2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
I must admit to initially being a bit wary about having to write about JAS 4: 1-10, the section on friendship with the world. Therefore, I went to the best place I could for help, the Lord. He has told me that it is necessary to write about the world, so that we can appreciate the difference between the consequences of putting our spiritual stock in it over putting it in heaven. That must have been James’ intent in writing this passage. JAS 4: 1-2, “Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasures, which are constantly fighting within you. You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it.” I needed to have a better understanding of the mechanism for all this negative behavior after reading this. Of course, I understand that it’s origins are in giving in to Satan’s temptations. However, there is more to this, which may be better understood in light of RO 7: 5. “For when we lived according to our human nature, the sinful desires stirred up by the Law were at work in our bodies, and we were useful in the service of death.” The first time I read this citation, it left me confused. However, when I read on to RO 7: 7, it was clarified. “Shall we say, then, that the Law is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, ‘Do not desire what belongs to someone else,’ I would not have known such a desire.”
This is not an easy passage to understand, so let me share what it says to me. Mankind was given the Law, so that they had a way to tell what is sinful and what is not. I remember back to when I was a child, and my mother told me not to snack before dinner. Once that was said, it was all I could think about. More than once I disobeyed my mother, giving in to my unwillingness to delay gratification. Later, when it became apparent that I couldn’t finish my dinner, Mother would know what I had done. I might not have been tempted had I not known that this was not to be done. Yet, if you ask: why was it important for my mother to tell me don’t snack before dinner? That was so that I could know what was wrong and eventually learn to make the choice to delay my gratification. My mother was training me to have self-discipline, just like the Lord is training us. Just as the Law is not sinful, my mother’s advice wasn’t sinful either. Trite as it is, there is truth in the adage, “no pain, no gain.”
Getting back to James’ teaching, we need to understand his assertion that we must ask God for what we want. As children, we often know ahead of time when a responsible parent is going to turn down our requests. However, sometimes we simply don’t know ahead of time what our parent’s response will be. In asking God for something, we are demonstrating that we are willing to trust in the wisdom of His response. JAS 4: 3 shows us why God turns down some of our requests. “And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures.” Now, I don’t think that is the only reason for God ever to say, “no,” to a request we make, but it is a common reason. Obviously, God turns down some of our requests because the time isn’t right and/or we don’t understand that they interfere with an agenda of God’s that we don’t understand. However, there are plenty of times when we ask God for something, and it’s turned down because our motives are not in keeping with His.
JAS 4: 4-5 is easier to understand in light of what has been discussed. “Unfaithful people! Do you not know that to be the world’s friend means to be God’s enemy? Whoever wants to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy. Do not think that there is no truth in the scripture that says, ‘The spirit that God placed in us is filled with fierce desires.’ “ What I believe this means is that we were created with free agency, the ability to make choices whether to sin or not. Once the original sin was done [see GN 3: 6], we had the knowledge of good and evil and acted on it. We could then experience those fierce desires, which are sometimes temptations from Satan. Because of our free agency, we now had to make a choice when exposed to the alternatives the Law made us aware of to either obey God’s commands in faith or to act worldly giving into our fleshly desires. The next citation gives me comfort.
JAS 4: 6, “But the grace that God gives is even stronger [that those fierce desires from Satan]. As the Scripture [PR 3: 34] says, ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ “ So in (7) we are commanded to “submit ourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from us.” What happened when Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness in MT 4: 11 is proof of the truth of this statement. James closes this discussion with JAS 4: 10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” I can testify to the truth of this from my own experience of the last 18 months. He brought Peter and I to brokenness in His efforts to get us to trust Him and obey His command to stop thinking that we were in control of our lives. When we finally did put our trust in Him, He blessed us in wonderful ways.
PRAYER: O Lord, we must learn difficult and often painful lessons to understand that choosing Your ways and being willing to submit ourselves to You in humility is the only way that is viable in our lives. As children, we are born with the stain of the original sin, a stain which is often manifested with inability to delay gratification. You love us enough to have been made unhappy by this sorry state of our spiritual lives. Thus, You offered Your Son on the cross, giving us a way out from under the consequences of our sin. You inspired writers like James, other apostles, and even the prophets of the OT to make Yourself and Your Word known to us. You gave them to us, so that we might know that You are alive and there to guide us toward the goal of eternal life with You. Over and over again, You show us how the values of the world serve death and how those of heaven lead to joy and fellowship with You forever. Thank You, Dear Lord. You are to be praised, adored, worshipped, and honored forever. In Christ’s name, amen.
How blessed we are that the Lord is an active participant in our lives. He wants us to seek Him out and to show our love for Him by obeying His commands. He enriches our lives with His love when we allow Him to do that. You are loved today and always by Him. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn