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Introduction
Introduction
Remember last week James referred to his readers as adulterous people.
Again this gets at this idea of being double minded, in not being whole heartedly commited to the Lord but instead trying to maintain a commitment to the Lord and to the world at the same time.
And living like this is like trying to be committed to your spouse and to another lover at the same time. You can not be wholeheartedly committed to your spouse if you are with another.
As I thought about James and specifically about chapter 4 this past week again I was reminded of this theme of doublemindedness that runs through this book. James is calling us away from this.
But also I believe that James is weaving in this idea of pride that comes along with being wordly minded.
One could look back at the beginning of chapter 4 and say that yes, worldly mindedness, not being wholeheartedly committed to the Lord is the root of the passions and the fights and the quarrels but pride is another root, right?
It is pride that causes us to believe that we have rights and privileges, it is pride that causes us to hunger for more and more and more. It is pride that causes us to fight and quarrel in order to get from others.
Pride and wordly mindedness are two themes that are twined together in this chapter, and this is what we are being warned about and this is what we are being called away from.
We see this in chapter 4, clearly in
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
and then the command of
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Now James gets to practically how this lack of worldly mindness and this humility works itself out in two very practical matters, in the way we talk about others and in the way we talk about tomorrow.
I. Worldliness and Pride revealed in the way we talk about others
I. Worldliness and Pride revealed in the way we talk about others
This command not to speak evil against one another carries the idea of not speaking against or not slandering.
Notice what is not being said it is not saying do not speak evil of your brother if it is not true, it is a blanket statement that we are not to slander our brothers.
That means we can even be saying things that are true and yet still be in disobedience to this command.
I think the idea here is that when we speak like this then we are speaking down to them or about them.
Slander is not a breach of truth but it is a breach of love, it is a breach of humility.
Listen to one commentator, If we are really low before God (6-10) we have no altitude left from which to talk down to anyone.
So four things
He tells us how we should regard each other.
We are brothers, notice multiple times
brother, brother, brother, neighbor
Brothers speak of family, we are to love one another, we are to care for one another.
And let us remember that we are all brothers because of the grace and the mercy of God. We are children of God not because any of us deserved it or earned it but only because of the mercy of God that has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
But he not only uses the word brother but neighbor. This reminds us of the second great commandment, right? We are to love our neighbor as ourselves.
The Good Samaritan tells us who our neighbor is, our neighbor may be the needy, may be the one that is not like us, may be the one that is from a different culture.
Brothers and sisters fellow Christians are definitely our neighbors, they are our brothers.
So what if I hear something to discredit a fellow Christian, are we to publicize it? Are we to privately attack them with it? No instead we are called to go to him or her in love and seek to restore them, to help them.
When we slander, when we attack, when we defame then we do so with a haughty mind that considers that we are better than others brothers and sisters that is worldly and that is prideful.
We are called to lovingly and humbly life one another up
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
2. James tells us how we should regard the law.
God has given us his royal law, but what happens when we desert the path of love for that of criticism and slander?
Outwardly we speak evil again our brother but inwardly we speak evil against the law.
We set ourselves over God’s command, we set ourselves over the law, we judge the law.
We say that God should not have commanded love instead he should have commanded criticism.
Instead of considering others and seeking to build them up in truth and in love we seek to tear them down.
And notice what James says, we set ourselves up as the judge.
3. James tells us how we are to regard God.
There is one lawgiver and one judge and we set ourselves in defiance against Him
To value our opinions above what God calls us to is to value ourselves above God.
This is the opposite of the humility we are called to instead this smells of the pride of satan himself.
God alone can save and destroy.
4. Again we are reminded of how we are to regard ourselves.
Notice this in the text, v.12; but who are you?
We do well to meditate upon the biblical answer to this question.
Who are you, who am I?
We are broken sinners who have been saved by God’s grace. We are not ultimate, we are finite.
We are wretches, Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me
Brothers and sisters we are to seek to walk in the lowest humility before God.
In God’s Kingdom, the way up is the way down
The last shall be first and the first shall be last.
But if we are exalting ourselves above others what does that say about us and our understanding of who we are.
When in our mind and in our speech we are looking down on others brothers and sisters we look like the world, it is evidence that there is worldliness and pride within us.
A good dose of the gospel daily is a way to put this pride and this worldliness to death, is it not?
II. Worldliness and Pride revealed in the way we talk about tomorrow
II. Worldliness and Pride revealed in the way we talk about tomorrow
We also see that worldliness and pride is revealed in presumptuousness, here we see a wrong understanding of ourselves in relation to our lives and tomorrow.
What is revealed here is a heart that believes that we are independent, that we are in control, that we are the captains of our ships.
We assure ourselves that time is on our side and that we are sure of tomorrow.
We overlook the fact that we are frail, that we are week, and that we do not know what tomorrow holds, that there are millions of things that are out of our control and that only God knows tomorrow, and only God is ultimately in control.
How do we guard against a presumptuous heart?
We need to be reminded that we are ignorant, that is that we do not know. v.14
Brothers and sisters we do not know what tomorrow will bring, we do not know what the next hour will bring.
This fact frequently remembered is enough to encourage humility in our hearts.
We can speak so confidently at times, we can speak like we know exactly what is going to happen.
I have seen this with individuals with this virus, speaking so confidently that everything is going to be okay.
I hope it will and I pray it will but ultimately as believers we should admit that it is in God’s hands and that He alone knows.
2. We need to be reminded of our frailty. v.14
Brothers and sisters we are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
We are insubstantial
We are transient
We are gone without a trace
3. We need to be reminded of our dependence v.15
This is the heart of the matter, we forget who we are and ultimately we forget that we are all in the hands of God and that He does with us as He pleases.
Application
Now let me say this, James is not saying that we should plan. We see that the godly all through the scriptures make plans but what James is putting his finger on is this independent spirit that forgets who we are.
The spirit of the world that boasts in humanity, that believes that we are in control, that believe that we know that believes that we are strong, that believes that we are independent.
Oh brothers and sisters we see this spirit in the world and this is to be feared, this is ungodly, this is not Christlike, instead this is the spirit of the antichrist.
To often as Christians leave God in the church gathering and do not live in light of the reality that He is the Lord on Sunday and on Monday and everyday of the week and ever moment in the day.
Brothers and sisters James reminds us that the unknown about tomorrow should remind us of our dependence upon God and upon our need for Him every hour, every moment.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Neglect to cultivate humility before the Lord remembering who we are and who the Lord is leads to worldliness and pride.
And James is straightforward with us brothers and sisters, it is sin.
We might consider this is small thing but James is clear that it is sin.
We think of adultery, murder, lying...
A heart that forgets who we are is a heart of sin.
So I come back to where we were earlier brothers and sisters.
The best way to fight against this is to preach the gospel to ourselves.
The biblical gospel, not the american gospel, not the self help gospel, but the biblical gosepl
You were dead
you were a sinner in the hand of an angry God and He would have been just to condemn you
God set His love on you and saved you from yourself, He saved you from His wrath
He caused you to be born again
You are what you are by the grace of God
You are completely dependent upon God
When we don’t believe that, when we don’t live like that is true then we do not live wisely and we cannot live wholeheartedly devoted to God.