Evening Service, 11 October 2009
Sometimes we have an idealised and romanticised view of life in the early church, with the result that it stands out against what we see in our day.
We tend to think that church life was less complicated in that it was easy to see the difference between the church and the world. As Earl Kelly describes this view: ‘They were a new people who accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and sought to avoid the idolatry and immorality of the pagan world around them. For them the world was the world of sinful men whose rulers and put Jesus to death, and they naturally shunned worldly behaviour.’
The differences between the church and world may have been apparent shortly after Pentecost, but this awareness does not seem to have lasted for long. By the time James wrote Christians seem to have begun flirting with the world and needed to be warned against this disturbing trend.
Here James addresses disturbing trends within the early church, and the fact that God has contained them in the NT highlights that this would be a perennial problem for the church. To quote Kelly again, ‘If those who had had personal experiences with Christ needed such a warning, how much more do we who have had only faith experiences with Him need it.’
In chapter 4 James in his concern for practical holiness within the church identifies disturbing trends within the church, addressing both what was happening and why, and then highlighting the only remedy.
1. The Practice
1. James captures our attention by a startling transition.
What a contrast! James turns from talking about peace and immediately the note is the direct opposite: ‘war’, ‘fighting’.
2. What makes it more startling is the identity of the combatants.
Obviously James is not talking about conflict between nations. The “you” indicating he is describing conflict among the Christians to whom he is writing. Nor is he writing of the battles that are necessary, that is for the truth. Equally it is obvious that he is not dealing with hypothetical situations, it was a current and real problem. Disputes and bitterness was found within the church. Indeed the Bible gives us with examples of this very thing happening. For instance, in Phil 4:2 we read of Euodias and Syntyche; in 1 Cor 1:11 Paul mentions it was reported to him that “there is quarrelling among you..” (cf 6:1 and 2 Cor 12:20).
No wonder then that we have commands like 1 Thess 5:13 – “be at peace among yourselves”. Paul was only too conscious that this godly Thessalonican church could so easily be ripped apart by internal warfare if they weren’t alert and working to protect their peace and harmony in Christ.
Let’s face it, the very origin of our denominations, and the fragmentation of Christians from fellowships, is more often marked by a dispute left unresolved than by the rise of heresy that had to be battled. It is more often the result of schism than separation. It often says more about the remaining influence of sin on the human heart than of a desire for purity in worship and service.
3. James’ emphasis here is that this is shameful
Our battle is with the forces of darkness. We are soldiers of Christ, yet we seem to be expending more energy and aggression within the camp rather than without against our Lord’s enemy.
Surely it is a shameful thing that Christians, who claim to have found “the way of peace” (Luke 1:79), should be squabbling and in a state not just of unrest but of bitter turmoil and recriminations.
This is something that we should never accept as par for the course. We might be tempted to write James off as being too narrow, too hyper-sensitive, after all though Christians we are not perfect. As Alec Motyer writes, ‘James’ language seems so extravagant, so exaggerated in our ears, that we feel we must positively refuse to see our small-time disagreements and occasional squabbles as meeting such a description.’
But James says it is that bad, that these petty squabbles are not minor things. They must be addressed as they mar the whole presentation of the Church as the body of Christ. But he adds that we need to take this very seriously because of what underlies them, because of what it reveals within us:
2. The Problem
James sees and draws attention to two underlying and causal trends among Christians, and they usually go hand-in-hand; trends which result in this disturbance amongst us. How we like to look outside and find someone else to blame! We might say “the devil is doing it”, or perhaps, we blame other people and use the victim strategy to justify our behaviour. But James sees the basic problem is not what another person is or does but rather what comes out of our own hearts. We are the problem. What are the two trends that show this?
1. HEDONISM
In v.1 and 3 James drives to the heart of the matter: “pleasures”. This is a different word than that translated by “desires” in 1:14 and “lust” in 4:2 which speak of a being drawn after, a desire. Here the word means the ‘gratification of desire’. It speaks of that selfish satisfaction that says ‘I must have it now not later’, and of the pleasure experienced in the satisfaction of the desires. We get the word Hedonism from this Greek word. It was taught by the Epicureans who asserted that pleasure is the sole or chief good in life.
James sees that these Christians were so focused on the “pleasure” that arises from getting what they wanted they not only trod over anyone who stood in their way, it also crippled their prayer-life, as it always will. Their focus was removed from God so they didn’t ask Him, and when they did think about asking God they only asked for things with a purpose of their own satisfaction. They “asked amiss”.
This immediately challenges us to ask how we understand the nature and place of prayer. It has been said that ‘The essence of prayer is not to get what we want out of God, but to have ourselves so changed by God that we come to want what He wants for us’ (Leslie Mitton). When you see this you can see how hedonism threatens spirituality in general and godliness in particular.
2. WORLDLINESS – this is brought out in v.4
Now notice here what James means. There are many concepts of worldliness out there, and maybe in here. The Amish for instance won’t use buttons and zippers because they are worldly. The Mormons see coffee drinking as worldly, or certain ‘Fundamentalists’ have been known to denounce lipstick as ‘devil’s grease’ and condemn mixed-bathing as very worldly. However, in so doing they miss the Bible’s point.
James speaks of it as “friendship with the world” from which we see that it is primarily an issue of relationship. True friends share a mindset and outlook on life. They share interests, values and goals. And so the Bible speaks of loving the world, of gaining the world. It is primarily an issue of attitude – of what we set our affection on. It consists in putting other things – particularly relationships, attitudes, activities that are inconsistent with God’s ways, as first in our hearts over against Jesus. It is becoming attached to the world which stands opposed to God, wanting to be like everyone else, driven by their dreams and desires, yielding to the worldly system of values, more concerned about friendships and activities with non-Christians than Christians, thinking nothing of being exposed to their dangerous thought-patterns and practices.
The consequence of this is to become “an enemy of God” all over again. No wonder then that there are disturbances and quarrels within the church! That is the world’s way, not God’s. As a church or Christian gets more hedonistic and worldly, that is the harvest you will reap.
A vital principle of behaviour and relationships is that what we do and are towards others is an outworking of what we are within. The issues in church life reflect the real issues that exist in the heart – they do not create but expose and illustrate what lies within, for out of the heart the Bible repeatedly reminds us flow the issues of life (Prov 4:35), Jesus says: “For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Lk 6:45 cf., Matt 12:35; Mk 7:20-23) – and here: “Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?”
Yes there may be pressures from without, even virulent temptations that severely test us – but in so acting and so relating towards others we are not their victims but victims of our own hearts. Just because someone is sinning against us doesn’t mean we can sin against them – not even if we keep our response in kind and up to the same measure. Nor can we blame circumstances. The question is about what we do with them and why.
Do we see these ungodly behaviours among us – even beginning to raise their head? Do we see the source realities in ungodly attitudes and expectations? What do we do? Well, you’ve got to ‘get with the program’ as they used to say:
3. The Program
In v.5-10 James points us back in the right direction to follow. We can group the teaching here under three points:
1. Recognise God’s Response – v.5-6
This is always the starting point to recovery of godliness. Not with our sin as such, nor even with its negative impact on us, but with the holy and gracious God whom we have offended.
God’s response is identified in v.5-6 as involving two things: that of abhorrence, as expressed by calling such perpetrators “adulterers!”; and also of resistance, indicating that God “resists the proud” (taking a position in battle against us). This is what sin is in Christians. It is a spurning of our heavenly ‘Husband’ in the pursuit of pleasures amongst His very enemies. It is an arrogant exalting of ourselves against His will for us and indeed against God Himself. How we should see the horror of our spiritual adultery! It is to sin against love, against grace and mercy. And it is one which God will not tolerate – never has, and will not now – not even in His ‘Bride’!
In v.5 James supports this not by quoting a specific text but by giving a summary of biblical teaching, condensing the entire biblical theology of the human condition. Now this is a notoriously difficult verse. Does it refer to human envy and spirit, or Divine envy and the Holy Spirit? The reference to spiritual adultery would support the latter. But even then, does it mean that the Holy Spirit is jealous for our affections and activities to be holy and so to act otherwise and claim to be God’s children is to make the Bible a nonsense? Or does it mean that we cannot lay these passions at the feet of the Spirit as if He causes them in us – for that too would make the Bible a nonsense? In either case one thing is clear, hedonism and worldliness are obnoxious to God and are incompatible with the indwelling Holy Spirit. We need to recognise that.
2. Realise God’s Provision – v.6
We need to see it and use it. Here James points us to the reality of God’s grace – one which will involve Him resisting us. Even when God humbles us we should not be filled with despair, but see it as an activity of grace, and be encouraged to look for more grace. This is a great encouragement to us when we realise our adultery! God is still gracious to us! He will not let us go.
God’s grace is a continuing grace. It not only secured the saving work of Jesus for us, our personal response to it, and our entry into glory and perfection in Christ; it also supplies our continuing needs in this world for help, strength, spiritual power. We must, then, take of this grace of God and change, but also draw on it to fortify ourselves against future desertions and adulteries.
3. Reaffirm your Allegiance – v.7-10.
The first of the group of 10 commands is that we “submit”. Today this word tends to be used it in a passive way, so that since resistance is pointless we submit to superior forces. But in the Greek the idea is more of enlistment, taking up allegiance to a great Superior in order to willingly fight under his banner.
This then sets the rest of the commands into place: our resistance to satan is one of with God, that’s why we draw near to God, mourn over anything that disrupts our relationship with God, and why we humble ourselves before God. You can’t effectively resist satan unless you are living in communion with God.
So the way forward in dealing with the problems in the church requires its members to personally and individually humble themselves before God, to make sure they are fighting on God’s side, and then with God resist the devil.
To that end God extends His grace to all who desire it. Let us both rejoice in and draw on God’s grace which comes to us freely and daily in Christ Jesus. Then we will be marked by God’s presence and by practical godliness.