QUARRELS AND CONFLICTS
Sources & Solutions
James 4:1-12
Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9).
There is a painting in an art
museum in Europe. It pictures a dark,
storm tossed seascape. There are great,
roaring waves crashing on a ragged and rocky shore. Lightening splits the sky, tearing holes in the night. The title of the painting is Peace. Most people think it is horribly misnamed
and walk away scratching their heads.
But they fail to notice something; in the bottom right corner, nestled
in a hollow of one of the rocks on the shore is a small bird. It is safe, warm, and secure in the cleft of
the rock. Our world is in turmoil. It seems the storms of life are crashing on
many of our heads. Yet we can be safe
and secure in the peace of the Prince of peace, the Rock of our salvation,
Jesus.
The last verse of chapter 3
ended on a note of peace: And the
seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
(James 3:18). Who are those who
make peace? It is the church!. It is to be in us.
Here is our opening
premise. The only place where conflicts
ought not to occur is within the church.
That is because the church is a body.
It is a single organism. For the
church to fight against itself is like having my hands rebel against my
fight. And yet it is exactly such a condition
that James describes in this chapter.
THE PROBLEM DEFINED
What is the source of quarrels
and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your
members?
You lust and do not have; so you
commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.
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.
You adulteresses, do you not know
that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever
wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 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”? 6 But He gives a greater
grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the
humble.” (James 3:1-6).
Notice
how James opens this section. It is
with a question. It is a question as to
the source of quarrels and conflicts among you. The fact that he asks this question assumes
that there are conflicts within the church.
Let me
make this clear. There are conflicts
within the church. If you haven’t seen
any conflicts within the church, then you haven’t spent much time within the
church.
From
where do these conflicts come? If we
are all one body and we all have the same Spirit and we all serve the same
Lord, then why do we fight? James lists
several reasons.
1. Conflicts
come from the Quest for Pleasure: What
is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your
pleasures that wage war in your members? (4:1).
The
Greek word translated “pleasure” is hdonwn -- it is from
this word that we derive our term “Hedonism.”
In Greek thought, this described the system which sought to gratify the
flesh.
It
is similar to our word “amuse.” To muse
is to think. The letter “a” before a
word negates it. Therefore an amusement
park is by definition a place where you go to experience the absence of
thought.
Pleasure
in and of itself is not bad. It is only
bad when it becomes an overriding priority.
Such pleasures can easily get out of hand so that they declare open war
on our souls. James says that these
pleasures wage war in your members.
There is a war going on. The
battleground is inside you. And to make
matters worse, it does not stay inside you.
It spills out of you and it results in outward conflicts.
What
is the opposite of making your pleasure a priority? It is in making the needs of others a priority. It is in the humility of mind in which you do
not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests
of others (Philippians 2:4). It is
that outlook wherein you regard one another as more important than
yourself (Philippians 2:3).
2. Conflicts
come from Wanting what you Cannot Have:
You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious
and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. (4:2).
It
is not that these Christians were actually committing literal murder. But Jesus said that if you hate your brother
and refuse to forgive him, you have committed murder within your heart. Why do you do that? One reason is because you don’t have the
things that you want. James gives two
reasons why this is the case:
a. You do not have because you do not ask (4:2).
Often
the issue is not that we pray poorly, but that we do not pray at all. We treat prayer as a last resort. It is like the sign on the parachute
harness: “First pull the primary cord: if that doesn’t work, pull the secondary
cord; if that doesn’t work, pray.”
I
am convinced that if we really believed in the power of prayer, we would pray a
lot more.
b. You
ask with the wrong motives: You ask
and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend
it on your pleasures (4:3).
When
we do pray, we don’t do a very good job of it.
We pray selfishly. We ask for
what WE want. We ought to be praying
for what GOD wants.
Instead
of praying, “Lord, change my circumstances,” I’ve learned to pray, “Lord,
change me!”
There
is a lesson here. It is that God does
not answer prayers that are only designed to fulfill our pleasures. He acts in accordance with His own pleasure. And that is the way He wants us to
pray. He wants us to pray according to
His pleasure. When we begin praying the
way we ought to pray, then we will find our prayers being answered.
There
is a challenge here. It is a challenge
to check out your desires. God promises
to grant all proper desires. It could
well be that the reason God has not answered your prayers is because of His
mercy toward you.
3. Conflicts
come from Taking the Wrong Side: You
adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility
toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself
an enemy of God (4:4).
Why
does James use the word “adulteresses” to describe his readers? Adultery is the breaking of the marital
vow. It involves unfaithfulness to that
vow.
In
the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was viewed as having been bound to the
Lord through a marriage vow.
For
your husband is your Maker,
Whose
name is the LORD of hosts;
And
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,
Who
is called the God of all the earth. (Isaiah 54:5).
This
same figure is seen of the church in the New Testament. You have been betrothed to Jesus. You are to be His bride. The marriage ceremony hasn’t taken place
yet. It awaits the return of the Groom
at the Second Coming of Christ. In the
meanwhile, you are called to be a faithful bride.
Can
I tell you something about my wife? She
is on my side. And I am on her
side. That is how it is supposed to be. And it is how it is supposed to be with the
Lord.
For I am jealous for you with a
godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might
present you as a pure virgin. 3 But I am
afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should
be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. (2
Corinthians 11:2-3).
|
Verse 5
seems to cite the Scriptures as being the source of this teaching. The problem is that we do not know any
place where the rest of verse 5 is found in either the Old Testament or even
in any other Jewish writings. On the
other hand, verse 6 is echoed in Proverbs 3:34 which says: “Though He
scoffs at the scoffers, yet He gives grace to the afflicted.” Thus it could be that we are not meant to
understand the quote as coming until this point. |
Those words are echoed here in
James:
Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously
desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? (4:5).
Don’t
be led astray! Don’t be seduced! When your desires move you away from God and
turn you toward the world, you are being unfaithful in your relationship.
Do not be bound together with
unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what
fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a
believer in common with an unbeliever? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15).
You
must make a decision. It is a daily
decision. You cannot be married to the
Lord and continue to date the devil.
There
is a war going on. It is a spiritual
war and you have been called to take sides.
You cannot remain neutral in this war.
You are either actively working for the Lord or else you are actively
working for the world. The question is
which side you are on.
4. Conflicts
come from a Lack of Humility: But
He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but
gives grace to the humble.” (4:6).
Somewhere
along the line we picked up the idea that God blesses the person that seems the
closest to perfection, the one who does the most for God and who has studied
the most theology and who knows the most doctrine. It simply is not true. We
saw in the last chapter that those who are teachers of the Word, rather than
being more blessed, are held to a higher standard of judgment. Those who teach are that much more
vulnerable to pride and God is opposed to the proud. Instead He blesses the humble.
James
is not teaching anything new when he says that God blesses the humble. It is a message that flows throughout the
Scriptures.
For
though the LORD is exalted,
Yet
He regards the lowly;
But
the haughty He knows from afar. (Psalm 138:6).
Though
He scoffs at the scoffers,
Yet
He gives grace to the afflicted (Proverbs 3:34).
For
thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I
dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the
contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15).
God
does not bless the proud. He blesses
the one who comes admitting his own need.
He blesses the humble.
It
is this lack of humility that is one of the causative factors for conflict
within the church today. As we each
elevate ourselves within our own minds, we become like little gods, each
wanting to be worshiped.
THE SOLUTION SUPPLIED FROM
GOD
Submit therefore to God. Resist
the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your
laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble
yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. (James 4:7-10).
The solution that James gives
to the problem of quarrels and conflicts is given in the form of ten
commands. They are given in rapid-fire
succession. They are ten imperatives given
with military-like precision.
(1) Submit
therefore to God (4:7).
(2) Resist
the devil (4:7).
(3) Draw
near to God (4:8).
(4) Cleanse
your hands (4:8).
(5) Purify
your hearts (4:8).
(6) Be
miserable (4:9).
(7) Mourn
(4:9).
(8) Weep
(4:9).
(9) Let
your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom (4:9).
(10) Humble
yourselves in the presence of the Lord (4:10).
Each of these commands is
given in the aorist tense. The aorist
is a tense peculiar to Greek that views the action of the verb as punctiliar --
point action. When it is used with a
command, the aorist indicates an action that is called to begin.
James is saying, “I want you to start to do each of these
things!” They are a call to move away
from the double-mindedness that was described back in chapter one and to return
to the Lord. They are a call for
repentance. They are the solution to
the problem that James presented in the first six verses of this chapter.
|
The Problem (4:1-6) |
The Solution (4:7-10) |
|
Quarrels and
conflicts from focusing on your pleasures (4:1). |
Submit
therefore to God, resist the devil, draw near to God (4:8). |
|
Spiritual
murder (4:2). |
Cleanse your
hands (4:8). |
|
Problems in
prayer (4:3). |
Purify your
hearts (4:8). |
|
Spiritual
adultery (4:4-5). |
Be miserable,
mourn and weep (4:9). |
|
God is opposed
to the proud, but gives grace to the humble (4:6). |
Humble
yourselves in the presence of the Lord (4:10). |
Repentance isn’t very popular
these days. Our post-modern generation
doesn’t like the idea that we have anything from which to repent. We would rather hold onto our dignity and
our pride and approach God as an equal.
It is a problem of pride. And
that is where James begins.
1. Submit
therefore to God (4:7).
Submission
speaks of recognizing that we are under the authority of God. We are already there, whether we recognize
it or not. But we are called to submit
ourselves willingly to that authority.
That is what a Christian is. He
is one who has recognized Jesus Christ as Lord and who has accepted Him as his
master.
You
will find that you always submit to something.
The opposite of submitting to God is not freedom, but merely a
submission to a different master. If
you are not submitting to God, then you are submitting to Satan. That brings us to the next point.
2. Resist
the devil and he will flee from you (4:7).
How
do you resist the devil? You do it by
submitting to God. You do it by letting
go of your pride and by taking a spirit of humility. When you are proud, you are following in Satan’s footsteps. He is the prince of pride.
I
hear a lot of people claiming this promise that if you resist the devil, he
will flee from you. But that only takes
place as you have made the first part of this verse operational. It will only take place as you have first
submitted to God.
Do
you recall Disney’s movie, “The Lion King?”
There is a scene in the movie where the little lion cub is being
threatened by several large, hungry hyenas who are going to eat him for lunch. He makes a little baby cub growl of
resistance and they merely laugh their hyena laugh and continue their
advance. But suddenly they stop and
their eyes grow wide and they slink away.
What changed? They have realized
that the Father is standing behind His cub and He is big and He is strong and
He is not to be trifled with.
Our
resistance to the devil is like that.
It is the Lord who has defeated Satan.
He defeated Satan when He went to the cross and died for our sins and
then rose from the dead. He conquered
sin and death and then He arose from the dead with a roar.
Satan
is a defeated enemy. But he is only
defeated when you are with the One who is Satan’s Conqueror. It is only then that the Lion of the Tribe
of Judah stands behind you. It is for
this reason that James tells you to draw near to God.
3. Draw
near to God and He will draw near to you (4:8).
Do
you see the movement? The Christian
life is not static. You are always
moving. Either you are moving toward God
or you are moving away from Him.
Remember
the story of the Prodigal Son? The
younger son had taken his inheritance and had left his home and his
father. He moved out into the world and
lot it all. In sorrow over his lost
condition, he decided to return home and to throw himself on his father’s
mercy. He planned how he would come and
knock at the father’s door and plead with a position as a servant.
But
it didn’t happen that way. While he was
still a long way off, his father saw him and ran out to meet him. That is what the Lord does with us. You draw near to God and He will draw near
to you. It has been said that if you
feel as though you aren’t as close to God as you used to be, it wasn’t He who
moved. And yet, if you come back to
God, you find that it was He who initiated it.
Here
is the principle. You take the first
step. The Lord will take the second
step. And when you get to the third
step, you will find that it was the Lord who took the first step.
4. Cleanse
your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded (4:8)
Cleansings and purifyings were familiar themes to
the recipients of this epistle. This
epistle was written to the Jews -- to the twelve tribes that were scattered
abroad. Their religious background was
full of ritual cleansings and ritual purifyings. But James is speaking about more than mere ritualism. There is both an inward and an outward
aspect to this command.
Outward Action
|
Inward Attitude
|
|
Cleanse your hand |
Purify your hearts |
|
You sinners |
You double-minded |
“Sinners” focuses on the outward sins that are committed. “Double-minded” (the Greek text reads
“double-souled”) looks to the attitude of the heart.
5. Be
miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your
joy to gloom (4:9).
This
is the language of repentance. When I
was a lot younger, I was taught that repentance has nothing to do with a
sorrowful emotion. It was presented as
though you only needed to make a mental adjustment in your thinking regarding
Christ.
But
this is not Biblical repentance. The
repentance that the Bible describes affects the entire man -- body, emotions
and mind.
Jesus
said that those who mourn are blessed (Matthew 5:4). This is not just mourning over the general hardships of
life. It is not mourning over a flat
tire or a stubbed toe or even over a personal tragedy like the loss of a loved
one. Repentance involves a mourning
over your own spiritual condition. It
is seeing your sinful state the way that God sees it and hating your sin and
being sorry for it with a genuine sorrow.
Jesus said that if you mourn in such a way, you will be blessed by being
comforted. You will find that God is
able to justify the unrighteous.
6. Humble
yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you (4:10).
This
command is given with a passive voice.
Instead of humbling yourself, you are to “be humbled.” How can you “be humbled?” You do it by seeing yourself as you really
are and by seeing God as He really is and by realizing that there is no
comparison.
The
world says, “Toot your own horn because no one else will.” The Scripture says, “Don’t toot your own
horn and the Lord will do it for you.”
THE SOLUTION APPLIED
TOWARD MEN
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. 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 4:11-12).
Up to this point, we’ve been speaking of the problem of
quarrels and conflicts and the solution to that problem. But we don’t want to leave that solution as
mere theory. James takes the principles
that he has stated and applies them to the problems in the church. We need to do the same.
|
Verses 7-10 |
Verses 11-12 |
|
Looks at the believer’s
relationship with God |
Looks at the believer’s
relationship with other men |
|
Commands given in the
aorist tense |
Command given in the
present tense |
James began this chapter by
asking about the quarrels and conflicts within the church. He now returns to that issue.
Do not speak against one
another, brethren (4:11).
In
verses 7-10 we saw ten commands being given in the aorist tense. The force of that tense was that you begin
to do these things.
Now
there is a change. The command here is
given in the present tense. Furthermore
it is a negative command. In the Greek
language, when a negative command is given in the present tense, it carries the
force of, “STOP doing that!”
When
James is saying, “Stop speaking against one another,” he is indicating that
they had previously been guilty of this activity. We are not to speak against one another; rather we are to use our
words to build up one another.
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 (4:11).
The
word “law” appears four times in this verse.
Some commentators have noted the absence of the definite article and
have concluded that this is not a reference to the Mosaic Law but is rather
merely the Royal Law that was spoken of in chapter 2. But such a suggestion ignores the identity of the recipients of
this epistle. They were Jews. When you spoke of Law to a Jew, he thought
in terms of Torah. This is not a denial
of the relevance of the Royal Law of chapter 2. It is an either/or question.
The Royal Law is merely the New Covenant ramifications of the Law. It is what the Law was all about.
Note
the flow of James’ argument. A person
who speaks against his brother is not showing the kind of love demanded by the
law and is therefore making himself a judge of that law. If you try to judge the law, you are in
effect trying to do something that only God can do, for he is the only Lawgiver
and Judge and you are taking for yourself a prerogative that rightly belongs to
Him.
It
is one thing to set yourself up against another person. It is quite another thing to set yourself up
against the One who holds your eternal destiny in His hands.
But who are you who judge
your neighbor? (4:12).
God
is able to judge your neighbor, for He is the Judge and Lawgiver. But you are not God and you do not have that
prerogative.
Jesus
once told a story of a man who was in debt to the king. He worked and saved up and he tried to pay
off his debt, but it was no use. The
more he tried, the deeper he fell.
Finally he was forced to sell himself into slavery.
As a
slave, he was called before his king to stand trial on his delinquent
debt. In a show of tremendous grace,
the king completely forgave the slave his debt and then even went on to
purchase him out of his slavery and set him free.
The
freed slave was speechless. He pledged
his devotion to his king and then, after thanking him, started home.
On
his way home, the freed slave happened upon another of the king’s slaves who
owed him several dollars. He demanded
the slave repay him at once. When the
slave explained that he had no money and this time, the former slave became angry
and beat him.
News
of the incident reached the palace and the king called for the man who had been
freed. He came before the throne and
the king called for an accounting.
Then summoning him, his lord said
to him, “You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated
me. 33 Should you not also have had mercy on your
fellow slave, even as I had mercy on you?” (Matthew 18:32-33).
The
man was speechless before his king. And
you will be, too, if you do not forgive others in the same way you have been
forgiven.
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