Get Ready
Can you recall something you wanted, perhaps as a birthday gift, more than anything else you ever wanted? Did you eventually get it? Was it as desirable as you thought it would be? How did you feel about it after you had achieved it or received it?
The Word
4Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2 You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, “God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says,
“God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Warning against Judging Another
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?
Boasting about Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin. NRSV
Get into the Word
1. What does James address first in this chapter? How does he characterize the problem? How do you suppose his readers reacted to this description?
2. What causes conflict in the church? Why is this a problem? What is source of the problem?
3. How does James feel about people who are friends with the world and its values? What does this do to their relationship with God? With other believers?
4. What is James’ solution to this problem? What images does he use to describe it? How do you think his readers felt about this advice?
5. How does James make his advice practical? How will it address conflict in the church?
6. What does James say about people planning their future? Where should people look for planning? Why?
Get Personal
What types of conflict in the church have you experienced? What were the consequences of the dispute? How was the situation resolved? How did you feel about the situation? About the resolution? Did it affect your relationships with other Christians?
Notes . . .
4:1. Conflicts and disputes — in the Greek the first word really means a conflict with weapons, and the second term means an argument without weapons. Remember, though, that James presented the harm that words alone (“tongue”) can do in the previous chapter.
4:2. Want — James argues that the conflict in the church is not the result of outside forces, but is due to the desires of the people in the church – and the actions they are taking to try to satisfy their desires at the expense of others.
4:3. Ask — James argues that people aren’t seeking God’s will or God’s help, so they are not achieving what they desire.
4:4. Adulterers — the Greek word includes condemnation, not just the description of sex outside of marriage. James is using the Old Testament image of a prostitute to get his readers’ attention. Check Jer 3:20, Ezek 16:15-17 and Hos 2:2-3.
Friend . . . enemy — the Bible consistently portrays the “world” as directly opposite God’s kingdom. It is the result of and cause of sin, or separation from God. Paul uses similar language in Romans 8:7: For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law – indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. And John is just as strong: Do not love the world or the things in the world.
The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever, [1 John 2:15-17].
4:7. Submit yourselves — James begins his advice to deal with our desires for the things of this world, which is consistent with the Old Testament prophets as well as the New Testament writers. Check Prov 3:34, Ex 34:13, Ps 32:5, Ps 73:28, Zech 1:3, Ps 26:6, Matt 23:12, 1 Peter 5:6.
4:11. Speak evil — James makes the advice practical by returning to the conflict within the church. The reference to God’s law is the commandment: Do not testify falsely against your neighbor, [Ex 20:16].
4:13-15. James closes this section by reminding his readers that their attitude toward their own plans needs to acknowledge God’s role in their lives — echoing Jesus’ story of the rich man [Luke 12:16-21]. Proverbs is more succinct: The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established, [19:21].
4:17. Anyone who knows — James closes with the admonition that “sin” is not just what we do, it is also when we fail to do what we ought.
Memory Verse
Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you, [James 4:10]
Next Lesson
Warnings and Encouragements – James 5