1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
Is it that simple? Can every fight and quarrel be boiled down to an internal battle of desires? James says yes. Every time you are having a fight or a quarrel, you are being denied some sort of desire. If you want to stop all fights and quarrels, you can just stop desiring things. This verse doesn’t say whether the desires battling within you are valid or not. But you’d stop fighting if the desire were gone. If you have a belief or assertion that is 100% correct, you could still have a fight and quarrel if you desire to have the other person believe you. On the other hand, you could believe something totally incorrect, but it wouldn’t lead to a fight or quarrel if you didn’t care about being right or having someone else see your point of view. As an example, I could believe the world was round, but live in a society that believes in a flat earth. I would get into lots of fights and quarrels if I really wanted everyone to understand the truth. Or I could live at peace and let people live in ignorance. So, if you want peace, you can just relinquish desires to right someone else’s wrong thoughts. We desire things like safety, we desire to be correct, we desire to receive respect, we desire to have our needs fulfilled. Some of our desires are legitimate, and others of them are non-Biblical. If you find yourself fighting and quarreling a lot, it means that you haven’t relinquished your desires. Psalm 37:4
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
We can pray to God to give us the right desires of our hearts. Sometimes the fight and quarrel is worth the struggle, if the desire is to follow God, or Honor God. Fortunately we live in a place where you don’t get into too many fights or quarrels if you are minding your own businesses and living a Godly life as recommended in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 11-12
11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
In the US we don’t face persecution for going to a church or believing in God. If we are minding our own business and living a quiet life, we shouldn’t find ourselves involved in too many fights or quarrels- at least, not for the reason of our faith. So it’s strange when we do get into fights and quarrels, and typically the reason that we have the fights or quarrels is because of something besides what we believe about God or Christianity.
2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. 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.
In Verse 2 it’s clear that many of the desires that are causing the fights and quarrels aren’t really Biblical desires. Those desires weren’t given to the readers by God. In previous chapters, it seemed like James was speaking against the rich. But now in verse 2, the rich aren’t the only ones who are at fault. He tells the readers that they are coveting. Typically the people that are prone to coveting are people who don’t have all the same things that others do. If you had everything, what is there left to covet? In the book of Ecclesiastes, we read about someone (believed to be King Solomon) who had enough wealth and power to deny himself NOTHING. He let himself have everything that he desired. He concluded that it was all meaningless. Everything he did was in vain. That means that the result didn’t really change or accomplish anything. He preferred knowledge over foolishness, and wealth over poverty, but in the end he concluded that none of that mattered. It’s good to remind ourselves when we desire things that people who have them are typically just as empty as we are. It’s also good to remember when we find ourselves coveting things that we are sinning. That’s a commandment that we’re breaking. It’s lawlessness, like murder or adultery or stealing or lying. And what’s worse, when we covet, the things we tend to covet end up being meaningless in the grand scheme of things. When we covet, it means that we want things that are beyond our means or our sphere of stewardship. As an example, I know God has not entrusted me to be a steward over a billion dollars. I have no control over how the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation uses their money. If I buy Microsoft products, I am in a sense contributing to their fortune, but the agreement or contract was I give them money, I get an operating system, software or an X-Box, in return. I freely made an exchange at a price that I agreed to (nobody forced me to buy my computer or xbox), and I believed I would get more out of owning the xbox or licensing the operating system than I would saving the money. So once THAT transaction is over, I have relinquished control of the money. To complain that the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is doing something I don’t like with their money is not fair. It’s not my money anymore! God entrusted me to be the steward of some money, I bought things with it, and now it isn’t mine. When we covet the rich, we are coveting the capital and fortunes that have been made in millions of voluntary exchanges. Most of those exchanges did not even involve us and we didn’t give those exchanges any thought or consideration whatsoever. But people still want to covet other people’s possessions, even if they had nothing to do with the process. We desire to have our wills be done instead of God’s. On an institutional level you see covetousness all over. Political parties want to covet corporate or individual wealth to redistribute for programs, special interests, whether they are entitlements or military or public works. Any discussion of the tax code is really a discussion about how they can take or manage more or less of other peoples’ money, and any discussion of the budget is them talking or discussing how to spend the money they taxed away from people who actually earned the money. On the business side of things, businesses are always coveting wealth.They covet their competitors’ customers.They pay marketing gurus to create demand for products that you may never have even dreamed of wanting. They sell sex, status, satisfaction, comfort, ease, illusions of safety. You name it. And by the nature of the institutional covetousness, you see businesses and politics are always fighting and struggling and quarreling. It’s part of the culture around us. It’s pervasive and found everywhere. But individually, coveting other people’s things leads to quarrels and discord on a personal level. Desiring but not having leads to some people killing others. There’s a phrase “Two wrongs do not make a right”. So coveting and then murdering is double bad. But there’s a bright side. Coveting can lead to repentance. It can lead to reflection and growth. Remember what James said in Chapter 1 when he said “you Lack wisdom, so you should ask for it” Similarly, when you notice covetousness, you should take it to God. Ask Him to help! Maybe God takes away your covetousness and replaces it with contentment. That’s the most direct and easiest solution. Contentment ends covetousness right there on the spot. But maybe your situation is harder, and you have trouble being content. Maybe you realize that you want something, and learn how the other person got that thing and it gets your mind working. You start to figure out a way to be a better servant. Maybe you are drawn to work harder at your current job, or open a new business. God will teach you about how to be a servant. Jesus said that those who want to be first should be last, and we should be servants to each other. He washed his disciples’ feet. When you run a business or work for the satisfaction of customers, it can be degrading. You can feel like you’re running around washing peoples’ feet. But when it’s done right, you learn what it means to treat others as you would have them treat you. When you run a business or work in industry you will need to be prayerfully thinking about how to improve something. What tends to happen when you approach the covetousness from a different angle, and take your desires and place them under God’s provision and submit to God’s authority, God will change your mind. Suddenly the “thing” that you were coveting turns into a minor goal, and you are now on a whole new path to create something, or change something. If you are still in your job, you might want to increase productivity, or take on another project. If you are freelancing you might want to look to take on more clients. You just need to remember what’s important. It’s not important to succeed for the sake of success. Like James 4:3 warned it’s not important to have things so that you can spend what you get on your pleasures. When you are going to God and praying about your covetousness, you need to make sure your motives are pure and calibrated to advancing God’s Kingdom and growing in a closer relationship to God. When you reassess frequently and ask those questions, you will avoid becoming workaholics or obsessed with one aspect of your life, at the expense of truly important relationships and roles that God has placed you in. When you are involved in businesses you need to remember that God is first. James mentions this a bit more later, so we will come back to this.
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? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
James calls the readers “you adulterous people”. The type of adultery he is referring to is found in the book of Hosea. If you haven’t read it, Hosea is a heart wrenching book in the Old Testament. A faithful husband is cheated on by his wife, and God instructs the man to take back the adulteress as his wife. The comparison or allegory is that God is the Husband, and his Bride is the Israelite people. So in Hosea we read that they “cheat on” God with other gods and idols. They are unfaithful and adulterous towards Him. It’s not a one off thing, their unfaithfulness is a repeated pattern. And to God, it breaks His heart. Over and over again. And He takes back his people in forgiveness, only to be hurt again and again. In the New Testament, we learn that Jesus is compared to the bridegroom and his church is the Bride. We are the bride of Christ. But often times, we are unfaithful to our God. We don’t desire Jesus in our lives, or we stray from Him and become like an unfaithful wife. We search all over town trying to find a fun time, experience, or something that makes us happy, when we overlook our Groom, Jesus, who gives us an everlasting joy. James says the more friendly we get with the world, the more of an enemy of God we become. Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world alienates himself from God. When we get friendly with the world, we turn ourselves into that estranged spouse who is no longer there for her husband, but isn’t ready to end the relationship. That spouse may have a boyfriend or a love interest elsewhere, but when she actually shows up to her husband, she is cold and distant. God jealously longs for the Spirit he has caused to dwell in us. God loved us so much He gave his only Son to die for our sins. Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the cross and was forsaken so that we could be adopted into the Kingdom. Jesus prayed to His Father to send the Spirit to dwell in us. Paul uses the analogy of the church to explain to husbands and wives how to act in this world. He says husbands love your wives, and LAY DOWN YOUR LIFE for her, as Christ laid down His life for His Church. Wives love your husbands and submit to them. God gives his only Begotten Son, the most precious and valuable gift that could possibly be given. Jesus Lays down His perfect and miraculous and compassionate life of helping others to solve our sin problem once and for all. And how does the bride feel about such amazing gifts? Sometimes we approach it coldly and with a distance. Sometimes we approach it with indifference. Sometimes we attend church but instead of thinking about God, we think about what we’re going to do after it’s over? Where are we going to eat? Who am I meeting later? At times we can be more in love with the world than we are with our Groom, Jesus.
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
So if we see these problems with ourselves, if we see covetousness, if we see that we stray from God, or act adulterous towards God, what does James tell us to do? God’s instruction to wives (which should tell us that this is how the church should live towards Jesus) is to Submit to God. We need to be a submissive people. To submit means we need to understand Who and What we are submitting to. We are submitting to God, the Creator of the universe, We are submitting to the Word of God. We are submitting to the righteous judge who gave us law and right and wrong. We are submitting to Grace, bought by the precious blood of the Lamb. We are submitting to the Gospel and the understanding that we are sinners and we are incapable of being righteous enough on our own to be made acceptable before God. We need Jesus and we will continually need him whether we are an unsaved person, or we’ve been going to church our whole lives. We need to come near to God, which we can only do because Jesus made the way. When we come near to God, He comes near to us. James mentions the Devil. Our job isn’t to FIGHT the devil, or attack the Devil. Our job is to resist only. We resist desires that are not in accordance with Scripture. We resist devilish ideas that say, “God didn’t tell you this” or “You can be like God”. We resist doctrines and ideas and desires that make us sovereign like God. When we resist, the devil flees. The devil doesn’t put up a fight, as long as we resist. God will fight the fight and the word of God will triumph. Jesus has already died so that we could be purified. Our hands are washed and cleansed through humble repentance and the work of Jesus Christ on the cross for us. God will lift us up when we make ourselves low and humble. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister[d] or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
Again James repeats ideas here that should be very familiar to us. He spoke in Chapter 3 about taming the tongue. Now he says don’t use our tongues to slander one another. We should never judge one another, we should never speak bad of each other. Why? Because we are speaking bad about someone who the law has declared righteous (through Jesus). If I slander a brother in Christ I am saying that Christ’s blood can’t cover it, or wasn’t enough. If I slander someone who’s a Christian I am saying that they aren’t really righteous, even though God has declared them righteousness. That’s being double minded. We should use our tongues to praise our God. We can also use our tongues to rebuke and instruct and correct each other in truth. There is a big place for correction, and we need to be ready to be taught and corrected. We should have a humble heart to accept correction from a brother or sister. But that needs to be done with grace and mercy, and almost always on a personal level. Correction is not slander, because slander is public shaming, and correction is done in private.
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
We love to make plans with our lives. We love to have projections and goals and milestones. When we are working whether it’s business or vocation or school, we have quarterly plans, semester curriculums, 5 year plans. It’s good to think ahead and to plan for things. But when you make your plans your god, you will be disappointed. When you make your goals, you have to realize that you still aren’t sovereign. Only God is sovereign. Proverbs.
16:9 In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
19:21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
21:30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.
Psalm 127:1
Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.
Anything we do is because God wanted or at least allowed us to do it. We have no pride of accomplishing anything, since it wouldn’t have been possible apart from God’s provision and allowance.
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Verse 16 also hints at another problem with the plans that you make in your life. You boast about those arrogant schemes. You are proud of the ideas and your ability to plan. Our pride and our boast should only be that we are God’s people. That we have been covered by the Blood of Christ. We boast only in the cross of Jesus Christ. We “boast” that we were so utterly wretched and incapable that God had to send his Son to the Earth to die for us. There’s no pride there. There’s only submissive and humble gratitude. What an amazing grace that God has given to us! That we were forgiven and reconciled to Him, not because of our plans our our goodness, but because He loved us while we were enemies.