God Speaks
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. 6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
11 Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. 12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?
13 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.
17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
Source: New Living Translation: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: This chapter presents the three enemies of the believer in Christ and how to deal with them. These enemies are the flesh (one’s personal human nature), the world (the system of thinking and/or feeling that opposes God), and the devil (Satan and all his forces and schemes). The first enemy James addresses is the flesh. His example of a problem in this area is quarrels and fights, especially among believers. James says that the problem begins in our own hearts when we don’t get what we want or our own way. This leads to temper tantrums or to coveting (inordinately desiring what belongs to someone else) to the point of scheming, harming, or killing them to get it. We don’t have what we want because we don’t ask God or trust Him to provide what is best for us. Even when we do ask, we do so with wrong motives. We only want, whatever it is, to please ourselves, not God or others. The second enemy James mentions is the world. James indicates that following any attitude, action, or ideology that opposes God is considered adultery in His eyes, thus an enemy of God. Once God has graciously placed His Holy Spirit within us (because of our faith in Jesus and what He has done for us) we should be faithful to Him. If not, God will oppose us. If we humble ourselves before Him, God will give us grace. This is how we deal with the third enemy–the devil. We draw close to God, deeply sorry for the way we have offended Him by our sin. If we humble ourselves before God, He will restore us to our place of honor. We are not responsible for or have any right to judge other believers. God knows everything about them and has the power and the right to save or destroy them. We don’t know the future (only God does), so we can’t boast about our plans. We need to trustingly ask God what He wants, then obediently do whatever He says. To do otherwise is sin.
Prayer: You, O LORD, are the only one who has the correct perspective and the right to diagnose the cause of the social turmoil of my life and culture, especially among Your people. You say that the source of our problem is our inner passions, our evil desires. We are coveting what others have, even to the point of murdering them or their reputation. When I pray, I may (knowingly or not) be asking with wrong motives. Sometimes I’m just trying to fit in with the “cool people,” to be a friend of the world, yet this chapter says that to be a friend of the world is to be an enemy of God. You, however, have put Your Spirit within me to give me grace. If I humble myself and submit to You, You promise that I will be able to resist the devil, and he will flee from me. I am determined to draw near to You so that You will draw near to me. I wash my hands in the soul-cleansing blood of Jesus. I purify my heart and mind with the clean water of the Word of God. I am truly sorry for my sins. Don’t let me judge anyone else. You are the only one who knows all the facts and implications. Only You, Lord God, are able to judge correctly and save or destroy with proper judgment. Only You know the future and the right thing to do. I so often sin by not carrying through on Your directions. The only thing I can do (in regard to that and any other sin) is to admit it and claim the grace and forgiveness made available to me by the suffering and death of Jesus on my behalf on the cross. AMEN
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, if He wants you to work on one of the suggestions below or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will ask God the Holy Spirit to show where these three enemies are attacking me and how to defeat them.
- I will humbly confess my sins before God and receive the forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration Jesus has provided.
- I will make a list of scriptural truths I can use in resisting Satan.
- I will praise God for His mercy and grace, daily.
Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.