Quarrels and Conflicts
James 4:1-4 · Miles Driedger · Jul 30, 2023
James, No. 28
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926193296286

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, so you guys can all see the screen. We've got that up there. So I wanted to, this is I think Lesson 28, and we're starting James Chapter 4, verses 1 through 4 today. And last week, Andrew did a review of Chapter 3. And I was away, but I was able to listen to the audio afterwards. But something that I almost have to mentally force myself to do when I get to a chapter break in a book is just to be careful and to, as much as possible, kind of try to ignore it. understanding that the chapter breaks aren't inspired. They weren't there. James didn't put them there. And it's really helpful to see the connection more than the disconnection at a chapter break. Because when he sat down to write this, you know, it all flowed out and it comes together.

I mean, those who chose the chapter breaks tried to do it at a point where there's a bit of a change. in theme or topic or something like that, but it's important to see the connection. So, I wanted to just kind of answer the question here as we review a little bit. What is the context that we just studied in Chapter 3? So, and I guess it's up on the screen there.

So, The basic context that I wanted to draw it is the the two kinds of wisdom that James has just been speaking about in in chapter 3 and the first the first kind I've got illustrated here with this this tree diagram and and It's it's earthly that we James's earthly natural demonic wisdom and And if you look at at chapter three verses, 14 through 16.

And we've looked, we looked at that, but, um, those verses tell us that, uh, that the root, uh, of, of this wisdom is the bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. And we've talked to, we've used the word source, um, and, and, and that kind of term, but I hear it illustrated with the tree and, and, um, and it's, it's this selfish jealousy that's behind all of man's wisdom. And so the tree there is labeled as man's wisdom or this earthly wisdom. And then verse 16 of chapter 3 tells us that the fruit or what comes out of this wisdom or what this wisdom produces is disorder and every evil thing or every evil practice. And James doesn't use the tree illustration In reference to this earthly wisdom, but I chose to do this because when we turn and look at the wisdom from above, and here I've got this, I just flipped the tree upside down because. rather than being sourced in self, self-will and selfishness, this wisdom from above is sourced in Christ and who he is and what his nature is. And it comes down from above, hence the upside down tree.

And then James gives us this long list of adjectives in 3, verse 17, describing the nature of this wisdom. And he says it's pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, and good fruits, impartial, unhypocritical. And I picked up on the full of good fruits. And that's where I started thinking of the tree picture here. And so that becomes the contrast. The fruit or the produce, the production of this wisdom from above is in contrast to the production of man's wisdom.

And then in verse 18, and this kind of built on that analogy, is that James uses the metaphor of a seed. And in verse 18, he says, and the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And this seed sowing is an act of peacemaking in the church. And that's really important for the context in chapter 4, because the contrast is between making peace here, And when we start chapter four, we see that people are waging war. So that's the contrast.

And I think that when we see that connection, we'll understand a little bit more what James is talking about here. If we see that the fruit of this wisdom from above is peacemaking or is peace, then we understand that if there's war, if there's quarrel and conflict going on, then we get an idea of where it's sourced from, right? So let's look at the verses for today. I don't know, does someone want to read those verses? 4, 1 through 4?

What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don't they come from your cravings that are at war within you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don't receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your evil desires. Adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world's friend becomes God's enemy." Wow. Yeah. Yeah, these are some rough, rough verses, hey? Jim, can I ask what translation that was?

I really liked that. That's the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Holman Christian, OK. OK, see, I don't have that in my software. And some of the way he translated those words there are some of the ones I really picked up out of the Greek interlinear, and I think they're really good. Yeah, the Holman Christian Standard uses the principle of translation of the dynamic equivalent. And I really, really like some of the way they phrase some of these things. Yeah. Yeah, that was good.

That was really, I think, a good translation. And that's great, because I like that it used the word war rather than quarrels. Not that there's anything wrong with quarrels, necessarily. But my first question is, where is this war raging? Because I didn't put the Greek interlinear up here where it says, from where come wars? and from where come fights among you. And that's why, in contrast to the context of peace in the verse before, now we see war. And I wanted to ask the question, where is this war raging?

Now, I think most of the translations that I looked at get this right when they say among you um but that word among is the um is the greek word n which is simple to identify because it sounds pretty much like in and when you see it you know that the word in or among is being used but we don't always know um exactly which one without looking at the context and i know there's an important use of it where where jesus says um You know, don't you know the kingdom of God is, and King James said, in you or within you, and that's led to a lot of misunderstandings because the kingdom of God is not something inside of us. And so sometimes it's really important to identify, is it in or is it among? And here, it would make a big difference as well because we could look at what Paul says in Romans 7, and I'll just read 7, 22 and 23 there on the screen there, I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members."

So Paul there is talking about this war that goes on inside of us or within us as believers. But I don't think that's what James is talking about here, and we'll see why as we continue on. But we just want to kind of have this clear in our minds. We don't want to kind of confuse this with the internal war that Paul describes there in Romans 7. But three reasons that I I think that James is talking about a different war, a different, that's not within you, because first of all, like I said, N can be translated in or just as easily among, depending on context. So among is a fine translation.

The second reason is the word you there is in the plural. So when it says wars and conflicts among you, It's not you singular, it's plural. And then the third reason is the context shows us, as we continue on here, that the source of the war is envy, which of course is something that you can't really exercise within yourself. Well, it is within you, but it's because of what others have outside of you, right?

And then of course, the result of that is murder, which is obviously a sin against others, not against yourself. three reasons why what James is is talking about here is is quarrels and conflicts or war that that goes on um with within the church um and so um so we want to ask the question then uh why why is there this war going on within the church why why is that happening so um I was going to leave.

I was going to say, I put these questions in so I could have a little interaction feedback if anyone wants to. I don't want to just ram through the answer if someone wants to comment on that. And this one's a fairly simple answer because it's right in the verse, but.

I think it's from selfish desires. Yeah. We're all selfish in ways. Yeah, that's that's good. And he says there is not the source your pleasures or your selfish desires or. And depending on the translation, you'll see pleasures or lusts or passions there. We want to be clear that I don't think contextually that has anything to do with sexual desires. In the context of chapter three, James is referring to the selfish desires and selfish ambitions that are the root of earthly wisdom. And so that is the source of this war, this conflict that exists within the church. And it's interesting that James doesn't ask if this quarreling is going on.

Um, he, he assumes that's a fact. Um, he simply, he simply asked what the cause of it is. And, um, so there's a, the, the, I think, I think what's important to recall from that word, selfish ambitions from, from chapter three, um, is that there's a, remember it kind of carried a sense of trying to get yourself into a position above others. The word electioneering came up, basically kind of jockeying for position.

And And I just wanted to ask the question, this one's not on the slides, but do you think that selfish ambition ever leads to hostility in the church? I mean, James here says that it does, but do we see that going on? Yeah. We're sinful beings. It all comes from envy and covetousness and stuff like that. I want what he has, but I can't have it, so I'm going to get angry. It's just a fleshly nature.

Yeah, it really is, isn't it? It's easy to read this verse and kind of think, well, I don't know if who James was writing to, but I'm sure glad we don't, you know, have this going on in our assembly. And yeah, you know, when you, when you really, um, think about some of the thoughts that come into our hearts and, and, uh, and sometimes are expressed, but, you know, sometimes, um, you know, it's not, you know, right, right to the person that you're, uh, um, Envious of or you know, but but sometimes we we make comments, you know behind someone's back or to someone else or that kind of thing and and You know, I just I just wrote down here that pride is a pride is a really deadly enemy of the believer You know, I just I realized that it's it's exactly contradictory to the nature of Christ, you know Jesus who? humbled himself more than than all More than anyone else, you know, and here we are feeling that we deserve some, some recognition or some, some level of.

Of significance and. And I guess I wrote this question in my notes. It's maybe funny. I've been listening into the Titus class as well, the recordings of it. And I wrote down here, I said, do you think that pride is a tempting snare for someone who would have an office like teacher or elder in the church? And I think it really can be. I think it probably is one of the greatest temptations.

I know that Paul dealt with it. He says that he was given a thorn in the flesh to keep him from exalting himself. So I think it's really important to understand and keep in mind that it's very, very easy for us, with our sinful nature, to become proud. So this is very important. Yeah.

And I think, too, I don't know if this is a rabbit hole or not, but sometimes it's from fear. It's like you're envious of other people because you don't believe that God will take care of you. You have to take care of yourself because otherwise no one else will. So you think, well they've got this and they've got this and I need this because otherwise I'm afraid of what might happen or something like that.

Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah, I think fear. Fear is a big motivator for the flesh, you know, in many, many different ways. But it's often very much involved in, in fleshly desires. I think that's true. Go ahead. One of the things this verse really brings out strongly is that our lusts are at war. And if you think about that, not only are they at war with our new nature, but they're at war with the new nature and other believers. Yeah, that's right. Isn't that something? That God would be so careful to teach us these things here. Yes, right. Yeah. The continuing part of that phrase is your pleasures, which wage war in your members.

And this is interesting because the word behind wage war, do I have, I guess if you have this on the screen. Yeah, I'm maybe not going to attempt to pronounce that right now, but that's one of the longer Greek words, but it's, It's a present middle participle, which we get translated wage war. And the Greek interlinear has that as warring because it's a participle.

But I really appreciated this definition from Larry Pierce. It was on Blue Letter Bible. He says, to make military expedition or to lead soldiers to war or to battle. And the idea here is that your selfish desires are leading out your body parts to war. It's kind of a really interesting, colorful picture, actually, when you see waging war or warring in that sense.

The word melos, or members, is used, of course, throughout the New Testament to refer to body parts. And it's often used by Paul as a metaphor for the individual members of the body of Christ. And so we're pretty familiar with using it that way. But James has used this term, melos, twice in the preceding chapter to refer to the physical body parts of a believer.

And I just wanted to bring that up because I think we'll then understand a little bit better what he's saying here in James 3, 5 to 6. So he says, so also the tongue is a small part, melos, remember, of the body. And yet it boasts of great things. And he'll jump down into verse 6. The tongue is set among our members, same word in the plural, melasin, as that which defiles the entire body. So the two previous times here in close context where James used melas, he was referring to part of the believer's physical body, specifically the tongue.

And it would be, you know, when I first read this, I thought, okay, this pleasures wage war in your members, And I thought that fit with this conflicts among you, plural, this conflict among believers. And I thought this waging war among your members, the members of the body of Christ is what I thought, which would fit with that context. But I think though the war is amongst believers, the instruments of war are the body parts. And I think particularly our tongue, particularly the tongue of the of the believers is what is used by the sin nature to wage war against other believers. And I think that James does have the tongue primarily in mind because of the context there, but I don't think it's limited to that body part, or he would have just probably said tongue, but it's not limited to the tongue. And so the idea is that our desire to have what another believer has is what leads our tongues out into battle against other believers. And I just thought that's a pretty ugly thought, that us as fellow members of the body of Christ would go to battle against one another, you know, line up to blow each other away with our tongues, you know.

So, any thoughts on that? That kind of gets us into verse one. But pretty interesting to you. Kind of all sums up himself, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. So one of the things here, too, is it's a middle voice, which means the actor being us is receiving benefit from the action. Right. It's a self-focus. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. OK, good.

Well, let's look at verse two. I've split off just the first two. sentences of verse two and then we'll pick up the last part with verse three because i think it fits together better there but when you look at the first part of verse two um there's this parallel here and and i love this i i think andrew pointed this out a while back um can't remember which passage he was on but he showed some parallels to some of the psalms and proverbs and i i've recognized that james um uh was was just thoroughly uh saturated in the old testament scriptures and i think this this just this just reminds me so much of of um of a proverb He says, you lust and you do not have, so you commit murder.

You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. And that kind of parallel phrase like that is so common to the Jewish mind. And it helps make clear what one phrase or the other means to us. Now, I asked the question, how strong is the desire for the very thing that we don't have and can't get? And it's an interesting thing. I thought we have this expression in English, right? The grass is always greener, where? Always on the other side of the fence, right?

And it's amazing how our desire will be so strong for the thing that we don't have just because we don't have it sometimes. And James is saying that that desire is so strong that it can drive us to murder. And is James talking about literal, straightforward, physical murder? I certainly hope it never goes that far in the body of Christ.

I put up here 1 John 3, 15, um, which I think is, uh, is important. Uh, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And, um, and of course we could look at Jesus in Matthew five. Um, where he talks about murder and says essentially the same thing in more words, but, but if we understand that hatred. is the heart of murder, hatred is the mindset behind murder, then we understand that there's no difference, really. And I wanted to look at just the fact that the symmetry or the parallelism between these two phrases is in line with that, where he's comparing or placing fighting and quarreling alongside murder. And so he's describing this situation of selfish fighting as murder. But I think one thing that's really important here that is up on the screen is from is to realize that this is not new ground for James in this book.

In 2 verses 10 and 11, he says, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at one point, he's become guilty of all. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not commit murder. Now, if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. And we could read those verses and think, wow, I'm sure glad I've never committed either of those things.

But have we hated our brother? Have we wanted what he has? And have we spoken words against him? And like I said, probably, maybe not to his face, but probably behind his back. And those words are just like a knife in his back. They have the same root passion as murder. You know, and so I think James has been very careful with his words here to point this out and then to show that if you hate your brother, you know, you have broken that law.

But I wanted to make clear here that we can thank God that we are not under that law, right? And James has already made it clear in the next verse there that we are under the law of liberty. But he's made it very clear here. If we were to be judged by that law, we would be condemned as murderers. So it's important to understand that we're free. We're free from the domination of those hateful, murderous passions that come from a sin nature. Even though they exist in us, we are free from them. We're not under their dominion. So let's look at the last part of verse two and then verse three. And I don't know, depending on your background, what these verses sound like to you.

But he says, 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. So is here, we could ask the question, so why don't you have? Number one, you didn't ask for anything. Number two, even if you asked, you asked with wrong motives. Okay, so that's why James is saying, that's why you don't have.

And what are the wrong motives? The motive that drove you to quarrel and fight was your pleasures, your selfish desires. So if we're asking the Lord for something because we want the enjoyment of it for ourselves, then we're asking with wrong motives. So then we want to, we want to be really clear here is, is James, is James teaching the prosperity gospel? The three question marks.

I think we could probably, given where all of us are at today was a absolutely not, you know, he's not, we don't agree with that, but what is, what is he saying? Right. And of course you see, I've got, um, I've got the verse up there that, uh, that will, help give us clarity on this, but, um, you know, sometimes people will come to this, the passage like this and think, you know, Oh, if we just have the right motives and God will give us every earthly thing. Um, and, but I think that what James is talking about is, is wisdom, not, um, not material gain, uh, at least not directly. And, um, and, and James one five early in the, in the book, right at the beginning when he's setting up the whole, The big picture here, he says, but if that's a typo there, but if any of you lacks wisdom.

Let him ask God who gives generously without reproach and it will be given him. And there's no uncertainty that there's no hint of uncertainty in that verse, is there, that it will be given to him. But then in verses six and seven, if you look back in chapter one, James clarifies that if you ask with doubting, you will not receive anything from the Lord. And now in chapter four, verse three, James makes it clear that if you ask with wrong motives, you will not receive.

And I'm just making sure I'm going to have to, I think I have time for this. In James 1, 14 through 17, he says, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren, every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. And I just wanted to notice how parallel that is with our verses in chapter four, that following our lusts and desires leads to sin and death. And here it leads to quarrels and murder.

Um, but every good gift comes down from above from the father. And we just saw in chapter three that this wisdom is something that comes down from above. It's a good gift that comes from, from the father. So I don't think that James is, is teaching that we can ask for a Ferrari as long as we have the right motives and it'll be ours. Right.

Um, he's talking about, I think he's primarily talking about wisdom about, about this as we've called referred to as a skill in living and And wisdom or skill in living is something within the church that can be used to rise to a level of prominence and authority over others.

And Solomon really came to mind here. And I kind of wondered if James didn't have Solomon kind of in mind when he's talking about wisdom. Because Solomon is a perfect example of someone who was given immense wisdom. And it propelled him to levels of prosperity and prominence unlike anyone who had ever lived.

And he asked for it with the right motives, if we remember. But he eventually did misuse it and abuse that wisdom to satisfy his own desires. And I think that is a really good illustration of God did give him wisdom. because he asked for it with a right motive. But even with that, it was very corrupting in the end, because that wisdom ended up being used as a means to really elevate himself. And can that go on in the church? I think that's what James is saying here.

So it's a very Um, it really kind of parallels or connects up with what he was saying in the beginning of chapter three, let, let not many of you become teachers, my brethren. Um, because it's risky business, you know, um, as soon as you, you get into a position or situation where you're, you're, you know, uh, some, some sort of level of, of authority, um, it's, uh, it can be, it can be a trap is if your, if your pride gets involved. So I said there, God is not interested in giving us wisdom when we ask with selfish motives. So let's, I feel like I'm moving kind of fast now and not leaving room for comment, but let's look at verse four, maybe if we're, we got four minutes left, so, but feel free to comment, I don't wanna.

Since you opened that door, Miles, Jimmy here. Go for it. I loved what you said about Solomon. I remember a long time ago when I was reading that, that he asked for wisdom, but he didn't ask for wealth and fame. And God was impressed with that. And he gave him everything that he didn't ask for, including wisdom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think what's interesting is I've wrestled with this throughout the book of James. how much he seems to connect, even right back in chapter one, when he's talking about asking for wisdom.

And then all of a sudden he's talking about, you know, the poor man and the rich man. And I just couldn't quite, you know, connect what wisdom has to do with, you know, this kind of wealth and affluence. But when you look at Solomon, you kind of realize, now, like you said, Jimmy, I mean, God blessed him with that. It's true, but I think we can kind of understand when we understand that what what wisdom is that wisdom, you know, has has a has a way of, of leading us into, you know, into places of, of, you know, Benefit in all sorts of areas, you know, if you have wisdom and you can you know You can manage finance as well and that kind of thing. I mean you can get ahead, you know and from an earthly um kind of kind of uh perspective, um and and it can be uh, and so I you know, but as we look at the solomon's life, we see that um, this very wisdom that he'd been given, um became um because of his his sinful nature became very corrupting but Yeah, so I think it's interesting, and I want to understand that a little bit more in the book of James and how he seems to connect that. And because we see that even in this last verse here, to a certain degree, I'll just, I'll just read it here.

He says, you adulterous is, I do not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be friends of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Um, and, uh, and, and these are, uh, these are really scathing words.

Um, you know, um, and, uh, it, it brought me right back to James chapter two, verse 11. because where we saw the word murder, well, we also saw the word adultery, right? And so highlighted that here, you know, do not commit adultery and do not commit murder. And now in these four verses here, James has pointed out that really we're guilty of both within the church. Not outward murder, but the heart of murder. Not human level sexual adultery necessarily, but a much, much worse adultery, which is adultery towards God, pursuing our earthly desires, placing those above God.

And so, again, we can be so thankful that we are not judged by that law, but the law of liberty in Christ Jesus. And the fact that we're governed under the principle of freedom from the sin nature with its desires and lusts. And we are placed in union with Jesus Christ so that his life might be expressed through us. And really it's only as we recognize the truth that truth, that we will be able to ask for wisdom with right motives. And the right motive is the benefit, the growth and well-being of the entire body of Christ.

And going back to James 1, verse 11, he says, for the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass, and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. So, too, the rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, will fade away. And that is the end result of using wisdom to propel yourself to positions of status and positions of wealth. It fades away and it withers away and is destroyed. And this is just kind of my closing thought is that earthly wisdom used for my own benefit will produce results that will wither and fade away. Wisdom that comes down from above is freely given to those who ask for it out of the selfless character of Christ. in order to be used for the benefit of all the brethren.

So hopefully that kind of puts those verses into a little bit of clarity. I feel like there's a lot more that we could discuss about this whole issue and hopefully over the over the week here you guys have the opportunity to continue thinking on that and the lord can continue to um work in your in each of our our thinkings with those uh those truths but yeah i am a little past time so let's let me close in prayer and heavenly father we just thank you for uh for your word that is so searching lord um to recognize that even within the body of christ uh we we can be uh subject to the selfish um, envious desires of our, our sin nature. And we can allow those things to, uh, to be expressed in, in, uh, hateful, uh, murderous thoughts and words. And we can exalt ourselves to a level, um, where we really worship ourselves rather than you. And, uh, and, you know, in a spiritual adultery and Lord, thank you that we we can know without doubt that we are dead to that sin nature. We are separated from the controlling influence and power of that nature and those desires. and that we are free to walk in the liberty that we have in Christ Jesus, free to have His life lived out and expressed through us, free to have His wisdom in us and producing the fruit of His righteousness through us so that the entire body would be built up and would grow into our head, Jesus Christ. So we thank you for that in His name. Amen.