Day 326: Behaving like unbelievers – James 4 vs 1 – 5

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. 2 You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?  James 4:1-5 New International Version

What is the first thought that comes to your mind after reading today's verses?

My first thought was – is he writing to Christians? It seems hard to imagine that Christians could ever behave as vs 1-2 suggest! But perhaps what he is doing is reminding us of what we are by nature. We are reactive. We can be envious and quarrelsome. And that is true of Christians as well as unsaved people. We've had the gospel for 2000 years and many of us may have been privileged to be born to Christian parents, and may have come to the Lord when we were young. But many people come to Christ much later in life and out of very rough backgrounds. Aggressive words and actions may have been a big part of their life. So we need reminding of what James wrote earlier when he said: “You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry - because man's anger doesn't produce the righteousness God desires.” (James 1:19-20)

What is it that causes so much friction in the world and, sadly, sometimes among Christians too? (vs 2-3)

It's those strong desires that arise from our own hearts for 'things' that we think will make us happy. I remember my days at Bible College when two men could fall out with each other because they were after the same woman, or two women fell out of friendship because they were after the same man. That's just one area of life where quarrels can arise, but it is the desire for 'things' that can lead even nations to go to war. What should Christians keep in mind that would lead them to not covet the things of this world and have fall outs with fellow believers? (vs 4-5)

To love and run after whatever this world has to offer is like a married man or a woman who runs after another woman or man. They turn their back on the one they married because they believe someone else will be more exciting. James isn't condemning the enjoyment of good things in life; he said earlier that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father.” (James 1:17) It's when our hearts are greedy for this world's things and we fall out of love with Jesus that he is warning against. Look how he puts it in vs 5.

That's actually a difficult verse. Firstly, because we don't know what Scripture James had in mind. The closest I see is Genesis 6:1-3 where it says: “When people began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives. Then the Lord said, 'My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.'” People were already beginning to disobey God and choose their own way.

The other difficulty is that it isn't clear if James was referring to our spirit, or to the Holy Spirit who lives in believers. But the basic point is clear. God loves us so much that He wants us to be faithful in return. We are not to commit spiritual adultery by craving the things of the world and becoming argumentative and aggressive people. If we do that then we are behaving like those who are unsaved, and as if we were God's enemy rather than His friend. Our love for Jesus must be the greatest thing in our life.