The Wandering Shepherd

The words RESPONSE TIME are used in modern life in a number of different ways. Because we live in a technological society, one way to think of it is this: “In a data system, the system response time is the interval between the receipt of the end of transmission of an inquiry message and the beginning of the transmission of a response message to the station originating the inquiry.” About three people in the room really get what I just said, and even they are bored with it! The fact is that we aren’t only about technology – we are also a society “on the move”. For motorsports enthusiasts from Nascar to High Performance Racing, “response time” has to do with the speed and agility of the vehicle to respond to the movements of the driver. Sometimes it is about the time between increasing throttle power and forward velocity. A little closer to the essentials of life, let’s look at other ways it is used. For emergency responders in our society, “response time” has to do with the time lag between the call for help and the arrival of the emergency services. Finally, among some police officers, the term “response time” has a very specific meaning. It refers to the is the first forty-eight hour period from the discovery of the crime (as in someone finds a body) and the following of leads to suspects.

Technology, racing, saving lives and police work all have one thing in common – they require timely responses for success. A dead car remains at the starting line. A response-less computer that “goes out to lunch in cyberspace” has no value in solving a digital query. The unanswered or badly delayed answer to an emergency call can mean death. Each action requires a timely response for the action to have any meaning at all. In a strange way, James argued back in the first century that our faith, when posed in specific situation was also like that – it required a timely and proper response. People in the body of Messiah need care – and that care has a timely action associated with it.

Key Principle: God not only orchestrated and allowed challenges to come into the body of Messiah, He included instructions on our appropriate and timely responses to each challenge.

The basic question behind the passage is this: What are believers commanded to DO for one another? The emphasis of the passage is NOT on the person who is sick or suffering, but rather an instruction to the body of believers on “How to Handle…” in a series of very clear instructions about four kinds of people:

James 5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. 19 My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

“Four People that Need our Help Among Jesus’ Followers”

The first step toward the church responding to each person that is a part of the fellowship is this: recognize that not everyone is on the same page. Some are hurting, while others are celebrating. Some are facing illness and physical exhaustion while others are restless and desiring to “sow the wild oats”. All may gather together on a Sunday morning, but they don’t all see things the same way, because they aren’t all in the same place. The response to one another should be underscored by a basic desire to “dwell together in an understanding way”.

Look around you. Many believers in the room where you worship may well be in secret pain. They may be disappointed when they look in the mirror. Some see AGE where they once saw a fresh youth. Others see a body that is slipping from their control. Some are worried about the direction of the country for their children and grandchildren. Some are young and full of life and promise. Some are in love, and the world couldn’t be prettier. Some are thinking about gain, others about loss…Yet we are all together. How should we handle some who are among us that we can see are in need of a timely and specific response?

1: PEOPLE IN PAIN

Our text opens with “people who are in pain”. The term suffering isn’t a simple one – because the experience of suffering isn’t a simple one.

Let’s be clear about what the text truly says:

5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? kakopathéō (from kakós, “bad; of a malicious disposition” and páthos, “pain”) –experiencing a painful hardship or suffering that seems to be a “setback” but really isn’t. (all definitions in this study are adapted from those of Dr. Gary Hill at Discovery Bible).

5:13b “…Then he must pray.” proseúxomai (from prós, “to bow toward or to exchange” and euxomai, “to wish, pray”) – properly, to exchange wishes; literally prayer in the interaction with the Lord by switching human wishes (ideas) for His wishes as He imparts faith (“divine persuasion”).

How should believers handle someone who is facing a disappointing and painful reversal in their lives? (5:13a).

James said: Are some of the believers in your midst facing apparent setbacks? Let them exchange those for God’s perspective on what is happening in their lives. The answer: The person must be aided and instructed to fall before God and exchange the view they have with the perspective of God on the issue.

Look carefully at the text and you will see three things.

• First, it is POSSIBLE for a believer to face a setback or reversal. There are those who teach that such things are NOT for the child of God – but that simply isn’t the case. Following God is no guarantee that hardship won’t come. In fact, the Bible record of men and women of God is the very opposite. God does not get the best from untested children – and the Word if filled with stories of men and women that have suffered and been hurt while following God. At the same time, the things we THINK are reversals are often God’s actual plan. Through the complex matrix of detours, the actual intended plan of God unfolds to tell the story of WHO HE IS.

• Second, the focus of the text appears to be on how the body must instruct those who suffer. The text isn’t just an individual manual on “what to do in suffering” – it is a corporate manual on “what we should instruct those who are suffering”. This isn’t a semantic issue, it has real implications. This isn’t a heartless response to sufferers– it is REAL HELP. When we instruct people to get before the Lord about their problems – we AREN’T ABDICATING our responsibility, we are FULFILLING it.

• Finally, the response of the person in pain wasn’t ALWAYS SUPPOSED TO BE COUNSELING. More often than not the answer was to get alone with God and hash out what He says about what is happening. This is NOT a popular approach in the modern church of the west, where counseling and therapy have largely replaced expository preaching and propositional truth – but it is nevertheless a Biblical idea. There is a time in the Bible to have many counselors in making plans. There is a time to have a shoulder to weep upon – clearly that is in view in the Bible. At the same time, much counseling has been aimed at labeling and diagnosis – and not at final solutions to deal with the problem. Let me offer this – if you take to your Maker the issues of trials of life – He will answer you and give you His perspective. James 1 made that argument about trials, and James 5 makes it again. We need DIVINE perspective in facing our issues. TRUTH comes from the Creator – and TRUTH is the only resolution to all things painful.

I have to admit something that I find a bit painful…I hardly ever have a conversation with any believer, no matter how old, who tells me they are content with their prayer life and excited about how it is working for them. What God designed to rescue us from the pain of disconnection from Him has become a source of guilt for many a follower of Jesus. How can this be? I suspect the problem is due, at least in part, to some misunderstanding of both the nature and purpose of prayer. The secret may be found in the term the New Testament writer chose to reflect prayer.

The Greek term “proseúxomai” is a compound word taken from “prós” – to bow toward or to exchange and the term “euxomai” to express a wish or desire. Added together, one very clear way of thinking about prayer is this: to interact with the Lord and exchange perspective. In prayer I give God my broken view of a situation or perceived need, and He exchanges it with His perspective on the situation. Prayer then, is neither to inform God nor change God – it is primarily focused on the exchange of my poor perspective with His Divine view. I am not suggesting that prayer doesn’t change outcomes. In Scripture, men prayed and God moved. I am suggesting the opposite – the first change that occurs is the one that happens inside the heart of the person praying. Prayer is accomplished when I leave with Heaven’s perspective of my situation.

“The definition of prayer I want to project is this: the deliberate submission of my heart to God for the purpose of exchanging my perspective with His.”

This isn’t its only meaning – but it is perhaps its most neglected meaning in our modern usage…

2: PRAISING PEOPLE

Not everyone is beat down in the church. Some have just met the future love of their life. Some have just landed the best job they could ever imagine. Some have just seen God break them free from the chains of addiction. Some have just seen God heal their marriage. Look at the text:

5:13b “…Is anyone cheerful? euthyméō (from eú, “good” and thymós, “passion”) – properly, to show positive passion or be of high morale.

5:13b “…He is to sing praises. psállō – properly, pluck a musical instrument (like a harp); used of “singing along with instruments”; “to make music,” or simply sing.

How should we instruct believers to handle times of positive passion and apparent victory? (5:13b).

James said: Are some among you excited about life right now? Let him break out in song and rejoicing. The answer: The person should be aided and instructed to cry out in rejoicing and praise before the Lord! Music is a great expression!

The short way to emphasize this truth is this: SHARE THE JOY OUT LOUD! We must not only be heard when things are somber, or people are hurting – there should be shouts of JOY when God breaks open a new moment of JOY in our midst.

When was the last time you really celebrated God’s goodness to you OUT LOUD? Thanksgiving was supposed to do that – but now it has become largely a celebration of gluttony and extravagance followed by shouts of competition as we watch the football game to follow. The church that is SO VERSED in pointing out SIN and DECAY in society must also learn to rejoice in every moment that God is doing happy work in us. All the work is His work – but some of it is designed to make us SING, SHOUT AND CELEBRATE.

• Prayer meetings need a praise section, not just a shopping list of physical maladies listed before God.

• Worship services need something rich and celebratory – because we serve a GOOD GOD. I want to be a part of a service that focuses me on God’s promises and power – not just sin’s problems and persistence.

A church is only as helpful as its instruction is practical.
It is only as caring as it is communally embracing.
It is only as supportive as it is inspirationally empowering.

Brothers and sisters – if what we preach is true – we are not happy enough. We do not display the faces of souls set free. We do not shine like those who have access to the King above all earthly kings. We have surrendered the sounds of rejoicing to the angry murmuring of a nation sinking. I do not ask you to say that our days ahead will be easy – I ask you to rejoice because the days ahead end with the King again enthroned – sitting exalted over His creation. They end with Jesus exalted high, and His arch enemy forever bound in the soupy Lake of Fire.

• We may lose our earthly retirement funds – but not our eternal salvation.
• We may lose our dollar’s worth – but not our true treasures above.
• We may lose our temporal freedoms – but never our eternal home.

Jesus shall reign on earth – come what may in the short run. Ours is a faith destined to rejoice! Why not practice now, for the Lord God Omnipotent ALREADY reigns!

3: SICK PEOPLE

There is a group that cannot rejoice well, because their body has been broken under the load of the curse of the Garden of Eden. We must remember to deal sensitively with people – because we are ALL FRAGILE BEINGS. The most powerful man or woman in the nation is a few heartbeats from history books and a pine box. With that in mind, look at James 5:14-18. The question is clear:

How should believers handle the sick and physically weakened among them?

Three specifics are given, in accord with the parties involved (5:14-18):

First, there is the response of the sick themselves.

5:14 Is anyone among you sick? asthenéō – from asthenēs – which is a “without” and sthenos, “vigor, strength”) – properly, without vigor, living in a state of weakness (depletion).”

5:14b “…Then he must call …” proskaleó – from toward and to call – to summon. “…for the elders of the church” presbýteros – properly, a mature man having seasoned judgment (experience); an elder. “…and they are to pray over him…” proseúxomai (from prós, “to bow toward or to exchange” and euxomai, “to wish, pray”) – properly, to exchange a broken perspective for God’s view.

5:14b “…anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; literally: “having anointed him” aleíphō – properly, to rub or smear olive oil on the body. The word is the ordinary term used for physically anointing the body with (olive) oil. Anointing brought healing and relief and hence became synonymous with gladness (festivity). It was also the preparation for the contest ahead, in the metaphoric sense it was the renewal for future contest.

James said: Are some of you physically depleted? The one who is in such a state should call on the elders of the congregation to seek the Lord to exchange the heaviness for God’s future ministry for them. Having poured and rubbed oil upon the depleted one, they should seek God for that renewal and clarity. The answer: The one who has been knocked down physically and cannot regain strength should call on the elders to help them see God’s perspective in a time of prayer and symbolic seeking of healing. That is the word to the SICK or DEPLETED ONE.

Second, there is the work of those who care for the flock – the elders.

5:15 “…and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, pisteuo: faith is the perspective of truth always rendered by God when we see from His perspective the events of our world. It is distinct from human confidence, yet engages it. The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers, i.e. the persuasion of His will (1 Jn 5:4), as in:

1 John 5:4 “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

5:15b “…and the Lord will raise him up, egeiró: to awaken or rouse.

5:15b “…and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Pepoikos: if he had manufactured or committed sin (sins of commission). They will be phíēmi (from 575 /apó, “away from” and hiēmi, “send”) – properly, send away; release (discharge).

James said: As the elders pray, that prayer offered in full perspective of God’s view will awaken or rouse the depleted one. If they have been guilty of sinful works, they will be released from any further physical penalty related to that sin. The answer: The elders should seek God for His perspective, and await His Divinely revealed wisdom. If specific sin is at the center – it should be openly confessed and the penalty released. That is the instruction to the elders.

Third, in a preventative way, all believers are to be instructed to stem off such illnesses.

5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, eksomologéō (from ek, “wholly out from,” intensifying homologéō, “say the same thing about”) – properly, fully agree and to acknowledge that agreement whole-heartedly; hence, to “openly declare” without reservation.

5:16b “…and pray for one another so that you may be healed. Iáomai: healing, particularly Divine healing that draws attention to the Lord Himself as the Great Physician (cf. Is 53:4,5; cp. Lk 17:15: “Now one of them [i.e. the ten lepers], when he saw that he had been healed (iáomai), turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice.” The term iáomai normally includes the notion that in the change attention is drawn to the Lord as the source of the healing – and it is beyond the physical healing itself and its benefits (as with therapeúō).

5:16b “…The effective prayer..” déēsis from dḗ (“really”) which likewise implies a felt need that is personal and urgent – deō is the form “to be in want, lack”; related to déomai, “praying for a specific, felt need”). This is a heart-felt petition, arising out of deep personal need (sense of lack, want). “…of a righteous man…” díkaios from dikē, “right, judicial approval” is properly, “approved by God” “…can accomplish much.” Energéō (from en, “engaged in,” which intensifies érgon, “work”) – properly, energize, like an electrical current energizing a wire, bringing it to a shining light bulb.

Think of the Biblical pattern: Elijah experienced the same feelings as other men of his time, but prayed that it would not rain -and the rain was withheld three and one half years. At a later time he again sought the Lord to open the sky, and the Lord did so, causing the crops to sprout again.

5:17 “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours…” The term “nature” is homiopathes: same feelings. “…and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

The issue wasn’t the feeling of the praying one – it was the uniqueness of one who was judicially approved and held Divine perspective within him deliberately SEEKING GOD. The so called “prayer of faith” was the same as the prayer of the “righteous man” (5:16). That prayer was is in “middle voice”. As in a prayer GIVEN TO HIM. That is best translated, “the effectual fervent prayer of faith given to him avails much…” It was this kind of prayer God put in the mouths of effective prophets of old (5:17-18).

James said: As a result of the truth that such penalties can be discharged by complete agreement with God about the egregious violations admitted without reservation to one another, do so. When one shares such a confession, seek God to exchange the words for His Divine view – that the Lord may intervene and rescue overtly. The heart-felt petition of one who is approved by God in His judicious standard (sees it from God’s perspective) and who senses an urgent lack energizes the work. The answer: Believers are to intentionally open themselves to confess sin before one another, and seek God’s Divine healing of both the sin and its effects on their lives. The effective prayer will be GIVEN by God, just as the FORGIVENESS is given by God.

4: STRAYING PEOPLE

We have dealt with hurting, rejoicing and sick people – who else is left?

How should believers deal with straying Christians? (5:19-20)

5:19 “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth planáō – properly, go astray, get off-course; to deviate from the correct path (circuit, course), roaming into error, wandering; (passive) be misled. This is the root of the English term, planet (“wandering body”). This term nearly always conveys the sin of roaming (for an exception – see Heb 11:38). “…and one turns him back…” epistrephó (from epi: back and strepho: return) – puts him back in place.

5:20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death…” psyxḗ (from psyxō, “to breathe, blow” the root of the English words “psyche,” “psychology”) –a person’s distinct identity (unique personhood), i.e. individual personality. This corresponds exactly to the Hebrew term for the direct aftermath of God breathing (blowing) – His gift of life into a person, making them an ensouled being.“…and will cover a multitude of sins.” kalýptō – properly, to cover or conceal pléthos, as in a BUNDLE OF sins.

James said: Brothers, if another from among us roams away from God’s stated truth and one intentionally works to turn him back to God’ standard, acknowledge the deed of the man who deliberately sought his brother’s return and remind him that he has helped preserve the person’s physical life, and put a cover over the growth of a whole bundle of sins. The answer: We shouldn’t let the wandering go without challenge.

Let me ever so clear: If you know Jesus as your Savior and you are a part of Grace – even on a cursory level – expect that we will challenge you to get serious about your faith in your life style. We will never be particularly popular for it – but the Scripture calls us to do so. We won’t make a list bigger than the text we are teaching, but we won’t make it LESS than the text either. It isn’t based on our preferences, or our personal abilities – but solely based on our undying commitment to teach the Word, cover to cover, to anyone who desires to learn it.

Let me finish our time with a simple look at one question: Did God Promise to Heal Every Sick Believer? Let’s draw some important conclusions-

The passage DOESN’T teach:

• God can only heal in this way, and will not heal in other ways.
• All sickness is as a result of the sinful actions or omissions of the sick person.
• God is obligated to heal every sick person that Elders anoint.

The passage DOES teach:

• God can use sickness as His own tool to discipline people (the leprosy of Miriam, the quail sickness in the wilderness).
• God can use death as a tool for discipline in the church (1 Cor. 11; Acts 5).
• Obedience is healthy and sin is dangerous both physically and spiritually (Dt. 6:24).
• God has numerous ways to bring about repentance in our lives, but He does not inflict pain without purpose.
• God is FOR us! He wants us to grow and produce. He wants us to bypass suffering and pain.

God not only orchestrated and allowed challenges to come into the body of Messiah, He included instructions on our appropriate responses to each challenge.

I was watching a YouTube of a courtroom the other day – it was fascinating. The professor that posted the split screen presentation was directing the viewer to notice the various facial expressions of the people at both the prosecution table and the defense table as evidence was offered. The faces gave away much, according to the professor. The same idea was heavily used in split screening the facial expressions of both participants in the recent Presidential debate. I think it is a fascinating idea to look at the body language and the facial expressions of people to try to read what is going on in their head and heart. It isn’t terribly reliable, I don’t think, but it is interesting. Watching the two tables – prosecution and defense – I became keenly aware of a truth about every believer I know.

Believers live a divided life – we live in split screen. We are both guilty and declared righteous. We are children of two worlds – Heaven and earth. We walk through life with a call to indulge in every earthly pleasure while that beckoning is restrained by the truth that this is only the beginning for us. We have eternity to taste of God’s goodness, and every pleasure and blessing we have ever heard of was ultimately orchestrated by His good hand.

Think about what is ahead for the follower of Jesus. There is no pleasure like that which brings no guilt. There is no dessert like that which brings no additional pounds. There is no delight like that which will not offend or bring pain to anyone – but rather will build up everyone around you. We live for God’s glory, but also get to anticipate Heaven’s joy! That truth bids us to recognize earth’s temporary nature – or at least it should. Heaven’s peace is God’s answer for earth’s turmoil – and that is why its description is expressed in His Word.

We end up on the guilty side of the screen when we begin when to pay more attention to delight in this world than approval in the next. This world parades a set of values that beckon to the core of the old man within, and we find ourselves tempted to trade what is best for what is immediately satisfying. We call the moral pull downward “temptation” but it is much more powerful than should be able to be expressed in a single word. Some of us have struggled and wrestled with it for years, being wounded by its venom a bit more with each strike of its fangs. When fully infected by its poison, we have staggered from right choices into headlong sin. It is in the moment of temptation we need a sobering reminder that we were not made for this world – and we will not find what we are looking for here. We were made for a perfect world, and that was marred by the catastrophic submission to the rebel prince that now leads men and women all around us. Since the fall of man, God called those who would follow Him to journey through the wasteland of this fallen existence and hold Him tightly until we reach His castle beyond. It is coming, and it has what we need.

What happens when a believer surrenders to the heat and intensity of the journey? What happens when they defect from their first love and move in rebellion to the sin-laden sirens about us? We give in to what some call “the moral short cuts”. They promise fast fulfillment and they pledge to cover over the damage they will bring – but the promise is a lie. When a believer falls into sin – they need the call to return to the priority of living for THEN and THERE, not HERE and NOW. James found it necessary to utter that prophetic call long ago, and it still helps to sober up compromised believers today. The text for this lesson can be easily broken into two – like the two tables at the front of a great courtroom. On one side there is the offender – on the other the offended.

Key Principle: When we walk with this world’s values, we show we do not understand the call God has given us. When we walk with Heaven’s values, we find it challenging not to strike back at those who take advantage of us in this life.

Look around you – you will see believers who fall into one of two categories – and BOTH are struggling in different ways…

Offenders: Call to repentance for believers who are wrong. (James 5:1-6)

Some believers are offenders. They are TAKING ADVANTAGE of this world, while subverting the values of the next. In the case of the early Jewish beleivers addressed by James, he argued that the wealthy followers of Jesus needed to change their view of life! It appear they were celebrating the wrong life. His words to them: “Sober up! Very soon you will see the end of all that you hold dear.” James 5:1 says: “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten.”

Here’s my question: “Why?” Why come down on people who are enjoying their life? Why should Christianity and its values be such a saddening experience? Look more carefully, because James explains:

• Their riches are MISTIMED: James argued they suffered from a bad sense of timing. James 5:3 goes on to explain: “Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!” James remarks they should consider several things:

First, most things of this world won’t last beyond this world, and believers should recognize that. Second, if I tie up the resources on personal pleasures that God actually gave me to reach others and eternally change destinies – I will face greater judgment for my choices. Third, if I fail to recognize the hour is late in God’s economy – I will misread the calendar and feel at ease with wrong choices. Earthly treasures aren’t wrong – they are temporary. Earthly pleasures aren’t wrong – they are simply less important when rescue is the order of the day.

People who are drowning don’t care what the rescuer is wearing – they need help. Christians that are more concerned about gaining acceptance in the world and appealing to the world have forgotten the world is running out of time. They have forgotten that men and women are being swallowed up by Hell’s flames.

Note that James isn’t arguing the hour is late in the time of THEIR LIVES. It wasn’t late as far as nearing their LAST MINUTE of the earth…It was late in the game as far as the planet is concerned. The Church Age is the final age of God’s sowing of salvation to a doomed planet! Their casual attitude toward the souls of men is at the heart of the problem. Would James see the modern church of America differently if he were writing today?

• Their riches were UNFAIRLY EARNED: James said: “Your practices are unfair – because you have taken advantage of others to gain in unfair ways! Look carefully at James 5:4 “Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”

James cried out: “LOOK”. That is the word “behold!” Take a good look! The workers that have made you what you are have been unfairly taken advantage of. The Lord of the Armies of Heaven hears the cries of those we have abused and over whom we have taken advantage.

o The payment of millions to a corporate CEO while pensions are left unfunded and retirees are left adrift is a symptom of a wrong-headed economy.
o A doctor or hospital that charges for a beds and treatments depending on what they can GET from an insurer, rather than on fair cost value plus reasonable markup is a symptom of a people that no longer are sensitive to gouging.
o A church that is content to spend all its money on ever expanding beautiful property while it closes down outreach dollars to missions has forgotten its calling.
o When we contract employment and then renegotiate after the work’s successful and acceptable completion, we show that we are unabashedly open about our greed.

The other night I sat with a man who did a job for a large contractor. The work was quoted at about $45,000.00. On successful completion of the job, the recipient of the work simply settled on $10,000 less than the final price. He was right up front – it would cost my friend that much to retain lawyers to get the rest owed, and that would be costly in time and money. I hope the man who did this is not sitting in a church this Sunday thinking God isn’t paying attention to his cheating. Let me assure you – He was in the first century when James wrote James 5:4 – and He is listening today. If you are cheating – He is watching.

If you are charging what is beyond what you are due – you are cheating, and both you and God know who you are. This is a message from Him: “I saw it. Make it right. No fooling around. I told the Pastor to tell you this… go back and make it right.” God hears the cries of those we take advantage of in our businesses and in our homes.

• Their riches were SELF-INDULGENTLY USED: James argued: “Your focus has been self – and the excesses have been exercises in lavish indulgence at the expense of things that are truly important!” James 5:5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

Very soon the time to reach your neighbor will be gone. The time to send out another mission couple to the places far away will be finished. The use of every dollar spent on luxury while others perished will bring us a blush of embarrassment before the Savior.

I was watching a war movie not long ago, in which a group of soldiers broke into a liquor store in Germany during WWII. They were found lying around out back of the store, completely inebriated. The people who found them were nurses that had come to get the alcohol as the vital supply for both surgical cleaning and anesthesia for their wounded buddies. While the men lay about drunk, their friends and buddies underwent surgery with dirty utensils and suffered infections because of their indulgence.

I sometimes wonder what would happen if one single church would truly give until it hurt them to reach people. I wonder if we will ever know. We have been trained, all of us, to see ourselves as much more needy than we truly are. I am no exception. I have lived a spoiled life, and so have most of you – I suspect. We have more than we need. We need more than we should. We give less than He wants. And all God’s people said, “Ouch!”

Remember this: Gluttony comes in many forms. Americans have made gluttony acceptable long before they made sexual sin common. We should be, we must be deeply reflective about our selfish sinfulness.

• Their riches were UNJUSTLY PROTECTED: James said: “Your judgments are deceptively protected by slanted courts!”! James 5:6: “You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.”

The courts are not the best refuge for the righteous. It is always been true that the rich get offered a different standard of judgment. In our society, when charged, many have the right to buy out temporary freedom with bail – the poor have no such option. In fact, the poor often need to show up at work even more to be able to keep their job. In our system, the highest interest rates are charged to those who own the least. I hear someone thinking: “Because, Pastor, they are a higher risk to us!” Really? Are you arguing that they are a greater risk than say, LARGE BANKS? How about MORTGAGE BROKERAGES?

Do you see my point? I have lived too long to believe that the money is based on real risk – it is based on access and access is based on MONEY. The problem is this: Justice isn’t justice when a rich person can buy a different brand of justice than a poor man. Believers cannot simply point to the fact that we have courts to protect the unprotected – because it isn’t true. We need to help those at the lower end of the economic spectrum because we can see past the dividing of America that is taking place. Christians should help because God called us to be used of Him. Let me ask you this: “Could it be that God gave you a raise so that you can help someone else with their burden instead of just spending it on yourself?” Is that possible? Have you ASKED HIM about why He gave it to you?

Offended: Responses of believers who are cheated by others (James 5:7-12)

Ok, that is enough of the offenders. Now look at the opposite table. Take a good look at the victims. How do I face God and remove a complaining spirit when I have been ABUSED? What do I do if I am being HURT by another? God has some words through James to you…

FOUR WAYS TO RESPOND WHEN WRONGED

First, trust God to make it right – because He will! (James 5:7-8).

You may not get to see the way God works in the life of the person who hurts you – but know that He misses NOTHING. James 5:7 says: “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. 8 You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” Notice five things about these verses:

• It is a command of God to patiently wait. This may not be your choice – but it is obedience. God commanded patience and trust, not anger and revenge. You won’t get the right result by trying to do God’s will YOUR WAY. It didn’t work for Moses and the Egyptian taskmaster that was beating a Hebrew, and it won’t work for you.

• It has a specific ending time. You will not be called on to wait forever – God will attend to business and fix things in His time. Live like you know that, and let that be enough for you. “Every dog has his day.” It is a truth of Scripture – and it helps when you live in the modern kennel we call America.

• It is the pattern of God’s design. You don’t have to look further than your nearby farm to see it – God works on a time schedule. He isn’t an INSTANT God, though increasingly He is the God of the INSTANT CHRISTIAN. We must get back in sync with a God who works through patience and quiet prayer – not just through activism.

• It will take inner effort. Waiting isn’t a vacation – it is exhausting. If you are financially being taken advantage of at work, days will seem like months. If someone is telling lies about you, the impulse to hurt them back will be enormous! Use your energy to grow your walk with God and care for others – not to plot to get even!

• It will not be forgotten. Practice saying what James said: “The coming of the Lord is NEAR”! When you are beaten down, remember that Jesus knows what it feels like to be abused and taken advantage of, and He will settle the account with that pain in mind.

Second, do not try to fix everyone – God will set what is wrong now right – but He will do it later! (James 5:9).

James kept hammering the use of the mouth through the letter – it is one of his most profound themes. He says in James 5:9: “Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.”

• Use your time in building up others, but not insisting they come under your control. There is a difference between encouragement and manipulation – it is found in the motivation. Truly stop and gauge how much complaining you do – it is an interesting reflective study. How many of our conversations are truly motivated “to get it off my chest”? Maybe we are letting too much inside, and maybe we are directing too little upward toward God. At least we should consider the possibility.

• Keep your attitude above being drawn into condemnation. Complaining drains the speaker and the hearer. It is sometimes necessary, but seldom very productive. Correction is complaint with a view to helping. Complaining is griping with a view toward unburdening myself – an entirely selfish motive. Selfish motives beget selfish actions and even more selfish thinking.

• Remember all of us work for one Master, and He alone is the Judge. One problem Christians face is enthroning themselves in their own hearts. Another problem we face is wanting to enthrone ourselves in the hearts of OTHERS. We cannot understand why EVERYONE doesn’t see the truth through our eyes. We have to humble ourselves and recognize God is at work in others differently than in our heart. We aren’t the judge, just the messenger of God in a lost world. On my best day, I am a message carrier for a Great King.

Third, look back at the past – God has a track record of caring for His people! (James 5:10-11).

James reminded them that God didn’t just work with others that had patiently endured suffering before; He kept a record and told us how it looked in their lives. James 5:10 adds: “As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.” The two verses offer four CHOICES we can make to help us endure:

• Search the Scriptures for encouragement in the lives of witnesses for God in the past. You aren’t the only one that has faced this kind of trial – the Bible catalogues a host of others that we gain both insight and encouragement from reading and studying their stories.

• Remember how their endurance mattered in the outcome. Don’t just focus on the problem they faced, keep a keen eye on how they responded. Some responded impatiently – and that cost them. Others trusted God over the long haul of the story – and that led to their blessing. Remember, they were JUST LIKE YOU when it comes to impatience and temptation. They had all the failings you have. They even had LESS than you – because you have THEIR STORY to help prepare your response to troubles.

• Look at the outcomes of faithfulness in each story. Really look at them. There are short term benefits to faithfulness – but most of the benefits are actually LONG TERM. In many cases, it was several generations before the whole benefit was realized. God may be drawing YOU through trouble to bless you great-grandchildren. When you see Him, He will show you that it was worth it all!

• Carefully note the attributes of the Lord seen in each story. Don’t study the Bible strictly to watch the MEN and WOMEN – find God’s pattern, God’s work in the story. Real inspiration and encouragement comes from the God of all comfort – and knowing Him up close and personally.

Fourth, don’t make unjust deals – God will judge you by your honest response! (James 5:12).

James warned that a particular temptation presents itself before the victim of another’s abuses. We can try to avoid further pain by moral compromises in our mouths. He said: James 5:12 “But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.” There are two specific situations you must be careful to avoid:

• Avoid the temptation to lessen the pressures in the wrong way. James warns the early believer not to “swear with his fingers crossed”. He is not to say that he will do something just to lessen the immediate pressure, when those words are meant to deceive. That isn’t God’s way to deal with trouble. Tell the truth! Don’t doubletalk your way out of trouble. Be straight about what you say, and what you mean.

Pastor Chris Appleby (a sermon central contributor) wrote something on this subject I want you to really consider: What images come to mind when you hear the eighth Commandment “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19)? You shall not take what doesn’t belong to you. If you are like me you might have an image of a masked thief in a stripped shirt climbing over a wall with a bag of loot over his shoulder. One writer on the Commandments suggests that from a biblical perspective, stealing means: “the desire to get as much as possible while giving as little as possible” (Colin Smith). …the Bible seeks to reverse this formula: instead give as much as possible while taking as little as possible. … while Jesus “reframes” many of the Commandments in his Sermon on the Mount, he doesn’t make any specific comment on the eighth Commandment. But we find something unusual in Paul’s farewell speech to the elders in the church at Ephesus, in the book of Acts, chapter 20. In Paul’s speech a saying of Jesus that isn’t recorded in the four Gospels. Paul says to the elders: “In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the word of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ’It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35). Paul encourages the elders to do what he had done and what Jesus had recommended: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” – in other words, the desire to give as much as possible while taking as little as possible. But we all sense, don’t we, that this is exactly opposite of what much of our society is saying to us? Look after number one! I want it all and I want it now! God’s message in the Bible which we find in the eighth Commandment and in the words of Jesus and of Paul is really “counter-cultural” isn’t it?.. If stealing is the desire to get as much as possible while giving as little as possible, then at work it might include things such as:

o Arriving late
o Stretching lunchtimes
o Taking extra breaks
o Texting friends on company time
o Expanding the work to fill the time available
o Avoiding the parts of our work we are paid to do but don’t like doing, or using work time pursuing our own projects.

The Pastor had a point, didn’t he? Integrity counts in TIME and in WORD. Sometimes it seems as though we have adopted such a worldly mindset that we truly defend that we should be MORE like the world than like Jesus.

• Expect to be judged when you break the rule and compromise truth. Don’t rationalize in your mind that you can tell a lie because they are doing it. Don’t try to trick the bank that is trying to trick you. Don’t play games with your promises and your reputation. Speak clearly and honestly. You HATE it when someone lies to you – so don’t do it to someone else. Honesty is God’s platform to blessing.

Truthfully, if you have been in the family of faith very long, you know that many believers don’t thing telling a lie is all that big a deal. Many don’t see the grievous nature of the sin as God describes it. In fact, most believers I know wouldn’t consider attending an overtly sexual film or “adult” movie house, but they will speak dishonestly and deceptively with a studied routine. Many have been trained to mislead others for the sake of their business. I heard a story about that recently: A store manager heard his clerk tell a customer, “No, ma’am, we haven’t had any for a while, and it doesn’t look as if we’ll be getting any soon.” Horrified, the manager came running over to the customer and said, “Of course we’ll have some soon. We placed an order last week.” Then the manager drew the clerk aside. “Never,” he snarled, “Never, never, never say we’re out of anything- say we’ve got it on order and it’s coming. Now, what was it she wanted anyway?” The clerk said, “Rain!” (A-Z Sermon illustrator).

It’s true! When we walk with this world’s values, we show we do not understand the call God has given us. When we walk with Heaven’s values, we find it challenging not to strike back at those who take advantage of us in this life.

One of the things that my father wanted to make sure I understood was my place in the working world. One of the jobs I had in my early years was in the labor pool at Mobil Oil’s refinery, then in Paulsboro, New Jersey. The job was exactly what it sounded like…labor. I have to admit that I was very tired by the end of the day, but it was GOOD TIRED. The second summer I worked there I was assigned to my father’s section. Though he was an electrician, he was upgraded to a “boss” and I was one of a few dozen men assigned to do his bidding. Working for dad was not as challenging as I thought it would be, because I understood what he wanted. Some of the bosses I had were not communicators. They knew how to do the work, they just didn’t explain the job very well. My father made sure that I learned early who to address with questions, and who to stand silent before when receiving the work for the day. It was important for me to remember the vast responsibilities of some of the men, and not pick away at small issues when they were facing real problems that needed their leadership energy. I needed to know my place. My issues weren’t the most important ones the man in charge was dealing with, and that was important for me to consider.

In recent generations American education has focused on building up the self-image of students. They have been encouraged to think for themselves, and to see themselves as capable. Some in scholastic circles pressed the case that a healthy self-image was essential to a healthy citizenry. In most ways, the theory has proven to be somewhat helpful – as students can dream bigger and engage hard tasks more adeptly if they don’t defeat themselves before they try. At the same time, it has fed something within the national ego that has reminded us of the battle of deep pride in self within fallen men. It has made the American student consistently rank highest in self-image while sinking in other scores. It has covered over a pride that manifests itself in arrogance of speech and the clear certainty of the uncertain. For many of us, we have come to expect things to be as we plan them, as if we can control wind, sea, weather and outcome. We have become quite excellent judges of one another. All of it shows a heart problem within. All of it echoes a heart filled with its own song of praise.

In the early church, such arrogance already showed itself. Believers are not exempt from the arrogance. In fact, because they have tasted the goodness of God, they may be tempted to think His goodness had something to do with the object of His affection. They may have actually begun to believe that God saved them because of something about them – and they would, of course, have been dead wrong. As they grew in their faith, some would have learned the truth and believed it – while others would have politely kept their judgmental spirit under wraps. Under pressure, sometimes we say the thing we would not say had the day been a bit lighter.

Key Principle: Our mouths sometimes betray the carefully covered arrogance within. We speak of people and plans in ways that demonstrate we do not truly know our place.

In effect, James argued that the early believers were being UPPITY. They didn’t seem to “know their place” in God or in the world. I suspect James would say similar things about modern believers if he were writing today. Some of truly think we are able to mock others because we are better than they are, and many of us speak of our plans ahead as though we are in control of the days ahead – and neither are true and both reflect an arrogant heart. James is on target with another precision strike against the tongue. Take a look at the end of James 4:

James 4:11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

An overview of James 4 uncovers the notion that people were walking in pride and self-willed pursuits of business, fighting in the flesh with one another! God longed for them to come to Him humbly and tearfully! The chapter can easily be divided into three parts:

• Understanding the source of our striving – pride and self-centered will; These impulses lead us to heartache! (1-6)
• Calling out believers to come close to God in humility; He will bring victory! (7-10)
• Using the mouth as a demonstration of God’s truth in both relationships of the spiritual family and plans for the future; knowing my place before God and others! (11-17)

It is the last one that we will look at today. James demonstrated in two ways that believers quickly forget their place…

The first way our mouths show we have placed ourselves too highly is the way we speak of PEOPLE.

I am going to be very deliberate in taking apart of each of the verses in this text, because they are being used almost daily in our day in a way that misrepresents the author’s intent. In fact, whenever we are in a debate of right and wrong in America today, someone naively whips out these verses, or some popular paraphrase of them to suggest that Christianity only speaks in tolerance terminology, and real Christians make no value judgments about right and wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth, and that ISN’T what the passage truly teaches. James wrote to early believers in Jesus – so the language is intended to be by believers and to believers. The term “brothers” or “brethren” here refers to brothers in Christ, not primarily to physical family members.

When we mock our brother, we show the arrogant thinking of self-importance.

The instruction is as follows:

James 4:11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. (katalaléō from katá, “down, according to,” intensifying laléō, “to prattle on” – properly, speak down to in a hostile, deriding way; to mock (revile), detracting from someone’s reputation by “malice of speech directed against one’s neightbor” in order to defame or slander.

• The issue is NOT one that blocks people from having honest disagreements – The issue is intended to remind us that mocking and malicious words are out of bounds. Disagreements about ideas close to us may bruise our ego, but that is not the same as mocking. Polite but firm disagreement may be necessary, and that is NOT UNCHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR.

• The issue is NOT about the world – Again we recognize the issue is between believers. We may critique actions and words, but we must keep the discussion both civil and kind. How we say what we say is terribly important.

The text continues. James 4:11b: “He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother…

What does that truly mean, to “speak against” a brother? Properly “he who mocks or derides his brother” or “he who separates out his brother for condemnation before others”…The term judgment or “krino” is used in two ways:

• J. Thayer comments that “the proper meaning of krínō is to pick out (choose) by separating” and refers to making a determination of innocence or guilt, especially on an official (legal) standard.

• The term is used in contemporary literature for “bringing to trial” (the trying of fact) in a court of law. (The problem is that it implies a superior position of authority of the person bringing the defendant).

James was concerned that believers were disagreeing in unbiblical ways. Unfortunately the quote gets lifted out of context to suggest that we cannot be both CRITICAL and CHRISTIAN.

Here is the problem- Our culture has accepted two huge lies… The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle or choices, you must be living in fear of them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do – or that what they do makes no difference to you. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate. Real caring feels pain from another’s bad choices. The uncaring don’t care what you do, because they don’t really care about you.

Sometimes we are accused of arrogance when the issue is Biblical, not personal judgment – and that isn’t a fair analysis. There are two totally different standards in God’s Word on judgment – one for the believer about the believer, and one for the believer about the unbeliever.

These get blended and confused, but must be kept distinct when studying God’s Word. When a believer is thinking about the actions and ideas of another believer, there is considerable tolerance that must be employed, and there must always be politeness and civility in our tone – especially when we disagree. There is no other choice. We can disagree wholeheartedly, but speak tenderly. We can stand powerfully opposed, but speak thoughtfully.

Let us say it clearly: A brother can disagree with another brother – but they are in no place to condemn them – only the ideas they espouse or deeds they do.

A brother can determine the path of another to be unbiblical as judged by the Scriptures, but they cannot stand as the ultimate judge over another’s heart or destiny – for they do not see the whole picture. God looks at the heart; He alone knows the motives and recognizes the reasoning within. Let’s say I have a friend who is pro-choice. They are a believer, but they are wrong about this issue. I am not unsure about God’s view on caring for the unborn, but they don’t agree. I am to be respectful, not strident and uncaring. Loving words will do more than rebukes. If I am not their Pastor, I need to even MORE careful about my approach, because I have no spiritual charge over them before the Lord.

The case of the believer’s treatment of the unbeliever is somewhat different according to the Word and here is where young believers, in particular, get into confusion. A Christian is STILL (and always) to be kind and respectful in our deportment (speaking the truth in love), but we need not be so uncertain about the position we take on ultimate issues before an unbelieving world. If an unbeliever challenges our right to “judge them” just because they have chosen to publicly hate Jesus and the Gospel, we have recourse – turn them back to the Word. We do not judge, God does. At the same time, when God has been clear, we should not be unclear. We are NOT being judgmental when we declare the LOST as being LOST – we are called to do that!

The point is that you can be both Christian and critical of actions and ideas. You cannot truly be Christian and sit as mocker or judge over another’s eternal destiny unless the Bible itself already CLEARLY does that for you.

I don’t need to hem and haw about the eternal destiny of some people in an effort not to be a judge of an unbeliever. The Bible is clear: if you die rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior, there will be no other chance in the future to turn things around in the afterlife… “It is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment” the Scripture teaches. The conditions of the gift of God for eternal life are carefully marked out in Scripture.

The matter gets even worse when we encounter in Scripture that some lifestyle choices are choices of NON-BELIEVERS – no matter if the person SAYS they know Jesus or not – so says the Scripture.

• 1 Corinthians 6:9 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

• Galatians 5:19 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

How does this work exactly? We know the Bible believer does not take those verses to suggest that stealing keeps a person from Heaven, or that coveting another somehow “slams the door shut” on future eternal bliss. Some of those listed works of the flesh are part of the ongoing battle with the flesh that we face as believers – so how can they block one from Heaven? That’s a fair question! The issue of both these passages is this: real believers DON’T find living in A LIFESTYLE of opposition to God’s Word comfortable – and if someone IS comfortable in these practices – living as though they make no difference to God – they ARE NOT to be considered a real believer, no matter what decision they think they made at some emotional moment in the past. Real believers know that God is unhappy with things that violate Scripture, and they are actively seeking the Spirit’s work in them to be freed from these practices. I don’t have any magic glasses to know who is IN or who is OUT, but I do have the command to consider people comfortably rooted in those activities as unsaved. It is God’s job to decide who is in and who is not – it is my job to place boundaries around my participation with them as a brother or sister.

The Bible clearly says that people who live comfortably in violation of the Scriptures and argue for the right to do so are probably not believers at all – no matter whether they were raised in church and know all the “God words” or not. We are not being judgmental when we deem them outside the Kingdom, we are being Biblical. We can’t know if they are or aren’t one of the Lord’s people – because they are acting badly.

• Parents aren’t wrong for limiting access of some other young people in your life, teenager, if they deem them harmful to your moral growth. That isn’t intolerant – it is responsible parenting.

• Churches aren’t being mean when people who want to continue in a pattern of sinful practices feel uncomfortable in the pew – unless they are treating people with disrespect in the way they are sharing truth. It isn’t our job to raise your self-image at the expense of your obedience. We can be nice about making the standard clear, but we don’t get to make the standards – that is God’s job. Ours is to pronounce them with a broken heart to those who forsake God.

Here is our problem today: People will drift out of a Christian family or Bible teaching church (or both) because they are in conflict with Biblical morality. Maybe they want to live with someone outside of wedlock, or abuse a substance that causes the family or church to get involved and attempt to redirect their behavior, and they resent that as an intrusion. They don’t want the constraints and they walk away. Soon after, they go shopping for affirmation and acceptance. They may find a church without Biblical standards, or perhaps find themselves surrounded by some of the most “forgiving and accepting” people in the world – others who are continuing to make life choices contrary to God’s Word. Because their new friends don’t want to be judged, they don’t judge others. They don’t make anyone feel uncomfortable so our wanderer then begins to feel as though THAT is real righteous behavior – and their parents or their church were just JUDGMENTAL people.

Our prodigal finds others who have equally misshapen values and begin to rail against God’s standards as MEAN and unnecessarily restrictive. They see Biblical Christians as judges and godless pagans as good people. They have made the whole transformation into the darkened logic of the fallen world, and they feel empowered and licensed to do so. Wrong is now right and right is now wrong. They become incensed when those harsh and judgmental Christians try to uphold truth and see them as somehow more hypocritical than all others – even when those followers of Christ espouse truth that has been a part of their faith since the first century. Any attempt to say any behavior is wrong, brings out deep anger and stirred hateful speech in their mouths. The difference now is they think they are actually right for being verbally hateful and defending tolerance by their intolerance toward Christian thinking. They will bully believers and call it forbearance – when it is nothing of the kind.

Remember: Our passage is not about unbelievers, only how we handle one another in the kingdom of God. In that regard, let’s be careful. We need to be careful about thinking it is our job to pronounce judgment on people and NEVER mock them. There are times that leaders were called on to “mark out” an individual to the community – Paul did it and it was the right thing to do. Yet, our propensity to judge can also be a sign of our arrogance inside – and that is the tragedy of it. We may not see all there is to see in regard to the person in question.

Remember that in human laws, there is little or no separation between the person and their actions. In our faith, because we are all guilty of holy infraction – there is. We can be utterly against one’s idea (because we believe it to be morally wrong or Biblically flawed) but absolutely for them (because they are another person for whom our Savior died). Ours is a people centered faith. It was PEOPLE Jesus came to save – not just a vague morality or judicial right. He loves people, and He is the judge – how can I not love people and make myself out to be a judge?

When we mock our brother, we display that we don’t know our true place in God’s Kingdom.

We are acting like we are better than our brother, or have more authority over him… James continues with a complicated sentence structure. James 4:11b “He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother… speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.

The complication of the end of this sentence sounds like legal jargon! When we draw a brother into the sights of our condemnation, we are playing a role we were not given. The police officer is not the judge and the messenger is not the Master. If we place ourselves in the position of ultimate judge over a brother, we are taking a place above the law as a final arbiter of it – and not a fellow citizen bound by it. There is POWER in the place of judgment that we do not possess, because we have not been granted it. We do NOT decide the value of one Scriptural rule over another – that is above our station as a spiritual citizen of the Kingdom. That is the work of the Judge above all of us. We must know our place and live within it in our relationships with our brothers.

When we mock our brother, we show that we think our faith is about US, and not about our Master.

James goes on (James 4:12) “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?

God gave the Law and God judges man – because He is in the position to do so – we are not. He can create and He can destroy and I have neither power. I am not above my brother, I am one of the flock created by and for God –and judged by God. I must demote myself in my heart before I speak about a brother – careful to critique only action while ever being gracious to his person.

Our mouths can so easily betray a heart that is not right. We can so quickly take on a role in the lives of others that neither God nor they have offered to us. Because we are Facebook friends, does that mean I have earned the right to speak about everything they post? Probably not.

The second way we place ourselves too highly is seen in the way we speak about our PLANS.

James 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Again there is sufficient reason to be careful with this simple teaching, since we can take what James is saying in a completely WRONG WAY. It is not wrong to PLAN for the FUTURE. There are dozens of Proverbs that urge planning ahead. Here are just a few:

• “Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.” (Proverbs 4:26).
• “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” (Proverbs 15:22).
• “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” (Proverbs 21:5).

James 4:15 clarifies the issue before us. The issue is PRESUMPTION not PLANNING. The objective of the passage is not just to get us to say “Lord willing” in our mouths, but to believe it in our hearts.

James was concerned about their presumptive living, and I believe he would be SHOCKED at ours. We don’t even HIDE our presumption involved in much of our lives. We have come to believe, not only that things WILL work, but that things SHOULD work out well for us. We seem DERAILED by sickness and setbacks – as though God was somehow not doing His job, because life was supposed to go well for me!

In Catholicism there is a “sin of presumption” that is sometimes explained as deciding to sin because one can always go to confession and receive a remedy. In Protestant circles, our way of living presumptuously is probably easier explained as the mistaken sense that we were made for peace and prosperity – and all that hinders this is somehow wrong. That isn’t really true when you take into account that we live in a fallen world, surrounded by a groaning creation that longs for ultimate redemption.

James 2:16 calls living with such presumption “BOASTING” – because we do not demonstrate in our thinking that we are ever subject to God’s plan. The Proverb writer says: “The mind of the man plans his way, but the Lord directs His steps.” At the center of surrender is the notion that “He is in control, and I am not!” Living as a believer that is in control of his own life and destiny is not living as a believer at all. It is a hard lesson to learn and learn and learn – but He is God and any attempt I make to seize the throne of my life is met with failures that grow from my arrogant heart. Maybe an illustration will help…

Two hunters got a pilot to fly them into the far north for deer hunting. They were quite successful in their venture and bagged six big bucks. The pilot came back, as arranged, to pick them up. They started loading their gear into the plane, including the six deer. But the pilot objected and he said, “The plane can only take four of your deer; you will have to leave two behind.” They argued with him; the year before they had shot six and the pilot had allowed them to put all aboard. The plane was the same model and capacity. Reluctantly, the pilot finally permitted them to put all six aboard. But when the attempted to take off and leave the valley, the little plane could not make it and they crashed into the wilderness. Climbing out of the wreckage, one hunter said to the other, “Do you know where we are?” “I think so,” replied the other hunter. “This is just about the same place where we crashed last year.” As a man I recognize that there are times in my life where I have had a hard time learning from my mistakes. Too often as men we are rely on our own strength and our self dependence gets us in trouble. (sermon central illustrations).

Our mouths betray the carefully covered arrogance within. We speak of people and plans in ways that show we do not truly know our place.

I began telling my students this week something that brought up a strong feeling from my past – so I have to cleanse my soul of a bit of bad feeling… You see, I don’t really like camels all that much. It isn’t that I haven’t tried, I have spent significant amounts of time in the heat, traipsing through the southern deserts of Israel, and the eastern deserts of Egypt in the Sinai peninsula. I just don’t like them that much. I can’t say that I enjoy their smell very much, and their temperament is worse than their smell!

We had a camel when the children were younger – his name was Fred. He lived beside the Wilderness Tabernacle, and his job was giving rides to the tourists. It wasn’t much of a life, but Fred didn’t seem to mind. Fred was simple – and he lived life with simple objectives. You know, camels will eat virtually anything – right down to the leather straps of your sandals if you leave them outside the tent – ask me, I know! They aren’t fussy about food. With three stomachs, they can digest anything by sheer endurance of acids – if they don’t get it on the first one, they will on the next two! Fred had a particularly bad habit when it came to his drinking… Fred loved beer. He would sing, he would bellow, and I believe he would tap dance for a beer. There was something about the taste of beer that evidently reminded him of digestive juices. That alone should put you off of the taste! As much as I tried to tell him about his weight gain and heightened cholesterol, he liked dark beer – the kind that really packs on the pounds. So it was that Fred lived life going around a circle with tourist on his back, and waiting for the sun to go down and Abdullah to bring the feed bag, and on some nights of the week, a few beers. That was his life. Sunrise, sunset…sunrise, sunset.

Fred was separated from a herd because he didn’t play well, or should I say “work well” with others. Camel caravans have a specific pecking order, and camels know where they “line up” in that order. They know which camel they are stronger than, and which camel has greater power than they do. If a camel driver mistakenly puts them in the wrong order on the line – it will not take five minutes on the trail before the caravan is disrupted and the problem is addressed. Camels want their place in line – and they won’t tolerate not getting what they want.

While I understand that may be the life of a working camel in Judea, what truly saddens me is when I see Fred’s life played out in some of the PEOPLE. They live life, one day at a time, between work, a little relaxation, and an occasional refreshment. They don’t seem to have much more going on, and when I ask them about goals, they seem to think that a new car or a new TV is the high water mark for the coming year. I get sad around people that remind me of Fred.

You know the type. They don’t dream about much more than the next thing they want to buy, eat, consume or enjoy. They are in a world filled with needs, but they seem to feel they didn’t get a fair share, so they are exempt from caring about other people’s issues too much. Their relationships are poisoned with problems, strife and anger. Life around them is both simple and tumultuous – dull and disturbing. They don’t seem to have enough and they sometimes get mad about those who seem to have more. They have in their wake damaged people and relationships – but they don’t really focus on that much, since they can’t figure out why life has treated them the way it has. That condition would be fine, but far too many of them call themselves, Sunday after Sunday – Christians. They are an awkward combination of eternal hope and temporal dissatisfaction. They know they will be in Heaven, but live like God isn’t very kind of good or very good at management when it comes to life on earth. Their goals seem mostly about THIS WORLD, their theology about THE NEXT. They are often filled with worry, yet sing “Trust and Obey”. They are unhappy now, but speak lofty words about “the sweet by and by”. They look forward to an eternity with the very ones they can’t seem to get along with in this life! Sadly, stirred up and troubled believers have always been a part of the church. James dealt with them all the way back in the first century.

Key Principle: There is a conflict resolution toolbox provided to believers, but resolution requires knowing how to use the tools inside.

He asked some of them to reflect on why they were constantly so stirred up, and that opens our passage for this lesson in James 4:1-10.

James 4:1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 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. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

There is a reason believers fight with one another.

“Why are believers fighting?” That seems like a fair opening question. James is quick to supply the God-given answer. The primary source of interpersonal conflicts between believers is selfish and sensual desires that have been strengthened in the sin strongholds within the hearts of believers.

James 4:1 What is the source of quarrels (from pelomai: to bustle– battle, fight, war.) and conflicts (from machai: strife, contention; quarrel) among you? Is not the source your pleasures (hedones: pleasures of a sensual nature) that wage war (strateúomai – properly, to contend, fighting like a soldier in war; from stratos: a army encampment) in your members (melos: a bodily organ, limb, member within)?

If you peel the answer James offered by the prompting of the Spirit, it comes down to this: Struggles happen between us because of the struggle that goes on INSIDE of each of us. There is not supposed to be any “i” in the spelling of “we”, yet in the concept of relationships it is unavoidable – there ARE at least two individuals there. Each is fighting a war within – between our old man (who was positionally removed – crucified at our salvation), and the tentacles of his remaining control that still haunt us (practically). It should become clear to us that peace will come between us only when we submit to the Spirit’s work of dominating the old man’s voice inside us.

When struggles, contentions and strife are evident among believers, we can put a stop to them. God has provided in the Scripture a tool box of specially made gear to fix what’s broke. I want to painfully clear on each point – because time spent here will save time in the battle zone:

• First, when troubles arise, we must identify those involved in the struggle. We dare not include more than need be involved – for the troubles spread as more are brought into the issue. Remember the rule: If they are not part of the problem when you find it, and they cannot bring about a solution – they should not be included in the issue. If you are talking to people about things they have no business knowing – you are the source of more strife – even if you don’t see it. Even if they promise not to tell anyone, and not to let it bother them. You are feeding the ego as one “in the know” and they are feeding theirs as well. Egos don’t need feeding, they need quelling. The Spirit is at work to quell the very thing you are busy building in both you and the hearer. Remember: gossip fans the flame of discord, just at the time when we most need it to calm. Identify the parties and keep the circle closed – as much as possible.

• Second, when the parties are identified, each must be carefully encouraged to look within BEFORE trying to solve problems WITHOUT. James 4:1 is clear that is, at the very least, part of the source of the trouble. One party or both of the contentious ones are reacting rather than responding. Let’s be clear: reactions are about PROTECTION of self, responses are about HONEST ASSISTANCE to another. When I react – it is because you hit a nerve that I feel I must instinctively cover that nerve to protect myself from further disruption. When I respond, I think about how what I am going to say will HELP you, without being caustic to you. Even parents struggle to do this well. If our adult children say something unwise, we must consider carefully our response to them, and not react because we took personally their foolishness. Response is about the other person and real help. Each party must be honest and quietly evaluate inside their role in the strife. Remember that we will need to apply intense prayer to introspection – because we are not simply wrestling against FLESHH, but against those that want to see the flesh win in the spiritual world.

• Third, in our self evaluation, we must be willing to identify the encampments we have constructed within, and what improper pleasures they are nurturing. Look for the things that have dominated your mind… the things that keep popping up. If you keep replaying something in your heart, it is probably the key to the stronghold you are protecting. Inside the strong place you are protecting a lie.

Let me give you an example: John and Sue were really at odds. For months, they were both working on the outreach project, but there was always tension. Each had friends that subconsciously “sided” with them – and each had “opposition” – though it was never spoken out loud. The other night the whole thing blew up at a committee meeting. They exchanged words and their faces clearly showed they were really disgusted with one another. The committee chair wanted to keep peace and move ahead, but this wasn’t going away without some kind of intervention and resolution.

If it follows the pattern of most conflicts, when you address John or Sue – both believe the other person is at fault. A certain number of Christians on the committee are willing to deny that they think the dissention is even a problem – because they are peace keepers and don’t want a problem to exist. Denial is never a good strategy in conflict – it often emboldens the strife stirrers. If real intervention is to be successful, the leader must prayerfully and carefully get each of them to do a careful self examination. They must understand why they are reacting the way they are. Very likely EACH are partly responsible, and neither are fully mature. Mature people resolve conflict, immature live in conflict. They haven’t the will, or they haven’t the tools to defeat it.

Light must be shined exposing the lies within – like one that is harboring fugitive thoughts that must be found and confined. What do I GET from this struggle? What energy am I adding to my life through the ANGER underlying it, and why do I want that in my life? At the heart level, we must recognize that there is an inner yearning of an unbridled lust or feeling that keeps leading to painful disharmony and disputes. Each of the parties must honestly evaluate: “Am I harboring ungodly and selfish desires that are driving the conflict with another?”

Notice that in handling our conflict resolution with James 4:1 in mind – most was handled by each party dealing with themselves. If this can be done effectively, each will take responsibility for their part, and most of the strife will ease without interaction between them. This isn’t all there is to resolving the conflicts –but it is the largest part. When I understand and confess my role in strife – I react less to another and things settle down in my heart. When my heart is calm within – tensions drop on the outside.

There is a reason some of us are at the source of the conflicts.

The strongholds were formed by a believer allowing his or her focus to remain intensely and increasingly on jealous yearnings while they observed what other brothers and sisters had been given by the Master.

2 You lust (epí, “focused on” intensifying thymós, “passionate desire”) – properly, to show focused passion as it aptly builds on (Gk epi, “upon”) what a person truly yearns for) and do not have (echete: to possess); so you commit murder (phoneuo: kill). You are envious (dzaylo:become jealous or hunger over) and cannot obtain (or acquire); so you fight (machesthe as in v. 1) and quarrel (polemeite as in verse 1).

Before even investigating how the sin camps take up position in our minds, it is necessary to connect the notion of envy and murder. Jesus said the command “Thou shalt not kill” was intended to be something much greater than what it presents on the face of the command. He said:

Matthew 5:21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ 22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23 “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. 25 “Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you are thrown into prison. 26 “Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.

The issue was that Jesus saw contemporary Jews as limiting the Scriptures to their WORDS and not their broader PRINCIPLES. He argued:

1) It is about a PRINCIPLE. The law forbade murder, making it punishable (21) but the restriction was actually intended to make men aware of their responsibility to maintain and grow relationships (22).

2) It is about a PRIORITY. The relationships were so important to God, that He would prefer right relationships over Temple presentations (23-24).

3) It is about PEACE. Reconciliation should be very important to a believer, making every effort to contain the problem and resolve it before it grows to a larger court of judgment (25-26).

James defined the violation of the MURDER statute in the same way as his Master did – to divide, denigrate or demean another was a form of killing. Proper relationships are a key to reflecting godliness, and are part of the standards of obedience. We are SUPPOSED to care about the feelings of others, and about the welfare of others.

James 4:2 makes the case that once it is clear I am in the struggle with fellow believer, I need to be willing to examine my heart for an encampment or stronghold of desire that I have allowed to build there. I must identify any area that may have become a camp of selfish longing. What is the heart of this conflict for me? Is it an unbridled mind? I should be able, with the help of the Spirit’s conviction, to recognize that ambition for what it is – an enticement that has become so dear that I am willing to sacrifice a good relationship with others for it.

Most often, the desires of our hearts are NATURAL and INBORN. It is a work of the enemy to torque those desires and warp them into something fallen and base. For instance, a desire for companionship is natural, but a desire to hold someone back from growth that would move them from a close place to us is warped. In another case, a hunger for physical intimacy is natural and God-given, with the purpose of sharing life with another. When the enemy grabs that hunger and warps it, the expressions of intimacy become SELFISH and SELF GRATIFYING – no longer about relationship but rather about entertainment. The issue is not the original root need, but the replacement of the original God-given purpose of that need with a self-focus that changes the essential nature of the responses to the need.

When I take the throne of my life, my needs become the most essential thing. All else becomes less significant. I no longer truly see the needs of others- except through my own cravings. In time, I will no longer even truly distinguish between needs and desires – all hungers must be equally met for my impatient sense of happiness. In this state I will allow any feeling of lack to dominate my mind, and grow into an insatiable hunger – becoming greater than its natural place of importance in life. My will to resist any tug toward pleasure is substantially weakened. With each passing day, the need dominates more of my thinking – for sin is a seed that is watered by the flesh and fed by the fallen world.

As I think more about the need – It grows in strength. As I nurture it, the lack grows and becomes a powerful stronghold of the mind. I begin to judge others through the window of a darkened mind, and any who challenge my imbalance are judged harshly and found wanting. From this self-dominated mind I argue and complain, because others seem to be in the way of my satisfaction. If they experience some good, I experience misery and jealousy. If they experience some misfortune, I find myself less and less caring – for the troubles are their problem. This is the life of self, and it never gets enough to be truly happy. It cannot be reformed…like a cancer it must be scraped away and thoroughly removed by a skillful surgeon. Fortunately for me, such a Healer stands ready in the person of my Savior.

There is a reason some of us don’t seem to be heard by God.

We want things for the wrong reason. Though the inflicted believer hungers for what they do not have, they don’t ask God, Even if they did, they would not get their desire, for the whole focus is on something they will consume on selfish desires.

2b “…You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

They left purity for personal indulgence. They have left their cause to join the enemy, reveling in self-filled moments on earth in exchange for eternal honor to their Father in Heaven.

4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

We act like our problem is a mystery. The burning desire should not have taken them by surprise – because God warned us concerning this in the past.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

This verse is tough to discern from a scholarly standpoint, and there is much disagreement about its intention.

• First, we are not certain what scripture James references – though there are many opinions in various sources. Among them, some have suggested places like Genesis 6:5 : “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

• Second, we must look without further word from James as to his point, for he moves on to another quote that is known immediately after, but does not follow the same line of thinking.

Though we may not know what the specific reference, however, the truth that in our fallen state man is prone to envy, is clear in the Word. Consider the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 4:4, “I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity and striving after wind.” Proverbs 14:30, “envy is the rottenness of the bones” and Proverbs 27:4, “who is able to stand before envy?” offer a tone from wisdom literature. There is, Biblically speaking, a strong pull in the fallen heart to yearn with envy. Such yearning exists as to draw from deep within a hatred of the prosperity of others, and a burning jealousy of their fortunes that we may even feel entitled to ridicule, or even worse – to take it from them if such an advantage should arise.

6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

The proud resists God; in his understanding he resists the truths of God; in his will he resists the truths of God; in his will he resists the laws of God; in his passions he resists the providence of God; and therefore no wonder that God sets himself against the proud. Let proud spirits hear this and tremble-God resists them. Who can describe the wretched state of those who make God their enemy? He will certainly fill with same (sooner or later) the faces of such as have filled their hearts with pride. We should therefore resist pride in our hearts, if we would not have God to resist us. 2. The honour and help God gives to the humble. Grace, as opposed to disgrace, is honour; this God gives to the humble; and, where God gives grace to be humble, there he will give all other graces, and, as in the beginning of this sixth verse, he will give more grace. Wherever God gives true grace, he will give more; for to him that hath, and useth what he hath aright, more shall be given. He will especially give more grace to the humble, because they see their need of it, will pray for it and be thankful for it; and such shall have it. For this reason,

There is a path back to peace.

How can I gain God’s grace in the face of my inclination to rebel? How can I experience the GRACE of God and the PEACE of God in the world of struggles and contentions?

1. Take second place.

Place myself – my desires, my yearnings, my hungers – beneath in importance the pleasing of my Heavenly Father. The term “submit” is hupotasso – to place beneath. Some translators say “in God’s arrangement” which is the SAME as saying: “I am second, He is first”.

James 4:7 “Submit therefore to God…”

2. Take your stand.

The idea of resist is found in the Greek word “anthístēmi” (from antí: opposed or against” and hístēmi, “to stand”) – properly, take a complete stand against. Do not be surprised if each time you back away from truth and God’s way in your life, the enemy gains strength over you.

James 4:7b “…Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

3. Take hold of Him.

The term “draw near” is from the word “eggízō” (from eggýs: “near”) – it is properly, has drawn close (come near). In the fourteen times it is used in the NT it expresses “extreme closeness, immediate imminence.

James 4:8 “…Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

4. Get cleaned up.

The term for “cleanse” is the one from which we get catharsis – the term “katharízō” – to make pure and clean by removing all filth. The last part of the verse communicates the same idea with “purify your hearts” – from ‘agnos; to make clean or sanctify (ceremonially or morally). There are two senses to this truth – an active one, where you are ridding yourself of impurity, and a passive one – where “He is faithful and just to cleanse us”. Not ot overthink the intent – it appears James is focusing on actively pursuing the former expecting God to do a work in the latter.

James 4:8b “…Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Don’t be so quick to point out that God alone can cleanse you – because it is often a subtle way of removing responsibility from changing our behavior. Grace is not a safe harbor for continual rebellion – it is the expression of God’s goodness in the life surrendered…the lavish gift after God is welcomed within. We have no right to ask God to pour out His grace where we intend to use it as a license to mutiny.

5. See clearly your heart.

James uses terms like “Be miserable” is talaipōréō –afflict yourself and show a wretched condition – like callouses or scars from sustained beating or wear (used only here in the NT) and “mourn” is penthéō (“the deep grief expressed over a death ” and “weep” is klaíō – cry aloud inconsolably. The second half of the verse expresses the same idea: Face how serious your deep allegiance is to the wrong world and wrong king!

James 4:9 “…Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.”

You cannot help but hear the echo of Jesus’ voice in Matthew 5 as He first called out the desired heart of a disciple: Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

6. Don’t end looking in – move to looking UP!

The answer is NOT fully solved WITHIN – that is preparatory to bowing down and looking up to God. Real surrender is not just about getting off the throne of my life, it is about asking Him to be ON the throne of my life.

James 4:10 “…Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”

There is a conflict resolution toolbox provided to believers, but resolution requires knowing how to use the tools inside. Even on days when things aren’t going well, you need to remember something else… It is true that we live today in conflicts – both within and between us. It is true that on many days recently it has appeared that evil in coming over the walls and we are under siege. In the short term, we may have set backs that are real and deep – but the longer view tells a different story:

Imagine a city under siege. The enemy that surrounds the city will not let anyone or anything leave. Supplies are running low, and the citizens are fearful. But in the dark of the night, a spy sneaks through the enemy lines. He has rushed to the city to tell the people that in another place the main enemy force has been defeated; the leaders have already surrendered. The people do not need to be afraid. It is only a matter of time until the besieging troops receive the news and lay down their weapons. Similarly, we may seem now to be surrounded by the forces of evil, disease, injustice, oppression, death. But the enemy has actually been defeated at Calvary. Things are not the way they seem to be. It is only a matter of time until it becomes clear to all that the battle is really over. – Richard J. Mouw, Uncommon Decency, pp. 149-150.

I am getting ready for a war – because it is coming! You can feel it all around you. Domestically, we are facing continuous and unrelenting attacks on any who take the Bible seriously. Our nation has shuddered off its foundation and appears sagging in places that once stood firm and secure. Abroad, we are feeling the effects of an ill wind that we cannot seem to harness – no matter how much money we pour on the regions afar. Christians that I know well are incensed, exhausted and feeling marginalized. Many are angry and most are pessimistic. Before you give in to those feelings, I want you to join me in the coming fight. I want you to take all the hurt, all the anger, all the pain – and bring it with you to the recruiting office where we will sign you up to fight. Be patient with me, and you will understand what I am talking about. Listen closely to the Scriptures I read to you, and you will leave with weaponry and a pack that has been significantly lightened of all the weight some of you are carrying.

James is my hero in the call to fight. He understood what it meant to hear the rising call of negativity and anger. His writing tipped his hand that he was neither deaf to the cries of believers nor ready to given in and join them in their whining. He argued very forcefully that believers have a mandate, a manual and a mission – and it all ends well. He lifted broken down people and enlisted the angry and weak to fight back – and I want to do the same. He offered by the power and guidance of the Spirit and incredible truth I want you to consider carefully in the few verses we are looking at in this lesson. He stared straight into the faces of hurting and beleaguered followers of Jesus and told them to stop talking the way they were. He shared this important truth…

Key Principle: God has spoken on a way to settle down people who are stirred, and create peace from chaos.

I want to warn you of something as we share a teaching from God’s Word today. This lesson may feel a bit unusual – different from the norm. In part, this is because I need to include in the instruction a personal confession. I am uncomfortable with sharing the personal side of my own inner life, but I am compelled by God’s Spirit to do so. Because of the nature of the morning, I am asking you to be particularly patient with me, as I work through something in front of you that is both personal and painful – because I believe it will bring out God’s intended direction and truth to us. If you will hear me out, I believe you will fully understand both the problem, and the solutions. I will ask for the prayerful support of my friends as I open up my heart along with opening up the Scriptures…

First, let’s set the passage in the letter from which it is drawn. In the lessons we have already shared in James, we have been paying attention to the way James addressed issues of the tongue, particularly as it was set in the life behaviors of one that desired to follow God.

• We noted that a careful reading of the beginning of the letter by James forced us to conclude that some of the early believers were complaining about the weight of troubles in their lives, perhaps feeling like God wasn’t sufficiently caring for them in the midst of trials.

• Still others of that corps, blistered by the harshness of the troubles of their lives, felt God may have even been responsible for dangling temptation in front of them – as if to entrap them. The pains of the time were causing them to slip into a view of God that was incorrect, and James laid the matter to rest – God uses weight of troubles to train us, but not bait of temptations to ensnare us.

• As he continued, James showed that the preferential treatment of people was a thinly veiled manipulative behavior – verbally trying to “curry favor” with people they believed had the means of adding to things their flesh hungered for – fortune, fame, power and pleasure. Their flesh driven heart showed through in their attitudes and actions offering favor to one, but distance to another – and that just wasn’t right. Poor and rich – people should be cared for because God loves them, not because they can help out our quest or cause.

• James became even “prickly” to some of us as we kept studying, and he noted growing trend of SPOKEN FAITH that was not backed up by surrendered life – we exposed the fake faith of some. James argued those who decided to speak one way but live another were not authentically part of the Kingdom. Many of us simply said, “Ouch!”

• By our last study together in the first part of James 3, it became obvious that some people wanted to teach, but they didn’t have control over their tongue – and that is a problem that I personally understand very clearly! When you speak and teach as much as I do in a week – it is a constant feeling of inadequacy and lack of control.

The letter by James systematically exposed a central truth – words weren’t the CAUSE of the problems of the early believers – they illustrated where their hearts already had gone. Over and over we see it illustrated… the mouth is the window to the heart and its condition.

Then my eyes fall on the words from the end of James 3, and they hit me like a hammer. I confess that I was not happy reading these words this week, because they came at a time of intense, personal struggle for me. Let’s first look at the text, then I will explain the struggle a bit more:

James 3:13 “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. 18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

As I read the words of James about real wisdom, peaceable wisdom, productive wisdom…I was not at all happy with this passage of Scripture, set in the week we have just experienced as a nation. Let me explain:

Reading from the New York Times published on September 12, 2012: “Islamist militants armed with antiaircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a lightly defended United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, late Tuesday, killing the American ambassador and three members of his staff and raising questions about the radicalization of countries swept up in the Arab Spring. The ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, was missing almost immediately after the start of an intense, four-hour firefight for control of the mission, and his body was not located until Wednesday morning at dawn, when he was found dead at a Benghazi hospital, American and Libyan officials said. It was the first time since 1979 that an American ambassador had died in a violent assault.”

The next day, Politico published this on September 13, 2012: “TIME magazine switched from a science cover to “THE AGENTS OF OUTRAGE: An embassy attacked. Diplomats murdered. The new calculus of violence against America … A chain of violence from Cairo to Benghazi raises the question, Did the Arab Spring make the Middle East more dangerous?” (The writer Bobby Ghosh continued): “As the Obama Administration struggles to contain the fallout of the ­killings-and even to piece together exactly what happened-there’s an increasing apprehension that this attack may herald a new genre of Middle East crisis. The Arab Spring replaced the harsh order of hated dictators with a flowering of neophyte democracies. But these governments-with weak mandates, ever shifting loyalties and poor security forces-have made the region a more chaotic and unstable place, a place more susceptible than ever to rogue provocateurs fomenting violent upheavals, usually in the name of faith. [T]hese hatemongers form a global industry of outrage, working feverishly to give and take offense, frequently over religion, and to ignite the combustible mix of ignorance and suspicion that exists almost as much in the U.S. as in the Arab world. Add to this combination the presence of opportunistic jihadist groups seeking to capitalize on any mayhem, and you can begin to connect the dots between a tawdry little film and the deaths of four American diplomats. … The new normal in Egypt and Libya is not as perilous as in Pakistan. … But as the fledgling democracies of the Middle East struggle to cope with the genies unleashed by the Arab Spring, you can count on the industry of outrage to work overtime to drag the Middle East in that direction.”

Maybe you are just beginning to catch a glimpse of my problem, and hear the faint beginning echo of my confession. Brothers and sisters, I get worn out in the face of the coming darkness.

• I get angry when I see a mob mentality descend on people as they ignorantly pummel innocents in the name of their religion. I get angry inside at them, and I want to find someone to blame for it all.

• I get angry at my fellow Americans, that seem more intent on justifying the hatred against my country then addressing the unjust and outrageous behaviors perpetrated against it.

• I am disgusted when I see a photo of a dying young man, who served his country and then became a simple political football for the current news cycle.

• I hurt for his family, and I am sickened by the parade of happy barbarians that took pleasure in his death – and I don’t care why they did. Their hollow religion never looked more hollow than when they were happy killing someone.

• I become incensed when the argument shifts from the policies of the country to which candidate said what about events and when did they say it – because minutiae of a process story quickly overtook a sincere discussion about why we have sent men and women into harm’s way and poured out their blood and what we hope to achieve in all the blood and dollars poured into the region.

We haven’t even moved to the domestic side of the street, where a Christian science professor in a state university is removed from his position for “admitting in response to a question raised by a student that he believes in the Bible and Jesus” though he offered no further details to his students at all, and specifically did nothing to try and make them believe what he did. Simple belief in the very things that Senators and Presidents get elected saying they believe now gets one summarily tossed into a review board as our freedom of speech is reduced to ashes when it includes anything Christian.

• I could rant all morning and many I suspect that many of you would not only agree with the feelings, you may volunteer to chant beside me. I know you feel it, and I know you are disgusted by it all.

• I want to blame Islam, because I cannot accept any statement of defense of a religion that is defended by violence.

• I want to blame my government, because they are borrowing money, spending my children’s America into oblivion over blind greed. They claim to want to help me, but take the equity of all that I have worked hard to build and squander it on Wall Street and helping banks to recover – those same banks that jack up our interest rates when we are most vulnerable and try their best to empty our personal prosperity into their stock portfolios.

• I want to blame my President, because he has replaced by executive order a proud military tradition, reducing the United States Marine Corps to a gay pride parade.

If I tried, I think I could get a political rally going here. I think I could get some of you to believe that we accomplished something together by ranting and yelling and anger and outrage.

But then I recognize the problems:

First, we don’t all see the political world through the same lens–  and this isn’t a political forum – it is a church where we study God’s Word.

Second, ranting won’t help. It will stir us up, but it won’t actually change anything! What’s more, it won’t yield what we WANT or NEED from the future.

Thirdly, and here is the part that made me struggle so – it isn’t Biblical. It isn’t wisdom from above. It isn’t reasonable. It is fleshly, and angry and wrong. I will show you this in Scripture should you doubt that.

Before I do, let me say that the enemy has DIGITALLY DUPED US. He has sapped our strength and halted our progress by a trick so slick that most believers are infected, but few are aware of the symptoms.

• To the younger generation – they have been “digitally duped” into setting aside enormous numbers of hours of real life interaction and accomplishment by believing they are accomplishing something in a fake digital world. Instead of learning honor and standing for their country, they are shooting at digital enemies in a game that lacks any moral concept upon which such violence can be understood. Instead of training their bodies to grow strong and be disciplined, they are making “Madden” passes on a digital screen and feeling like they are “playing football”. The inborn God-given desire to accomplish and work is fast being replaced in this passive generation by people that think their score in a game online is an actual sign of achievement. They have satisfied a need to accomplish within, but fill it without accomplishing anything in the real world.

• I know parents and grandparents reading this that will agree with me. They see it. They are worried about it. At the same time, they have also, many of them, been DIGITALLY DUPED. The older generation may not be wasting effort and energy on DIGITAL GAMES but they ARE burning up many hours on DIGITAL SPARRING. Instead of helping in a shelter, they are raging about the inequity of society on Facebook, acting like saying more about it, posting more about it, finding cute pictures about it – are the same as DOING something about it. They will chide their grandchildren  for lack of activity as they sit in a chair for hours on end blaming Islam for world instability, blaming the government, blaming Hollywood, and anyone else that MSNBC, CNN or FOX will help them blame. They will feel justified posting angry rhetoric because they feel that writing about it so much is tantamount to real change.

Here’s the truth – It isn’t. Posting about Roe vs. Wade isn’t the same thing as the young woman that spent yesterday outside the abortion clinic sitting quietly praying for the girls that were going in. Four babies were saved as they spent their own money to have an ultrasound van sitting across the street, and they quietly counseled young women and provided real and tangible help to them. Most Christians yelled at them on Facebook or tried to preach at them on T-shirts. These ladies, armed with real wisdom, went out and made a difference. They fought the war, and they saved four children.

I have talked around the text a lot. It is time to look straight into the text and see if we can understand what James was saying about real, productive and godly wisdom. James opened with a simple and profound question:

James 3:13 “Who among you is wise and understanding? There are two words that are related in the question – wise (Sophia) from which we get words like sophistry and philosophy from, and understanding (epistimos) from which we get words like epistemology – the term for that branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and limitations of human knowledge.

After telling them that:

• God is training them but not baiting them (James 1),
• That currying favor with their mouths is wrong (James 2),
• That speaking one way but living another is WRONG (James 2),
• That controlling the tongue was nearly impossible, and too many people wanted to teach but hadn’t nearly mastered it…(James 3):

They were probably pretty beat down. Then James said, “Who ACTUALLY is valuable as a teacher? Who has truth that can change our understanding of the problems around us and the Spirit within us?

Then came the answer it two segments. On the one hand, James shared what wisdom IS in James 3:12. On the other hand, James showed what real wisdom IS NOT in James 3:14-16. Finally He drew a picture of wisdom in eight characteristics – lighting the room of the wise with eight windows.

What Wisdom Is (James 3:13b)

James wrote: 3 :13b “…Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.”

• Wisdom is practical – it is behavior and work not simple theory and word. It is something people can SEE in action, not just hear in word or read in print.

• Wisdom is persuasive because it is invested. The term “behavior” (anastrophe) is actually two words combined – the word UPWARD and the word CHANGE. The idea of good behavior in the passage is behavior that pulls others upward toward positive change. It isn’t ranting – it is acting.

• Wisdom is polite because it is informed. The term “gentleness” is the term for consideration. To consider is to look carefully at. It is not to send out the email that has our political bias without checking the facts contained in it. That isn’t wise and it isn’t right. The world has PLENTY of propaganda, and we need to be careful not to pass it on. Be informed, and you may seek to inform –  but let the information be handled with great consideration to others.

What Wisdom Is NOT (James 3:14-16)

James went on to make sure that the reader completely understood what wisdom was NOT.  James 3:14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.

Wisdom from God is not SHARP TONGUED (the term bitter is both sharp and bitter – but has the same idea). In consideration, we dare not ‘fire back’ and think we are doing God’s work. We can hold the line on truth, and we are called to ever be diligent to show what is RIGHT in God’s teaching before men – even refusing to get revenge (cp. Romans 12:17).

Wisdom from God is not SELF TOUTED (the term selfish ambition is two words that mean “self promoting strife”. The purpose of sharing godly wisdom isn’t to win the argument and look better than the other – that is just an EGO exercise. The purpose of godly wisdom is to bring God’s truth into the situation and settle the people with it. It doesn’t mean that men in darkness won’t oppose God – it means that you are not trying to get the to agree with you – you are striving to offer them the real hope that comes with TRUTH. It is for that reason the text goes on to say that when we hide our ego in the argument, we are being arrogant and lying (the actual word is pseudomai) – impersonating godliness.

Wisdom from above is not SOULISH THINKING (the word earthly in verse 15 is “physical”; the word “natural” is (pseuchikos) physical world minded. The idea is that godly wisdom comes from the spiritual realm of truth, and that sees BROADER than just the physical world. The values of a believer are NOT rooted in what is BEST on earth for him or her. Think of the sacrifices our mission partners make to be far from home and family. They do it because they are not thinking about pleasing themselves in this life, but in living for Jesus and celebrating in the next life. SOULISH THINKING chooses a career based on salary and perks. Godly thinking chooses a career based on where God can best use you for Himself. It can be a janitor or a greeter, a doctor or a gardener – it only matters WHY the choice was made – not WHAT the choice became.

Wisdom from above is not SATAN TREATED (the term “demonic” is from the underworld beneath. Pass the anger on. Don’t try to be considerate – just say the thing that cuts back. Even if your cause is just, a caustic deportment and an angry tongue provides the demonic world with a delight. Yell about Islam – it is a lot easier than spending time praying for that part of the world, and trying to support those who are reaching into it with the Gospel. Yell. You will feel better. So will the enemy beneath your feet.

Wisdom from above is not SENSELESS TANTRUM (the terms “disorder” and “every evil thing” are actually “instability” and “worthless deeds”. The enemy is using literally millions of Christians to spend their energy in arguments, draining and distracting them from PRAYER. Do you want to see people changed? Gather for prayer. Don’t just chat and throw a prayer on the end – PRAY. Spend time asking God for the right information to become an informed prayer partner. Adopt a missionary to the unborn, or to some part of the world. Take an issue and become its advocate before the Father. Don’t take them all – you will burn out and give up. Take one, maybe two. Invest your time, talent and treasure in making a difference in ONE AREA – you will get more done than the news media can inform you of after five continuous hours of nonstop noise.

Let me say it clearly: We can take one hour of prayer for our public schools and our dedicated Christian teachers and accomplish what we cannot do in ten hours of raging about the curriculum and its faults. We can sit with a young pregnant girl and offer real help to her – and that may save a life.

• We can visit an elderly person and take them a flower or a card, and that will do more for them than getting mad at the latest thing AARP supported that you don’t agree with.

Go to war with me. Pick up the armor and the sword. Call the Master to direct you from anger to accomplishment, from posting rants to praying relentlessly. Those deeds won’t be fruitless. They won’t be empty. They’ll change your perspective. The war always looks different when you are actually in it.

Don’t be duped into thinking your helping when you cannot see any real work you are accomplishing. You aren’t! You are just getting “crusty for a cause” or “grumpy for God”.

What Wisdom LOOKS LIKE (James 3:17-18)

Here is a picture of godly and productive wisdom: James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

It is PURE –which means untainted, innocent, free of stains. You don’t go to the clinic to serve Jesus and also get a date. You find a cause that is on God’s heart, and you follow through without SELF as a primary concern.

It is PEACEABLE – that is the word for seeking resolution. Don’t just kick up dust about a problem – do something about it that will help. If you can labor – do it. If you can’t – sit in a chair, learn about the issue, and pour over it in prayer.

It is PROPER – that is the word “gentle”, but it really means EQUITABLE. Handle all that God lays on your heart in a balanced and loving way. “Fair and balanced” shouldn’t be a news slogan – it should be your deportment, your behavior.

It is PERSUASIVE – that is the word translated “reasonable” but the term is two Greek words that together are “good” plus “persuade or have confidence”. It is reasoned, reasonable and draws people into understanding.

It is PASSIONATE – in the sense of the word “COMPASSION”. The term “full of mercy” applies to our desire to go out of the way to be fair to people. We can call wrong what it is, but we should not be unduly harsh. Calling names is not compassionate. Slamming someone’s intentions is out of bounds – since you cannot read their heart. You may disagree, but not denigrate.

It is PRODUCTIVE – it focuses on positive outcomes. The term “full of good fruits” means focused on actually offering productive insight and practical help.

It is POSITIVE – in the sense of certainty and surety. The term “unwavering” is a building term, and includes the idea of being settled and sure, but also RIGHTLY SETTLED. Our focus must be on offering HELP, not just WINNING AN ARGUMENT.

It is PURPOSIVE – it serves a PURPOSE. It is a marker of your authenticity and genuine caring. The term “without hypocrisy” carries the idea of sincere. It isn’t just a passing whim or irritation that causes us to “weigh in” – it is because we are invested deeply in that problem and its solution.

As James ends his tutoring on godly wisdom, he offers a PROVERB of how wisdom should be injected into the world: James 3: 18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

There it is: God said that real implanting of His wisdom that will produce JUSTICE and RIGHT is placed by people who have PEACE reigning within and desire to see PEACE triumph without.

There is no place for stirring up trouble to get things settled – that is fleshly thinking. We have seen that God’s wisdom comes a different way – and pushes us to prayer. It leads us to care. It beckons us to share. It brings CHANGE because it comes on the back of authentic personal investment. It can’t be sending money from afar – that won’t do. You cannot simply pay for missions in dollars, it must be paid for on the back of a vibrant seeking of God for the people in prayer. Programs can’t do it – prayer can. Shouting won’t do it – care can. Theory won’t cut it – sharing can.

 I can’t just yell about the Muslim world, I must be informed about them, pray for them, and if I can – find a way to show God’s love to them. I don’t have to agree with their behavior, as they don’t have to agree with mine – but I will win more hearts and minds with loving care then fiery posts about distant problems and anonymous faces. God has spoken on a way to settle down people who are stirred, and create peace from chaos.

I am ready to fight on my knees. I am calling on you to cry out to God for the people of Libya, and the pagans next door. I am pleading with you to spend more time helping than hearing, caring than cursing, loving then lashing out. There is a war on – and I am excited about where it is going.