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The Epistle of James Chapter 4:1–17 Carnality the Source of Strife 4.1. Where do the conflicts and where do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, from your passions that battle inside you? The last verse of chapter three ended with the word peace “Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” This chapter starts with the opposite conflicts and quarrels. It is when Christians allow a carnal mind to dominate their lives that all kinds of contention spring up in the church. The result of this is bitter strife that causes divisions within the church and mars its testimony. Paul pinpoints the carnal Christian as being the cause of all the problems in Corinth (1 Cor. 3:3). 4.2. You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask; The carnal man is forever hankering after things he hasn’t got and to which he has no just claim and will do anything to obtain it even murder. It is a jealousy that burns within the heart to have what belongs to others and if it cannot be obtained by just means then it will by foul and for all that there is still no gain. The carnal man is so busy desiring and filling his life with trying to get the things he hasn’t got and will never have that he doesn’t seek or ask God. 4.3. you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions. When they do seek God they ask with a wrong motive and for selfish purposes therefore they do not receive because they only want things to use for their own pleasure. 4.4. Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world's friend makes himself God's enemy. They are like the faithless adulterer for in appearance they seem to be faithful and true to God but they are actually playing around with the evil pleasures of the world. This cannot be for whoever
chooses to be the world’s friend makes himself an enemy of God and in being a friend of the world he makes his stand against God. 4.5. Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, "The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning"? James uses a quotation here that is not word for word in the Bible but would seem to be a summary of many scriptures that make it quite clear that God is jealous of His people (Ex. 34:14, Deut. 4:24). Therefore, it follows that the Holy Spirit that dwells in us jealously guards God’s possession (Gal. 5: 17). 4.6. But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble." God gives greater grace by the power of the Holy Spirit to stand against the carnal desires that are within us and to overcome them. God opposes those who are proud, “who have a high and unreasonable conceit of their own excellence or importance” (Barnes), but gives grace to those who are humble enough to receive it.
Submission to God produces Humility V7. So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. The answer to carnality is to submit wholly to God and resist, stand against, the devil and he will run away from you, Peter says simarly to this (1 Peter 5: 8 - 9). 4.8. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded. To draw near to God implies more than prayer it embraces our whole lives, body, soul and spirit then He will come nearer to us and we will know and feel His presence with us more (Gal. 5:16 and 25). Confess your sins and ask for cleansing and forgiveness (1 John 1:9) and those who have been disloyal to God, spiritual adulterers, divided between God and the world, should purify their hearts. This was the cry of the Psalmist heart (Psalm 51:10) and John in his first letter tells us that we have a hope that will purify us (1 John 3: 2 - 3). 4.9. Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair. As you draw near to God do so with a Godly sorrow, be grieved and weep over your disloyalty turn to Him in repentance (2 Cor. 7:10). Let your laughter and carnal joy be turned to grief and heartfelt shame. 4.10. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. With a contrite heart humble yourself in the Lord’s presence and He will restore your soul and lift you up (Psalm 23:3, Isaiah 57:15).
Do not Condemn a Brother 4.11. Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. He who speaks against a fellow believer or judges a fellow believer speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but its judge. There was a lot of backbiting (attacking the reputation of another by slander or libel) going on amongst those to whom James was writing. So he says that whoever speaks against his brother and judges him sets himself above the Law and condemns the Law of God. If you condemn the Law then you are no longer one who obeys the Law but one who judges it (Matthew 7: 1 - 2). 4.12. But there is only one who is lawgiver and judge — the one who is able to save and destroy. On the other hand, who are you to judge your neighbor? God is the only Lawgiver and Judge (Isaiah 33:22). He is the only one who can save and destroy and is more than able to administer his judgment (Math. 10:28). Who are we then to set ourselves up to judge a brother?
Boast not of Tomorrow 4.13 - 14. Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit." You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. Those who have a presumptuous confidence respecting the future making a boast of where they are going to go and what they are going to achieve should think again. For no one knows what tomorrow might bring if indeed it comes do not be like the man who built bigger barns who had no thought of God and believed that tomorrow was his (Luke 12: 20 -21). Life is like a mist that appears for a short time and then it disappears (Psalm 39:5). 4.15. You ought to say instead, "If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that." With all our plans and purposes whether for today or the future we ought to say “if the Lord wills, we shall live” and do these things. In writing to the churches concerning his desire to visit them Paul always said if it is the will of God (1 Corinthians 4:19). 4.16. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. To brag about what one has done and in a reliance on one’s own skills and ability is wrong boasting. Paul could have boasted about many things but he declared that the only thing he would boast in would be the cross (Galatians 6:14). 4.17. So whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin. So then anyone who knows what is right to do but does not to it he is guilty of sin (Luke 12:47). © Derek Williams & Mathew Bartlett 2015 Bible Studies Online UK www.biblestudiesonline.org.uk You may copy, print or distribute our studies freely in any form, just so long as you make no charges. Sign up today for our FREE monthly Bible study magazine “Living Word” Scriptures taken from the NET Bible www.bible.org