James 4:1-12

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: James (Acts)

Rusty's Notes

James 4:1-12
PROUD OR HUMBLE
James 4:1-12
1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? (rhetorical?) Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

• Conflict comes out of inner sensual lusts or pleasures (hēdonōn).
• Hedonism, the playboy mindset that makes pleasure men & women’s goal.
• Fighting in the Church has gone on forever!
• Lot caused a quarrel with his Uncle Abraham (Gen. 13).
• Absalom created a war for his father David (2 Sam. 13–18).
• The disciples created problems for the Lord when they argued over who was the greatest in the kingdom (Luke 9:46–48).
• When you examine some of the early churches, you discover that they had their share of disagreements.
• The members of the Corinthian church were competing with each other in the public meetings, and even suing each other in court (1 Cor. 6:1–8; 14:23–40).
• The Galatian believers were “biting and devouring” one another (Gal. 5:15).
• Paul had to admonish the Ephesians to cultivate spiritual unity (Eph. 4:1–16).
• Even his beloved church at Philippi had problems: two women could not get along with each other (Phil. 4:1–3).[1]
• Explain the war inside… POS

2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

• In reference to class wars (rich vs poor)
• This is not the trusting child asking for a meal but the greedy child asking for the best piece or the spoiled child demanding his or her way.
• They are asking God to bless their schemes; God will have no part of it.[2]
• But the real battle is between your focus on God and worldly things.
• First, wanting what they do not have and second, coveting what they cannot obtain.[3]
• The essence of sin is selfishness.
• Often we veil our religious quarrels under the disguise of “spirituality.”
• We are like Miriam and Aaron who complained about Moses’ wife, but who really were envious of Moses’ authority (Num. 12).
• Or we imitate James and John who asked for special thrones in the kingdom, when what we really want is recognition today (Mark 10:35–45).
• In both of these instances, the result of selfish desire rubbed hard and brought division among God’s people.
• Selfish desires are dangerous things.
• They lead to wrong actions (“You fight and war,”)
• They even lead to wrong praying (“You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your evil desires.”).
• When our praying is wrong, our whole Christian life is wrong.
• It has well been said that the purpose of prayer is not to get man’s will done in heaven, but to get God’s will done on earth.[4]
• Selfish living and selfish praying always lead to war.
• There is always war on the inside, but there doesn’t have to be war on the outside.
• It is called “walking by the Spirit”, rather than “walking by the flesh”

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

• A figure of speech designating the unfaithfulness of God’s people in their relationship with Him[5]
• By the “world,” James means, of course, human society apart from God.[6]
• Friendship with the world is compared to adultery.
• James is not referring to quit talking and loving on people with worldly behaviors.
• James is referring to not doing worldly behaviors.
• James is not talking about disassociating yourself from people who do worldly behaviors.
• James is referring to disassociating yourself from worldly behaviors.

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

• Do not grieve the Spirit…
• How can you have what you have and not see this thing?

6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says:
God resists the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.

• God resists the proud… those who are not redeemed…
• I have been made humble… sometimes I walk in my flesh.
• Know who you are.
• James has taken the sword and said this is the enemy of God and this is the friend of God.
• Know the difference… know who you are.
• You can depend on your own pride… or you can depend on God’s grace.

7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

• This word is a military term that means “get into your proper rank.”[7]
• Submit… why do we have such a hard time with this word?
• Pride
• But resist the devil…

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

• You will have no problem with submission if this happens.
• The more you know God… the more you will feel His presence with you.
• The more you know God… the more aware you will become of the things God does around you.
• Submission becomes a fruit.

Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

• Don’t just say you believe in God.
• Believe in God.
• Pursue God!
• During this Corona Virus era, you are changing the way you do life.
• You are shedding your old habits… some that you have been doing a long time.
• Now you are having to re-think how to do life.
• You are creating new habits…even if it is subconsciously.
• Process what you are doing with your time.
• We are going to come out of this stage in life and it is going to impact you forever.
• How many times have you said, “If I just had time to pursue the Lord, I would do this or that.”?
• Now is the time.
• It is the same thing James was saying to the believers 2000 years ago.
• Think about what you are doing.
• Focus on the Lord. Pursue this living God that wants to literally help you breathe every breath.
• And wash your hands!

9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

• I imagine most people translate this as written to the believers since this is who the letter is written to.
• The previous verse is directed to non-believers… sinners.
• Be miserable and mourn about your worldliness…
• Let your laughter and joy that is based upon worldly things turn to sorrow and repentance.
• Humble yourselves… cast aside your pride.
• Let go of your old stone heart, be transformed by the grace of God and learn how to live out of your new heart.

11 Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? [8]

• The saints were speaking evil of one another and judging one another.
• Christians are to speak “the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15); they are not to speak evil in a spirit of rivalry and criticism.
• If the truth about a brother is harmful, then we should cover it in love and not repeat it (1 Peter 4:8 - Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.[9]
• If he has sinned, we should go to him personally and try to win him back (Gal. 6:1–2 - Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted. 2 Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.[10]).
• James was not forbidding us to use discrimination or even to evaluate people.
• Christians need to have discernment (Phil. 1:9–11 - 9 And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, 10 so that you may approve the things that are superior and may be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.[11])
• We must not act like God in passing judgment.
• We must first examine our own lives, and then try to help others (Matt. 7:1–5).
• We never know all the facts in a case, and we certainly never know the motives that are at work in men’s hearts.
• To speak evil of a brother and to judge a brother based on partial evidence and (probably) unkind motives is to sin against him and against God.[12]
• There is a Spirit inside of you that will provide you with wisdom on when to speak and even when not to speak.
• Know God and you will learn to live out of your new heart.

[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, pp. 366–367). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[2] Davids, P. H. (2011). James (p. 100). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
[3] Richardson, K. A. (1997). James (Vol. 36, p. 174). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[4] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, pp. 367–368). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[5] Barry, J. D., Grigoni, M. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible (Jas 4:4). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
[6] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 368). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[7] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 369). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[8] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Jas 4:1–12). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[9] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (1 Pe 4:8). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[10] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ga 6:1–2). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[11] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Php 1:9–11). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[12] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 367). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.