Jam 4:3 | KingComments | STEP | . What James says in these verses is contrary to the end of the previous chapter. There the issue is peace and here the issue is war and fights. James denounces this matter interrogatively. He does not say: ‘There are ”quarrels” and ”conflicts” among you and it should not be like that’, but asks where those quarrels and conflicts are coming from, what their source is. It is also significant that he speaks about “among you”, thus among the members of God’s people, that is, all those who by their confession count themselves as such, regardless of whether they are born again or not. Literally it says: “From where wars and from where fightings?” That means that those wars are civil wars, for it is a war between citizens of the same kingdom, they are between citizens who belong to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus ( ). Through internal fightings the powers are consumed. That causes that there is no power left for the fight of the gospel in the world to liberate people from the power of satan. If we have to deal with civil war, there will be no power left to fight together against false teachings, for the enemy knows how to use that situation for his benefit. That James has to speak about “quarrels” or “wars” indicates that the disagreement lies deep. A situation of war does not start without any reason. Before a person starts a war he first has achieved deliberations and has determined strategies in utmost secrecy. Also during war deliberation still takes place. A war is also long-term by nature. This is not the case regarding “conflicts” or “fightings”. Conflicts often suddenly break out and quickly quenches, although the fire can keep smoldering for a long time. Quarrels and conflicts, however, have one thing in common and that is the source from which they come. We read that in the response of James to the question “what is the source”. They do not come from the wisdom that is from above ( ), but from their “pleasures”. Their desires do not seek to be satisfied by what they have in the world of the Lord Jesus, but by the world around them. In their “members”, which are the members of their body, the desires of pleasure are fighting to use these members as instruments of sin (cf. ). The center of government is the heart, and the pleasures have taken possession of it. The pleasures have therefore taken control of the body. The result is that the body is seeking to enrich itself at the expense of others. . But what does it yield? James points to the consequences. They lust, but they do not have. In spite of all their fightings to live prosperously and pleasantly they do not have it. They are occupied with wars and fightings. Those matters do not fill the deepest desires of a person, but they work out something different, namely murder and manslaughter. James speaks with a strong speech. He explains to them that what they are doing is committing murder. That can refer to literally murder someone, but it also applies to committing character murder. In the latter case a lot of slander is spread about a person so that the person is not able to function normally anymore. He feels threatened and totally withdraws himself. A person who is a target of a smear campaign is being torn down. Such campaigns come from people who are envious of other people, they begrudge the other to have something because they want to have it themselves. If you are not satisfied with what you have you are capable of acting in such a way. Do not let yourself be dragged down by feelings of dissatisfaction. Look at people who indeed let themselves be dragged down and you will draw the same conclusion James draws. These people cannot gain what they desire. They can be totally absorbed by quarrels and conflicts. He who wants to obtain something in that way only destroys things. Then James makes clear that they do not have because they do not pray. Praying means that you are consciously dependent on God. As long as you go on with working out your own strategy to gain something, you will not succeed. Sometimes you seem to succeed, but still, the final result is that you are empty handed and especially empty hearted. Once you become aware of that you will surely start to pray. . Now praying is supposed to be happening with the right mind. That means that if you pray, you surrender yourself to the will of the Lord. You make Him decide whether something is good for you or not. If your praying has got more to do with demanding than with asking then it is clear that your desires have got nothing to do with God’s will, but with your own will and the fulfilling of your own pleasures. If you want to pray in accordance with God’s will and your wishes are not fulfilled, then you can also see that as a kindness of God. For if He would have given it to you, you would have only harmed yourself by that and even harm other people and in that way dishonor Him. Therefore it is about testing the motives of your heart. God knows the hidden motives of your heart when you pray. He precisely knows the reason why you ask Him something. He labels your prayer as wrong when He sees that your prayer is prayed only out of selfishness. Then your only intention with what you are asking for is for your own use. In this context James does not speak about using or misusing, but about “spend [it] on your own pleasures”. That indicates that there is no appreciation at all for what has been given. This is not the way God wants us to be dealing with what He gives and therefore He does not give it. . Their total conduct is through and through worldly. James therefore justly addresses them as “adulteresses”. You cannot pursue your own pleasures without getting entangled in the world. For the fulfillment of pleasures without God can only be found in the world. Therefore if you seek the fulfillment of your pleasures in this world, you seek “friendship with the world”. But dealing with the world as a friend of the world is spiritual adultery. It is a denial of your relationship to God. Your life shows the contrary to what you confess as a Christian. As a Christian you say that you said goodbye to the world, that you belong to God and that you want to serve Him faithfully, but in your life you enjoy the things of the world. Through your worldly behavior you show that you are a friend of the world. The way the world goes on with and for itself still appeals to you and you follow it. The world loves that and acknowledges you as a friend. The appreciation from the side of the world is in itself very alarming already. The flipside of this black medal is even more alarming, for it says that it is “hostility toward God”. The one is inextricably connected to the other, make no mistake. James is clear about it. He speaks so radically about it because in these cases each compromise is an insult to God. Just think about it. You formerly belonged to the world. You have experienced what the world is, how empty and how full of enmity against God it is too. That enmity has become visible at the most in the rejection and the murder of the Lord Jesus of Whom you say that you owe your life to Him. If that reality is true for you, how could you still make friends with people who are still haters of the Lord Jesus? Toward such people you can only testify of what you have found in Him yourself and pray that they also may get to know Him. But such a testimony is out of the question if you still cooperate with the world. How could you ever speak credibly about God’s judgment on the world, if it appears from your life that you walk according to the world and that you enjoy the world very much? It comes down to whether you live for the world and therefore you are an enemy of God or you live for God and therefore you do not want to have anything to do with the world. There is no neutrality possible. Light and darkness cannot go together ( ). . To underline his strong message James refers to the speaking of the Scripture and to the yearning of the Spirit. From the Scripture there comes a statement that cannot be explained but in one way. Wherever you read in the Scripture, you will encounter the testimony that everything that is from God cannot possibly be connected to the sinful man. Everywhere in the Scripture we find that God’s people are warned not to be involved with the world. Or do you think that the Scripture says that “to no purpose” or “in vain”? By no means. The Scripture does not speak about that in vain, except then for people who ignore the Scripture. No, the Scripture speaks clearly to those who have ears to hear. By then also pointing out the work of the Spirit, James shows to which extent the Word and the Spirit cooperate. The Darby Translation of the second part of the verse helps to understand the meaning better: “Does the Spirit which has taken his abode in us desire enviously?” What is strange to the Scripture is also strange to the Spirit. That also goes the other way around. Just as you cannot discover any relationship between God and sin anywhere in the Scripture, it is neither possible that “the Spirit which has taken his abode in us” causes you to “desire enviously”. The Spirit Who dwells in you does not cause quarrels and conflicts. Quarrels and conflicts happen in the world and unfortunately also can happen among believers. . The Spirit Who dwells in you wants to lift you up far beyond that, by giving you “a greater grace”. That greater grace is given to you by Him to enable you not to participate in that and to live for the other person and to the honor of God. Then it is necessary for you to take the place of humility. The flesh, the world and the devil may have great power, the grace that God gives is much greater. He, however, gives that grace only to the “humble”. Now read James 4:1-6 again. Reflection: Which aspects in your life do you still need to label as ‘friendship toward the world’?

‏ James 4:3

Friendship With the World

Jam 4:1. What James says in these verses is contrary to the end of the previous chapter. There the issue is peace and here the issue is war and fights. James denounces this matter interrogatively. He does not say: ‘There are ”quarrels” and ”conflicts” among you and it should not be like that’, but asks where those quarrels and conflicts are coming from, what their source is. It is also significant that he speaks about “among you”, thus among the members of God’s people, that is, all those who by their confession count themselves as such, regardless of whether they are born again or not.

Literally it says: “From where wars and from where fightings?” That means that those wars are civil wars, for it is a war between citizens of the same kingdom, they are between citizens who belong to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus (Jam 2:5). Through internal fightings the powers are consumed. That causes that there is no power left for the fight of the gospel in the world to liberate people from the power of satan. If we have to deal with civil war, there will be no power left to fight together against false teachings, for the enemy knows how to use that situation for his benefit.

That James has to speak about “quarrels” or “wars” indicates that the disagreement lies deep. A situation of war does not start without any reason. Before a person starts a war he first has achieved deliberations and has determined strategies in utmost secrecy. Also during war deliberation still takes place. A war is also long-term by nature.

This is not the case regarding “conflicts” or “fightings”. Conflicts often suddenly break out and quickly quenches, although the fire can keep smoldering for a long time.

Quarrels and conflicts, however, have one thing in common and that is the source from which they come. We read that in the response of James to the question “what is the source”. They do not come from the wisdom that is from above (Jam 3:17), but from their “pleasures”. Their desires do not seek to be satisfied by what they have in the world of the Lord Jesus, but by the world around them.

In their “members”, which are the members of their body, the desires of pleasure are fighting to use these members as instruments of sin (cf. Rom 6:13 ; Rom 7:23). The center of government is the heart, and the pleasures have taken possession of it. The pleasures have therefore taken control of the body. The result is that the body is seeking to enrich itself at the expense of others.

Jam 4:2. But what does it yield? James points to the consequences. They lust, but they do not have. In spite of all their fightings to live prosperously and pleasantly they do not have it. They are occupied with wars and fightings. Those matters do not fill the deepest desires of a person, but they work out something different, namely murder and manslaughter.

James speaks with a strong speech. He explains to them that what they are doing is committing murder. That can refer to literally murder someone, but it also applies to committing character murder. In the latter case a lot of slander is spread about a person so that the person is not able to function normally anymore. He feels threatened and totally withdraws himself. A person who is a target of a smear campaign is being torn down. Such campaigns come from people who are envious of other people, they begrudge the other to have something because they want to have it themselves.

If you are not satisfied with what you have you are capable of acting in such a way. Do not let yourself be dragged down by feelings of dissatisfaction. Look at people who indeed let themselves be dragged down and you will draw the same conclusion James draws. These people cannot gain what they desire. They can be totally absorbed by quarrels and conflicts. He who wants to obtain something in that way only destroys things.

Then James makes clear that they do not have because they do not pray. Praying means that you are consciously dependent on God. As long as you go on with working out your own strategy to gain something, you will not succeed. Sometimes you seem to succeed, but still, the final result is that you are empty handed and especially empty hearted. Once you become aware of that you will surely start to pray.

Jam 4:3. Now praying is supposed to be happening with the right mind. That means that if you pray, you surrender yourself to the will of the Lord. You make Him decide whether something is good for you or not. If your praying has got more to do with demanding than with asking then it is clear that your desires have got nothing to do with God’s will, but with your own will and the fulfilling of your own pleasures.

If you want to pray in accordance with God’s will and your wishes are not fulfilled, then you can also see that as a kindness of God. For if He would have given it to you, you would have only harmed yourself by that and even harm other people and in that way dishonor Him.

Therefore it is about testing the motives of your heart. God knows the hidden motives of your heart when you pray. He precisely knows the reason why you ask Him something. He labels your prayer as wrong when He sees that your prayer is prayed only out of selfishness. Then your only intention with what you are asking for is for your own use. In this context James does not speak about using or misusing, but about “spend [it] on your own pleasures”. That indicates that there is no appreciation at all for what has been given. This is not the way God wants us to be dealing with what He gives and therefore He does not give it.

Jam 4:4. Their total conduct is through and through worldly. James therefore justly addresses them as “adulteresses”. You cannot pursue your own pleasures without getting entangled in the world. For the fulfillment of pleasures without God can only be found in the world. Therefore if you seek the fulfillment of your pleasures in this world, you seek “friendship with the world”. But dealing with the world as a friend of the world is spiritual adultery. It is a denial of your relationship to God. Your life shows the contrary to what you confess as a Christian.

As a Christian you say that you said goodbye to the world, that you belong to God and that you want to serve Him faithfully, but in your life you enjoy the things of the world. Through your worldly behavior you show that you are a friend of the world. The way the world goes on with and for itself still appeals to you and you follow it. The world loves that and acknowledges you as a friend. The appreciation from the side of the world is in itself very alarming already.

The flipside of this black medal is even more alarming, for it says that it is “hostility toward God”. The one is inextricably connected to the other, make no mistake. James is clear about it.

He speaks so radically about it because in these cases each compromise is an insult to God. Just think about it. You formerly belonged to the world. You have experienced what the world is, how empty and how full of enmity against God it is too. That enmity has become visible at the most in the rejection and the murder of the Lord Jesus of Whom you say that you owe your life to Him. If that reality is true for you, how could you still make friends with people who are still haters of the Lord Jesus? Toward such people you can only testify of what you have found in Him yourself and pray that they also may get to know Him.

But such a testimony is out of the question if you still cooperate with the world. How could you ever speak credibly about God’s judgment on the world, if it appears from your life that you walk according to the world and that you enjoy the world very much? It comes down to whether you live for the world and therefore you are an enemy of God or you live for God and therefore you do not want to have anything to do with the world. There is no neutrality possible. Light and darkness cannot go together (2Cor 6:14).

Jam 4:5. To underline his strong message James refers to the speaking of the Scripture and to the yearning of the Spirit. From the Scripture there comes a statement that cannot be explained but in one way. Wherever you read in the Scripture, you will encounter the testimony that everything that is from God cannot possibly be connected to the sinful man. Everywhere in the Scripture we find that God’s people are warned not to be involved with the world. Or do you think that the Scripture says that “to no purpose” or “in vain”? By no means. The Scripture does not speak about that in vain, except then for people who ignore the Scripture. No, the Scripture speaks clearly to those who have ears to hear.

By then also pointing out the work of the Spirit, James shows to which extent the Word and the Spirit cooperate. The Darby Translation of the second part of the verse helps to understand the meaning better: “Does the Spirit which has taken his abode in us desire enviously?” What is strange to the Scripture is also strange to the Spirit. That also goes the other way around. Just as you cannot discover any relationship between God and sin anywhere in the Scripture, it is neither possible that “the Spirit which has taken his abode in us” causes you to “desire enviously”. The Spirit Who dwells in you does not cause quarrels and conflicts. Quarrels and conflicts happen in the world and unfortunately also can happen among believers.

Jam 4:6. The Spirit Who dwells in you wants to lift you up far beyond that, by giving you “a greater grace”. That greater grace is given to you by Him to enable you not to participate in that and to live for the other person and to the honor of God.

Then it is necessary for you to take the place of humility. The flesh, the world and the devil may have great power, the grace that God gives is much greater. He, however, gives that grace only to the “humble”.

Now read James 4:1-6 again.

Reflection: Which aspects in your life do you still need to label as ‘friendship toward the world’?