james 4.1-12.

I enjoy sports, as do most people. Perhaps that is a legitimate enjoyment, or perhaps I am a product of a sports-infatuated culture. A mixture of both is most likely. Non-sports fans have it rough; they constantly have to hear about another team they don’t care about, winning another championship they didn’t watch, in a sport they probably didn’t even know existed. For the record, even I don’t care who ate the most hot dogs in ten minutes, so I can sympathize with you to some degree. 

But even if you’re not a sports fan you’ve probably been exposed to the overblown and embellished hype that surrounds the beginning of the American football season. It’s coming. Brace yourselves. And though I don’t buy into the hype, I do enjoy my football. However, the beginning of the football season is always a bit sad for me because it means one of my favorite sports is coming to its annual end; golf. Yes, golf. I like watching it, playing it, and discussing it. Golf also happens to be one of the few sports that does not require you to wear tight-fitting (sometimes revealing) uniforms/clothing. But I think what I like the most about professional golf is the etiquette. Golfers know that when you are on the course, you’re expected to act a certain way; a way that is distinguished, professional, and respectable with just the right amount of class in a way that almost displays feelings of superiority amongst the athletic world.

I’m afraid this situation correlates with many Christians today and is well displayed anytime the discussion relates to faith lived out through works. “I’m a Christian, therefore I need to act like…” There is some truth to that statement; however, it becomes a dangerous phrase when we do not understand the purpose behind our works. We begin to measure our lives solely by our behavior, abandoning God’s grace and adopting a lifestyle that is pure moralism. And in the end we are drawn to feelings of superiority over those whom we think do not live up to our righteous standard. 

Throughout James' epistle, it’s quite clear that the works of a Christian are essential to a life that has professed faith (cf. James 1:14, 17-18). We see the importance of living out the gospel in all that we do. This is not an idea that is unique to James’ writing but is a theme that is consistent throughout the domain of Scripture. From Genesis to Revelation God has His chosen people. And the world will know that they are God’s people because they will be a people of distinction to make a declaration that they are indeed His people and He is their God.

In James 4:1-12 it is quite clear to us that James’ audience has failed to put their faith into practice. This passage is not the first indication of this; in fact, the evidence has accumulated quite heavily. Until this point James has rebuked his readers for discriminating against others (2:1-13), being mere hearers of the word (1:19-27), speaking negatively against others (3:1-12), and now in 4:1-3 for quarreling. James’ readers, who are first century Jewish Christians, are not getting along. And judging by some of James’ wording it seems as though some of this quarreling has even reached the point of violence. So he asks in 4:1a “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” then answers his own question in 4:1b, “Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” And he expounds his answer in verses 2 and 3. 

What exactly do these people want so much that they are willing to fight with each other over? We don’t know, nor is that important. What is explicitly clear from the text is that their fleshly passions and desires had become so great that they had succumbed to attacking brothers and sisters in the church in order to satisfy those desires. How sad. We’ve all probably witnessed situations, perhaps even been a part of a situation, in which someone’s fleshly desire had led them to instigate aggression with fellow members of Christ’s church. 

However, we should not stop there because the fights and quarrels of the people are not exactly what James is most concerned with. In verse 4 James exclaims “you adulterous people!” Let us not blow by this phrase, this is a strong rebuke. The word that James uses here is a word that specifically means “adulteresses.” Most translations will translate it as “adulterous people” in order to avoid the issue that James is singling out his female readers on accusations of sexual immorality. However, James does not use the word ‘adulteresses’ on those grounds at all. Remember, James is writing to Jewish Christians who are familiar with the Hebrew writings that are the Old Testament. By calling them ‘adulteresses,’ this would have alerted them to the way that God relates to his people. 

In Isaiah 54:5-6 we read, “For your maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name…For the Lord God called you like a wife deserted and grieved in Spirit.” In Jeremiah 3:20 God says to Israel regarding their continued desire to live in sin against Him, “surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me.” God’s covenant with the people of Israel was that of a spouse. In the New Testament God’s covenant is not with Israel but with the church. The latter half of Ephesians 5 shows us that Christ and the church relate to one another as spouses, just as God did with his people in Israel. A spouse who is unfaithful in a marriage is considered and adulterer or adulteress, in the same way, sinning against Christ, who is our husband, is committing spiritual adultery. So the term ‘adulteress’ is key because, as the bride of Christ, these Christians were unfaithful to Him because they loved the world more than they loved God. 

James makes it quite clear that those who pursue friendship with the world are at enmity with God (verse 4). All throughout the New Testament we see a consistent theme that equates worldliness as the antithesis of godliness. The command of 1 John 2:15 is to “not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” But what does it mean to love the world or to be a friend of the world? Again, we have seen the pattern of behavior that James’ readers display. These types of activities; discrimination, and speaking negatively, do not honor God and are therefore worldly. To engage in that which the world finds honorable does not honor God. Perhaps your life is consumed with pursuing that which the world sees as valuable; self-worth and image, money, security, romance, etc. Loving these things is not compatible with loving God. Loving the world is an act of unfaithfulness toward God and is therefore spiritual adultery. 

As Christians we recognize and understand that engaging in worldliness does not honor God, but we know that for all the times that our sinful desires have pursued worldly things God has indeed shown us grace (verse 6). Remember, we are the unfaithful spouse; He is the one who is always faithful. “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us,” James says in verse 5. This is the reason for his grace. The jealousy of God for his people, aside from it flowing from His character, is why he bestows such grace to them. In Exodus 20 when God’s people are at Sinai and God, in giving Moses the law, declares “for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” God’s love and grace flow from His jealousy for those who possess his Spirit. God has indwelled us with His spirit and our response should be nothing short of worship and obedience. As one commentator points out, “verse 5 explains why flirtation with the world is so serious a matter by bringing to mind the jealousy of the Lord, which demands total, unreserved, unwavering allegiance from the people with whom he has joined himself.”

The grace of God, however, does not end there. God’s grace is unmerited, unconditional, and undeserved. However, God’s grace toward our sin demands a response. James spells out this response in verses 6b-10, more specifically, we see three responses to God’s grace toward our sin. 

The first is a response of humility. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” verse 6b declares. Pride is an attribute that is from the world because it is recognition of reliance on yourself rather than God. It has been said that the root of all sin is pride. Whether that statement is accurate or not, we must acknowledge that pride is an incredibly destructive part of our sinful nature and that we participate in it daily. We consistently seek ways to rely on our own abilities, jobs, families, relationships or anything else that we can substitute for complete dependence on God. So we respond to God’s grace with humility, expressing our need for His grace and recognizing that his grace is indeed completely sufficient for all our sin. The grace of God, of course, is most mercifully displayed in the person of Jesus Christ who, as Paul says in Philippians 2, “emptied himself” and “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Christ, who was divine, humbled himself before His father so that redemption could be accomplished. James says in verse 10, “humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” Humility is not an attribute of the world but an attribute of godliness. In true humility we acknowledge our spiritual poverty and our need for God and God alone. 

The second response is submission. The command in verse 7 is clear, “submit yourselves therefore to God.” This, of course, is not disconnected from the previous response. Humility, true humility, leads to submission. When we recognize our need for complete dependence on God, there is a willingness to submit to His commands and His laws. Actually, the verb used for ‘submission’ indicates the existence of a hierarchy of authority. God is the creator and ruling sustainer, all things belong to him. In Matthew 28, just before giving his disciples the great commission, Jesus says, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” This truly indicates Christ’s rule. Submitting ourselves to God means that we truly submit to His Lordship, that we obey ALL that he has commanded and all that he desires for his people. Those who are friends with the world and those who quarrel with others in the church and those who “speak evil against one another” (verse 11), do not submit themselves to God. But you, reader, may not connect with these things. You may have submitted your life by accepting God’s gracious gift of salvation in Jesus, but you have failed to submit to His Lordship, His authority, His commands. Perhaps you do not steward your resources for the benefit of Christ’s people, or perhaps you do not raise your children in the way of the Lord; perhaps you do not love your spouse as Christ loved the church, perhaps you discriminate against people who are different than you, as James points out in 2:1-7. Examine the whole of your life; submit it fully and completely to Him.

The third response that we must have is repentance. Repentance is an act of submission, and I hope that you see that all these responses are not exclusive from each other but are all intertwined in our genuine response to God’s grace toward our sin. This command to repent is so evidently seen in verse 8, “draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” The command to “draw near to God” is an act of repentance. As Doug Moo so rightly points out regarding this verse, “The promise that God will come near to those who come near to him does not, of course, apply to the salvation of unbelievers but to the restoration to fellowship of Christians. Like the father of the prodigal son, God stands always ready to welcome back his children who turn from their sinful ways.” For intensive purpose let us repeat that phrase, “God always stands ready to welcome back his children who turn from their sinful ways.” Ponder that truth because it applies to you! Sin is what separates us from a holy and righteous God. As God’s people, even after salvation, we continue to sin. But though we sin the command to repent is given to us so that we may live in light of who God is (perfect and holy), and so that we may be restored to God. Repentance leads us to reconciliation! Most of us are familiar with 2 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Now, this verse is used in the most disgusting of applications amongst Christians today, but it is a verse of God calling His people to repentance from their sin. We also see the connection of humility leading to repentance, the same connection that James is making several centuries later.

To further enhance the idea of repentance, James commands his readers to “cleanse our hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts.” James is most definitely alluding to Old Testament language here. Cleansing and purification are ideas that James’ readers, as Jewish Christians, certainly would’ve understood. God gives a lot of laws regarding cleanliness and purification to Israel. Numbers 19 goes into much detail about these laws and what the people of Israel were to do in specific situations regarding clean/unclean sacrifices. What was the point of all those laws? Was it a way for God to exercise a sadistic type of rule over his people? No, it was a way to remind the people that their God is completely holy, completely righteous, and completely pure and that they are the complete antonym of who God is; they were wrecked with sin, defiled, blemished, unfit to approach a holy God. But note this: Christ fulfilled everything. Christ was the perfect, unblemished, pure, undefiled sacrifice that allows us to approach this holy God. So, the idea of purification and cleansing reminds us, nay, commands us, to repent and turn away completely from our sin so that we may, as Paul says in Romans 12, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.” Cleanse yourself Christian. Repent of your sin.

These responses are not sequential, but only as they are presented in James 4. The true sequence that we see is that we must respond to God in humility which in turn leads to repentance which leads to full and complete submission. God calls us to these things as a response of who he is and what he has done in us and through the person and work of Jesus. When we practice humility, repentance, and submission, we never reach a point that causes us to boast in our works or boast in our deeds. The purpose of James writing is that we would display our faith through the way we live our lives, and that we would do so humbly, not in a way that displays superiority or arrogance (like a golfer) but in a way that points people to the great redeemer, Christ. 

Again, if your mentality is “I’m a Christian, therefore I should act like…” you are signifying an obligation to your religious practice rather than your genuine submission to God. This is our sanctification; that we repent of our sin and humbly submit ourselves to the God who created us and uses us to accomplish his mission in the world.