James 4:1-17

What *faith should do

James

Ian Mackervoy

The word list at the end explains words with a *star by them.

Chapter 4

Desires and divisions 4:1-10

v1 You know where all the fights and quarrels among you come from. They come from your desires for pleasure, which are always fighting in you. v2 You want something, but you cannot have it. So you are ready to kill. You desire it so much that you quarrel and fight for it. But you cannot obtain it. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. v3 When you do ask, you do not receive anything. This is because you ask for the wrong reason. v4 You are like a wife who has sex with other men. You ought to know that to be the world’s friend is to be God’s enemy. All who want to be friends of the world make themselves enemies of God. v5 The *Scripture with good reason says, ‘God has caused his Spirit to live in us. He wants very much to keep us for himself.’ v6 God gives us more loving help. That is why the *Scripture says, ‘God opposes the proud, but he gives his loving help to the humble.’ v7 So then, give yourself to God alone. Fight against the devil and he will run away from you. v8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash away your *sins. Make your hearts and minds clean, you who want to go both ways. You cannot love *sin and God at the same time. v9 Be sorry and weep because of your *sins. Do not laugh but be sad. Do not be happy but be serious and sad. v10 Be humble in front of the *Lord God. Then he will make you great.

Verse 1 There were problems where there should be peace. James asks the readers to see what was the true source of their quarrels. There were wars and fights in the church. The word ‘wars’ here means quarrels rather than real wars. So there were quarrels and fights among them. There were angry words and they said bad things about one another. It seems that things got so bad that there were actual fights. There could have been many reasons for these problems. They may have been arguing about what they did. Or they may have been arguing about what they believed to be right. There could have been people in the church who did not like each other. But the real cause of these quarrels was their own desires. They each wanted what pleased themselves. When they could not agree on what they wanted to do, there was trouble.

Where people’s aims are their own desires there will be struggling, hating and fighting. By our nature, our pleasures tend to rule our lives. We need the grace of God to make us free from this selfish attitude. Perhaps these desires have the first place in our lives. Then we will not be able to do what God wants us to do. God made us for his pleasure and not for ours. Our desire ought to be to do what God wants us to do. And we should desire to be what he wants us to be.

Verse 2 They were eager to get what they wanted for themselves. Their desires became the master of their hearts and minds. All this was true. But still they did not have what they searched for. They tried to obtain it but they could never find it. They became so jealous that they would murder to get it. It is hard to believe that these Christians did kill each other. But there were such strong feelings of hate that it was almost as bad as murder. They could never have enough. The more they had, the more they wanted. What they had could not satisfy them. Because they could not get what they wanted, they quarrelled and fought. They were going about it in the wrong way. That is the reason that they could not get it. Instead of fighting, they should have prayed to God. This does not mean that God would give them what they wrongly desired. Rather, this shows that they had turned away from God in their hearts. If they would look to him first, then he would change their desires. The primary need is to desire the right things. They needed to desire those things that God would want to give them. They should not pray to God for their own selfish desires but for his wisdom and help.

The choice we have to make is whether to please ourselves or to please God. If we choose a life of pleasing ourselves, it will not satisfy us. If we choose to please God, he will give us true satisfaction in life.

Verse 3 God is ready to answer the prayers of those who ask for what is right. *Righteous people ask for what God wants to give. So he hears them. He hears those who *repent of their *sins and ask him to forgive them. He will answer those who pray with *faith for that which is good. Some of these people prayed but with wrong desires. They did not receive what they asked for. They did not receive it because they asked wrongly. They asked God to give them more to satisfy their own desires. They wanted to please themselves. They did not want to please God or to bless someone else. God does not answer that kind of prayer.

Verse 4 They were like wives who have sex with men who are not their husbands. To God, sex like that is *sin. James was not saying that they were having wrong sex. But he was showing them that they were not *faithful to God. The *Old Testament speaks about God as being like a husband and the *Jews as his wife. Sometimes the *Jews turned from God to other gods. Then it was like a wife who went to another man. The *New Testament says that the church is like a bride. It is the bride of Christ. James is saying that they were not *faithful to Christ. They did not love God as they should. Instead, they loved the things of the world. Those who share the values of the world are not *faithful to God. That is the world apart from God. It is not the natural world, which God made. The things of the world include all that opposes God and his rules. James is thinking here about those pleasures and aims that draw people away from God. It is the desire for wealth, power and pleasure that governs those of the world. They refuse the rule of God.

Desire for the things of the world is friendship with the world. By its nature, friendship with the world is against God. He who is a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Christians cannot love God and be friends with the world. They have to choose between God and the world. They can be friends either with the world or with God, not both.

Verse 5 They were acting as if they did not accept the *Scriptures. But these are the word of God and have his authority. What James writes here is not directly from the *Scriptures. But he does express the truth that they contain. God has sent the Holy Spirit to live in us. The Holy Spirit is jealous for us. He opposes everything in us that would draw us away from God. He desires us to be *faithful and to love God and the *Lord Jesus. God is a jealous God. He loves us. And he does not want us to love anyone more than we love him. ‘Jealous’ comes from a word meaning burning heat. This shows the strong desire with which God longs for our love.

Verse 6 Only the loving help of God can make us able to accept the love of God. It is his love that can help his people to refuse the *temptations of the world. God makes great demands on them. But he gives them the help that they need to please him. His standards are high, but he gives more than enough strength to meet those standards. God opposes those who are proud. They do not love God, and they refuse to obey him. They do not know or realise that they need God. They think that they can manage in life without God. They are those who are friends of the world. And so, they are enemies of God. They have turned away from their Maker and so he has turned away from them. The proud do not think that they need God’s loving help. So he sets himself against them.

The humble are those who know their own weakness. They depend on God. He alone can give them the help that they need. They give themselves to God and desire to please him. They want to receive the loving help that God gives. No-one can receive this help until he or she accepts the need of it and comes to God for it. To these who come to him, God delights to give his loving help freely.

Verse 7 God gives help to the humble. So, the readers should be humble and come to him. That is to recognise God as the *Lord and Master of their lives. They should give the control of their lives to him. As they give themselves to serve God, he makes them able to fight and defeat the evil one. Then James tells them to oppose the devil. These two actions are two sides of the same thing. They must turn to God and they must turn against the devil. The devil knows that his only hope is to draw Christians away from their trust in God. The cause of their failure is often that they are proud. The devil appeals to that. As strong as the devil may be, humble Christians can defeat him. As they say ‘no’ to his *temptations he has to go away from them.

Verse 8 Their desire for the things of the world had drawn them away from God. In wanting to please themselves, they had moved away from him. They were still God’s people but they had become like strangers to him. They had to *repent of all that had caused them to go from God. And they had to ask him to forgive them. God never refuses to come to those who *repent and turn to him. God is so good and kind to all those who come to him. As they approach God, he will come near to them.

In the *Greek, James says, ‘*Sinners, wash your hands and those with two *souls (or minds) make your hearts pure’. *Sinners are those who do not do what God says. Those with two *souls (or minds) are those who want to be friends with both God and the world. These *sinners and those with two minds must wash their hands and make their hearts pure. The washing of hands was part of the ceremony of *worship. It was to make a person fit to come near to God. ‘Who shall go up to the hill of the *Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart … ' (Psalms 24:3-4). This means that they must *repent and turn from their *sin. They have to choose to follow God and not be friends with the world.

Verse 9 They should be sorry for their *sins. They should be so sorry that it causes them to be sad. They should weep because of what they have done. They should no longer laugh at and enjoy the things of the world. Instead, as they think about their *sins, they should be sad and unhappy. When they have come back to the *Lord, then they will be able to laugh and be glad again.

Verse 10 The writer tells them to come, with a humble attitude, to God. They need to know that they are small and weak. And they need to know that they need God to help them. Only those who come to God like this can know his blessing. God has promised to lift them up, to forgive them and to make them strong.

Speaking evil and judging 4:11-12

v11 My Christian brothers and sisters, do not say bad things about one another. If you speak against another person you are *judging him or her. When you do this, you speak against the law. And you *judge it as well. If you *judge the law you do not obey it. You have made yourself its judge. v12 It is God who gave the law. And it is God who says what we should do. Therefore, only God can be the judge. He alone is able to save us or to destroy us. Who do you think you are, to *judge someone else?

Verse 11 In the church, there were those who said bad things about other Christians. What they said was unkind. And perhaps it was not true. They must stop doing it because they are brothers and sisters. To speak against a Christian is against the law to love him or her. They cannot speak evil about other Christians and at the same time love them. The person, who speaks bad things about another person, acts as a judge of that person. Those who do this also speak against the law of God. It is as if they say that the law is not right. It is as if they have put it aside. They have become judges of the law. Their own ideas are to them more important than the law of God. But our duty is not to *judge the law but to obey it. Those who *judge the law set themselves above the law. This is taking the place of God, who is the judge. Only God can be the judge because he alone is not under the law.

Verse 12 No *human being has the right to *judge another. There is only one person who can be the judge. That is God, who gave us the law. No man can put aside the law of God. It is for all people and for all time. God will *judge all people by the law that he gave. The authority to *judge belongs to God alone. God is the *Lord of life and death. He alone is able to save life or to destroy it. He has the power to reward people or to punish them. Compared with the power of God, man is so weak. So it is foolish for a man or a woman to *judge a neighbour.

Planning without God 4:13-17

v13 Now then, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this city or to that one. We will stay a year there. We will buy and sell and get rich.’ Listen to me. v14 You do not know what will happen tomorrow. Your life is like a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears. v15 What you ought to say is, ‘If it is what God wants, we will live here or there. If he wants it, we will do this or that’. v16 As it is, you are proud. And you talk about what you will do. You speak as if you are able to make it happen. It is wrong to speak like this. Only God knows and can make things happen. v17 So, we all know the good things that we ought to do. If we do not do them, we are *sinning.

Verse 13 ‘Come now’ or ‘now then’ draws attention to what follows. James wants to show that it is a bad mistake to plan our lives without God. The *Jews traded wherever they went in the world. Some of them would travel for the purpose of trade. So, as an example, James speaks about merchants who are in the church.

Here are some merchants who are planning a trip. They say, ‘We will go on the day that we decide. We will go to a certain city and stay there a year. We will trade there and we will make a profit.' But God has no place in their plans. These merchants think that they can do as they have planned. As they made their plans, they forgot God. It was as if the future was in their hands to control. But God alone knows the future and it makes no sense to plan without him. Planning for the future is good but it must be with God. God’s plan is above all other plans. His plans can never fail.

Verse 14 These merchants cannot know what tomorrow will be like. They cannot see what will happen in the next year. Only God knows the future and it is in his control. They forget that they are human. As such, they cannot be sure of their own lives. This human life lasts only for a short time. The only certain thing is that at some time they will die. In the morning, the mist covers the country. By noon it has all gone. Human life is like that. The use of the word ‘mist’ expresses the thought that life is short. Human life on earth is like a mist, or smoke. It is here for a little while and then it goes.

Verse 15 It is not that they should not plan. It is good to plan. But, as they make plans, they need to know what God wants. They should accept that God alone knows what will happen. The only way to plan for the future is to trust God. They should not say what they will do. Instead, they should say, 'We will do it if God allows it.'

Verse 16 The proud merchants were sure of themselves. They were sure that by their own efforts they would succeed. They planned and acted as if God did not exist. It was as if they claimed to be able to control the future. They were wrong, and a confidence in themselves like that is evil. To think that they could plan the future is to *sin against God. Only God can know what is to come.

Verse 17 *Sin is not just to do wrong things but also the failure to do right things. Think about a person who knows to do right. He *sins if he does not do it.

faith ~ belief that something is true; trust in someone or something; belief and trust in God and in Jesus Christ his Son.
Scripture ~ the books of the Bible.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil; not to obey God; sins are the wrong things that we do.
Lord ~ a title for God, or Jesus, to show that he is over all people and things. The name that God gave to himself in the Old Testament. He was the One who had made a covenant with the Jews.

Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible; the holy things that the writers wrote before Christ’s birth.
covenant ~ when people agree something together; when God and a person or people agree to a special thing.
Jews ~ people who were born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
righteous ~a righteous person is right in what he does; or a person whom God says is right.
repent ~ to change your mind; to turn away from sin and turn to God.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil; not to obey God; sins are the wrong things that we do.
faithful ~ true and loyal to someone.'Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible; the holy things that the writers wrote before Christ’s birth.
Jews ~ people who were born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.'New Testament ~ the last part of the Bible, which the writers wrote after the life of Jesus. It is about the things that Jesus did and taught and about the church.
temptation ~ something that tries to make us do wrong things.
Greek ~ the language that James used to write this letter.
sinner ~ a person who does sins.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil; not to obey God; sins are the wrong things that we do.
soul ~ the part of a person that we cannot see; or the mind.
sinner ~ a person who does sins.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil; not to obey God; sins are the wrong things that we do.
worship ~ show honour to God with praise, thanks and respect.
judge ~ to judge is to do the work of a judge; to test and decide what is right or wrong.'human being ~ a human person.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil; not to obey God; sins are the wrong things that we do.