Gospel Light Christian Church Thru-The-Bible Series (31.1)

The General Epistle of James

James Chapter 4:1-2 - Read this Bible passage once through before referring to the notes below.

Memory Verse James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Introduction

In this chapter James tells us the source of wars and fighting, even among brethren. True religion does not befriend the world, as doing so means enmity with God. Rather true religion draws near to God, and doing so means submitting to His authority and His will.

True religion does not befriend the world (vv1-6)

The source of wars and fights

v1.   History has shown that there are many wars and fights among nations and people.  The question may well be asked: From whence come wars and fightings among you?  Why do nations go to war?  Why do people fight?  The world may desire peace, but there is no peace until the Prince of Peace returns. 

The United Nations garden in New York contains several sculptures and statues that have been donated by different countries. There is one gift called "Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares".  This is a bronze statue of a man holding a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other hand. The action of this man shows he is turning his sword into a ploughshare. The statute was made by Evgeniy Vuchetich to symbolize man’s desire to put an end to war and convert the means of destruction into creative tools for the benefit of mankind. Can you guess which country gave this gift to the United Nations in 1959? Most of us would think that it is a Christian country.  However, it is none other than the communist country called the Soviet Union.  Consider the irony of it all, that a communist country that does not believe in God had presented a statue with a theme drawn from the Bible!

Long ago the Bible predicts: And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more (Isa 2:4 see also Mic 4:3).  Yes, true peace can only happen when the Prince of Peace, our Lord Jesus Christ, returns again, this time in power and glory.  Until then, there can only be a false sense of peace, or at best a temporary peace, but even then, when that happens, the end of the world is near.  The Bible says: For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape (1Thess 5:3).  Brethren, let’s not be like these unbelievers who will be caught unaware when our Lord Jesus Christ returns as Prince of Peace.  So watch and pray!

Now the Jews were always fighting, either against the Romans or against themselves.  Many claimed to do so because they were zealous for God.  But James here exposes such false zeal in this way: come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?  The word lusts here literally means “pleasures”, that is, the lusts that prompt you to seek pleasures; that is when you seek self at the cost of your neighbour, and this often erupts into fighting.  Thus the root cause of wars and fights is here identified as the lusts or desires of men. 

When James says come they not hence, he is appealing to their conscience.  But why is there a need to do this?  Because there is a battle going on in your members. Passions and desires war in their members, and then when that internal battle gets out of control, it spills over into fighting between men and between nations.  That’s how war gets started. From lust of power and dominion, lust of pleasure, or lust of riches, from some one or more of these lusts arise all the broils and contentions that are in the world.

v2.       Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.  That is the trouble. We fight with each other because we do not ask God for anything. We do not take from Him the nature of love and compassion that He offers us. We do not choose to receive from Him that sweetness of tongue that will give a soft answer back, but we would rather lash out at one another and fight with one another. So it is a direct result of the lack of faith that wars and fighting break out.

In the Greek language, the word lust used here is different from that in verse 1.  There it means pleasures, here it means desire, literally to set one’s heart on it.  The problem is that this lustful desire does not ensure possession.  So to get possession (desire to have), killing is involved. Desiring to have also involves envying. As our Lord said, killing need not be an actual act to constitute a sin.  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment (Mat 5:21-22a).  So ye kill, and desire to have can mean you harass and oppress through envy or hate. 

By the way, if you are using the NIV Bible, you will see a subtle difference in Matt 5:22a.

The KJV says: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.  The NIV says: But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.

Did you spot the difference?  Here is the difference: the NIV left out this phrase without a cause that the KJV faithfully included.  Some may ask what is so important about these 3 words?  Well, consider this scene:  And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves (Matt 21:12-13).  Was Jesus angry at that time?  Sure he was!  Then if you apply what the NIV says in Matt 5:22a, anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment, the conclusion is that since Jesus is angry in Matt 21:12-13, then logically Jesus will be subject to judgment, meaning that Jesus has committed a sin!  This is blasphemous! The Lord Jesus Christ was angry alright, but he had reason to be angry.  It was a righteous anger, not anger without a cause.  Thus according to the KJV rendering of Matt 5:22a, our Lord Jesus Christ did not commit a sin because his anger in Matt 21:12-13 was not without a cause.

Now take note of this. Ye lust means the individual lust for an object; ye kill and desire to have, describes the feeling and action of individuals against individuals; ye fight and war describes the action of many against many.  Have not…cannot obtain …yet ye have not implies inability to get satisfaction. That is the problem if we do things by our own efforts. Why?  Because we ignore God in the process.  James says it this way: because ye ask not.  God promises to those who pray, not to those who fight. The petition of the lustful, murderous, and contentious is not recognized by God as prayer. If ye prayed, there would be no wars and fightings.