THE HUMBLE DEPENDENCE OF A TRUE FAITH
A. The humble character of a living faith
1. (James 4:1-3) Reasons for strife in the Christian community
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you: The members of the church were quarreling. James asks the question, "Why?" Strife is not from God. It is not a proper or a natural product of faith. The source of the conflict, James says, is our flesh. More specifically, it is our fleshly desire for worldly pleasures. The source for the quarreling in this church is their sinful flesh.
I find this concept to be 100% accurate. I have been invited into different groups or churches from time to time. I am often exposed to church quarrels. It seems, I can always trace the disharmony to fleshly, sinful desires--desires which gain something that the world values.
James does not name the specific worldly pleasures these believers were seeking after. Instead, he describes a general pattern of worsening behavior.
You lust and do not have: First, James says we lust. The word "lust" means sinful cravings. It might be a yearning for attention or fame. It might be a strong desire for wealth, power or control.
In chapter three, we already learned how a teacher or Rabbi would likely receive all these things as a result of holding a teaching position. So, the problem began when people lusted for earthly, worldly rewards which attached themselves to these roles. These earthly rewards were being sought out instead of seeking the heavenly rewards that God alone appoints to someone who desires to serve Him.
And this "lust" leads to murder.
So you commit murder: In extreme cases, this is literally true. However, this is not likely the meaning James has in mind here. He is speaking of murder in the same way Jesus did when he said if you harbor hatred in your heart, you have committed a sin equivalent to murder (Matthew 5:21-22).
The lustful desire leads to a sinful thought against others who stand in the way of us obtaining what we want. This is exactly the kind of quarreling James alluded to back in chapter three.
Then James says they do not have the things they want because they do not ask.
You do not have because you do not ask: In the context of James's teaching overall, it is clear what they wanted. At least in part, they wanted to be in a teaching or leadership role. They had some ambition or desire which had developed from this lust. James says the people did not ask, meaning, they had not prayed to God. They had not asked God to grant them anything.
In the Greek, the verb tense signifies a continuous action of not asking. The people did not desire something once and thus did not ask in prayer for this request. Rather, the people continually lusted after something and continually failed to petition God in prayer. The people are continually not asking God, and they are always taking matters into their own hands.
A desire or lust begins a series of downward steps into sinful thoughts and actions. This is all done in an effort to gain something in their own power rather than asking God.
But even when some do resort to prayer, they ask and do not receive because they ask with wrong motives.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives: The Greek word for "wrong motives" is better translated as "in evil". Their motive is to spend what they receive on pleasures. This phrase is the same phrase used to describe the Prodigal son's behavior when he wasted his fortune on reckless living (Luke 15:11-32).
James is not simply speaking of spending in the sense of spending money. Rather, he is using the term more generally as in wasting God's provision on satisfying our flesh. Who could expect God to honor such a request if He knows we are only going to use His gift to satisfy our evil desires?
James is not teaching us how to pray in such a way to get what we want. I say this because many come to these verses in James and quote them out of context. They then use them to make some point about how we are to pray to receive what we want. While there is a mini lesson to be found here on the issue of prayer, there is a more important lesson to be learned. That is, when we ask for something with an evil desire or motive, we should expect God to say "no" to our request. That is all we can definitely conclude about prayer from these verses.
Moreover, we cannot take that truth and turn it backwards in an attempt to create a second principle. Specifically, we cannot say that when we ask God with sincere motives, we will be guaranteed that God will give us what we want. It does not work that way. Even if we ask with perfect motives, we still might not get what we ask for. False teachers try to use this verse to explain why we do not get what we want when we pray. They often say, "You must not have asked with enough faith or the right motives."
We must remember that the purpose of prayer is not to persuade a reluctant God to do our bidding. The purpose of prayer is to align our will with His. We are to be in partnership with Him. We are to ask Him to accomplish His will on this earth.
"'When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray for your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father know what you need before you ask Him. Pray, then, in this way: "Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive is our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil"'" (Matthew 6:5-13).
Instead of moving into a treatise on prayer, James is more interested in addressing a larger problem in the church--seeking after worldly desires.
2. (James 4:4-5) A rebuke of compromise and covetousness among Christians
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealousy desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"?
Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God: We are either friends with God, or we are friends with the world. We cannot seek after that which the world values while at the same time leading a life that pleases the LORD. They are mutually incompatible. In fact, they are so incompatible, if we try to have a good relationship with the world, we are cheating on our relationship with God. We become adulterers. This is the principle as it describes Israel's disobedience to God's commandments. Israel was an adulteress to God. James says individual believers repeat this mistake as they "cheat" on God by pursuing worldly lusts.
Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God: How sad it is that James's counsel to the first century church is so relevant today. How many churches are in turmoil because people are repeating these same errors? They are seeking to display their godly wisdom through speech rather than through actions. They are relying on an earthly source for their thinking and displaying a life of sin built upon the world's wisdom. They are giving into their fleshly lusts and seeking after worldly pleasures, even to the point of asking God for blessings simply to feed their fleshly desires. They are quarreling with one another and hating each other. And through all this, they are lying against the truth.
In Summary
Sometimes our life problems are complicated and difficult to understand. But sometimes our problems are not as complicated as we assume them to be.
Story Time
One evening, I went with my parents to a fancy restaurant. My dad was about halfway through his meal when he took a hard look at the potato on his plate. He called the waitress over and said, "This potato is bad!"
To my utter amazement, the waitress at this high-end five star eatery picked up the potato, smacked it, put it back on my dad's plate and then told my dad, "If that potato causes any more trouble, just let me know."
James gives us an equally shocking answer to why quarrels exist in the church. He says it is very simple. The source of quarrels is lustful flesh that desires to have what the world wants. When we do not get what we want, we fight with each other rather than asking God. We are disappointed when do not receive what we desire because we ask with worldly motives.
James goes on to say we cannot seek to be friends with the world. We are not to be like them and to want what they want. God will not share this world with us. He will not let us have satisfaction in our carnal pursuits. Our Father knows what is best for us and will not give in if we ask with sinful desires for the same thing over and over and over again.
When our requests are ignored and our fellowship with body of Christ is unsatisfying, we need to examine our lives to see if this pattern is responsible.
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