What Do We Really Want?

INTRODUCTION:

We often entertain a false idea of the nature of the difference between the Christian faith and idolatrous faiths, or worldviews, or opinions. The difference between life and death is a qualitative difference, and not a difference that can be reduced to a set of mere definitions. A living man and a corpse can both have two feet, or ten fingers. The difference is not to be found there. As Christians, we are called to a different way of living, a different way of being human. This is not to be confounded with a difference list of activities.

THE TEXT:

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? (James 4:1-12)

OVERVIEW:

Where does conflict come from? Particularly, where does conflict come from when it arises between those that ought to be close? External war comes from internal war in our members—the wars of wanting (v. 1). You want and don’t have, and therefore fight, up to and including killing (v. 2). You don’t have because you don’t ask God—and when you do, it is because you are trying to manipulate God (v. 3). Friendship with the world (that which fuels this wanting) and friendship with God are mutually inconsistent (v. 4). Now the Scripture says that the spirit in us veers toward envy (v. 5). But God gives more grace—He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (v. 6). Submit to God, resist the devil, and then he will flee (v 7). Approach God and He will approach you (v. 8). Cleanse yourself from the world’s seductive whispers (v. 9). Afflict yourselves—not for the goodness of creation—but for the spirit of wanting, lusting, coveting, must-having. Humble yourself and God will lift you (v. 10). Do not speak evil of one another, do not judge your brother—this is not doing the law, but rather sitting above the law (v. 11). Remember who God is, and, as it turns out, you are not He (v. 12).

FUNDAMENTAL HEART LEVEL:

Too many Christians make ethical evaluations on the basis of things you do or don’t do, or what you feel guilty for having done, instead of paying attention to what you fundamentally like. If you like the world, but are stuck in a Christian setting, the stage is set for all kinds of mayhem—sneaking around, rationalizations, or rebellion coming to a boil. But don’t make the mistake of applying this to the surface. When I say that someone likes the world, the point is not that he likes particular activities that would be frowned upon in pious society. What is the fundamental draw, the fundamental thing about the world that people like? What is the “thing” they are in friendship with? It is not alcohol, or floozies, or cocaine, or high-end automobiles with a blonde in the passenger seat. The central thing is the love of wanting, competing, grasping.

THE SPIRIT TENDS TOWARD ENVY:

In verse 5, James tells us that the human spirit tends toward envy, toward competition, toward grasping, toward malice if someone gets in the way. And when it says that God gives more grace, it is saying that His grace is sufficient to deal with this tendency. So when we are comparing friendship with the world to friendship with God, this is what we are comparing. Shall we be friends with the God who gives this “more grace” to all His friends, or shall we be friends with the world, and its system of biting and devouring?

IMITATIVE ENVY:

We too often assume that our desires are all raw, or simply biological, or something like that. By this I mean that we think that desire for particular things is innate, and that is just the way we are. But we live in society, in community, and our desires are as tangled up and reflective as the rest of our lives are.  What I mean by this is that—far more often than we think—we want things simply because others want them. We don’t want the thing so much as we want to be in the middle of the pack, wanting. We don’t want to be left out, and we don’t want to be left behind.

An example of the former would be your desire for water if you were stranded in the middle of the Mojave. That is a simple, built-in, biological desire. An example of the latter would be a fixed desire for designer clothes, or the right car, or the position of the first born when you were born third. It is the desire for someone else’s looks, or mind, or wife. The person you are competing with (whether you admit it to yourself or not) is the person who bestows value on something you didn’t care about before, but now you do. And now that you do, the conflict and striving start.

UNREASONABLE ENVY:

The nature of this desire is that it wants to keep winnowing the options down until there is only one object of desire, and two or more wanters. This envy, this desire, wants someone to lose. “Where does war come from?” James wants to know. It doesn’t come from someone observing that there is more than enough for everybody, so why don’t we all share?

COMPETE GOD’S WAY:

The world is filled with this kind of striving. The Church is filled with it. Your fourth-grade class is filled with it. Your kids at the dinner table are kicking one another under the table in terms of these issues.  But the Christian response is not to walk away from the world physically and all its striving. That is not possible.  This is a heart issue. James tells us here to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will lift us up.  And where will He lift us up? Daniel competed in Babylon, but not on Babylon’s terms. Joseph competed in Egypt, but not on Egypt’s terms.