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The Problems That Flow From Human Wisdom

(James 4:1–4)

Introduction:

Did your children ever get into fights? And did you ever ask the question, “Who started it?” Well, in this section, James answers that question.

The line of the thought at the beginning of James chapter 4 is a continuation of what James has been discussing at the end of chapter 3. He has been talking about God-given wisdom that is “pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated” (3:17). In contrast, he said that “earthly, sensual, devilish” human wisdom (3:15) is the kind of mindset that produces “envying and strife” (3:14, 16), which indicates jealousy and contentious anger. But God-given wisdom and right thinking is the seed that produces the fruit of righteousness and peace in the lives of those that are interested in a relationship of peace with God and peace with God’s people.

James alludes quite a bit in his epistle to the Sermon on the Mount, and it is easy to see in this section that James has expounded upon the truth that Jesus declared when he said…

(Matthew 5:9) Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

But James is not oblivious to the fact that there are contentions and fightings among professing believers. And he begins chapter 4 by asking the question, “From whence come wars and fightings among you?”

In order to introduce this section, I want to read a rather lengthy section from Warren Wiersbe’s Bible Exposition Commentary dealing with this passage. Wiersbe wrote…

“What causes fights and quarrels among you?” (NIV). Among Christians! “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Psalms 133:1). Surely brethren should live together in love and harmony, yet often they do not. Lot caused a quarrel with his Uncle Abraham (Genesis 13). Absalom created a war for his father David (2 Samuel 13-18). Even the disciples created problems for the Lord when they argued over who was the greatest in the kingdom (Luke 9:46-48).

When you examine some of the early churches, you discover that they had their share of disagreements. The members of the Corinthian church were competing with each other in the public meetings, and even suing each other in court (1 Corinthians 6:1-8; 14:23-40). The Galatian believers were “biting and devouring” one another (Galatians 5:15). Paul had to admonish the Ephesians to cultivate spiritual unity (Ephesians 4:1-16); and even his beloved church at Philippi had problems: two women could not get along with each other (Philippians 4:1-3).

James mentioned several different kinds of disagreements among the saints.

Class wars (2:1-9). Here is that age-long rivalry between the rich and the poor. The rich man gets the attention, the poor man is ignored. The rich man is honored, the poor man is disgraced. How tragic it is when local churches get their values confused and cater to the rich while they ignore, or even reject, the poor. If fellowship in a church depends on such external things as clothing and economic status, then the church is out of the will of God.

Employment wars (5:1-6). Again, it is the rich man who has the power to control and hurt the poor man. Laborers do not get their wages, or they do not get their fair wages. In spite of our modern labor movement and federal legislation, there are still many people who cannot get a good job, or whose income is less than adequate for the work they are doing.

Church fights (1:19-20; 3:13-18). Apparently, the believers James wrote to were at war with each other over positions in the church, many of them wanting to be teachers and leaders. When they studied the Word, the result was not edification, but strife and arguments. Each person thought that his ideas were the only right ideas and his ways the only right ways. Selfish ambition ruled their meetings, not spiritual submission.

Personal wars (4:11-12). The saints were speaking evil of one another and judging one another. Here, again, we see the wrong use of the tongue. Christians are to speak “the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15); they are not to speak evil in a spirit of rivalry and criticism. If the truth about a brother is harmful, then we should cover it in love and not repeat it (1 Peter 4:8). If he has sinned, we should go to him personally and try to win him back (Matthew 18:15-19; Galatians 6:1-2).

… It is unfortunate that the saints are at war with each other, leader against leader, church against church, fellowship against fellowship. The world watches these religious wars and says, “Behold, how they hate one another!” No wonder Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in this; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:21).

But, why are we at war with one another? We belong to the same family, we trust the same Saviour, we are indwelt by the same Holy Spirit - and yet we fight one another. Why? James answered this question.

And in the first four verses of chapter 4, James is pointing to some basic problems that flow from the type of human wisdom mentioned in 3:14-15. Observe that…

I. James Mentioned The Problem Of Warfare

(James 4:1) From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

A. James Asks In An Investigative Way – How The Fighting Is Caused

From whence come wars and fightings among you?

A. T. Robertson said that the verse literally says…

Whence (come) wars and whence (come) fightings among you? (Come they) not hence, (even) of your pleasures that war in your members?

Whence ‎pothen‎. This old interrogative adverb (here twice) asks for the origin of wars and fights. James is full of interrogatives (questions).

Other versions render this statement…

The English Standard Version says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?”

The Holman Christian Standard Bible says, “What is the source of the wars and the fights among you?”

The New King James version says, “Where do wars and fights come from among you?”

The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary says…

Wars contrast the “peace” of heavenly wisdom. “Fightings,” the active carrying on of wars.

MacArthur said…

Polemos (quarrels / or “wars” in the KJV) … relates to general, prolonged, and serious disputing or combat and is often rendered “war.” Conflicts (or “fightings” in the KJV) translates machē, which refers to a specific fight or battle. Both terms are used here metaphorically of violent personal relationships.

A. T. Robertson said that…

“Wars” (polemos) is “an old word” that “pictures the chronic state or campaign, while ‎machee (“fightings” is) also an old word (that) presents the separate conflicts or battles in the war. So James covers the whole ground by using both words.

John MacArthur said that the statement in verse 1, that “wars and fightings” are…

Among you indicates that these combative relationships were between members of the churches to whom James wrote. (MacArthur said according to) verse 4, some of those members obviously were not saved. And because they were thereby enemies of God, they were also enemies of each other and of true believers within the churches.

MacArthur goes on to say…

A pastor friend once told me he had discovered that the root cause of his quarreling, wrangling church board was that half of the men were saved and half were not. In such a situation, conflict is inevitable.

Note:

People ask the question, “Why can’t we all just get along?” One of the reasons is that we cannot forgive. There is an African Proverb that says, “He who forgives ends the quarrel.” Mahatma Gandhi was quoted as saying, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

B. James Answers In An Insightful Way – How The Flesh Is Corrupt

Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

In his commentary on the epistle of James, Hamilton Smith wrote…

The apostle has spoken of disorder and strife amongst the professing people of God. Now he asks, “From whence come wars and fightings among you?” He traces the wars amongst the people of God to the lusts of the heart finding expression in the members of the body. To gratify lust the flesh is prepared to kill and fight. … In a moral sense, if we are bent on carrying out our own wills, the flesh will ruthlessly belittle and override everyone that hinders the fulfillment of our desires.

‎A. T. Robertson said that the reference to the wars and fightings coming “‘out of your sinful, sensual lusts,’ (suggests) the desire to get what one does not have and greatly desires.” He said of the statement that these are “lusts that war in your members,” that it means “to carry on a campaign, here as in 1 Peter 2:11 of the passions in the human body.”

MacArthur said that the word “lusts” or “pleasures”…

Translates hedonon, from which “hedonist: and “hedonism” are derived. In the New Testament the word is always used in a negative, ungodly sense. Hedonism is the uncontrolled personal desire to fulfill every passion and whim that promises sensual satisfaction and enjoyment. The desire to fulfill these pleasures comes, of course, from selfishness, which is opposed to God and the Word of God.

MacArthur then cites a passage in 2 Timothy 3, which says…

(2 Timothy 3:2-5) For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, {3} Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, {4} Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures (they love what the flesh and self wants) more than lovers of God; {5} Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

The bottom line is that conflict comes from selfishness. More than they want to honor God or defer to one another as Paul says that we should do in Romans 12:10, the combative church member wants to have it their way. They want what they want, which leads to the next problem that James magnifies.

II. James Mentioned The Problem Of Wanting

(James 4:2–3) Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. {3} Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

A. Notice The Absence Of Success In This Wanting

(James 4:2) Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

The New American Standard – Updated Edition says…

(James 4:2) You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

MacArthur writes…

When desires for the wrong kinds of pleasure are frustrated and unfulfilled, they also wage external war. The verb epithumeo (to lust) refers to having a desire or longing of any kind, but the context makes it clear that the desire mentioned here is inordinate, misdirected, and sinful. James does not mention a specific object of desire, doubtless because the particular object does not matter as far as his point is concerned. When any strong, sinful lust is not gratified, the worldly person is prone to lash out in angry frustration, sometimes even committing murder. … Murder … in this context, could include murderous hatred, extremely destructive behavior. … Zeloo, here rendered envious (or “desire to have” in the KJV) … connotes an even stronger, more compelling of desire. It is the word from which we get “zealous” and “zealot.” … When people harbor such fierce desires but cannot obtain what they covet, they fight and quarrel. Marital conflicts, family conflicts, job conflicts, national conflicts – all these are the result of unsatisfied personal lust and envying. The Greek of verse 2 literally reads: “You lust and do not have. You kill. And you are envious and cannot obtain. You fight and quarrel.” But the so supplied by the NASB translators rightly indicates the causal relationship between lusting and killing and between envying, fighting, and quarreling.

Eugene H. Peterson paraphrase of James 4:2 in “The Message” says…

You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it. You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you?

Adam Clarke said…

[Ye lust, and have not] Ye are ever covetous, and ever poor. [Ye kill, and desire to have] Ye are constantly engaged in insurrections and predatory wars, and never gain any advantage.

Matthew Henry said…

Inordinate desires are either totally disappointed, or they are not to be appeased and satisfied by obtaining the things desired. The words here rendered cannot obtain signify cannot gain the happiness sought after. Note hence, Worldly and fleshly lusts are the distemper which will not allow of contentment or satisfaction in the mind.

You want it and want it and want it and never get it. And when you don’t get it, you get hateful. Like a little child that gets irate and says, “Mine,” that is how selfishness affects us. But even when the carnal mind gets it, it wants more and is never satisfied.

B. Notice The Agenda Of Selfishness In This Wanting

(James 4:3) Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

John Phillips said…

One reason for discord, divisions, and similar problems in the life of a Christian or a church often can be traced to wrong attitudes about prayer. James points to two problems – a failure to pray personally: “ye have not, because ye ask not” (4:2); and a failure to pray properly: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (4:3).

Adam Clarke said…

[Ye ask amiss] ‎Kakoos ‎‎aiteisthe‎. Ye ask evilly, wickedly. Ye have not the proper dispositions of prayer, and ye have an improper object. Ye ask for worldly prosperity, that ye may employ it in riotous living. This is properly the meaning of the original, ‎hina ‎‎en ‎‎tais ‎‎heedonais ‎‎humoon‎, That ye may expend it upon your pleasures. The rabbis have many good observations on asking amiss or asking improperly, and give examples of different kinds of this sort of prayer; the phrase is Jewish, and would naturally occur to James in writing on this subject. Whether the lusting of which James speaks were their desire to make proselytes, in order that they might increase their power and influence by means of such, or whether it were a desire to cast off the Roman yoke, and become independent; the motive and the object were the same, and the prayers were such as God could not hear.

The meanings of a couple of words also shed light on this verse…

amiss – Greek 2560. kakos, kak-oce'; adv. from G2556; badly (phys. or mor.):--amiss, diseased, evil, grievously, miserably, sick, sore.

In other words, your asking and your praying is wicked and evil in its motivation. It is diseased.

consume – Greek 1159. dapanao, dap-an-ah'-o; from G1160; to expend, i.e. (in a good sense) to incur cost, or (in a bad one) to waste:--be at charges, consume, spend.

You want to obtain the desire of your heart, not so that God can be glorified, but so that you can spend it on yourself and gratify yourself.

Eugene Peterson paraphrased the statements here like this…

You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to. You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way.

III. James Mentioned The Problem Of Waywardness & Worldliness

(James 4:4) Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

A. He Speaks Of Those That Become Spiritually Adulterous In Their Relationship With God

Ye adulterers and adulteresses

Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase says…

You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. (James 4:4 from The Message)

John MacArthur said…

In referring to adulteresses, James uses the term metaphorically in a way that his Jewish readers would clearly understand, referring to men as well as women. He is not talking about sexual but spiritual infidelity, as the term is often used in the Old Testament of God’s unfaithful people, Israel.

Albert Barnes said…

The idea is, “You have in effect broken your marriage covenant with God by loving the world more than him, and by the indulgence of your carnal inclinations; and you have violated those obligations to self-mortification and self-denial to which you were bound by your religious engagements.” To convince them of the evil of this, the apostle shows them what was the true nature of that friendship of the world which they sought.

B. He Speaks Of Those That Become Spiritually Adversarial In Their Relationship With God

Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Hamilton Smith wrote…

The lust of the flesh leads the apostle to warn us against the friendship of the world, which offers every opportunity to gratify lust. … “The friendship of the world is enmity with God.” Our attitude towards the world plainly declares our attitude towards God. … Habits of worldly self-indulgence bring death between the soul and God. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him,” writes the apostle John (1 John 2: 15). “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God,” says the apostle James.

Warren Wiersbe said…

The root cause of every war, internal and external, is rebellion against God. At the beginning of Creation, you behold perfect harmony; but sin came into the world, and this led to conflict. Sin is lawlessness, and lawlessness is rebellion against God. How does a believer declare war against God? By being friendly with God’s enemies.

Consider the meanings of these words…

friendship – Greek 5373. philia, fil-ee'-ah; from G5384; fondness:--friendship.

enmity – Greek 2189. echthra, ekh'-thrah; fem. of G2190; hostility; by impl. a reason for opposition:--enmity, hatred.

Conclusion:

How long did the Hundred Years’ War last? One hundred sixteen years.

What was reason for this war? There were two groups fighting over the throne of France.

Whenever we fight about who is going to sit on the throne of our hearts and lives, and whenever we’re are wrangling about who has control in God’s Kingdom, we can get into trouble.

These are some of the problems of human wisdom.

Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on The Hundred Years’ War…

The Hundred Years’ War (French: Guerre de Cent Ans) was a prolonged conflict lasting from 1337 to 1453 between two royal houses for the French throne, which was vacant with the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings. The two primary contenders were the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou. The House of Valois claimed the title of King of France, while the Plantagenets from England claimed to be Kings of France and England. Plantagenet Kings were the 12th century rulers of the Kingdom of England, and had their roots in the French regions of Anjou and Normandy. French soldiers fought on both sides, with Burgundy and Aquitaine providing notable support for the Plantagenet side.

The conflict lasted 116 years but was punctuated by several periods of peace, before it finally ended in the expulsion of the Plantagenets from France (except the Pale of Calais). The war was a victory for the house of Valois, who succeeded in recovering the Plantagenet gains made initially and expelling them from the majority of France by the 1450s.

The war was in fact a series of conflicts and is commonly divided into three or four phases: the Edwardian War (1337–1360), the Caroline War (1369–1389), the Lancastrian War (1415–1429), and the slow decline of English fortunes after the appearance of Joan of Arc (1412–1431). Several other contemporary European conflicts were directly related to the conflict between England and France: the Breton War of Succession, the Castilian Civil War, the War of the Two Peters, and the 1383-1385 Crisis. The term “Hundred Years’ War” was a later term invented by historians to describe the series of events.

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