The War with the Flesh (James 4:1-5)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10-19-03

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  The war with the flesh

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  James 4:1-5

 

            Message of the verse:  “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?”  “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: ‘He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us’”?  (NASB)  “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it the whole army of evil desires at war within you?”  ‘What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, jealously longs for us to be faithful’”?  (NLT)

            The flesh is described in many portions of Scripture.  A reading of the seventh chapter of Romans can show that Paul certainly had a battle going on inside of him between the new nature and the old nature or the flesh.  Strongs gives this as one of the meanings of the word for flesh.  “The flesh denotes mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God.”   The body is also called the flesh, but the body is neutral in this battle between the old and new nature.  The body can be used to serve the Lord or it can be used to sin.  Galatians 5:17 “The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.”  (NLT)  “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these things are opposed one to the other, that ye should not do those things which ye desire.”  (Darby)  I want to mention that there is a disagreement with some of the writers that I have read as to whether or not James is referring to the Holy Spirit or to the spirit in man in verse 5.  Our author does not mention this conflict, and even when he quotes James 4:5 in the NIV he shows us that he is using the quote from the margin.  The old KJV version uses the small “s” in the word spirit, and the NKJV uses a capital “S” to show that they are meaning the Holy Spirit.  Dr. MaCarthur give this not from his study Bible; “This difficult phrase is best understood by seeing the ‘spirit’ as a reference not to the Holy Spirit, but to the human spirit, and translating the phrase ‘yearns jealously’ in the negative sense of ‘lust to envy.’  James’ point is that an unbelieving person’s spirit (inner person) is bent on evil (cf. Gen.6:5, 8:21; Prov. 21:10; Eccl. 9:3; Jer. 17:9; Mark 7:21-23).  Those who think otherwise defy the biblical diagnosis of fallen human nature; and those who live in worldly lusts give evidence that their faith is not genuine (cf. Romans 8:5-11; 1Cor. 2:14).” As believers we are to live in the power of the Holy Spirit and not the flesh or old nature, for if we live our lives by the flesh we will be at war with God.  Romans 8:7-8  “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”  (NASB)

 

            Spiritual meaning form my life today:  Yes I do know that there is a battle going on inside of myself, and I know that this flesh of mine is tricky, it is selfish, and it always wants its own way.

 

The Word of God was convicting to my heart as I read it today and though about how many times I have yielded to the flesh in my life.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  To worship the Lord in such a way that it will be pleasing to Him.  To prepare myself for worship, and to yield to the Spirit and not the flesh. 

We are at War with God (James 4:4-10)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10-17-03

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  We are at war with God

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                         Reference:  James 4:4-10

 

            Message of the verse:  “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?  But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’  Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”  (NIV)

            Sin can be defined as any rebellion with God.  Lucifer rebelled against God as seen in the OT books of Isaiah and Ezekiel.  When he said those five “I wills” he was in rebellion with God for he wanted his way above God’s way, he wanted to be above God.

“But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north.  ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’”  Isaiah 14:13-14 (NASB) 

            Believers declare war against God when they become friendly with the enemies of God, which are the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

            A.  The World (4:4).  I think that we have seen before that the word world can be defined as the society that is against God, or the world system.  “1 John 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  1 John 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

1 John 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”  This is the Apostle John’s definition of the world and how we as believers should act towards.  In Jesus’ prayer to His Father in John 17 He had much to say about the world.  “John 17:6  "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.  John 17:9  I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.  John 17:14  I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  John 17:15  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  John 17:16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  John 17:18 as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  As believers we can become friends with the world that is spoken of by James in this 4^th verse.  The process can only go downhill from there as believers can be spotted by the world.  James 1:27 “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”    From there believers can fall to even loving the world as our passage in 1John 2:17 speaks of.  Paul tells us not to be conformed by the world in Romans 12:2, which is the next step.  We can see the last step in 1Corthians 3:11-15, and that is being condemned by the world, although we are saved it is by fire.  (Read this passage)  The Bible tells that the believer is married to Jesus Christ, for we are the bride of Christ, therefore when we fool around with the world James calls us adulterers, as seen in this 4^th verse. 

 

            Spiritual Meaning for my life today:  I think that one of the easiest ways that I fall into the trap of allowing the world to infiltrate my life is by watching too much TV, and in particular too much sports and movies.  I believe that the Lord is putting His finger on me about this and that I will not be able to go to the next step in my walk with Him until I cut way down on my watching too much TV.

 

The Word of God was very insightful and also convicting to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  If it can be set up with Pastor Dunn, then I want to have a conversation with him about telling others about what we spoke of in confidence the other day.  I would also seek the Lord’s direction on leading the Bible study this afternoon that His purpose for our study will be accomplished for our good and for His glory.

 

 

We Are at War With Ourselves (James 4:1b-3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10-16-03

 

My Worship Time                  Focus:  We are at war with ourselves

 

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  James 4: 1b-3

 

            Message of the verse:  “Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?  You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”  (NASB)  “Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”  (NIV)

            I think that is fair to ask the question: why do we have war with ourselves?  What is it about our self that cause use to have war with our self?  For one thing we are selfish beings and sin has its basic root in selfishness.  What caused Eve to sin?  Was it not selfishness on her part to be like God, to be her own person?  I think that this whole women’s movement began right back their in the garden.  As we look closely at why we sin we will see that it is because we want our will instead of God’s will for our lives.  Dr. Wiersbe speaks about how our prayer life can be selfish, and says that if our prayer life is wrong then our whole Christian life will suffer.  Prayer is aligning our wills up with the will of God, and not having God align His will up with ours.  James speaks about this in this passage where he says we ask with wrong motives, and those motives are rooted in selfishness. 

            The first two paragraphs on page 122 of “Be Mature” speak volumes about the prayers we are to be praying, and sometimes the prayers that we pray.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have learned that I need to check my motives when I pray, and not just pray for selfish thing that I can use on my own pleasures.

 

The Word of God has taught its root cause, selfishness, and me about sin and how I as a new creature in Jesus Christ are not to be selfish. 

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  To trust the Lord in the matter of our investment with Andrew Lech, and also to continue to pray for the Lord’s will to be done with Grace Baptist Church.  

At War With Each Other (James 4:1a; 11-12)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR10-15-03

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  AT War with each other

 

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  James 4:1a & 11-12

 

            Message of the verse:  “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.  There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbour?”  (NIV)  “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?  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.  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?”  (NASB)

            As I begin this new chapter, “How to End Wars,” from the “Be Mature” book there are three wars going on in the world to be discussed. 

I.  At War with Each Other (4:1a, 11-12)

            As believers in Jesus Christ we are to get along with each other, however this is not always the case as can be seen from the NT letters to the different churches, they all seemed to be having problems in this area of not getting along, or warring with each other.  James mentioned four different kinds of disagreements among the believers.

A.     Class wars (2:1-9).  This problem described here is one of rich against poor.  When the rich man comes into the church he gets more attention than the poor man.

B.  Employment wars (5:1-6) In this section we can see the problem of the rich man who is making war with the poor man in order to pay him less and to get more work from him.  As a little side note on this in our society we can see that when the shoe is on the other foot there can be trouble too.

 

C.     Church Fights    The problem that James describes in this section is that of selfishness, and not giving in to the needs of other believers, for these early believers all seemed to want to be teachers and to teach exactly what they wanted to teach and not listen to others.  The result of this was troubles, and wars between each other.

D.    Personal wars (4:11-12).  These kinds of wars happened when believers were speaking evil against each other.  We can see the tongue coming into practice in this kind of a war, as we have seen throughout this letter.  I cannot describe this any better than Dr. Wiersbe has done so in his book, so the best thing to do is to look at this section and read over it.

 

      Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The Lord has laid a heavy burden upon my life today after reading this section today.  I had to read it to Clair Shaw, because it had to do so much with what is going on in our Church today.  My heart does ache for the problems that are going on in our church, and through all of this the Lord is dealing with me too in all of this.  He is dealing with my tongue, and He is dealing with pride in my life, along with selfishness too.

 

The Word of God was convicting to my heart today as I read it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  I believe that the Lord is convicting me to speak to Pastor Dunn and tell him that I have spoken to others concerning the meeting that we had after the vote.  

Contrast in the Outcome of Wisdom (James 3:16-18)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10-13-03

 

My Worship Time                              Focus:  Contrast in the Outcome of Wisdom

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                         Reference:  James 3:16-18

 

            Message of the verse:  “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.  And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”  (NASB)  “For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every kind of evil.  And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.”  (NLT)

            A.  Worldly wisdom produces trouble.  (3:16) The word that is translated confusion in verse 16 in the AV is a word for disorder and that is how the NASB translates it.  Strongs gives this definition:  “instability, a state of disorder, disturbance, confusion.”  We can see an example of this confusion and disorder in Genesis eleven, which is a good example of man using his wisdom, which is opposed to God’s wisdom.

1.     Confusion and disorder set the stage for “every evil work.”  Strongs says this in giving a definition for the word “evil”:  “easy, slight, ordinary, mean, worthless, of no account.”  Works that are evil or worthless will be burned up as seen in 1Corthians 3:11-15:  “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.  If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward.  If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.” 

B.  God’s wisdom produces blessing (3:18).  We can see again that God’s wisdom will produce fruit.  Fruit produces seeds within it and so when we produce fruit in our lives by the power of God’s Word and through His Spirit, there will be seed sown in this fruit, as we saw in John 15.  An example of this would be for a person to use his God given fruit to tell someone the way of salvation, and when that person receives Christ as the Savior and Lord they will in turn have the seed from this fruit in their life to produce more fruit as they too go and tell the message of salvation to another and so on the fruit from the original person’s life will continue to produce fruit.  One only has to think of D. L. Moody to see that there is still fruit being produced from his life even though he is now with the Lord.  Jesus prayed about this in John 17 when He prayed for those who would come to know Him through the message that His apostles would tell.  Dr. Wiersbe says that “what we are is what we live, and what we live is what we sow.  What we sow determines what we reap.  If we live in God’s wisdom, we sow righteousness and peace, and we reap God’s blessing.  If we live in man’s worldly wisdom, we sow sin and war, and we reap confusion and every evil work.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is easy to settle for the wisdom of man and not to ask God for His wisdom, but God says that if we ask Him that He is more than willing to give us His wisdom. 

 

The Word of God was convicting and very informative to me as I read it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  To trust the Lord’s wisdom and to remember to ask Him for His wisdom each day.

PT-3 "How Godly Wisdom Operates" (James 3:17)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR10-08-03

 

My Worship Time                              Focus:  PT-3 How Godly Wisdom Operates

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                         Reference:  James 3:17

 

            Message of the verse:  “17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.”  (NASB)  “17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no partiality and is always sincere.”  (NKJV)

7. God’s wisdom operates with Good Fruits:  (3:17) Again I want to make reference to what the word “full” means as seen in the Strongs Concordance, “in reference to persons, whose minds are as it were filled with thoughts and emotions, either good or bad.”  God’s wisdom makes a faithful person’s life full and in this case full of fruit, for a faithful person is a fruitful person.  “God’s wisdom is practical; it changes the life and produces good works to the glory of God.” 
8. God’s wisdom operates with Decisiveness:  (3:17) The word translated from the Greek means:  “undistinguished, unintelligible; without dubiousness, ambiguity or uncertainty.”  It suggests singleness of mind and is opposite of the word “wavering” that James uses in 1:6.  As believers we need to not have a wavering mind, but to trust the Lord to give us His decisiveness of mind through His wisdom.
9. God’s wisdom operates with sincerity:  (3:17) As seen in the two versions of the Bible quoted the word for sincerity is quoted different, one quotes sincerity and the other quotes without hypocrisy.  Strong’s gives these words to describe it, “unfeigned, undisguised, sincere.”  The word for hypocrisy means to be an actor or to wear a mask, so as believers who operate with God’s wisdom we should not wear a mask or be insincere.  The wisdom of the world tells us to wear a mask, but God does not want us to wear masks. 

 

      Spiritual meaning form my life today:  As seen in the qualities of God’s wisdom that are spelled out here in this portion of verse seventeen,  I need to be aware of them and to practice them in my lives.  God’s wisdom teaches me to be sincere, to be of one mind and not wavering, and to be faithful to the Lord so that I will be a fruitful believer.

 

The Word of God was revealing and convicting to my heart as I read it and studied it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  To trust the Lord to guard my heart and my tongue regarding the trials that I am going through.

PT-2 "How Godly Wisdom Operates" (James 3:17)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10-06-03

 

My Worship Time                                           Focus:  PT-2 How Godly Wisdom Operates

 

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  James 3:17

 

            1.  Message of the verse:  “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.”  (NASB)  “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no partiality and is always sincere.”  (NLT)

4. God’s wisdom operates with gentleness.  An example of a gentle person is one who does not start fights, but he would not compromise the truth in order to keep peace just for the sake of peace.
5. God’s wisdom operates with compliance.  This is the only time this word is used in the NT as far as I can see.  Strongs says this concerning about this word, “easily obeying, compliant.”  The person who has this portion of God’s wisdom operating in there life will be a person who will listen, think, pray and obey whatever God reveals.  He will be quick to listen and slow to speak as James 1:19 speaks to, but will not compromise the truth.
6. God’s wisdom operates with mercy.  The verse says full of mercy and good fruits so in order to understand this word, “full” must be understood.  Strongs has this definition:  “in reference to persons, whose minds are as it were filled with thoughts and emotions, either good or bad.”  Grace means that God gives us what we do not deserve and mercy means that God does not give us what we truly do deserve.  For a good illustration of mercy in practice the story of the Good Samaritan is found in Luke 10:25-37.  The Good Samaritan could get nothing for helping this Jewish stranger except a blessing that comes from God, for the stranger could not repay him for the help. 

 

2.  Spiritual meaning for my life:  These fruits of how God’s wisdom is surely wonderful to have working in my life.  I too need to be full of mercy and demonstrate a gentle spirit, and be slow to speak and to be eager to hear, but not to compromise any of the truths of God’s speech.

 

The Word of God was surely full of God’s wisdom, and it also was convicting to my heart as I read it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  James says is we lack wisdom we are to ask of God and He will be more than willing, even eager to give us His wisdom.  I must trust the Lord to give me this wisdom, and I must be just as eager to ask Him for it.