James 4:1-2 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.
In the previous chapters of James, as in this one,
he deals with practical problems that Christians face every day of their lives.
In chapter three, he dealt with avoiding envy and loving peace. This chapter
focuses on fights and quarrels among Christian brothers and sisters. Verse one
is a question ask and answered. Fights and arguments come from the fleshly desires
that are always at war within us. The flesh will constantly battle against the
spirit (Galatians 5:17). The source of fights and quarrels among
Christians is always the same. There is some root of carnality, an internal war
within the believer regarding the flesh's lusts.
When one of these "fights or quarrels"
begins, the problem is broadened and amplified because each party believes they
are right. James makes it very clear that this argumentative combative manner
comes from fleshly desires within the person, not from God. This issue is more
about the quarrels' selfish spirit and bitterness than by the rights and wrongs
of the various viewpoints.
Satan can use these fleshly desires that rage within
us to lead us into a self-serving attitude instead of "loving other people
as ourselves." James says we desire
but do not have, and so we "kill." This astonishing statement is to
startle the reader into realizing that any conflict between believers and
followers in Christ Jesus comes from within our fleshly desires. Looking back
at the "Sermon on the Mount," Jesus also used the term to murder to
express more than literally killing a person. Jesus showed it as an inward
condition of the heart, shown outwardly by anger (Matthew
5:21-22). There is a very tragic irony
of life by living it after worldly and fleshly desires, that is that we never
really reach the goal that our fleshly nature seeks after.
Some believe that they can build themselves up by
cutting down another, falsely believing that our neighbors’ failure will
somehow amplify our delusion of success. Our jealousy propels our
judgment because we feel devalued by our neighbor’s accomplishment. Coveting strives
to hide one’s own defectiveness by disparaging others.
This self-indulgence is because our worldly nature
comes from Satan. We must remember that everything that Satan has to offer us
is not real, just an illusion that will crumble before our eyes. James's
teaching will help us realistically and wisely understand what foolishness and
recklessness it is to live a life after the world's lust and our animal
appetites. Satan will tempt us to fulfill some fleshly desire because we think
(or hope) that it may be satisfied; however, it will never reach that place of
satisfaction.
Worldly Christians attempt to meet all their needs on
their own power and strength. “I have a good education, I am smart. Why
should I ask God for Help?” The
answer to that question is because God wants us to ask him (Matthew 7:7-11).
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