Church at the Elm

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom."

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INTRO

James introduces this new section with a rhetorical question:

Verse 1 - "What causes fights and quarrels among you?"

Then he answers his own question: "From your desires that battle within you."

Listen to these two quotes from John F Walvoord:

"Conflict comes out of inner sensual lusts or pleasures."

"Hedonism, the playboy philosophy that makes pleasure mankind's chief end, still wages battles in people's hearts."

The way for believers to have their legitimate needs met is: by asking God

Verse 2 - says: You do not have, because you do not ask God.

And: our motives must be right!

Verse 3 - gives us a good idea of wrong motives: "That you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

Verse 4 - James gets a little aggressive here. Instead of addressing them as "My brothers", He calls them "You adulterous people." He then asks another pointed question; "Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?" Then he adds; "Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."

James, still referring back to conflict in verse 1, says; the cure for conflict is a humble spirit.

Verse 6 - says that "God will give grace to the humble but will oppose the proud."

Verses 7-9 - James gives a series of commands which, if followed, will contribute to harmony and holiness.

We'll look at the two key ones:

1. Submit yourselves to God and resist the devil.

2. Draw near to God

Each of these commands has a promise attached to it.

1. "Submit yourselves to God and resist the devil."

"Submit" is a military term "to be subordinated" or "to render obedient."

"Resist" means "take a stand against."

The promise is short and very sweet: Submit to God and resist the devil, and the devil will flee.

2. "Draw near to God and He will come near to you."

To draw near to God requires His cleansing.

That's why James commands:

"Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."

CONCLUSION

If we want harmony in the body, if we want to avoid conflict in the body, we need to do:

Submit Ourselves To God

Resist The Devil

Draw Near To God

Next Week James 4:10-17

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