James 4:1-12.  In James 1:19-20 James told the readers not to get angry but to get busy, busy following the law of liberty, the royal law, they were to serve each other.  He James 3:13 he told them to show their wisdom by their good deeds done in gentleness.  In James 3:18 after describing the mild nature of wisdom he told them that if they were using that wisdom people would get closer to God and there would be peace.

Today’s reading starts out asking the readers what causes fights and arguments among them.  In the Greek language both of theses words very strong and are often used in relationship to war.  That’s quite a shift from the verse before and it doesn’t get an better in the following verses.  The Greek word for lust is epithumeo.  It is a compound of “epi” which means upon, on, at or by and “thumos” which means anger, wrath, or fierceness.  Lust then means strong directed desire.  James tells us that the result of this strong desire is murder because we cannot get what we want.  Another word in James 4:2 is covet or envy it is the Greek word “zeloo”, we get the English words zeal or zealous from this word, it’s root means to boil.  For a second time James uses the words related to war.  Instead of all this fighting why didn’t they just ask?  But they did and did not get what they wanted, why?  Because what they wanted was all about pleasure.  That Greek word is “hedone”, we get the English word hedonism from it.  Basically they wanted to Party, Party, Party!  Then in verse 4 James called them adulteresses, cheaters.  They were cheating on God with the world around them.  The result of their actions was that they were enemies of God.  Wow very strong, very scary.

Verse 5 is evidently difficult to translate and either means that our spirit is full of jealous desires or that God jealously desires our spirit.  Zeloo can be thranslated jealous but that is not the word used here for jealous.  The words used here are different from the words used before and that probably complicates the issue.  The first idea is certainly contained in the first part of this chapter and the second idea connects with the rest of the chapter.  Maybe James left the wording vague to connect them.  As I tried to indicate yesterday I think James is a master at how he presents his ideas.

The rest of today’s reading gives hope.  We are bad but God is giving.  He has given and will give more.  But we need to be humble and submit.  Humility is the opposite of being proud or thinking we are more than we are (By the way the spirit in verse 5 is probably talking about our spirit.  In Genesis 2:5 man was not alive without his spirit.  When God made us we were just a pile of dust.  How’s that for perspective?).  Submit means to put yourself under someone else’s authority.  It is interesting that submitting to God is contrasted with the Devil.  Who do you want in your life God or the Devil? By the way check out Revelation 9:11.  Abaddon and Apollyon are Hebrew and Greek respectively and both mean destroyer.  I vote for God, my life has enough destruction in it without making an alliance with someone like that.  Besides look at how God responds to us.  Get close to God and he gets close back.  Get low in God’s presence and He will lift you up.  But we need to stop playing both sides.  God knows when we are insincere.  Jesus hated hypocrisy (Check out Matthew 23).  We need to stop the friend of the world Party, Party, Party attitude.  We need to see that kind of fun from God’s perspective.  We need to not make the world our god.  That is idolatry and often in the Bible idolatry is called adultery (remember v. 4).  We need to stop cheating.  The devil is not the only one who can destroy, God can destroy too, and that destruction is eternal (2 Thessalonians 1;;5-9).  The price for sin is death, eternal separation from God, always has been (Genesis 2:17).  But remember I said God is giving.  He gives us help to follow him in the person of the Holy Spirit but we need to submit.  And that hope started with the ultimate gift, what Jesus did on the cross almost two millennia ago, today.  The infinite God’-man died and infinite death that he did not deserve when he was forsaken (deserted, left, abandoned) by God the Father.  He paid the price for our sins, each of us.  That is real hope but we need to draw near, wash our hand, purify our hearts, and quit living a divided life.  Lord thank you for what you did on that cross.  Unbelievable, I would not let some one nail me to a cross for anything, at least I cannot imagine doing something like that willingly.  But you did.  “For the joy set before you, you endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2) it’s unbelievable that I, we, mean that much to you.  Unbelievable.  But it’s true.  Unbelievable.  Thank you Lord.  Help me be single minded, faithful to you.  Let me be a peacemaker, let the fruit of my life b righteousness in my life and the lives of those I touch.  Thank you for your gifts.  Help me be faithful.