe, in fact, it is because we believe we are commanded to do so, and therefore have to meet a certain quota in order to satisfy the God of the Universe on his laid out instructions. This is all so pointless. God looks down from heaven and laughs. He laughs because we have taken such a great responsibility upon our shoulders, as if it’s all up to us to make sure people come into relationship with him. Do we feel the Holy Spirit has retired, and doesn’t do anything anymore? Has the power been given to us? The reality is, there is no need to worry and fret about these matters.
It’s not just good things that we can have too strong of a desire for, but it can also be for things that could harm us in the long run. James is going to tell us in the next verse that we are striving after the world. So, now we have a desire that is based in a worldly pursuit. It could be to marry a certain person, or to advance in one’s career. Neither of these things is inherently bad, in and of themselves, but let’s consider them. If we have the strong desire to marry a certain person, that’s good. Only, the desire needs to be given up. It’s not the end goal that so much bothers God, no, it’s the too strong of a desire. It’s like we are trying to control God. You don’t want to be controlled, do you? Well, God doesn’t want to be controlled either, and when we have strong emotions about something, God doesn’t feel free.
The same is true for the person who wants to advance in their career. We say, “God, please help me to get this position at work. It would really advance me up the ladder. I really want you to do this.” However, our proper response should be, “Well, if God does it, I will be happy. And if he doesn’t, I will still be happy.” That’s giving up the attachment of wanting the new position. This frees up God to help us if he decides to. The other way, by wanting it too much, in doing that we are cutting off God’s power. Even if we do end up with the job, it will have been obtained through unnecessary struggle and sacrifice, by doing things we didn’t have to do in order to get. When we use our own power, things are hard. When we allow God to work on our behalf, things are easy. Remember, Jesus said, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30, ESV).
The fear is, is that we think that by giving up the passion, giving up the strong desire, that we will prevent ourselves from getting that which we want. But if you stop and think about it, that really doesn’t make sense. How does desiring something strongly get us what we want? It cannot. Have you ever noticed that very successful people, whether they have a beautiful lady or a good career, have you noticed what they lack? A lot of times they lack the strong desire. By not having that inner passion, they can identify what they want and then get it because they don’t get in their own way. Let me take an obvious example that we all know. We know that a lot of times at the end of a football game, a kicker is called upon to make that winning field goal. What happens? If he wants to make the kick too badly, he ices himself. However, if he plays it like a normal kick, with little pressure, what happens? Usually he makes it. Yes, we have to give up the desire and by okay with whatever happens. This is the best way of achieving what we want in life.
Next, we read: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4, ESV)
When we have passions and desires that are too strong, we are busting up the commandments of God. First of all, we are in violation of the first commandment, recall, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3, ESV). Second of all, we are breaking the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17, ESV). But James also says here that we are violating number seven, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14, ESV). And depending upon what are request is, we may be violating even more. The point is, is that we are really messing up with our strong passion and desire. James also says that by being this way, we are being like the world, and thus becoming a friend with the world. We are acting like people who were never saved in the first place. So, we become like those who are not in proper relationship with God, and God doesn’t like that.
We know that James is telling us to avoid the bad things of the world. The world, in and of itself, as God has made it, is very good, as Moses tells us in Genesis chapter 1. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a wonderful world. We also know that the people made in God’s image, which is every human, are also good, again, as Moses tells us. So, what is the problem? We are aware that there’s this thing called ‘sin.’ Sin is doing things in a different way from the way God wants them done. Therefore, when we choose to make major life decisions, take positions, go in particular ways, any of those things that aren’t approved by God are going after the ‘world.’ It is going about life without reverence to what God desires from us.
Yes, I would say the main channel by which the world operates is off of working hard to achieve what one wants. Psychologists commonly call this the ‘Protestant Work Ethic’ or ‘Protestant Ethic Virtues.’ The problem is that even though this is the way that a lot of our society is set up, and even though a lot of people follow this path of working hard, it’s not the way God works. It’s being a friend of the world’s self-righteous system. The higher we are on the levels of consciousness, the higher God’s power flows in our lives, and good things naturally occur. Life flows with ease and comfort. As I stated at the beginning of our study, this is because we are no longer going against the current of the river but with the current. God’s grace toward us depends on how we view him.
Certainly, there are all kinds of ‘external’ ways we can be a friend of the world and then find ourselves an enemy of God. We can have bad thoughts toward our brothers or sisters, be angry with them, be jealous of them, compare ourselves incessantly with them on Facebook. We can speak malicious things about them, we can say things that aren’t true, and we can believe the worst about them. We can choose to see ourselves as totally awesome, as having arrived at a good, enduring faith, as having no need to grow, as being better than most, as being better than this guy, or that guy. We can not listen to what our mom or dad tells us, we can act like total fools, we can not care about how our actions affect others, we can not show sympathy when sympathy is needed. We can never read our Bibles, hardly go to church, not spend time with any Christians, not spend time with God, forget to pray, and even choose to not believe in God anymore altogether.
How is it, then, that we don’t make ourselves an enemy of God, but rather make ourselves God’s friend? Notice, first, that James informs us that we can make ourselves an enemy of God. It isn’t that James is only talking about a person who doesn’t believe in Jesus versus a person who does. That would be the easy way out. Rather, he is telling us, or really warning us, that we can make ourselves an enemy of God. How do we, though, do the reverse of this? Is it not what I’ve been talking about from the very beginning of our study here? It is through the power of Giving Up Control, the power of surrendering, giving up and surrendering those thoughts which are contrary to the truth, contrary to what God wants. Yes, it is from our minds that behavior comes, and if we are going to have the right behavior, then reasonably that would mean we got to have the right thoughts flowing in our heads. If we let the bad thoughts flow, we are making ourselves an enemy of God.
Again, it’s so simple, and I think the easiness of this can make some people think it’s not going to work. If we are observing our thoughts—the thoughts we don’t want and of which we want to go away—if we observe those thoughts and let them pass, they will indeed pass after a brief moment of time. The thought will lighten and go away. This is really important because it is the world who is dominated by thoughts they don’t want to think. Interesting isn’t it? Everyone, no matter who we are, has thoughts they don’t want to think about. We have thoughts we know we shouldn’t think about, and we are told in Scripture the thoughts we should allow to flow freely in our minds—those thoughts which God approves of. To be God’s friend and not his enemy, all of that (really, stop and consider this), all of that comes from our minds. If we allow ourselves to dwell on, contemplate, roll over, consider, and whatever else, those thoughts on regular basis, there is no way on this green earth that we can be pleasing to God, and really be his own that he is proud of.
The next verse says, “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"? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
God wants us to be helping ourselves; that is why he gets upset and jealous when we aren’t doing what is good for us. Moses noted God saying this in Exodus 20. There he recorded in discussing people worshipping false idols instead of God: “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5, ESV). You see, when we have made a commitment to God, he wants us to be his and wants what is best for us. To understand this, we can just place ourselves in God’s shoes, or try to. Suppose for a second your son or daughter goes to a friends house for an evening and has a good time. Then the child comes home and says, “My friend’s dad was really nice. I wish you were like his dad.” What is going happen? You are going to feel jealous of the other guy, aren’t you? Well, it’s no different with God. If we say, “I like living in this particular sin; yes, I really like it.” God’s going to get upset and jealous of our lack of devotion to his truth.
It’s a wonderful thing, however, that we have God’s grace. Let’s stop for a moment and reflect, what is God’s grace? How could we define it? Grace is deferment of what we really deserve, it is the suspension of what is coming to us, it is his patience in waiting to see if we well change our course, it is his reprieve of judgment. Grace is God’s favor toward us, his generosity in all kinds of ways; it is his wanting what is the best of us—which is often times what we really want. It shows us God’s blessings, and how he is approving and kind toward us, how he assists us, and supports us, and is biased in our favor. The bottom line to all of this, and we really need to come to grips with this, is that we are children of God. Sounds fancy. You hear it often. But we are as God’s own, personal children, as if he were our father standing right before us, and we standing right before him, his sons and daughters. Get the visual image; understand this is a real thing, and not just something that looks good on paper or sounds good to our ears.
We can choose to be self-righteous, to be proud, and in that case we won’t have need of God’s grace. Isn’t that what we are required to do? We recognize God as holy, and we ourselves not so holy. We recognize we need God’s grace. When we have this attitude, we are able to approach God with the right heart attitude. When we then we have reached grace, though, when we no longer need it anymore, that’s when the real problem starts. Yes, we think we have believed in Jesus, received salvation from our sins, are in right relationship with God. Then, at that point, some people think they’ve arrived. After all, they’ve read the whole New Testament ten, maybe twenty times. They have familiarized themselves with not only the commandments of God, but all those other nit and gritty details presented in the Books. And, the belief is present that most of the commandments are adequately followed most of the time. So, there’s really no need for God’s grace. You have arrived at awesomeness. You believe you have it down; your way is the best way, and it is the only way.
It’s not just the world who is proud; it’s not just the Hollywood folk. Yes, unfortunately, even to this day, all around us in this great city of Columbus and around the rest of the country, yes indeed, are the self-righteous Christians who think they have it all. They know it all; they have the correct way. Thankfully, in God’s grace, there are also the humble, there are those who know they need God’s grace. There are those who know their way isn’t the only way, or even the best way. No, these Christians, why, they accept all the different ways of following God under Jesus. They see this church here, and then that church other there, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Catholics, the Lutherans, the who-evers, and as long as the heart is right, they’re cool with that. These people are their brothers and sisters. They are not of those of who say, “’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will [Jesus] declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:22-23, ESV).
The most lawful are the lawless.
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgments:
Psychologist David R. Hawkins