James 1:5-8
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
Context, Context, Context
I hear so many people quote verse 5 without verses 6-8, and
when they do that, they teach what is false. They give out false promises to
people. And that is like cutting someone off in the middle of his sentence
before he has a chance to complete his thought. If verse 5 is interpreted
alone, it can be a lie, for verses 6-8 give the qualifier which goes along with
verse 5.
The same applies to John 10:27-30. Typically we hear people
quote verses 28-30 as a promise to all who say they believe in Jesus that eternal
life is guaranteed them and that they will never perish and that no one and
nothing can snatch them out of God’s hand. But verse 27 is the qualifier for
that promise. His sheep listen to him and they follow (obey) him.
And this is why we have to study Scriptures in their
context. God does not give his wisdom generously to all who ask him. The one
who asks must ask in faith, and that faith originates with God so it submits to
God’s will and purposes. The person asking can’t vacillate back and forth
between believing God and trusting in his own flesh.
The One Who Doubts
The one who doubts that God will do what he asks of Him,
i.e. he doubts that God will actually give him wisdom to make right decisions
and godly choices, and so he takes matters into his own hands, instead, is like
someone living on a teeter-totter, first up on the right, then down, then up on
the left, then down, teeter-tottering back and forth between right and wrong.
They are those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, and they
claim that they are in fellowship with the Lord, and that he is their Lord, but
he isn’t. Not in truth. They say that they want to do what is right, and that
they want to obey the Lord, but when “push comes to shove,” i.e. when a
situation reaches a critical point and they must make a decision on how to
progress, they cave to what they really want. They choose the “easy” way out.
And this is because they lack true commitment to God. They
want God, but on their terms. They want God to want them despite them ignoring
him and his commands, and despite them deliberately and habitually choosing
their idols and their sinful practices over obedience to him and to his
commands. They want his help, but they don’t really.
And this is because they don’t really love God/Jesus, but
they love their own flesh more. They don’t live in love. They live in lust. They
are hardheaded, hardhearted, stubborn, unyielding, selfish, self-indulgent, foolish,
pleasure-seeking, thoughtless, and senseless people who live by their feelings and
the emotions of the moment, and “if it feels good, do it.”
Even if they try to make attempts toward living for the Lord
and living in purity, they can’t do it, at least not maintain it for long,
because they are trying to do it in their own flesh, and their flesh fails them
every time. So, they live a lie and they follow lies and they prefer the lies
to the truth because the lies give them permission to live in their sin without
guilt.
They will return to their vomit over and over again because
it gives them comfort. Even though they claim that they want to be free from
the control of sin they won’t let go. They are greedy and selfish and they want
what they want and what makes them feel good even if it offends God, and even
if it means cheating on their spouses, for flesh rules. They are lovers of self
and not lovers of God.
But they will pray for wisdom and for God to help them to
not fail, but unless they let go of the flesh and die to sin and to self and
let God truly be their God, they will continue living for self and for self-pleasure,
and they will keep going back to their vomit for that is where they find
comfort, and that is where they have their lusts fulfilled and they find self-pleasure.
So, they end up living a lie, living in a fantasy world, not
the real world, not experiencing true loving relationships with commitment,
faithfulness, purity, and honesty, but rather they live for self-indulgence and
sensual pleasure. And again, even if they may make efforts to leave that world,
they do not cut the cord, and so it always draws them back in.
This is a description of those who are double-minded, who
teeter-totter back and forth between honesty and lies, faithfulness and
adultery, real life and the fake life, selflessness and selfishness, loving God
and loving self, and wanting help and refusing help, etc. And their default is
always to go back to what makes them feel good, even though they know it is wrong.
So, they ask God for help, but they don’t ask in faith,
because they don’t have genuine faith, because their faith is based on a lie
which tells them that they can live in sexual immorality and in addiction to
sin but that they are in relationship with God and that their actions of repeatedly
going back to their pet sin will not harm their relationship with God.
But God says, “that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
James 1:9-11
“Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.”
In the Midst of his Pursuits
All that is flesh is going to perish. Physically we are all
going to die one day unless the Lord comes back first and we are one of the
ones he takes to be with him forever. Flesh will not enter into heaven. And the
deeds of the flesh are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,
sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,
divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these (see Gal 5:16-21).
And verse 21 says this: “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
And this is talking about habitually, making sin our regular
practice, our “go to.” If we make sin our practice, and righteousness is not
what we practice, and if obedience is not our practice, but we habitually
disobey the Lord by doing what we know is wrong, and what is harmful to
ourselves and to others and to our relationship with God, we will NOT have
eternal life with God! So, please take this to heart.
“Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit” (Job 37:24).
[Lu
9:23-26;
Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas
1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom
2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb
10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]
Broken
Cord
An
Original Work / August 29, 2018
Your bond is broken
With your Lord and Savior
And, your testimony is
Separate from Him.
Your words not matching
Your actions today.
Repent of your sin and
Bow down and pray.
Live what you testify
In truth always.
Purity’s lacking in
Your life and witness,
For you profess one thing,
But other you do.
Not moral, spiritual.
Still of the flesh.
Not living in truth to
What you confess.
Lying about it
Puts you in a mess.
Living a lie is your practice,
‘tis true of you.
Masquerade righteousness –
None of it true.
Your heart is not given
To your Lord God.
Because of how you live,
You are a fraud.
Turn from your sin and
Give your life to God.
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