This Means War
I must be in a Petra mood the last week, because opening up to
James 4 has caused me to once more think of a Petra song: This Means War from the album of the same name. In these opening verses to James 4 we hear a
theme that he began in the last chapter when he was talking about the
tongue. There is a war being waged
within us.
We want what we don’t have, so we steal and murder. We covet and cannot obtain, so we fight. We don’t have because we ask God for the
wrong things. Yet what I find the most
striking is the word that James uses as an umbrella over all of these opening
verses: adultery. When we want what God
doesn’t want for us, it is spiritual adultery.
When we are so focused on other stuff that we don’t ask God for the right
things, we are being adulterous against God.
That’ll make you think today. I
know it has made me think. For what it
is worth, it is precisely this word that the Old Testament prophets use against
the Hebrew people time and time again.
The Path out of Spiritual Adultery
So how do we avoid being spiritual adulterers? Submit yourself before God. Humble yourself in the presence of God. Draw near to God and He will certainly draw
near to you. Do not take God’s place as
judge, jury, and executioner. Rather,
accept that it is His role to fill and then begin to desire the things of His
nature. In doing so, we will prevent
ourselves from becoming the victim of spiritual adultery.
Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. Do not speak ill of one another. Who are we to sit as judge over one another
anyway? Is that not God’s place?
In all ways, the path to avoiding spiritual adultery begins first
with humbling ourselves to God and accepting His role over creation. Then we can accept our role and live up to it
rather than aspiring to something that God does not want for us. I think this is a deep vein of fruitful
thought today. How much of what we do in
our life that falls into the category of “generally not good for us” also falls
into the category of “we wanted it but God didn’t?”
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men
At the end of chapter 4, James speaks about how we plan our
lives. We tell each other what we’ll do
for tomorrow, the next week, the next month, or even the next year. And then James points out just how pointless
this approach is. After all, can any of
us actually really guarantee that we’ll wake up tomorrow?
Now that I’ve given you something to keep you lying awake in bed
tonight, let me step back and talk a little more about what I think James
means. James isn’t saying that it is bad
for to plan for the future. I think
James is absolutely a planner. But what
I think James is really saying is that our mistake is in saying, “Here’s what I
am going to do.” Rather, we need to stop
and ask ourselves, “What is it that God desires me to do?” When we pause to ask that question instead of
jumping right to the question about what I want to do, then we won’t waste our
time pursuing our own fruitless efforts.
I believe this is the true point of James’ words here in these last two
chapters.
This naturally leads us into the middle section of James 5. {I am
skipping the opening section of James 5 because honestly I think it is very
straightforward.} James tells us to
be patient. He tells us that we are to
be like farmers waiting for the harvest that God is going to provide. After all, is it not better to achieve what
God desires we achieve than to work and work for our own toil only to end up in
some place that isn’t good for us?
That being said, I know why James gives this advice. How many of us genuinely excel at being
patient? How many of us are great at
sitting back and waiting for God to reveal His plan? Yes, I know we would all agree that God’s
plan is best. But honestly, how good are
we at waiting for it to happen?
Prayer
James concludes this letter with an exhortation to pray. Pray in times of trouble. Pray in times of celebration. Pray when you are tempted. In fact, when you are tempted confess to one
another so that others may also hold you up in prayer. Pray for the sick.
Reading this, you really do get the idea that prayer is an
incredibly powerful tool. At this point,
I have to confess that prayer is personally the tool that I underuse the
most. I’m guessing this is true for many
of us. Every time I come across an
admonishment to pray more often and to pray for each other I am convicted that
I’m not doing the job that I should be doing.
Of course, I logically know all of this. To make matters worse, I know that prayer is
the foundation of relationship with God.
To be in relationship with God, one must pray. That alone should be reason for a person to
desire to pray more. Who wouldn’t want
their relationship with the living God and the creator of the universe to
increase?
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment