Week 8 - The Book of James
Last week, we discussed how James warns against false wisdom. False wisdom produces a friendship with the world, which James now addresses in chapter four.
- Friendship with the world is rooted in sinfulness and self-centeredness.
- Friendship with the world produces the chaos we see in the world.
God is not content
to let his children be friends with the world. God is a jealous God, and He
will not share us with the world. As followers of Jesus, we are called to have
a heavenly view of the world and the trials we face. This perspective means
that we pursue friendship with God not friendship with the world.
The Point: Visible Faith
Intentionally Pursues God.
James
4:1-12
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. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on
your passions. 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.”
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.
11 Do not speak
evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or
judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you
judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one
lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to
judge your neighbor?
The Holy Bible:
English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), James 4:1-12.
Study
Notes
James spent the
last section talking about two types of wisdom. Here, as David
Platt points out, he moves to talking about two types of friendship. What is clear in
this section, as with the previous section, is you and I have a choice to make.
·
Are we going to seek friendship with the world?
·
Or are we going to seek friendship with God?
It sounds simple,
but on a practical level this is a choice we struggle with each day of our
lives.
Friendship
with the World
Friendship with the
world comes from false wisdom (3:14-16). How do we know this? 4:1-5 can be seen
as the practical outworking of false wisdom from chapter 3.
Friendship
with the world is really friendship with ourselves. We choose
ourselves and our interests over others and God. James’s point is that those
Christians who have chosen such a friendship are the reason for the strife and
conflict that exists within the church he is writing to.
His question in
verse 1 outlines this, why do such things exist? Because you choose the
friendship of the world over God. This friendship is driven by selfishness.
This friendship may seem like it pursues God, yet it’s always for selfish gain.
James notes that even when these Christians “ask” God for help it’s for
dishonest gain to spend on themselves. In James’s mind, this is
akin to adultery. They are “cheating” on God to satisfy vain pleasures. In turn, the
natural outworking we saw from chapter 3 is coming home to roost. Disorder,
chaos, quarrels, and strife abound for those that choose friendship with the
world.
James’s concluding
point in this section is that you have to choose one of these friendships. You
cannot remain a friend to this world and remain in right standing with God.
Those who choose friendship with this world are choosing enmity with God.
Friendship
with God
James ends the
previous section and starts this section (6-12) reminding his readers (and us)
God is a jealous God. This is a good thing. God isn’t content to let us simply
choose the world over Him. Rather, God moves in our lives to see a better way,
a better friendship.
What does this
friendship with God look like?
It’s heavenly
minded. Whereas the earthly friendship seeks the here and now; friendship with
God seeks the already but not yet. Earthly friendship seeks the immediate,
friendship with God seeks the lasting. James points out what this friendship
should look like. It’s driven by grace (6). This is a friendship that isn’t
based upon performance or continuously seeking pleasure. Rather, it is based
upon the free grace from God. This grace enables the Christian to find a rest
that cannot be found anywhere else. This grace enables the Christian to resist
the devil (7) by submitting to God, and ultimately overcome the temptation of
following the devil. It’s the grace of this friendship that allows the
Christian to be single-minded towards God and thereby to fight sin effectively.
QUESTIONS
FOR DISCUSSION
How would you
define the two types of friendships in your own words?
Why does friendship
with the world create chaos and strife?
Have you ever thought
of choosing friendship with the world as spiritual adultery? Why or why not?
What is the main
characteristic of a friendship with God?
How does this
friendship help us to fight sin?
Why does this
friendship allow us to take the “long view”?
How can this group
help you choose friendship with God?
How can you fight
against friendship with this world?
What changes need
to take place in your life today to choose friendship with God?
END
Conflicts and
disputes among believers are always harmful.
James explains that
these quarrels result from evil desires within us – we want more possessions,
more money, higher status, more recognition. When we want badly enough to
fulfill these desires, we fight to do so.
Do you even talk to
God?
When you do, what do you talk about?
Do you ask only to
satisfy your desires? Do you seek God’s approval for what you already plan to
do?
There is nothing
wrong with wanting a pleasurable life.
God gives us good gifts that He wants us to enjoy.
But friendship with the world involves seeking pleasure at other’s expense or at the expense of obeying God.
This message is not
unfamiliar.
1 John 2:15-17
says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the
desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life - is not
from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with
its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” - Sobering words
these are. If we take them seriously, as we must, we can find ourselves
becoming uncomfortable.
And maybe that’s the point.
Pride makes us
self-centered and leads us to conclude that we deserve all we can see, touch,
or imagine.
It creates greedy
appetites for far more than we need.
We can be released
from our self-centered desires by humbling ourselves before God, realizing that
all we need is His approval.
It creates greedy
appetites for far more than we need.
Humbling ourselves means recognizing that our worth comes from God alone.
To be humble
involves working with His power according to His guidance, not with our own
independent effort.
Jesus summarized the law as love for God and neighbor.
(Matt. 22:37-40)
Paul said that love
demonstrated toward a neighbor would fully satisfy the law.
(Rom. 13:6-10)
When we fail to love, we are breaking God’s law.
Friendship
with the World: What’s the Big Deal?
Written
by: Pete McClanathan
So, we approach a
subject that is fundamental to our lives and our faith. What is this thing the
Bible calls “friendship with the world,” and why is it so critically important?
How does it apply to us, and how does that matter?
Keeping with our
goal of learning what scripture tells us on a subject, we start there. We find
we don’t have far to look, and we encounter a message that is stark and
unyielding.
James 4:4. “You
adulterous people! Don’t you 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.”
This message is not
unfamiliar, nor is it unique to James’ epistle. We find these words in 1 John
2:15-17: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the
desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life - is not
from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with
its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
Sobering words
these are. If we take them seriously, as we must, we can find ourselves
becoming uncomfortable. And maybe that is exactly the point.
We find in the
Bible three different ideas that, in the English language, become the word
“world.” One use refers to creation (God created the heavens and the earth).
Another refers to the human race (God so loved the world). Neither applies to
this discussion. The Bible is filled with appreciation for creation, and the
character of love in its many forms, but the warnings of James 4 appear to be
referring to something else.
The term “world”
used in both James 4 and 1 John 2 translates the Greek word “kosmos,” which
refers to “order” or “system.” James 4 declares that friendship with the world
system is enmity toward God. We read 1 John 2 to warn not to love the world
system, and that whoever loves the world system does not have the love of the
Father in him.
So, what then is
this world system? Plainly stated, it is anything and everything in our existence
that opposes the one true God or promotes itself as a God-substitute for our
allegiance and trust. It is rooted in the rebellion of the angelic realm and the rise of the
demonic world. We see it invading God’s creation as a catalyst for the fall of
man (Gen. 3). It is the source of human conflict and violence (Gen. 4), the
reason for God regretting His creation of man (Gen. 6), the cause of the flood
(Gen. 7-8), and the arrogance of man revealed in the tower of Babel (Gen.11).
The world system
resonates with the worship of man, his achievement, and his
pleasure.
It cleverly creates a culture that embraces and promotes whatever may advance
that worship in whatever time and place it may find itself. Today’s culture may contain its own details,
but the process is no different from prior times. Materialism is worshipped as the source of
security and significance. Physical beauty, athletic ability, intellectual
skills, and celebrity entertainment are the cultural beacons that seek to light
the gardens of value for our lives. And we struggle mightily to nurture those
gardens to harvest a sense of our own value. We plant and cultivate the things
that correspond to what the culture declares valuable. And we measure our own
value by how well we meet those standards in the eyes of ourselves and others.
And we quickly come
to believe that disregarding or compromising God’s character in our lives is no
big deal if it helps us achieve the goals we hunger for. So, we become greedy
and compulsive in pursuit of material gain. We trade our sexual innocence for
the deceptive and shallow feelings of acceptance and security that we
crave. Our lives are infected with
fears, insecurities, and doubt about ourselves and how we fit into the world.
Our emotional health becomes dependent on how we believe we’re doing from day
to day in the things we’re told really matter…. physical beauty,
accomplishments, personality, skills, possessions. All in the consuming pursuit
of our personal security, purpose, and significance.
We come into
conflict with those who appear to deny us what we believe we need or deserve
(James 4:1-4). A subtle and vulnerable pride creeps into our lives as we hold
onto a self-image that will protect us amidst the insecure chaos of life. We kill and covet (James 1:1-4) yet we fail
to attain reliable peace of mind. We base our choices and emotions on the
things of man and the world. God becomes an afterthought, just one thing to
factor into our decision making.
The term assigned
by the Bible is sin. Casual use and simplistic understanding of the word can
minimize the devastation it expresses. It is nothing less than rebellion
against God and His created order. The rebellion is described in Rom. 1:21-23:
“For although they
knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became
futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be
wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
Give that
some thought: Every sinful act or thought is not a mistake or poor judgment, or a bad
decision made in a difficult situation. Though we often employ these terms to
explain or defend ourselves, it is nothing less than an act of rebellion toward
God. The root of rebellion consists of placing myself and my well-being at the
center of my world without submission to God’s character, His commands, or His
purposes.
If we face this
fact straight on, we begin to understand what lies beneath the common measures
of sin. Every vengeful act or condemning word is rooted in a belief that I do
not fully trust or submit to God’s authority to judge and punish. Every disrespectful
word or violent act demonstrates that I
do not value God’s creation or His purposes. Every lie declares that I do not
respect God’s essence of truth, and I do not choose to display that essence in
my words and actions. Every theft cries out that I am not satisfied with what
God has provided me. Every sexual sin shouts rebellion against God’s created
order, against my own value and that of another, and against the intricacy and
wisdom of God’s purposes.
These examples only
begin to tell the story. A core sin addressed in the Bible is idolatry, the
reliance on false gods, revealing an incomplete or flawed view of God. Books and treatises have been written on this
matter. And it will be the subject of our next several discussions in this
blog. It is that broad and that important.
We’ll wind up this chapter by considering a
question that may bring some focus to the whole matter. Why do James and the
other writers devote such focus to the struggle of friendship with the world,
its appeal, and its dangers? One obvious answer is that sin is repugnant to God
and dangerous to us. Carry that thought a bit further and it takes us to a
chilling place: wrongly worshipping things of man and of the world will poison
our fellowship with God. And facing life without that fellowship to direct and
support us leaves us vulnerable to a hostile and confusing world and its
numerous attractive false messages and promises.
I suspect this
understanding lay in part behind the apostles’ warnings to the early church.
Recall the setting. James wrote his epistle sometime in the A.D. 60’s. As with all
the epistles, the readers were first generation Christians facing persecution
at the hands of the Romans, sometimes aided by the religious establishments. It
was a menacing and terrifying time to be a follower of Christ. Emperor worship
and deification were in full practice. Jews had been ordered expelled from Rome
by the emperor Claudius in A.D. 49. Imprisonment and mutilation of Christians
and their families were widespread and increasing, as were confiscation and
destruction of their property.
The wicked emperor
Nero in A.D. 64 directed that large neighborhoods in Rome be set on fire. His
purpose was to create room for his building plans, but he directed the blame at
Christins, which only intensified the outcry for persecution. The Jewish temple
in Jerusalem was ordered destroyed in A.D. 70 (an event which fulfilled Jesus’
own prophecy recorded in Mt. 24:1-2, and one of the intriguing focal points in
discussions of end time prophecy). Persecution continued through the end of the
first century and beyond.Paul was decapitated in A.D. 67. John, a founder of
the church in Ephesus and later a leader in the church in Jerusalem, lived his
last years on a prison island. Prospects for a peaceful life for Christians
were largely absent.
Into the midst of
these dire circumstances, the authors of the epistles directed a radical
message
. . . do not love the world. In the context of
the first century and its persecutions, what purpose can we find in these
words? Could it be along these lines:
The world will not,
cannot, provide security and meaning. But it will try. And it will offer hopes
and promises that will entice us to compromise, to exchange the truth of God
for the lies of the world. But they will prove false. Health, wealth, and happiness
are elusive and temporary. They will fail. Every person is guaranteed to
suffer, and ultimately to die. Getting out of the world alive is not an option.
We can take nothing with us. The success and fulfillment that we sought, maybe
even though we partially attained, will disappear and mean nothing in that day.
Life is plagued with suffering and pain, and no one is exempt. Difficult times
will continue, perhaps intensify.
But God has not
left us helpless. There is a redeemer who has overcome the world. There is His
promise of eternal life and blessing in His presence. Cling to Him as if He
were your only hope. He is.
Taking an honest
look at the world, and the courses of our own lives, we must consider: Is the
message any different for us today?
