4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
- Chapter 4.1-10 opens with 2 options for achieving joy. The way of the __________. And the way of the__________.
- “quarrels” – The word carries the idea of ongoing hostility. In an organization that has experienced great grace we cannot afford to be unforgiving and resentful to one another.
- Is there anything sadder than such a church? The church is to be united in love for God and love for one another. The church is to be united around the truth of God. The church is to be united in worship and service.
- “fights” – outburst of anger
- “your passions” – Meaning _____________________. Each person thought themselves to be the priority. From the Gk: we get the word Hedonism, you search for pleasure/joy.
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.
- A verse on _____________________________.
- “murder” – Perhaps not literally. But under the teaching of Jesus in the sermon on the Mount, Jesus defines hatred as murdering with the heart.
- “you do not ask” – Our ___________ should never replace our need for prayer.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
- “your passions” – as we survey modern-day Christianity, we are compelled to admit that many of those who profess to be believers do not appear to be in agreement. We are supposed to believe these things (biblical truths), but many do not give any evidence of doing so. The sad fact is that many church members appear to be working against the very things they are supposed to value and prize. – Roger Ellsworth, Opening up James, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2009), 124.
- God does not _____________ to feed us all our wants and He does not exist to make all of our dreams come true. This theology has become very prevalent in our culture. The prosperity gospel is not the gospel.
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.
- The church described above is rendered useless in God’s Kingdom. How can we minister in His name when all we are only concerned about our own?
- “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” –John 13:34,35
- In the verses that follow, James confronts the church’s _____________ approach to discipleship. What he spoke so long ago has never needs to be heard more than it does now.
- James reminds them of the truth of claiming Christ while desiring all the world offers. It is spiritual ____________________ and spiritual _____________.
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”?
- The true believer cannot live their life continually ignoring the call and conviction of the Spirit.
- God loves us too much to let us persist in worldliness.
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
- The _______________ are those who turn their hearts away from God to another rival. The ___________________ understand and practice total dependence on God.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
- “Submit” – The solution to worldliness is ____________________. Meaning: subject our wills to his control.
- “to God” – The quicker we realize and submit to the authority of God in our lives, the better off we will be.
- “resist” – Resist is a military metaphor urging Christians to stand our ground against Satan’s attacks. We resist the devil when we refuse to surrender to the impulse of sin.
- We get this backwards. We resist the Lord and surrender to the devil.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- “Draw near” – involves approaching God in _______________ and commitment.
- “Cleanse your hands” – highlights ___________ purity.
- “purify your hearts” – highlights _________ integrity.
- In scripture, our hands and hearts are intricately connected. They do not exist separate from one another. This for the same reason James says faith and works are connected, so are our hearts and hands when we consider repentance. A believer cannot be genuine in seeking forgiveness and not change the sinful action which prompted the need for grace.
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
- “wretched…mourn…weep” – calls for sinners to experience deep feelings of ____________ because of their disobedience.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
- Minds that are informed by the truth of God, choices that are made according to the will of God and affections that are set on the things of God—all will issue into behavior that is pleasing to God.
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.
- Pride is a ______________ thing. We can easily spot it in others, but we can’t see it in ourselves. Some of the proudest people I have ever met thought of themselves as being very humble and were very critical of pride in others. Most of us are a lot prouder than we would like to believe.
- Meaning: to find fault with him, to speak disparagingly of him, to gossip maliciously about him.’
- Pride is when I elevate myself (behavior or thoughts) above others. Which results in my judging their worth and their heart.
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?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—
- Pride is also displayed in my independent planning.
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
- In general, mankind tends to forget about the brevity of life.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
- We exist simply and solely because Christ wills it.
- Col. 1 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
- ____________________ we do should be done in prayer and submission to Gods authority and sovereignty over us.
- How can one who “does not know what tomorrow brings” boast in Personal accomplishments? The Christian must remember that in ALL things, God is in control.
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
- A closing reminder to act upon the conviction of the Spirit and trust God everyday.