James 4:4 You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility with God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. James 4:5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The breath he made to dwell in us envies intensely? James 4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
frenemy
When it comes to friendship, God does not like it when we try to take both sides of the road. Either we love God or we do not, and he knows when we are pretending. He does not want a frenemy. Every breath that we breathe yearns for God — not the world or its treasures.
James 4:1 Where do the conflicts and where do the fights among you originate? Don’t they come from your pleasures that wage war within you? James 4:2 You are desiring and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. James 4:3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
what we want
One way that philosophy has sought to deal with the problem James is addressing is to rid ourselves of desires — to become a stoic who wants nothing. But James does not prescribe that policy. He tells his readers to bring their desires under control by bringing their requests to God for the things we really need. Wrong motives must be recognized and repented of. The alternatives are conflict, warfare, murder, and coveting.
James 3:13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his results, with the humility of wisdom. James 3:14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. James 3:15 Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, physical, demonic. James 3:16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. James 3:18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
malicious mindsets
James identifies two enemies of peace here. They are bitter envy (hatred of others who are more well-off than you) and selfish ambition (seeking to be more well-off than others). These two mindsets are present within the early church — to whom James writes. They are both masquerading as wisdom, but in reality, they are anti-wisdom as well as anti-peace. Those mindsets are causing disorder and producing “every evil practice.” They must be uprooted and replaced by true wisdom, grounded in humility (treating people as if they are actually better than you) and peace (maintaining purity and gentleness in interpersonal relationships).
James 3:9 With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. James 3:10 Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. James 3:11 Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? James 3:12 Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.
should not be
I’m glad Brother James included himself here. If one thing bothers me after being in Christ for over 50 years it is the fact that I keep failing him. My mouth may not often voice the curse, but it’s there sometimes on the tip of my tongue. And this is something that should not be. I belong to Jesus. His thoughts should flow from my brain; his words from my tongue. The world should be blessed by me, not cursed.
Yet it would be worse if I did not feel this way — if I carelessly let my bitter words fly. I am determined to allow the Holy Spirit in all the rooms of my house. He still has some cleaning to do.
James 3:5: Although the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Think about how a small fire kindles a large forest. James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is set on fire by Gehenna. James 3:7 Every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, James 3:8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
fire extinguisher
If no one can tame the tongue, should we despair? No, notice that the tamers mentioned in verse 7 are humans. There is an exception to the “no one” in verse 8. The tongue can be tamed by its creator.
The fire of Gehenna that sets the tongue on fire can be put out by God.
James 3:1 Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will be scrutinized more strictly. James 3:2 You see, we all trip in many ways. If anyone does not trip in what he says, he is mature and able also to control the whole body. James 3:3 Now when we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. James 3:4 And think about ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
organ of direction
A bit on a bridle, and a rudder on a ship. Both are very small parts, but they are crucial to the operation of the whole. The bit is how the rider directs the horse. The rudder is how the captain directs the ship.
That is why we need to control our tongues, and the teaching role should be limited to those who have control of their tongues. The tongue is not just the organ of speech. It is an organ of direction.
James 2:24 You see that a person is proved to be right by results and not by faith alone. James 2:25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also proved to be right by results in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route? James 2:26 For just as the body without the breath is dead, so also faith without results is dead.
Rahab’s living faith
Rahab had every reason to be prejudiced against the Israelite spies. They were scouts looking for weaknesses and she was their enemy. But by faith, she looked beyond her own identity and saw God at work. Yet James is arguing here that if Rahab had simply believed that God was behind the spies, it would have been dead faith. Living faith acts on that belief and produces results. Rahab’s living faith hid the spies and protected them. By doing so, she was protecting herself and her family.
James 2:17 In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have results, is dead by itself. James 2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have results.” Show me your faith without results, and I will show you faith by my results. James 2:19 You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe — and they shudder. James 2:20 Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without results is useless? James 2:21 Wasn’t Abraham our father proved to be right by results in offering Isaac his son on the altar? James 2:22 You see that faith was active together with his results, and by results, faith was made complete, James 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.
results of faith
We can never come to God using our own works. They are insufficient to get us any closer to God. We are drawn to God by his act of grace, and the result of that grace is that we have faith in him. What James is talking about is the consequences of that new faith we are given by grace. It will always result in evidence of our transformation. Without that evidence, if we say we have faith, we just might be deceiving ourselves.
The context helps us to understand James’ point as well. He had been criticizing those Christians who refused to treat the poor among them with respect. They treated the poor as second-class citizens, or — even worse — as slaves. James tells them that such prejudice and partisanship reveal a lack of understanding. When a person has been blessed with faith, it produces a love that looks beyond the differences and celebrates brotherhood among all Christians.
Let me put the principle in a different context. What about the woman who has been called to ministry and gifted by the Holy Spirit for obedience to that calling? Do you prefer men as preachers? Do you choose to deny what the Holy Spirit is doing in that person’s life because of your preference? If so, you might be missing out on an opportunity to demonstrate your faith.
I know, many find reasons to object to a female in ministry theologically. I am aware of those arguments. But it amounts to the same kind of prejudice that James is talking about here. I was tempted at one time to adopt those theological arguments, but I came to see that they are a means of justifying male chauvinism.
The Holy Spirit has been poured out on our sons and daughters. Rejecting the ministry of a person because of her gender is demonstrating a lack of faith.
James 2:12 Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom. James 2:13 You see, judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have results? Can such faith save him? James 2:15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food James 2:16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?
beyond politeness
James had been encouraging his readers to treat the poor with politeness and not show prejudice against them in their assemblies. Now he is notching up the proclamation a bit. Now he encourages his readers to show mercy to the poor — to give them what they need. True Christian faith does more than simply wish the poor to say warm and well-fed. It passes out coats and bags of food, jobs, and houses.
Too often we Christians settle for politeness toward the poor, and then walk away from them, leaving them in their poverty. We can do better than that. The pagans can do that. We need to go beyond politeness and be agents of true compassion.
James 2:8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Care about your neighbor like yourself, you are doing well. James 2:9 If, however, you show prejudice, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. James 2:10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet trips at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. James 2:11 You see, he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
a higher standard
What commandment is prejudice breaking? James answers that question in today’s text. The ten commandments for Israel were summarized by the two care commandments: Care about God with all that you are (Deuteronomy 6:5 summarizes Deuteronomy 5:6-15) and care about your neighbor as you do yourself (Leviticus 19:18 summarizes Deuteronomy 5:16-21).
Prejudice is a sin against your neighbor and against the God who created him or her. Such a sin was not appropriate for a Jew under the old covenant, nor is it for a Christian believer under the new covenant. We are held to a higher standard.
Devotions 