“Whoever knows what is right but doesn’t do it is sinning.”
(James 4:17 GW)
So, I’m finally getting to Day #2 of that 21 day Bible Study. You know, the one I did Day #1 of about a week ago… And, again, finding myself up against more of that Tough Stuff in the Bible. Sometimes people think there are things in the Bible they don’t like, so they just reject those things. But God’s Word isn’t some sort of spiritual buffet where you take what you like and leave the rest. The Apostle Paul says, “Every Scripture passage is inspired by God. All of them are useful for teaching, pointing out errors, correcting people, and training them for a life that has God’s approval.” (2 Timothy 3:16 GW) This doesn’t say “parts of the Bible,” but that “EVERY Scripture passage is inspired by God” and “ALL of them are useful.”
Dang. So much for ignoring the parts we don’t like or challenge us, huh?
Someone said recently that if we want to be close to God, we have to be ready to have ourselves worked on. What does THAT work look like? One type of that work is to allow God’s Word in the Bible to work on us. How much time do you need to spend in Word? Enough to keep sin and the desire for it out of your life.
Sheesh. Is that even possible in this life?
In a word, yes. But we must be intentional to live a holy, God-filled, right-living kind of life. We must search out good teachers to help us understand God’s Word.
The writer of James is a teacher who doesn’t mince words. He’s pretty challenging to our “I’m good enough” Christianity. He’s pretty cut and dry that THIS is the way God wants things to be and THAT is not. Not much grey in the middle. Choose what you want to be – God’s remade creation or your own fleshly nature. Let’s walk through the ideas of James 4 and hear the choices we are given.
What causes fights? The selfish desires that want to control you to the point you will commit murder. You don’t have things because you pray for them only for your own pleasure. So, therefore, choose. Will you pray only for your own pleasure? Will you allow your selfish desires to control you?
Love for this world is hatred to God. If you want to be a friend of this world, you are now an enemy of God. God opposes the arrogant but is kind to the humble. So, therefore, choose. Are you going to love the world or love God? Are you going to be arrogant or humble?
Place yourself under God’s authority. Resist the enemy so he will run away from you. Come close to God and he will come close to you. So, therefore, choose. Will you allow God to have authority over your life? Will you intentionally resist and flee from your enemy? Will you come close to God?
Clean up your lives and your minds, you sinners and doubters. Be miserable, mourn, cry, and turn your joy into gloom. Humble yourself and God will lift you up. So, therefore, choose. Will you clean up your lives, mourn for your sins, and humble yourselves?
But, in case you needed more….
Stop slandering each other because you slander and judge God’s laws and if you do this you are no longer following them, but judging them. Only God is able to judge – and he is also able to save or to destroy you. So, therefore, choose. Will you continue to slander and judge if you know God does not want you to?
Don’t brag about your plans for the future; you don’t know what will happen tomorrow and you may disappear like mist. And don’t brag in your arrogance. You simply are not God. So, therefore, choose. Will you trust God to make plans for your future? Will you brag or will you remain humble?
James 4 is by no means the only scriptures that talk with us about how to live in right relationship with God. But, they are enough for this day. If we truly aim to let God and God’s Word work on us so we become more holy and righteous – more like Jesus – then this is a good place to start.
Holy God to Who All Praise Is Due,
We stand in awe of you, thanking you and praising you for the ways in which your Love reaches down to us. You love us as we are but love us too much to leave us there. Thank you for your Word which challenges us to live in right relationship with you, with ourselves, and with others. Help us to love you fully and reject the world. Help us to choose your authority in our lives. Help us to stop judging but trust you for judgement and for our future. Help us to pray honestly and without selfish desires, humbling ourselves before the God of the Universe. Holy Spirit, fill us to overflowing with your power, your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control so that we are Salt and Light to the world around us. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
“The Spirit however, produces in human life fruits such as these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, fidelity, tolerance and self-control—and no law exists against any of them. Those who belong to Christ have crucified their old nature with all that it loved and lusted for. If our lives are centred in the Spirit, let us be guided by the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:21-22 PHILLIPS)
“You are salt for the earth. But if salt loses its taste, how will it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people. “You are light for the world. A city cannot be hidden when it is located on a hill. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket. Instead, everyone who lights a lamp puts it on a lamp stand. Then its light shines on everyone in the house. …” (Matthew 5:13-16 GW)
4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 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. 3 When you ask, you do not receive,because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”[c]
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 and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister[d] or judges them 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?
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 in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. (James 4 NIV)