1
Northwest Community Evangelical Free Church
(November 22, 2015)
Dave Smith
Sermon manuscript
Historians will tell us that World War I started with the murder
of an heir to the Austria-Hungary throne by Serbian assassins. But we
would be foolish to ignore the fifty years of European turmoil and
political unrest that preceded that war.
SERMON SERIES: Faith to Faithful
(Studies in the book of James)
Our Gracious, Jealous God
(James 4:1-10)1
When did the conflict in the Middle East begin? Did it start with
9/11, 2001? Or did it start with the establishment of the nation of
Israel in 1948? Or did it begin a few thousand years earlier in the home
of Abraham and Sarah?
Study #9
Introduction: The source of relational earthquakes…
Everywhere we look, we see relational fractures. They are as
present in our homes as they are in our Congress, as present at your
workplace as they are in the Middle East. And whether we are
watching or right in the middle of these fractures, they are painful.
It is awful to see what is happening in Syria and what just took
place in Paris, and in Beirut, Lebanon, and in Mali, and throughout
much of the Middle East.
You could say that you and your wife were fighting about how
to install the toilet paper roll (roll from the bottom; roll from the top),
but that fight was preceded by lots and lots of something elses.
Relational fractures. They are all over the place. Our world also
experiences physical fractures - earthquakes. These occur instantly, in
a moment in time. But the pressures that result in an actual earthquake
have been building for eons.
James will tell us today, “As it is with physical earthquakes, so it
is with relationships. There are dangerous, explosive pressures building
up within you. An earthquake is coming if these pressures are not
dissipated by the power and the grace of God.”
And it is awful to see and hear about what happens in San
Antonio homes when tempers rise and violence breaks out.
Since relational peace is elusive, James comes to our rescue. He
takes us to the source of relational conflicts and leads us on a pathway
to God’s peace. He starts off with a question. It’s the kind of question
that invites reflection.
I hate to see it and you do, too. But the tragic truth is that what
happens in our homes is nothing but a small-scale version of what is
happening globally.
Out-of-Control Frustration (vv. 1-3)
History is defined by these relational fractures, and we wonder
how they started.
Internal Battles Lead to External Battles (vv. 1-2a)
Internal conflict is the source of interpersonal conflict (v. 1)
The source of relational fracture (v. 1a)
1
Adamson says (and I, along with others, agree) that James is addressing
Christians throughout this passage. This is an important point, as some of the
comments James makes are strong, tempting us to believe that he must be speaking
of or to outsider. But Adamson is right. James is writing to and about believers.
[1] What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?
2
The words James chooses to describe relational fractures “quarrels and conflicts” - are words that were commonly used in his
day to describe military conflicts. These are the things that can make
national life and family life and church life really challenging.
His words get us thinking about people not getting along. We’re
thinking about infighting and backbiting. His question spurs thoughts
about where such things come from.
James has a ready answer.
The internal pressure to fulfill our pleasures
[1b] Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your
members?
The problem that prompts quarreling is not headaches and the
problem is not heat and high humidity. The problem of interpersonal
conflict is internal conflict. It is “your pleasures that wage war in
your members”.
He cuts to the chase and simplifies what could be a really
interesting psychological discussion. The problem is my commitment
to satisfying my desires.
The Greek word that we translate here, pleasures, is “hedonay.”
It is the word from which we derive our English word “hedonist.” The
word denotes the pleasure we get from the fulfillment of our passions.
Now, I want to state right here that James is not saying that
pleasure is evil or that desiring, in and of itself, is bad.
I personally believe that the fact that we are able to desire is a
mark of the image of God. We want things. Sometimes we want
something desperately, so bad we can taste it. That is the human
condition - and it is not bad. 2
The Apostle Paul wrote, that God [1 Timothy 6:17]…richly supplies us with all
things to enjoy. God is not a cosmic killjoy. He wants us to enjoy life and to accept
every good thing that comes our way as being from Him. (See James 1:17)
2
The problem comes when these desires - often perfectly
legitimate desires3 - aren’t satisfied. What then?
When my desires are not satisfied, what am I willing to do to
find the satisfaction I seek?
The problem is that when faced with frustration over
unsatisfied desires, I may be willing to run roughshod over you to find
that satisfaction. I may seek to satisfy legitimate desire illegitimately.
And if I do that, it is because I mistakenly believe that in that
satisfaction I will find L-I-F-E.
When you bring the same warped thinking to the relational
table, well, that’s an earthquake about to happen. That’s when quarrels
and conflicts begin and escalate.
Unsatisfied desires tempt us to violate love (v. 2a)
[2a] You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And
you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.
If you’re startled to hear James accuse his readers (us?!) of
murder, that’s OK. He means to startle us.4
Desiring is not a problem, but he wants us to watch out for the
temptations into which we’ll fall if we are thoroughly committed to
satisfying our desires. Mainly, we’ll violate the Royal Law of Love.
When John wrote, [1 John 3:15] Everyone who hates his
brother is a murderer” he wasn’t saying that Christians were going
out and literally killing like Cain killed Abel. (Genesis 4)
3
The translations of our English Bibles may give the impression that the wanting
itself is bad by rendering the word for “want” with the word “lust” which has a
pejorative connotation. But, the word literally means “to desire strongly” and has
no necessary negative sense.
4
Adamson suggests that the word “kill/murder” is wrong and should be replaced
with “jealous.” This emendation has a long history (Erasmus, Oecumenius, and
others). But Hiebert and most others reject this suggestion. The word “kill/murder”
was the word James used and should stay in the text.
3
He meant that the absence of love means the presence of
hatred. A failure to love is to hate - and hatred is the spirit of murder.
That’s what John said and that is what James is saying.
In our search to find satisfaction we are tempted to welcome
the spirit of Cain. Our hearts become battlefields. Wars rage within us.
We want.
And so, being Christians, we pray...about what we want.
The Problem of Prayer as a “strategy” (vv. 2b-3)
[2b] You do not have because you do not ask.
So, one big “duh” reason that prayer brings no relief is that we
don’t pray. But continuing to address prayer, James says,
[3] You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong
motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
When the primary problem I am trying to solve by my prayers
is the absolute satisfaction of my desires, I have hijacked the purpose of
prayer.
Often, in His goodness, God gives us the things we ask for. It is
in His nature to give and to bless. But God does not view it as His “job”
to cooperate with my agenda.
The best way to think about prayer is that it is asking Him to do
what only He can do in a spirit of worship. It is not demanding that He
cooperate with my plans, dreams, or desires.5
Who am I kidding? I wasn’t praying “Thy kingdom come.” I
wasn’t praying that I would grow in Jesus or that God would meet the
pressing needs of others.
I was “praying” for the advance of the Kingdom of Me. James
says that we fight and we even pray to satisfy our desires. This
commitment to “get at any cost” is as destructive in 2015 as it was in
the first century.
We want peace, and we see conflict. And every one of us here
today are at the pointy end of the spear in the battle for peace. This is
our fight.
What we find in James’ words is a stark picture of the choice
before us. In the battle for relational peace, for whose army will we
fight? Which side are we on?
Here is the first, tragic, choice.
Choose Your FRIEND Wisely (vv. 4-5)
Friendship with the World (v. 4)
[4] 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.
“You adulteresses” - What a way to address Christians!
Speaking to believers, James addresses them (us?!) as
“adulteresses.” He’s probably not referring to literal marital infidelity
here any more than he was talking about literal murderers in verse
two.
James says that when I pray “with wrong motives” I’m praying
that a view to “spend” whatever gift God has given on my “pleasures”,
thereby showing that it really was all about ME in the first place!6
The problem with an agenda’d approach to prayer is that I use prayer in the same
way the more overtly contentious brother used “quarrels and conflicts.” I am
praying to get my own way at the expense of others.
6
The word for spend here is also used in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15).
But, his use of the word “adulteresses” is very appropriate.7
5
On at least one occasion Jesus described His own generation as “adulterous”
(Mt. 12) when He lamented their faithlessness to God, as did the Old Testament
prophets.
7
4
The act of adultery is an act of rejection. It rejects fidelity to a
wife or to a husband.
Here, in using the feminine form - adulteresses - James is not
just fussing at females. He’s pointing out the nature of our relationship
with our Lord.
We are the bride of Christ. He is the Bridegroom. James calls it
adultery if we would dare go outside of a relationship with Jesus to find
life satisfaction.
If, though, we violate love to satisfy our desires we have
declared war on God and have become His enemies. That, according to
James, is “worldliness.”9
And James says that we can’t be on good terms with both God
and the world. In Proverbs, wise King Solomon repeatedly tells us to
choose our friends carefully. So here, James says to choose our FRIEND
carefully.
Will we choose friendship with a passionate pursuit of
pleasure? Or will we choose friendship with God?
There are two places we will go to seek life. We may go to God
or we may go to the world.8 Or, as James puts it, he may seek friendship
with God or friendship with the world.
There may be a tempting pull to pursue a world centered
around self.
We can’t be friends with both and we will be friends with one.
And if we choose friendship with the world - fighting and praying for
and living for the satisfaction of our pleasures - we have made
ourselves “an enemy of God.”
But what if you knew that God was inviting you to be His
friend? Would it make a difference if you heard that God was a jealous
for you as any husband or wife is jealous for the affections of their
spouse? Listen.
And there’s the stark choice. Will I live as a friend of the world
and as an enemy of God OR will I live as a friend of God and as an
enemy of the world?
Friendship with God (v. 5)
A Christian - An enemy of God?
We’ve already come across the idea of friendship in James.
Abraham was called “the friend of God.”
Abraham’s action on Mount Moriah, when he showed himself
willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, showed that he was all about God. As
legitimate as his desires were (to keep his son alive!), he was not
shackled to them. He was a friend of God.
The term world is often used in the New Testament to describe a whole “system”
that is hostile to God and that is manipulated by Satan. See 1 Cor. 1:20-21; 2;12;
Gal. 6:14; 2 Pet 1:4; 1 John 2:15-17; 3:1; 5:19 for other comments about the
“world.” James uses the word to describe a commitment to satisfy personal desires,
sinfully, at the expense and to the detriment of others.
8
[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”?10
I know that it appears from what he says that James is quoting
Scripture. But you will look in vain to find these words anywhere in the
Old Testament. So, I think that James is probably paraphrasing a verse
or else summarizing Scripture’s general teaching.11
James would have thoroughly agreed with Paul’s diagnosis of Demas (2 Tim.
4:10), and with John who said that the world is that system ruled by the “lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life.”
10
Commentators are wildly at odds with each other on the interpretation of this
phrase. Some see James addressing people’s sinful jealousy. Others believe he is
speaking of God’s holy jealousy for His people’s affections. This latter view is
where I land, especially given the context of James having just spoken to the
adulterous tendencies of our hearts. So Douglas Moo, Zane Hodges. The English
Standard Version and Eugene Peterson’s The Message reflect this understanding.
11
Several possibilities have been put forward to explain why James speaks as if he
is quoting Scripture: (a). It is a quote from a passage we have lost (but there is no
reason to believe that we have lost any portion of the Bible); (c). The quotation
9
5
And the essential message is this: God is jealous for our
affections.
God told Israel many, many times that He was jealous for
them.12 Now James tells us that, in Jesus, God is still jealous for our
worship, for our affections. Or, to use James’ term, He is jealous for our
friendship.
Our God is grieved when he sees us maintaining an intimate
friendship with the world through our selfish commitment to satisfy
our pleasures.
And again, here is our choice. Friendship with God or
friendship with the world. Which will it be?
James isn’t neutral. He wants us to land on the side of
friendship with God. And his favorite persuasion tool, his strong-arm
tactic of choice, is grace.
God’s Open-Arms Invitation to You (v. 6)
[6] But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS
OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”
God’s “Greater Grace”
Today, if you hear James speaking to you, if you are in the grip
of the minimizing “world” of self and want to escape that grip, know
that God gives grace to find freedom from those shackles.
The one way to ensure that you don’t receive grace is to be
“proud.”
God’s Posture toward the Proud
The basic posture of the proud is, “I don’t need God. I can make
it on my own. I have all the resources I need to make life work.”
refers to verse 6 (but that doesn’t square with the position of the quote itself); (c).
This is a paraphrase of a true OT text (my opinion).
12
See Gen. 6:3-5; Exod. 20:5; 34:14; Is. 63:8-16; Zech 8:2 for God’s jealousy.
That attitude is “worldliness” in a nutshell. And James says that
God stands aloof when we insist on independence. He doesn’t
empower us with His grace when we assert personal sovereignty.
But, He lavishes His grace on us when we put on humility.
God’s Posture toward the Humble
We will receive the grace He wants to give us when we trust
Him. When we openly acknowledge our dependence on God to do what
only He can do, His response is to give us grace and all that goes with it:
mercy, peace, and joy, and Jesus’ abundant life.
Now the passage of James we’re looking at today is short. It is
ten verses, two hundred and twenty five words. But, while short, it is
weighty.
In these words we find reproof for self-centeredness, the
explanation for relational tension, a working definition of worldliness,
the jealous heart of God for friendship with us, and the promise of God
of grace to the humble.
Any of these themes could warrant a Sunday morning’s worth
of study. But we don’t want to break them up because James’ words are
all of one piece. I believe it is better if we take them together.
I further believe it is best if we take what we have already seen
together with James’ final thoughts, which are also a mouthful.
There are a few select passages in the Bible that I would list as
key places to turn to describe what repentance is all about. I’d include
in that list Psalm 51, Hosea 6 and 14, Revelation 2 - and James 4:7-10.
This passage is that central to the themes of life change,
internal transformation and spiritual transformation.
If you desire a deeper friendship with God and a richer taste of
the grace He wants to lavish on you, you will find the path to follow in
what follows.
6
The Pathway to Peace: Repentance (vv. 7-10)13
We Will Resolutely Obey God (v. 7)
[7] Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee
from you.
Here are two sides to the same coin. Heads, God wins. Tails, the
devil loses. The soft side, the Godward side, calls for submission. The
hard side (toward the enemy) says, “Resist.”
James assures us that our drawing near to God is always
reciprocated. God is always more eager to draw near to us than we are
to Him, even at our most passionate.
Look at the returning prodigal son in Jesus’ best known
parable. He had spent all of his father’s wealth satisfying his own
desires in a distant land. But when he came to his senses, he returned
to his father - and his father wasn’t stand-offish. He ran to his son and
embraced him and kissed him.
You may remember the devil’s third temptation, when Jesus
was tempted in the wilderness, [Matthew 4:9] “fall down and worship
me.” Satan wanted Jesus’ allegiance and he is out for yours, too.
When your eyes are opened to your spiritual adulteries, to your
manipulative prayers, and to your self-centered quarreling and you
“draw near to God” you will find the open arms of God welcoming you
home.
He hates God and wants to enlist you and me in self-service, not
God service.
James third word directs us to the painful, healing process of
walking away from known sin.
James doesn’t urge us to fight the devil or to attack the devil.
Simply resist him. Resist him as you submit to God. God will give grace
to stand firm against the devil’s temptations to violate love.
We Will Dedicate Ourselves to Holiness (8b)
[8b] Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your
hearts, you double-minded.
James continues.
We Will Eagerly “Draw Near” to God (v. 8a)
[8a] Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
In the Old Testament, this idea of “drawing near” concerned the
ministry of the priest who approached God’s altar to offer sacrifice.14
James uses the words here to refer to our approach to God in worship
and in prayer.
There is urgency involved in this “drawing near.” It speaks of a
passion to come into the closest communion with God possible. We’re
not satisfied with keeping a safe, respectable distance. We’re coming
boldly to the throne of God.
13
14
Ten aorist imperatives in verses 7-10 heighten the sense of urgency.
See Ex. 19:22; Ezek 43:19; 44:13.
Cleanse your hands of moral impurity (v. 8b)15
To speak of “cleansing our hands” is to adopt the language of
ceremonial worship. Old Testament priests had to wash their hands
before they served God at the altar.
What was important for the priest, literally, James says must be
true about us, morally, if we would receive grace from Him and if we
would become His friend.
Cleansing our hands involves coming to God in the spirit of
Psalm 139, asking Him to search us and see if there be any hurtful way.
When the Spirit of God puts His finger on that hurtful way,
cleansing our hands means that we walk away from it.
15
Same thought as found in 2 Cor. 7:1.
7
And our external conduct is not all James has in mind, as he
directs us toward friendship with God and away from friendship with
the world. We are also to purify our hearts of divided loyalties.
Purify your hearts of divided loyalties (v. 8c)
Jesus spoke to divided loyalties more than once. In the Sermon
on the Mount, He said this -
It is a necessary word for any of us who have realized that we
have been finding life someplace other than God. We want friendship
with God more than anything else and we’ve just now realized that
we’ve not been running toward Him at all. We’ve even been running
away from Him.
When that’s you, it’s time to weep and to mourn.
[Matthew 6:24] “No one can serve two masters; for either he
will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and
despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Remember the parable Jesus told about the Pharisee and the
tax collector who both went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee prayed
(the text says “to himself”) while standing, thoroughly impressed with
his own morality and fasting and tithing.
When James calls his readers on the carpet for being “doubleminded,” he admits to the possibility that Christians might just be
guilty of trying to serve two masters - the world and the Lord; self and
God.16
He was contemptuous toward the tax collector, who was
weeping and mourning. That man’s prayer was simply, [Luke 18:13]
“God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” - and Jesus applauded THAT
broken, repentant, sinful man rather than the morally upright Pharisee.
We renounce split loyalties and cling to Jesus alone. Grace is
what we find when, for the joy of friendship with God, we pursue
purity of hand and heart.
I spoke with someone this week whose life is being re-formed
through the process of brokenness and repentance.
Fourth and finally, we come to verse 9, where James says that
we must be willing to face the sadness of life - and grieve.
We Will Mourn as We Confront Our Sin (v. 9)
He spoke of the pain of having realized what he had done to
people he loved during a period of rebellion. (He told me that he
literally vomited when he remembered things he had said while living
for himself.)
[9] Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be
turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom.17
While speaking of the pain of repentance, he also said, “I
wouldn’t trade what I’ve come to know of God during this period of
painful repentance for anything.”
Have you ever seen this verse calligraphied on a poster or
plastered on a plaque? Me neither.
This is the weeping and mourning to which James may be
calling you, today.
And I will grant that it is not a verse for every sunshiny day. It
is, however, a critical word at times.
None of us will live here all the time. But if the stories we find in
the Bible and throughout history are any indication, there will be for all
of us periods of heightened sensitivity and awareness of sin.
The command to “purify our hearts” assumes that we have control over the
processes of our redeemed hearts.
17
James, who was known for asceticism, does not mention ascetic practices here.
16
It happened to Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-5) and to the apostle John
(Revelation 1:17) and to the apostle Paul (1 Timothy 1).
8
Paul says in Romans 2 that it is the kindness of God that leads
anyone to repentance. From time to time, God will kindly open your
eyes so that you can see where you have strayed and He will lead you
to repentance.18
Laughing is good. Joy is real and it is the gift of God. And neither
James nor I are telling anyone to never laugh again or to cease enjoying
God’s goodnesses in this life.
But when you are brought face to face with your sin, don’t hold
back the tears. Feel the sadness. Don’t be so committed to everything
being “OK” that weeping is an unwelcome intruder.19
As James describes it, the Christian life consists of a dismantling
process through reflection and repentance so that we can be rebuilt in
the image and likeness of Jesus.
You can begin the dismantling and rebuilding process today.




Grief will be the good gift of God that can lead to repentance
and the development of a growing, intimate friendship with the Lord.
Conclusion:
Take time to revel in the fact that your God jealously desires
intimacy and friendship with you.
Believe that His promised grace will be given as you come to Him in
humility.
Follow Him as He leads you into repentance.
Admit that you need Him to do what on He can do as you ask Him.
And trust that He is really, really good. As James says,
[10] Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He
will exalt you.20
You could get the impression from any of a number of sources
today that Christianity primarily involves following certain principles
that are helpful in making sense of our lives.
That’s not the Christianity James knew or wrote about.
18
The great hymn of Ecclesiastes 3 affirms that there is a time for everything under
heaven - including grief and sorrow and mourning over personal sin.
19
William Willimon (former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University), “Depression
may be a positive sign of progress in the soul...grief is the beginning of the work of
God, the first act of resistance against the status quo.” From Peculiar Speech:
Preaching to the Baptized, by William Willimon, Eerdmans, 1992. p. 14
20
Similarly, at the end of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Jesus
said, [Luke 18:14] “…for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he
who humbles himself will be exalted.”