Choices ... what to do with yours.
- Christine DiGiacomo
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
podcast: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/206935f0/choices-what-to-do-with-yours-james-no15
For that answer, I take us to James chapter four. This is the fourth time I have taught through the oh, so practical little letter of James, written to those early Jewish Christians, some who were near him there in Jerusalem, and many who had been scattered to various places, trying to escape the intense persecution.
[Christine, why do you remind us of James' purpose again? Because new people add in to our Morning Briefings group almost daily. Also, to remind all of us that scripture verses should not be cherry picked to fit and suit us, but we must also know the context in which the passage was originally written, and to whom.]
This morning I once again put pen to paper to consider James' packed fourth chapter. Verse by verse, he lays out a series of truths about living in a Christlike manner, with little breakdown or explanation as he goes. But the overall picture is this:
->Choose who you are going to follow: God or the world
->live to honor God or please yourself
->Human pleasure or God's will
With those parameters in mind, take a look or give a listen (podcast tab above) as James writes, with themes emboldened:
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you?
Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them.
Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.
And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. And he gives grace generously.
As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.
Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it." James 4, NLT
Phew...that's a lot!
James is directing his young Christian church to stop and consider their conduct. He does so by referencing the 'desires that battle inside each of them.' He knew his readers were familiar with this concept(battling desires within)because the Talmud taught/teaches that humans were/are composed of 248 body parts and the "good urge" and the "evil urge" struggle over the body as a whole, each lodging in different body parts.
'Consider the continual war which prevails among men even in times of peace,
and which exists not only between nations and countries and cities,
but also between private houses, or, I might rather say,
is present with every individual man;
observe the unspeakable raging storm in men's souls
that is excited by the violent rush of the affairs of life;
and you may well wonder whether anyone can enjoy tranquility in such a storm,
and maintain calm amid the surge of this billowing sea.'**
Fascinating. What an accurate statement of the condition of mankind, when it was written by Philo of Alexandria more than 2100 years ago, (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE), and yet today.
So, James' readers have always had a choice to cultivate the good, and flee from evil. Apparently, James makes such an abrupt change from peacemaking to fighting because the new Jewish Christians were choosing to feed the evil, self-seeking urges within, which is the antithesis of humility, of course!
I am caught by James' words: YOU WANT WHAT YOU DON'T HAVE. Really, they didn't know what they didn't have. They thought they wanted position, they thought they wanted possessions...THEN, they would be satisfied. Until then, the 'have nots' were jealous and envious of the 'haves', and the quarrels ensued. I submit to you what they wanted that they did not have is the same thing we want but most of us do not have--Satisfaction and joy in the Lord.
Today you will be gifted with choices ...do you realize how great it is that you have choices? Will your choices honor God and be for his glory, or will you simply live for yourself and your own pleasures?
And never forget that God gives grace, and he does so generously. Look to him. Make a choice to seek Him now and the next time you have a choice to make...
listen, Matthew West, "Good":
Christine
James, no.15
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