Life 101: Lessons for a Practical Christian Life  
A study in the book of James
lesson #7: Draw near to God.
James 4:1-12
 

Scripture:

Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? You lust, and don’t have. You kill, covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.

You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  Be subject therefore to God. But 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. Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

James 4:1-12      (World English Bible)

[.]

Life 101: Lessons for a Practical Christian Life  
A study in the book of James
lesson #7: Draw near to God.
James 4:1-12

Bible Study:

It begins with a question: where do wars come from?

But before we answer the question, we’ll begin the study of this portion of James with a title.

Draw near to God.

That’s my theme for these verses.

The words can be found right there in the passage, and they are the answer to the first question. The one about wars.

Let me say that differently. God is not the source of war. God is the solution.

So where do wars come from?

And keep in mind that James is not just defining the reason for all planetary conflicts that seem to rise up every week, first in one country and then in another.

You can include personal wars or family conflicts.

Every war begins in the same private place. They begin inside a heart.

Just for a moment, remember the words of the last lesson. Wisdom will create an atmosphere of peace. A person who really knows God’s wisdom—or heavenly wisdom—will be a peacemaker.

Peacemaking is a rare art. Even in the church, one squabble seems to follow another. We are always one bad decision away from a fight, or so it seems.

And according to James, every fight begins with a wish. A want. A desire. And that desire grows until it becomes a passion that just can’t be quenched.

Wait a minute—we saw this before.

Back in chapter one, James talked about temptation, and he laid out the same process. A desire goes unchecked, and it grows into a passion that takes over the mind. Our actions follow our desires, and that action is sin.

War is a particular outcome, but it is the same process. Look at the description here. A person wants something, and they can’t have it, and the frustration builds up until they cross the line to get what they want.

They hurt someone. They step over someone. Just to get what they want.

That’s the problem with warfare. It hurts people. No wonder God doesn’t want it in the church—or anywhere else, for that matter.

And remember, we don’t have to limit this to physical violence. We can crush the opposition with words or push someone out of our way on the corporate ladder. It’s all competition, and somebody loses.

But in the church, people don’t have to lose. We can all win. We can all grow. All of us.

But anyway, there’s more. James doesn’t just argue against war. This isn’t about war.

This is about faith.

You don’t have, he says, because you don’t ask.

How different is it to be a Christian? How different is the lifestyle?

I’ve been taught since I was a little dude that I had to work for what I got. Get out there and take what you want. Nobody is going to give it to you.

And then James tells me it isn’t so. Sure you have to work, but there is something else. There is someone else in the picture. Another option.

There is God.

And God is willing to give. He gives wisdom, generously. That’s in chapter one of James. He gives good things, and only good things. That’s also in chapter one.

He’s given us an inheritance that includes the kingdom. That’s in chapter two, and maybe in other places.

So we have resources!

One problem with war and all that grasping for stuff is that it’s a waste of time. We have resources. If we need something, God will provide.

But we don’t take advantage of God’s generosity. I want to defend myself here, because something tells me that this is extremely difficult. It must be. Otherwise we would pray more. We would ask more.

People told me to get things for myself. That’s the way the whole world sees it. That’s the normal way.

But God calls us to a very different lifestyle.

Some preachers get criticized for preaching a gospel of prosperity. But there are hints in the Bible that we have resources far beyond what we actually receive from God.

I’m just saying.

Sometimes we don’t get because we don’t ask.

And sometimes we ask wrong.

James goes on to describe one of the most common forms of prayer ever devised by ordinary people. Maybe it has an official name, but for our purposes, let’s just call it the gimme prayer.

Lord, gimme a new car.

Lord, gimme a hot new car.

Lord, gimme a hot new car, because it would look so hot and people would think I was so hot, because I had a hot car.

That kind of prayer doesn’t seem to work, and James will explain why. We ask for the wrong reason, just to make us feel good or to make us look good.

When we pray at church, we often close with the words: in Jesus name. That started because we are told to ask for things in the name of Jesus, or in the will of Jesus.

That means we should ask according to what Jesus wants. If we do that, we will get it.

It’s guaranteed. Jesus said that we could ask anything in his name, and we would get it.

Throw that mountain into the sea. Tell the armies to go home. Change that heart. Heal that soul.

It doesn’t happen very often, because we don’t pay attention to what Jesus wants in each particular minute.

If I pray for a particularly hot car, just to take an absurd example, if I pray for a hot car, I can be pretty certain that Jesus has absolutely no interest in granting that prayer.

It does nothing for the kingdom of God. And if we read the slightest bit of Jesus’ life, we find that he gave his life to build the kingdom of God.

It’s all about the word of God and the will of God and the people of God. If I can find a way that my car would make a difference for the kingdom, then I can begin to pray and expect an answer.

So, to review, where do wars come from?

They come from wanting what we can’t have, from not asking for what we can have, and for asking the wrong way for the wrong thing at the wrong time with the wrong—

Okay, I lost my train of thought. So let’s go on, because there’s more.

You can’t be friends with the world.

I mentioned before that some things just seem normal, like not asking God for stuff that I can get for myself. When the Bible talks about the world, it means the desires that seem normal to us, without the Spirit of God.

Left to ourselves, some things seem normal. Get all the money you can. Party all night. Do what feels good. Those are some of the principles that drive the world around us, and they are also a part of each of us, deep inside.

But God is different. He has a different set of values. He loves the poor when the world loves the rich. He loves good, when the world kind of likes to be bad.

And this whole thing about prayer and motives is really about what kind of life we choose to live, or what kind of rules we follow.

Because God is so different from what happens in the world around us, there is no way to play at being a Christian and still party with the rest of the world.

Where do wars come from? They come from doing things the way the world does it, the natural way, the way that feels good to you. You don’t ask God for things because you are trying to get things the way the world gets them, the way that feels right to your ordinary, unspiritual self. 

So if you keep your friendship with the world, you end up with war and conflict and poverty and bad motives and what a mess!

From a practical side, you can’t do it.

But there is another argument, and this one sees the problem from God’s side. If you come to Christ for new life, you come into a new relationship with God. And he desperately wants that relationship with us, even more than we do.

He loves to be a part of your life, and he won’t settle for anything else. The Bible calls it jealousy. He is a jealous God. He doesn’t want to share his place with anything else, especially something so desperately corrupt as the world around us.

So choose. If you want to follow Jesus, then live like a Christian. And that is not just about keeping a few rules and being nice. It’s about finding your resources in God, depending upon God, seeking the priorities of God—and in the process, living rich!

It’s an odd way to live, as far as the world is concerned. And when you think about it, that kind of life would be really difficult.

So how could anyone be that kind of person? How can anyone live a life of faith?

It’s impossible, isn’t it?

Left to ourselves, yes. But we aren’t left to ourselves.

God gives us grace. That’s the answer. That’s how we do it. We can live for God, because he helps us do exactly that, if we let him.

Here we go again. Talk about riches.

But here’s how it works. God lifts up the humble. If we ask him for help, he gives help. If we think we are rich, capable, able to do everything on our own, we don’t get any help.

And you can work through the reasons for that. I like to go back to the war paragraph. If we try to get things on our own, we end up poor and conflicted, because we don’t take advantage of what God can give.

The proud don’t receive from God because they don’t ask.

The humble person asks, so God lifts up the humble and makes that person rich.

In a way.

Actually, in the only way that counts.

The humble person is rich.

So then, here’s the whole point. Apart from God, life is frustrating and disastrous. But God gives to anyone who will be humble enough to ask.

So draw near to God. Move closer to the one who loves us with a jealous love, who gives, who provides.

And here is something that just gets thrown in like an afterthought.

Resist the devil, and he will run away screaming like a frightened child. Okay, I may have overstated the case there, but notice what James says. Resist the devil, and the devil will run.

That’s it. So simple. All that part about passions and war and temptation, and it comes down to this. Resist the devil. Say no. Turn to God, and your life will change.

Let’s end with a paragraph that brings us back to the first part of this lesson, but in different terms. You can tie them together with a simple statement.

You are not God.

First paragraph: you are not God. You can’t have everything you see in this world. If you cross the line and take something, you put yourself in the place of God. And that doesn’t work. He provides, and we ask. That’s how it works.

Last paragraph: you are not God. So don’t think that you are the judge of the people around you. The specific warning is not to slander the people around you. Slander is a lie. Don’t cut people down to make yourself look bigger.

If you do, you make yourself a judge, and James adds that you are actually judging the law, as if you wrote the law. And we didn’t.

You are not God, and neither am I.

I like to think I’m smarter than the law sometimes, but there is that worldly thinking at work again, complaining that I don’t need God to tell me what’s right and wrong. Maybe I can figure that out for myself.

But I can’t. And I do. Or to use complete sentences, I do need God to tell me what is right and wrong, and especially when I’m looking at someone else’s life. I can’t figure it out for myself.

This life is so different.

A life of faith is so different from what I learned from the rest of the world.

I can’t just play at being a Christian and hang on to all the old things that I thought were true. I can’t play at church and slander the people around me. I can’t do it all myself.

What’s the answer?

God gives us grace to do what we cannot do.

So draw near to God.

And if we do, he will draw near to us.

[.]

Life 101: Lessons for a Practical Christian Life  
A study in the book of James
lesson #7: Draw near to God.
James 4:1-12

Paraphrase:

Why are you involved in so many fights and squabbles? They all come from the desires that battle inside you. Desires become passions that lead to conflict and war and death.

It would be better to simply ask God for what you want. But in your case, when you ask, you don’t receive anything because you ask for the wrong reasons. You just want to satisfy some cheap craving inside. 

You are trying to stay friends with the world around you, but you can’t. If you are a friend of the world, then you are an enemy of God. You are unfaithful, and God won’t tolerate that. His Spirit, who lives within us, is jealous for your affection.  

You are called to be faithful to God, which is really difficult. But he gives us grace to help us. As the scripture says, he opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

So then, submit yourself to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. Draw near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands of your sin, and purify your hearts of your two-timing ways.

God will lift up the humble, so grieve for your sin. Change your idle laughter to mourning and set aside your joy. Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will lift you up. 

Be careful. Don’t slash at one another with your words. When you cut each other down, you are sitting in judgment against the law, and that isn’t your job. You’re supposed to keep the law, not judge it.

There is one lawgiver and one judge, and that is God, the same one who can save and destroy lives. Are you God? No. Of course not. So tell me, who are you to judge your neighbor?

James 4:11-12     (paraphrased)

[.]

Life 101: Lessons for a Practical Christian Life  
A study in the book of James
lesson #7: Draw near to God.
James 4:1-12

Story:

A Rumor of War

by Bob Freye

The jungle seemed to close in around the windows of the Land Rover. Deep greens and browns. Palms with wide leaves. Flowers growing here and there where bits of sunlight peeked through the canopy overhead.

Young boys covered in tattered camouflage uniforms, each one holding an aging Soviet automatic rifle, some tipped with bayonets marred by ugly dark stains. 

Hard stares. Dark eyes. Not your ordinary tourist venue.

But Coney Wilson was not a tourist. This was her job, to go where no one would think of traveling, far from the good roads and the ordinary journalists, and to come back with the story no one else could get. 

It could be hard some days.

The engine of the Land Rover wheezed and coughed before sputtering to a stop.

“Don’t worry,” her driver assured her. “It will still get you home.”  

When they traveled, Rick was the driver and the mechanic and the cook. And he handled the camera when they were working a story.

Rick could do a little of everything.

“Have I ever let you down?” he added with a smile.

No, but there was always a first time. And this would be a very lonely place to be stuck. Too much jungle. Too little civilization.

“Just relax,” he told her. “If you pull this off, you’ll tear the heart out of the other networks.”

That was the game they played. To be first. To be best.

Outside the land rover, the young boys were gathering. They had their own game.

She pushed on the door and it swung out. One of the young men held it open for her like a perfect gentleman. It was a surreal moment, posed rather like a date for the prom, except the assault rifle spoiled the look.

“I have an appointment to see the General,” she said.

A boy waved for her to follow and set off through the jungle, weaving along a well-beaten trail for what seemed to be miles. It wasn’t that far, but adrenaline and fatigue tended to distort Corey’s view of time and space.

The camp was a series of camouflage nets strung from trees. They shaded the small pockets of jungle where people sat hunched over maps or lay curled up on the grass, grabbing whatever sleep they could find.  

Most of the group was dressed in scruffy military gear, but a few looked like scruffy civilians. Coney guessed that the distinction was meaningless in this small army.

Off to the side, several women were boiling a chicken. The smell nearly made Coney sick. She covered her mouth and nose, but her eyes memorized the scene, in case she had to use it later. The dented pot. The shabby clothing of the women, once colorful but now turned drab from weeks without washing. The clutch of feathers on the ground, and the blood.

Rick filmed over her shoulder. The camera stayed back to include Coney in the shot. He already had footage of the young fighters and of Coney’s face turning white from the smell.

A thick man in a camouflage uniform stood up and bounded forward. His uniform held no insignia or decorations. He was a fighter.

But his presence was commanding. He moved with purpose, and his eyes had the same piercing focus as hers. He was the kind of man that others would follow.

To their death, Coney reminded herself.

“Welcome to my humble home.” His deep voice boomed. “Sorry we could not make it more presentable, but there you are. That is the nature of war. We cannot afford to decorate.”

His eyes sparkled, even under the jungle shadows.

“General.” Coney extended her hand.

Rick balanced the camera on his shoulder and caught the greeting on film.

“So you want to tell our story, eh?” The general smiled. “Well, it is an important story. We want the world to know what crimes are being perpetrated here.”

“These are your fighters?”

“Some of them,” he said, sounding deliberately vague. “We have others.”

“Are they older?” she asked, keeping any undertone of disapproval out of her voice.

“These men are young,” he admitted, “but they are hardened by battle. They have each tasted blood. I trust my life to them.”

His looked around with a show of respect.

The camera surveyed the clearing, taking in as many of the faces as possible. Young faces. Blank expressions. Vacant eyes.

Rick had seen it before. This wasn’t their first war zone.

“Come and sit,” the General said, “and you can ask me questions.”

It sounded like a command. He was accustomed to giving orders.

Coney and Rick followed the General under a camouflage net. Soldiers brought a few folding lawn chairs, and Coney sat down. Rick squatted a few feet away. A better angle for the camera, and he felt more free to move around.

The general started to talk before the first question was asked.  He talked about the struggle that had engulfed his homeland. He told stories of atrocities that had been committed against his people and the inability of the government to respond to the needs of the smaller villages. He talked about the sacrifice of the peasants as they gathered the gold from the mines.

“How much gold does the government send out of the country?” Coney asked.

He smiled. That was the wrong direction.

“The gold is not the only story here.”

He was avoiding the question, but that was fine. Coney knew the answer. And she knew that he was lying. She could tell. That was her job.

“But there was no conflict,” she observed, “before the discovery of gold.”

“A coincidence,” he said. “We are simple people.”

“Gold changes people,” she said. “Even simple people.”

“This is not a war for gold,” the General insisted.

“Was the government always corrupt,” she wondered, “or did the gold change them?”

He shrugged his shoulders. The woman would not leave the subject alone. But that was not a surprise.

“Perhaps, as you say, the gold changed them,” he said. “Perhaps the gold brought us the resources to buy guns. Perhaps the gold is the reason that we will find our freedom.”

“If I asked the boys, what would they tell me? Do they fight for gold or for freedom?”

His face opened into a wide, beaming smile.

“They fight for me,” the General said. “They will all tell you that.”

“And why do you fight?”

The general had been born the son of a farmer. He entered the military when it became apparent to him that his family could not pay for college. He learned to lead men and rose in rank to become a sergeant.

But the military could only take him so far. He could never become an officer unless something changed drastically.    

When that did not happen on its own, he made it happen.

The revolution brought unsatisfied peasants to his side, and he emerged from the first days of struggle with a tattered army and a new name.

“I fight for them,” the General told the reporter. The camera caught his amazing sincerity.

The camera loved him.

“If there was no war,” Coney asked, “where would these boys be?”

“Nowhere. They had nothing. Now they have a chance.”

“And you? Would you still be in the army?”

He held his hands out wide to indicate the people around him.  

“This is my life,” he said. “The revolution is my life. There is no reason to look back at what might have been. This is my life now.”

Without the war, he would be a sergeant, she thought. Just an ordinary sergeant.

They talked while the camera rolled, until Rick stopped to change the film. She wanted more time, but the General made his apologies and arranged for their escort to return them to the Rover.

“You understand, I have much to do,” he said. “And now I must move my camp. You may have brought the attention of the army, just by coming here to this place.”

She thanked him for the interview. Rick filmed the last few words and the walk back toward the Rover

There was no sound except the swish of their steps through the grass, until the phone jangled.

Satellite link. They were never out of touch.

Rick joked about the networks. They were jealous, he said. They wanted her dead.

The boys chuckled, too, but Coney didn’t think it was funny.

The voice on the other end of the line wasn’t from the networks. It was another kind of competition.

“Sis?”

She recognized her brother’s voice.

“Is anything wrong?” she asked.

“Not that you would care,” he said.

“Look, I can’t talk now,” she told him.

“Right.” His voice was short, clipped. “It’s always something, isn’t it, sis?”

Unbelievable! She was deep in the jungle, surrounded by killer boys with grown-up guns. And on top of all that, she had to deal with her brother.

“This isn’t a good time,” she muttered into the phone.

“I’m going ahead with the lawsuit,” he announced. “I contacted my lawyer. I just called to tell you.”

She was sputtering.

“Look, I told you we’d talk about it. But not now. I can’t do this now!”

“I can,” he said, his voice flat and without emotion. “I’m getting my share of the money, whether you like it or not.”

And the phone clicked off.

The boys were staring at her. They had all stopped to listen to her side of the conversation. One in particular tightened his grip on his assault rifle. His eyes narrowed into angry slits.

It was a good feeling to have someone on your side, she thought. For a brief moment, Coney wondered if there was any way to take the boy home with her.

He would fight for the General.

Would he fight for her?

[.]