James Chapter 4: Money Can't Buy Salvation

PART VIII (NASB)

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Many, many, many—is that enough manys—years ago, I spent a few years practicing Ju-Jitsu. Each year the school would do a fund raiser to raise money to pay guest teachers from other martial art systems to come in and teach summer clinics. This fundraise usually involved selling merch. Of course, that is not what we called it back them: cups, pens, decals, etc., all with the school’s logo. And then there were the yearly limited edition shirt designs. 
My two favorites were “Carpe Colum,” Seize the Neck, and second said, what James is doing here at the beginning of chapter four of his letter was, “The best time to kick a man is when he’s down.” 

Read verses 1-3
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you. Is the source not your pleasures that wage war in your body’s parts? 2 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. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures. 

Please recall that in the closing verses of chapter three, James goes into detail about the things that are happening between the members of the Church—things that will not produce the righteousness of God: bitterness, jealousy, selfishness, ambition, arrogance, and lying. These have led to quarreling and conflict. 

Also remember that this all springs from the trials that the churches and Christians are facing; trials that are taking a toll, apparently. James has already told them that the good that fills their hearts, the good that produces true religion, comes from God, working in and through them, and now, here in the beginning of chapter four, he is bringing to the Church’s attention the origin of all that quarrelling and conflict and bitterness: “Is the source not you pleasures that wage war in your body’s parts?”

Read verses 4-7
4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says to no purpose, “He jealously desires the Spirit whom 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. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

James sees the primary source of the Church’s problems as a lack of commitment to following Jesus where He leads. There is an unwillingness to “put hand to plough” or “to take up one’s cross.” Perhaps here is the desire to go along to get along. The human heart cannot commit to both the Way of Christ and the way of the world. 

This is a common idea throughout the Old Testament, from the very beginning of God’s relationship with Abraham and his descendants. Abram is told to leave the land of his family to ultimately become a stranger in a strange land. In Genesis 15:13 God says to Abram, “’Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.’”  Moses’ son’s name, Gershon, even means, “I’ve been a stranger in a foreign land.” (Exodus 2:22) 

Think about this for a minute. God promises Abram more descendants than the number of stars in the sky in return for an act of faith on his part, yet God tells the Patriarch that these descendants will be enslaved, oppressed, and downtrodden. 

Abram’s heart must be either on God or on the way of the world. “You cannot love God and wealth,” Jesus says. For where our treasures are, there our hearts—and ultimately our tongues—will be. 

Or in Abraham’s case, we cannot place our trust in God’s promises while at the same time making sure that things will go the way that we want them to. 

“God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.” How difficult it must have been for Abraham to hear that his descendants will be common slaves. How hard it must have been to receive God’s admonition when he and Sarah decided to not wait for the child of God’s promise—Isaac—but rather tried to work out their future their own way through Ishmael. 

But thankfully, this is not where the story ends. 

Read 8-10
 8 Come close to God and He will come close 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 into gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

“And when he came to his senses…” This is what Jesus says is the first step to the prodigal’s homecoming. And here for James, it is the same for us; there is hope. Christians who want to return home must first seek God—“Knock and the door will open”—choose to use your hands for acts of righteousness, you sinners, and commit yourselves once again—or maybe for the first time—fully to God. 

In verse nine, James wants to make it clear to his audience—which spiritually includes us—that repentance is a serious matter. There can be no escape from temptation, no practicing of true, meaningful religion if we are not honest with ourselves about what we have been treasuring in our hearts. 

Read verse 10 again. When the prodigal is embraced by his Father, the son says, “’Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’” (Luke 15:20) This is the only way to ultimately draw near, to begin the process of truly living out our faith. The Father will never reject us; Jesus promises us. 

James tells the Church that its struggles are of its own making, but it can change its course. 

Read verses 11,12
11 Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or sister, or judges his brother or sister, 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, judging your neighbor?

Back to words. Remember, the best time to kick a man is when he’s down. “Let you who are without sin cast the first stone”; “Why do you try to remove the speck in your brother’s and sister’s eye when there is a beam in your own?” 

Oh that Jesus; there He goes meddling again. 

Perhaps fighting the urge to judge others is the first step after coming to our senses. Or it is the first step towards developing a very uncommon thing in this world—and apparently it’s been uncommon for a long, long time: and that thing is empathy. 

Empathy is the power of understanding and imaginatively entering unto another person’s feelings, and it is a foundational component of that most Godly attribute of compassion. To develop empathy is to avoid judging others. And according to James, only God may judge, for only God can. 

“Judge not,” Jesus says in Matthew 7, “so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”

One of my principles of ministry is this: There is swift and sure condemnation for other people’s sin and infinite grace for your own. That seems to be an attitude that has been around for a long time. 

The best that we can do is tell others that God has placed before them blessings and life and curses and death. And then hope, pray, and HELP them choose ...