What is it that causes people who claim to be Christ-followers to engage in such ungodly, worldly activity? That is the very question James asks in our study this morning. James points out three major reasons conflict arises.
- Conflict arises when individuals pursue over .
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is 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.” (James 4:1-3)
“When a man so prays he asks God to be his servant, and gratifies his desires; no, worse than that he wants God to join him in his lusts. He will gratify his lusts, and God shall help him come and do it. Such prayer is blasphemous, and it must be one of the most God-provoking things that heaven ever beholds.” – CH Spurgeon
2. Conflict arises when individuals develop a with the .
“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 made to dwell in us’? But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:4-6)
- We commit spiritual adultery.
- We change our allegiance.
“A man with God on his side is always in the majority. But the person who meets God as his enemy stands alone, for the world cannot help him.” – John Knox
“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)
- We grieve the Holy Spirit.
“But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)
“Note that contrast; note it always. Observe how weak we are, how strong he is; how proud we are, how condescending he is; how erring we are, how infallible he is; how changing we are and how immutable he is; how provoking we are, and how forgiving he is. Observe how in us there is only ill, and how in him there is only good. Yet our ill but draws his goodness forth and still he blesses.” – CH Spurgeon
3. Conflict arises when individuals God.
“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 on Lawgiver and Judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?” (James 4:11-12)
“Do not judge according to appearance but judge with righteous judgment (John 7:24).
A for conflicts.
“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 4:7-10)