James 4

James 4:1

VIII. COVETOUSNESS: ITS CAUSE AND CURE (Chap. 4) James has pointed out that the wise man is a peace-loving man. Now he is reminded of the tragic strife that often exists among God’s people. What is the cause of it all? Why are there so many unhappy homes and so many churches torn by division? Why are there such bitter feuds among Christian workers in the homeland, and such conflicts among missionaries abroad? The reason is that we are ceaselessly striving to satisfy our lust for pleasures and possessions, and to outdo others. 4:1, 2a The sad fact is that there are wars and fights among Christians. To suggest that this paragraph does not apply to believers is unrealistic, and it robs the passage of all its value for us. What causes all this fighting? It arises from the strong desires within us which are constantly struggling to be satisfied. There is the lust to accumulate material possessions. There is the drive for prestige.

There is the craving for pleasure, for the gratification of bodily appetites. These powerful forces are at work within us. We are never satisfied. We always want more. And yet it seems we are constantly frustrated in our desire to get what we want. The unfulfilled longing becomes so powerful that we trample on those who seem to obstruct our progress.

James says, You murder. He uses the word largely in a figurative sense. We don’t literally kill, but the anger, jealousy, and cruelty which we generate are murder in embryo. 4:2b, 3 We covet and cannot obtain. We want to have more things and better things than others. And in the attempt, we find ourselves quarreling and devouring one another. John and Jane have just been married. John has a fair job with a moderate salary. Jane wants a house as good as the other young couples at church. John wants a late model car. Jane wants fine furnishings and appliances. Some of these things have to be purchased on the installment plan. John’s salary is hardly sufficient to bear the strain. Then a baby is born into the family; this means added expenses and a badly unbalanced budget. As Jane’s demands mount, John becomes cross and irritable. Jane retaliates with backbiting and tears. Soon the walls of the house are vibrating with the crossfire. Materialism is destroying the home. On the other hand, it may be that Jane is jealous. She feels that Bob and Sue Smith have a more prominent place in the assembly than she and John. Soon she makes snide remarks to Sue. As the battle between them increases in tempo, John and Bob become involved in the fighting. Then the other Christians take sides, and the congregation is dividedbecause of one person’s lust for prominence. Here then is the source of the bickering and strife among believers. It comes from the desire for more, and from jealousy of others. Keeping up with the Joneses is the polite name for it; more accurately we should call it greed, covetousness, and envy. The desire becomes so strong that people will do almost anything to gratify their lusts. They are slow to learn that true pleasure is not found in this way, but in contentment with food and clothing (1Ti_6:8). Prayer is the right approach to this problem. Don’t argue. Don’t fight. Pray. James says, You do not have because you do not ask. Instead of taking these things to the Lord in prayer, we try to get what we want by our own efforts. If we want something which we do not have, we should ask God for it. If we do ask, and the prayer is unanswered, what then? It simply means that our motives were not pure. We did not want these possessions for the glory of God or for the good of our fellow men. We wanted them for our own selfish enjoyment. We wanted them to satisfy our natural appetites. God does not promise to answer such prayers. What a profound lesson in psychology we have in these first three verses! If men were content with what God has given them, what staggering conflict and unrest would be avoided! If we loved our neighbors as ourselves, and were more interested in sharing than in acquiring, what peace would result! If we would follow the Savior’s command to forsake all instead of to accumulate, to lay up treasures in heaven rather than on earth, what contentions would cease! 4:4 James condemns the inordinate love of material things as spiritual adultery. God wants us to love Him first and foremost. When we love the passing things of this world, we are being untrue to Him. Covetousness is a form of idolatry. It means that we strongly desire what God does not want us to have. That means that we have set up idols in our hearts. We value material things above the will of God. Therefore, covetousness is idolatry, and idolatry is spiritual unfaithfulness to the Lord. Worldliness is also enmity with God. The world does not mean the planet on which we live, or the world of nature about us. It is the system which man has built up for himself in an effort to satisfy the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. In this system there is no room for God or His Son. It may be the world of art, culture, education, science, or even religion. But it is a sphere in which the name of Christ is unwelcome or even forbidden, except, of course, as an empty formality.

It is, in short, the world of mankind outside the sphere of the true church. To be a friend of this system is to be an enemy of God. It was this world that crucified the Lord of life and glory. In fact, it was the religious world that played the key role in putting Him to death. How unthinkable it is that believers should ever want to walk arm-in-arm with the world that murdered their Savior! 4:5 Verse 5 is one of the most difficult in the Epistle: Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?The first difficulty is that James seems to be quoting from the OT; yet these words are not found anywhere in the OT, or even in the Apocryphal books. There are two possible explanations. First of all, while the exact words are not found in the OT, James may have been quoting them as being the general teaching of the Scripture. The second solution of the problem is given by the RV. There the verse is broken into two questions: Or think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying? Here the thought is that in condemning the competitive, worldly spirit, the Bible is not wasting words. The second major difficulty in verse 5 is the meaning of the second part of the verse. The problem is whether the spirit is the Holy Spirit or the spirit of passionate jealousy. If the former is meant, then the thought is that the Holy Spirit whom God caused to dwell in us does not originate the lust and jealousy which cause strife; rather He yearns over us with jealousy for our entire devotion to Christ. If the latter is intended, then the meaning is that the spirit that dwells in us, that is, the spirit of lust and envy, is the cause of all our unfaithfulness to God. 4:6 But He gives more grace. In the first five verses we saw how wicked the old nature of the believer can be. Now we learn that we are not left to deal with the lusts of the flesh in our own strength. Thank God, He gives more grace or strength whenever it is needed (Heb_4:16). He has promised, … as your days, so shall your strength be (Deu_33:25). He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater, He sendeth more strength when the labors increase, To added affliction He addeth His mercy, To multiplied trials His multiplied peace. Annie Johnson Flint To prove that God gives grace as it is needed, James quoted Pro_3:34, but here there is the added thought that it is to the humble, not the proud, that this grace is promised. God resists the proud, but He cannot resist the broken spirit. 4:7 In verses 7-10, we find six steps to be followed where there is true repentance. James has been crying out against the sins of the saints. His words have pierced our hearts like arrows of conviction. They have fallen like thunderbolts from the throne of God. We realize that God has been speaking to us. Our hearts have been bowed beneath the influence of His word.

But the question now is, What shall we do?The first thing to do is to submit to God. This means that we must be subject to Him, ready to listen to Him and obey Him. We must be tender and contrite, not proud and stiff-necked. Then we must resist the devil. We do this by closing our ears and hearts to his suggestions and temptations. We do it also by using the Scriptures as the Sword of the Spirit to repel him.

If we resist him, he will flee from us. 4:8 Next we should draw near to God. We do this by prayer. We must come before Him in desperate, believing prayer, telling Him all that is on our heart. As we thus approach Him, we find that He will draw near to us. We thought He would be far from us because of our carnality and worldliness, but when we draw near to Him, He forgives us and restores us. The fourth step is: Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Hands speak of our actions and hearts represent our motives and desires. We cleanse our hands and purify our hearts through confession and forsaking sins, both outward and inward. As sinners we need to confess evil acts; as double-minded people we need to confess our mixed motives. 4:9 Confession should be accompanied by deep sorrow for sin. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. When God visits us in conviction of sin, it is not time for levity. Rather it is a time when we should prostrate ourselves before Him and mourn over our sinfulness, powerlessness, coldness, and barrenness. We should humble ourselves and weep over our materialism, secularism, and formalism. Both inwardly and outwardly, we should manifest the fruit of godly repentance. 4:10 Finally, we should humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. If we honestly take our place in the dust at His feet, He will lift us up in due time. This then is the way we should respond when the Lord exposes us to ourselves. Too often it is not the case, however. Sometimes, for example, we are in a meeting when God speaks loudly to our hearts. We are stirred for the moment, and filled with good resolves. But when the meeting closes, the people engage in animated and lighthearted conversation. The whole atmosphere of the service is dispersed, the power is dissipated, and the Spirit of God is quenched. 4:11, 12 The next sin James deals with is censoriousness, or speaking evil against a brother. Someone has suggested that there are three questions we should answer before indulging in criticism of othersWhat good does it do your brother? What good does it do yourself? What glory for God is in it? The royal law of love says that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. To speak evil against a brother, therefore, or to judge his motives, is the same as speaking against this law and condemning it as worthless. To break a law deliberately is to treat it with disrespect and contempt. It is the same as saying that the law is not good, and not worthy of obedience. He who refuses obedience virtually says it ought not to be law. Now this puts the one who speaks evil of a brother in the strange position of being a judge rather than one who is to be judged. He sets himself up as being superior to the law rather than subject to it. But only God is superior to the law; He is the One who gave it and the One who judges by it. Who then has the audacity to usurp the place of God and judge another? 4:13 The next sin which James denounces is self-confident, boastful planning in independence of God (vv. 13-16). He pictures a businessman who has a complete plan laid out for the future. Notice the details. He thought about the time (today or tomorrow); the personnel (we); the place (such and such a city); the duration (spend a year there); the activity (buy and sell); and the anticipated result (make a profit). What is missing in this picture? He never once takes God into his business.

In life, it is necessary to make some plans for the future, but to do so in self-will is sinful. To say we will or I will is the essence of sin. Note for instance, the I wills of Lucifer in Isa_14:13-14 : For you have said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High..4:14 It is wrong to plan as if tomorrow were certain. Do not say … tomorrow (Pro_3:28). We do not know what tomorrow holds. Our lives are as frail and unpredictable as a puff of smoke (JBP). 4:15 God should be consulted in all our plans, and they should be made in His will. We should live and speak in the realization that our destinies are in His control. We should say, If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. Thus, in the book of Acts, we find the Apostle Paul saying, I will return again to you, God willing (Act_18:21), and in 1Co_4:19 he wrote, I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills. Sometimes Christians employ the letters D.V. to express this sense of dependence on God. These letters are the initials of two Latin words, Deo volente meaning God willing. 4:16 But now you boast in your arrogance, writes James. The Christians were priding themselves in their boastful plans for the future. They were arrogant in their confidence that nothing would interfere with their time schedule. They acted as if they were the masters of their own fate. All such boasting is evil because it leaves God out. 4:17 Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. In this context, to do good is to take God into every aspect of our lives, to live in moment by moment dependence on Him. If we know we should do this, yet fail to do it, we are clearly sinning. Of course, the principle is of broader application. In any area of life, the opportunity to do good makes us responsible to do it. If we know what is right, we are under obligation to live up to that light. Failure to do so is sin against God, against our neighbors, and against ourselves. In chapter 4, James has put us on trial with regard to covetousness and conflict, with regard to evil-speaking, and with regard to planning without consulting the Lord. Let us therefore ask ourselves the following questionsAm I continually anxious to get more or am I content with what I have? Am I envious of those who have more than I? Do I pray before purchasing? When God speaks to me, do I submit or resist? Do I speak against my brothers? Do I make plans without consulting the Lord?