Grace to the Humble

Thursday, April 14, 2011, 8:35 a.m. – When I woke this morning, the Lord had playing in my mind a song he gave me to write a week ago, “Gracious Father.” Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read James 4:

Submit Yourselves to God
1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

My Understanding: Again, as in an earlier writing, Problems and Solutions, I see that there are several problems posed here in this passage of scripture, though, unlike in the prior writing, I see that, in this case, there is only one solution to all four problems.

Problem One: Fights and Quarrels

In reading this section of this passage of scripture, I came to the understanding that the problem that causes fights and quarrels among us can be summarized into one word: selfishness. The dictionary definition of “selfishness” is: “concerned with your own interests, needs, and wishes while ignoring those of others” (Encarta). I think that pretty much sums it up. Fights and quarrels come from our own selfish desires that battle within us. We don’t have what we want because we don’t ask God, which is based in selfishness, because we think we can attain what we want through our own efforts. Or, we don’t have because we ask God with selfish motives in order to fulfill our own selfish desires. The bottom line in all of this is that fights and quarrels are caused by selfishness, which is concern with our own interests, wants and desires while ignoring those of others, most especially those of God.

Problem Two: Friendship with the World

“The world,” in this context, is not speaking of the physical world with land, water, skies, clouds, sun, moon, stars, trees, flowers, etc. “The world,” in this context, is speaking of the environment in which sin reigns, as well as it speaks of humanity, in its entirety, in bondage to sin and, thus, alienated from God (Ref: Harper’s Bible Dictionary). One of the definitions in MW Collegiate Dictionary reads: “The concerns of the earth and its affairs as distinguished from heaven and the life to come.” So, when James expresses here that friendship with the world is hatred toward God, he is speaking of a familiarity, bond, attachment and alliance with sin, including the sin of attachment to earthly affairs, which is based in selfishness and disregard for focusing our attention on things above, not on things on the earth. So, when we align ourselves with sin and sinful practices, it is hatred (animosity) toward God. I wonder how many of us truly think of our sins in this way. If we did, and we truly loved God, then it should break our hearts when we give in to sin.

Then, James says something that presents a difficulty for translators and for interpreters of scripture. The NIV renders it: “Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?” The NASB says: “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: ‘He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us’?” The commentators have several different interpretations of what this means, so I looked it up in Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible: “Do ye think that emptily the Writing saith, ‘To envy earnestly desireth the spirit that dwell in us.’” I believe the context, in which this verse sits, fits with other words throughout scripture where spiritual adultery is mentioned and where it says that God is a jealous God and he is jealous for us to have but one husband – God/Jesus Christ. So, whether the “spirit” is the human spirit within us (life), or whether it is the Spirit, i.e. the Holy Spirit sent to indwell the lives of believers in Jesus Christ, the message remains that God is a jealous God and he desires for his bride, the church, to be in a faithful relationship with him as a wife should be with her husband, in all purity and devotion. Yet, if we choose to humble ourselves before God, and to forsake our selfishness and our love for the world, then he will give us the grace to live in faithfulness.

Problem Three: Slander

To slander someone means to insult, smear, malign or defame him or her, i.e. to damage his or her good reputation and character. When we do this, not only are we causing harm to someone, but we are acting as that person’s judge and jury with the intent of giving a sentence for his or her supposed crime. This slander is not for the purpose of restoring someone caught in a sin. Slander is for the express purpose of destroying another person’s reputation, which is, again, based in selfishness and some selfish desire to either get even with someone or to try to raise ourselves above that other person or for whatever other selfish motives might lead us to do such a thing. When we act as judge and jury, we are taking the place of God as judge in that person’s life. This is not speaking about judging sin as sin, nor is it speaking against confronting sin, as the Bible does teach us to restore those caught in sin - those of us who are spiritual should restore them in an attitude of meekness, considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted, that is.

Problem Four: Boasting about Tomorrow

When we come into true relationship with Jesus Christ, he becomes the Lord of our lives, i.e. instead of sin being our master, Jesus Christ is now our master and we are his slaves. No longer are we slaves to sin to fulfill its lusts and desires, but we are now slaves of righteousness, submitted to and committed to obedience to Jesus Christ in all things. So, our selfish desires should no longer be what rule our lives. Our thoughts should be for how to please our new master, Jesus Christ. If this is true, then instead of us making our own plans for what we are going to do tomorrow or the next day, with the assurance that we will carry through with the plans we have made, we should say, “If it is the Lord’s will we will do this or that,” recognizing that God is in control of our lives and he may have other plans for us.

I have had a tendency to make plans without consulting God first or without thinking through what I just committed to do before I said “Yes,” or before I made the plans, so I have had to rethink the way I make my plans, to ward off hasty and impulsive decisions that did not take God into account or what he might have planned for me or even if I can fulfill what I just said I would do. So, God is working on me in this area. It helps to think of myself as his slave instead of thinking of myself as in control of my own life, then I am less likely to make plans hastily. We can’t always know if God is behind our plans, or not, though, so that is why it is a good idea, no matter what plans we have made, to always say, “If it is God’s will,” or “Lord willing” I will do this or that. Then, we have no occasion for taking pride in our own plans, but we are submitting ourselves and our plans to our Lord.

Solution: Submit to God

Not only do all these problems have one main solution, I believe they all have one main cause, which we have already addressed, and that is selfishness. The way to combat selfishness is, thus, to submit and to surrender our wills to the will of the Father and of Jesus Christ, our Lord and master. Yet, we cannot submit to God and still hold on to our sin. I learned in a previous writing, Problems and Solutions, that when we try to combine Christ’s righteousness with still holding on to sin, such was in the example of the oxymoron, “Moral filth,” it still comes out as filth. So, in order to submit to God, we have to first of all resist the devil (our tempter), then come near to God in repentance and obedience (wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double-minded – you oxymoron).

And, we are to grieve, mourn and wail over our sin. How many people today truly grieve, mourn and wail over sin – either their own sin or the sins of their brothers and sisters? So many Christians are laughing at sin and are being entertained by sin instead of grieving over it, and that grieves the Holy Spirit of God, who is within us. So, we need to humble ourselves before Almighty God on “penitent knee”, and then he will lift us up.

Gracious Father / An original work / April 6, 2011

How great are You Father; how great are You, Lord.
My heart so adores You; Your mercy outpour.
Your love and your kindness; Your gracious reward
Are treasures from heaven that we can’t afford.
So, freely they’re given and humbly received
When we bow before You on penitent knee.

O gracious Redeemer; my Master and King,
To You I owe everything - my offerings I bring
With whole heart devotion, to honor and praise
My loving companion and friend for always.
It’s You I serve only, to walk in Your ways,
So I have your promise for all of my days.