James part 8
Living in Heavenly Wisdom
This week we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day which, if you are partaking in Lent, is a feast day. The story of St. Patrick is one of the greats in church history. He is actually the first recorded missionary to an area out of Roman control. (Legend holds Thomas to be the first, but that journey is debated at best.)
The story goes when Patrick was 16, he was captured and enslaved by Irish raiders. He spent the next six years of his life in bondage. In his autobiography, Patrick says he endured this time by praying “up to 100 prayers a day, and in the night a like number.” One night he had a vision of a ship that would take him home and how to find that ship. He took off and made a journey that would have been roughly 200 miles according to some scholars. He convinced the ship’s crew to take him aboard, and he made his way back to Britain to his family.
It is a good story, so far, but while home with the family he’d lost for six years, Patrick had another vision. This time an Irishman called out to Patrick to come back to Ireland with the message of Christ. Against his family’s wishes Patrick went to France to study theology to be a priest. After struggling through school learning Latin and theology, he finally was ordained a priest and began his journey back to Ireland.
Now, I should note there are about four different versions of this story that float around, but the main points are the same. Patrick was a slave in Ireland for six years until he received a vision that prompted his escape. Then, after becoming a priest (and eventually bishop), Patrick goes back to Ireland in order to share the hope of Jesus Christ. Once arriving in Ireland, a myriad of other legends fill the next 30 years of Patrick’s life. He spends three decades sharing the Gospel and converting the Irish. And, in one of the great divine coincidences of history, the conversion of Ireland occurs just a few decade before the collapse of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Dark Ages. Thomas Cahill wrote the history of this coincidence in How the Irish Saved Civilization—still one of my favorite history reads and favorite title for a nonfiction book.
What makes this story so great, and especially in light of our look at the Book of James, is that Patrick places his focus on the Kingdom of God above his own kingdom and self. He could have easily justified remaining with his family after his escape. No one would ever judge a person for not wanting to revisit the land that held him a slave for six years. If Patrick had said, “I don’t want to return. They are evil people over there,” I am sure his family and friends would have understood. After all, his family did want him to stay. But that would have been earthly wisdom. Sure, it would have looked perfectly fine to us, but God had other things in mind. Because Patrick placed his focus on the Kingdom of God and made decisions based on heavenly wisdom, he was able to reach his former slave masters with the love and mercy of Jesus.
Let’s continue looking at living in light of heavenly wisdom in James 4.
Chapter four is a continuation of the principle found at the end of chapter 3. Earthly wisdom focuses on what the self wants while heavenly wisdom focuses on what God wants. James will give three specific ways this plays out.
First, he will speak to the fights that are occurring among his people.
Second, he will speak to how they talk to one another. This point is linked to the first, but in James’ mind it bears repeating.
Third, he will speak to the plans people make. This last one appears disjointed from the preceding points, but as we’ll see, James ties all three of these together in light of heavenly wisdom.
Let’s begin reading in James 4.
James 4:1-10 | The root of fighting
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
James 4:1-10
Here, James brings us back to his point in 3:16. Earthly wisdom focuses on the self, and when two or more people only seek what they want, quarrels are inevitable. James asks us to think about the quarrels and fights we have. Are they not from the passions that war against us? This word ‘passion’ is connected to the verb ‘desire’ he uses next. These are drives within us that cause us to act against our fellow humans. Now, it is not necessarily the drive itself that is evil. God designed us with internal drives in order to keep us alive. We have a hunger drive so that we eat and gain nourishment. We have a thirst drive to get water in our system. We have a sex drive to propagate the species and share intimacy with our spouse. Individuals will have drives specific to themselves in order to achieve the ends God has placed in their heart—drive to succeed, drive to create, drive to build. The problem is not the drive per se, it is the sin that has corrupted the drive into something else.
Notice how James describes the problem. “You desire and do not have, so you murder.” The desire for some thing may not be so bad, but the jealousy turns to hatred which leads to murder. James may be using hyperbole, or perhaps a metaphorical murder, but regardless, the point still stands. When jealousy is compounded by selfishness, it leads to destruction. Then, he says, “You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight.” We tend to think of coveting as a lesser sin, but keep in mind, it is on the Top Ten List. The desire to take what you don’t have from someone can lead to many other sins.
Coveting is the root of a myriad of sins which inevitably leads to fighting.
James then moves quickly to the problem. His people are fighting because they have dual hearts. They are like the Israelites in the Old Kingdom. They perform religious acts for God, but they continue to befriend the world. James states we can’t be friends with God and friends with the world. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. The two are diametrically opposed just as earthly wisdom is opposed to heavenly wisdom.
James’ congregation are trying to have their heavenly cake topped with earthly icing, but that is just not possible. They seek God’s favor and blessing, but God will not grant it to them because God knows the people will just spend his blessing on their own selfish desires.
God will not bless a pursuit of selfishness.
James continues with some harsh words, but they are harsh because the people have been duped. They have succumbed to the lies of the devil and earthly wisdom.
What is the solution? Look again at verse 6. God gives grace to the humble. James tells them to swallow their pride and admit their need for grace. They are to quit celebrating their sins and humble themselves before the Lord.
Before we move on, I’d like to draw special attention to 4:7&8. These verses are simple and yet profound promises. Sometimes we get caught up in the lie that “we are who we are.” It is a defeatist attitude propped up by our guilt, shame, and sometimes laziness. The truth, though, is God is willing and able to transform us into something far greater, if we will only submit to Him. Resist the devil and the devil will flee. Draw near to God and God will draw near to you. Then, in verse 10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.”
I am reminded of the song God Will Lift Up Your Head. The verses go like this:
Give to the wind your fear
Hope and be undismayed
God hears your sighs and counts your tears
God will lift up
God will lift up
Lift up your head
Leave to His sovereign way
To choose and to command
Then shall we wandering on His way
Know how wise and how strong
How wise and how strong
Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gently clears the way
Wait because in His time, so shall this night
Soon end in joy
Earthly wisdom deals in self, fear, and pride. Heavenly wisdom remembers God is Sovereign, and God seeks our salvation and care. If we humble ourselves before the Lord, He will lift our heads and exalt us in due time.
God will bless humility.
Having established the root problem, James turns to two connected issues. Let’s continue.
James 4:11-12 | Know thy place
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, 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. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
James 4:11-12
If Christians should avoid fighting one another, it stands to reason they should speak well to one another, but notice James isn’t just saying “be nice.” He is addressing how we judge one another’s sin different than we judge our own sin. Again, James goes back to the problem of pride. Before, pride brings about coveting, but here, pride brings about self-righteousness. In case someone reading his words believes they are spiritually superior to those who covet the things of this world, James reminds them self-righteous judgement is just as sinful.
There is only one lawgiver and judge who can save and destroy—and we aren’t Him!
Many church people are happy to shout ‘Amen!’ at verses 1-10, and rightly so, but I hope they are just as willing to shout at verses 11 & 12. When we are able to humble ourselves before the Lord, we will also be willing to humble ourselves to one another. I originally titled this message “Relationships with others is a reflection of our relationship with God” for this reason. When our relationship with God is on the right track, it will inevitably lead to better relationships with our friends and families. The first step is humility.
Humility requires us to recognize our place in God’s Kingdom.
I love that last question James poses—who are you to judge your neighbor? The next time you find yourself looking down on your fellow human, ask yourself “Who am I to judge this person?”
James 4:13-16 | Plan your life in light of eternity
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
James 4:13-16
These next verses appear to start a new thought, but look again. The last few passages we have looked at, beginning in chapter 3 and all through chapter 4 center on the pride that is found in earthly wisdom. Here, James brings out one more illustration. Some are making plans to travel and make money, which would not be a problem necessarily, except that the focus is on the self. They are making plans to build their wealth. James reminds them they have no idea what will happen tomorrow, much less the rest of their life. Verse 14 is very much an allusion to Ecclesiastes in which life is a mere vapor. It is a mist that appears and quickly vanishes.
Instead, they should be saying “If the Lord wills.” Notice that little addition is an enormous shift in thinking. It is no longer what I will. It is what the Lord wills. That phrase is about subjecting those internal drives and desires to the will of God. To ignore the will of God in making plans is to boast in arrogance.
Humility requires us to make plans in light of God’s authority and our temporality.
This brings us to our last verse.
James 4:17 | Heavenly Wisdom in Action
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
James 4:17
James has spent the last couple of chapters breaking down the difference between earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom. We have seen how the focus on self brings about discord and destruction, but the focus on God’s Kingdom brings about humility and righteousness. Now, he leaves us with a key verse that will shift the direction of the rest of the book. But for now, I want you to think about this verse. It is a simple statement. But my question is this: how much of what James wrote is he summing up here? Is he just referring to verses 4:13-17? Does it go back to chapter 3?
I submit James has just tied up his argument that spans all the way back to the latter part of chapter 1. Flip the page back to chapter 1. Notice the introduction in verse 1:1. Then, James presents his opening arguments in 2-18. We discussed several weeks ago how each of these verses present a point that he will return to. Then, in verse 19 he gives an over-arching principle—be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. That principle is expanded throughout, but especially in chapter 4. Then, James says
Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
James 1:21
That “therefore” statement leads into his discussion on faith being verified by actions. So when we get all the way through chapters 2, 3, and 4, and we end up with
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
James 4:17
We are seeing the culmination of James’ point:
True faith will lead to true transformation.
If we know what type of lifestyle God calls us to, but we fail to do it, then we have sinned. It is not enough to not do the don’ts. We are called to do the do. So as you review the list of things James has talked about, it is not sufficient to just say “Well, I am who I am.” Christ calls us to grow beyond that.
And there is Good News for all of us: Christ has done the work for salvation. Look again at 1:21. We are called to put away all filthiness and wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word. He says the same thing with different words in 4:8, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
God does not wait for us to be perfected before He draws near to us. He simply waits for us to humble ourselves and ask for His help. When we humbly come to Him, asking for forgiveness and transformation, He does just that.