[Linux4christians] ‭James 4 (Friday)

[Pastor David]

*‭James 4 (Friday)*

*‭Commentary*

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where do the quarrels among 
you come from? Is it not from this, from your passions that 
battle inside you?

James challenges his readers to look to the 
emotional-spiritual conflict between the "old man" (the 
persistent flesh with which we endure which still in the 
world), and the "new man" who is already seen through Christ 
as clothed in white and in a perfect Heaven - now trying to 
push away the sin of the world which seeks to stain him/her.

[Note:  The latter is a paraphrase from Dr. Neil Anderson of 
Freedom in Christ ministries.]

4:2 You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and 
you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have 
because you do not ask; 4:3 you ask and do not receive 
because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.

As with King David in the Bathsheba tragedy, his son Solomon 
in his Ecclesiastes lament, and other Biblical characters 
they missed-out on blessings because of their disobedience.

4:4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the 
world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be 
the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy. 4:5 Or do you 
think the scripture means nothing when it says, “The spirit 
that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning”? 
4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God 
opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.”

James challenges his readers to make a choice, there is no 
middle ground, choose God or man, the world or the Kingdom.

4:7 So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee 
from you.

James returns to spiritual warfare.  Whether we choose to 
acknowledge it there is a spiritual war raging all around us 
and we are involved - we ignore it to our peril - we remain 
defenseless unless we assert our legitimate spiritual 
authority as children of God.

4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse 
your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you 
double-minded. 4:9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your 
laughter into mourning and your joy into despair. 4:10 
Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

God wants us to choose to partner with Him and He longs to 
bless us for ministry.

4:11 Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. 
He who speaks against a fellow believer or judges a fellow 
believer speaks against the law and judges the law. But if 
you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but its 
judge. 4:12 But there is only one who is lawgiver and judge 
– the one who is able to save and destroy. On the other 
hand, who are you to judge your neighbor?

The purpose of the Law was to convict people of their sin, 
to convince them of their inability to earn salvation 
through works, and to drive them to humility before Christ. 
  God alone may know and judge the heart (spiritual essence) 
of a person and to thus know the integrity of their 
faith-for-salvation.

4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go 
into this or that town and spend a year there and do 
business and make a profit.” 4:14 You do not know about 
tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of 
smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. 4:15 
You ought to say instead, “If the Lord is willing, then we 
will live and do this or that.”

In the parable of the man who tore down his silos to build 
larger ones Jesus declared that he may die in the night and 
have no heirs and no eternal hope - James reflects upon the 
same principle - we must attend to the priorities of God and 
live in the moment without presuming upon the future.  Serve 
God right now!

4:16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such 
boasting is evil. 4:17 So whoever knows what is good to do 
and does not do it is guilty of sin.

*‭Interaction*

*Consider* that God wants us to make a choice, there is no 
middle ground, choose God or man, the world or the Kingdom.

*Discuss* practical ways to recognize the spiritual war 
raging all around us and how me may assert our legitimate 
spiritual authority as children of God.

*Reflect* upon the principle that we must attend to the 
priorities of God and live in the moment without presuming 
upon the future.  Serve God right now!

*Share* examples of the battle in your life between the 
temptations of the "old man" and the appeal to righteous 
living of the "new man".  [Note:  If you are not 
experiencing this "battle" then you may need to revisit your 
salvation - unless you are claiming a perfect righteousness 
prior to Heaven!]

*Truth in Action*

Today I am choosing to examine my relationship with God.  Am 
I serving Him right now or am I still procrastinating in 
favor of worldly priorities?  Am I winning the battle for 
the "new man" or am I too-often surrendering to the 
temptations of the "old man"?  Do I understand spiritual 
warfare or do I need to find some Biblically-trustworthy 
discipleship in that area?  Do I know what I should do in 
the area of spiritual warfare but am hesitating like David's 
brothers in the face of a Goliath-like giant of a challenge 
from the enemy in my life?  I agree to identify at least one 
area when God is prompting me to mature and to partner with 
the Holy Spirit, and another believer, to intentionally move 
toward maturity.

*Be Specific*  ______________________________________


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‭Saturday's text will be: James 5
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Have an http://Ultrafidian.com Day!  Pastor David
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Senior Pastor (Interim) Bethel Missionary Baptist
http://bethelstatesboro.org (new site pending)
Bible Commentary & Daily Reflection-Action-Devotional
http://bibleseven.com/b7/b7studies.html
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