James 4:1-10 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is James 4:1-10. Let’s go!
James 4:1-2 (ESV)
1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
2 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.
On verses 1-2: James is saying that often times the reason why we slander, hurt and argue with the people around us is because there is something unhealthy going on inside of us. When we lust after things that don’t belong to us, when we envy what other people have, that unhealthy inside of us causes us to treat the people outside of us in unhealthy and hurtful ways. Instead of looking to God for what we lack, we sit there, sulk and give others a hard time.
James 4:3 (ESV)
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
On verse 3: “But you don’t understand, JB. In the past I did ask God for things but I never get them. Why should I bother asking God then?” As verse 3 says, sometimes the reason we ask God and don’t receive what we ask for is because our hearts are in the wrong place. God is not a vending machine, where if we put in a little bit and punch the right buttons, we will get what we want from God. God is your Heavenly Father who loves you, hears you every time you cry out to Him, knows what is best for you and is committed to giving you what is best.
Prayer is not us ordering God around. It’s drawing close to God and surrendering to Him until what we want conforms to what God wants. So if you’re praying and not getting what you want, what you need is not another god to pray to. What you need is to let your heart be transformed by the God who knows what you need better than you.
James 4:4-6 (ESV)
4 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.
5 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”?
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
On verses 4-6: What does it mean to be a “friend of the world” (v4)? It means to think and act just like someone who does not have Jesus in their life, to conform to the world’s values and to live with something other than God at the centre of your life. When I live as a friend of the world, the Bible says I become “an enemy of God” in that I block God from working in my life to the extent that He wants to (v4). It reminds me of 1 John 2:15 which says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Praise God that no matter how many times we act like adulterous people (v4), leaving God our first love for someone much inferior, no matter how many love affairs we’ve had with the world, God never stops wanting to be close to us. He remains jealous for us (v5). He even makes grace available for us to come back to Him if only we would humble ourselves (v6).
James 4:7-10 (ESV)
7 Submit yourselves 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 wretched 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.
On verse 7-10: So if you find yourself arguing a lot with others, if you find that the unhealthy inside of you is starting to affect your relationships with people around you, if you find that you have been secretly carrying on an adulterous affair with the world’s way of thinking and living while getting more and more distant from God, what should you do? As verse 6 suggests, it’s time to humble yourself, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. James gives four suggestions on how you can humble yourself:
- Submit yourself to God (v7a). Decide in your heart and say with your mouth, “God, I don’t want to be a slave to my own miserable, unhealthy ways and to the world’s miserable, unhealthy ways. I surrender to you.”
- Resist the devil (v7b). Satan’s agenda is to steal, kill and destroy your life. Ultimately it is the devil who is trying to isolate you from God. But if you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you still have authority and power over the enemy. Use the authority that Christ has given you to rebuke the devil. Say, “Enemy, you’ve bothered me long enough. In Jesus’ name get away from me” and believe God’s promise that when you resist the devil he will flee from you.
- Draw near to God (v8a). I love the promise that follows this command: “and He will draw near to you.” So spend time in God’s presence. For when you run toward God, you’ll find Him running toward You.
- Repent of sin (v8b-9). The images of washing your hands, purifying your heart, and weeping – all of these speak of repentance, that is, to agree with God that you have sinned, to feel sincerely sorry for your sin, and to turn away from sin and toward Jesus for forgiveness and help.
Are you feeling distant from God? Are you needing to come back to Him? If so, don’t delay. Humble yourself in the above ways today, and God will lift you up once again.
Heavenly Father, thank You that You desire to get close to me, and that even when I play around with the world’s initially seductive but ultimately miserable way of thinking and living, You give me grace to return to You. Thank You that when I humble myself before You, You will lift me up. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
