James Chapter 4
Originally posted Monday November 3, 2008
James, Chapter
4:1-10 Friendship with the World
This Passage is an extension of 3:13-18 which sets the stage for the outcome of living
according to earthly wisdom. Envy and selfish ambition lead to "disorder
and every kind of wickedness." James restates these latter two symptoms
as "wars and battles among you" (vs.1). They are "cravings" which are not
of the benign sort - a cup of good coffee or chocolate ice cream! They are
powerful desires which create an internal war within the conscience. Using
epithets which are not meant to be interpreted literally, he writes that these
desires are so all-consuming they lead to murder and envy leads to
engaging in "wars and battles" within the community (vs.2a,b). The problem, he writes, is
spiritual in nature. If they knew how to ask and if they would ask for
spiritual and not material things which would be spent on personal
pleasures, they would receive. Hurling one more epithet (you
adulterers), James adds another layer to the deplorable state of spiritual
affairs. The cravings are those exhibited by the world (under Satan's control).
Their desires are clearly evidence of their friendship with
these values. Such friendship puts them at odds with God. Even more,
they have become enemies of God. (The differentiation of two worlds or human
allegiances - one to God and one to Satan, is how early Christians - following
Jewish apocalyptic thought, saw the operations of the universe. Alternative
language states this duality as "present world and world to
come" and "Old Age and New Age.)
God is not an inactive player in these circumstances. In the
midst of "disorder and wickedness" God's
initiative "yearns" for a way to make God's presence felt
through the Spirit dwelling within these malefactors (and all believers). To
the degree that God's efforts have been rebuffed - and it seems they
have been so far, God all the more "gives grace to the humble" (Prov. 3:34). It is this humbleness the
"friends of the world" are urged to seek. They are enemies of God and
are in need of a submissive spirit before God by which they will resist evil
and "draw near to God. The promise is clear: if they draw near to
God, God will draw near to them. The language that follows is the Jewish idea
of approaching holiness in the Temple: see themselves as sinners;
wash their hands and purify their hearts; lament as if in mourning.
The object is to come before God with the deepest expression of humility
as the penitent approaches the altar of God. It will be such as these, humble
and contrite, that God will exalt. (James intends this to be
understood as final exaltation in resurrection to God's presence. By
implication it is a warning of the alternative to those who harden their hearts
and remain "friends of the world.)
James,
Chapter 4:11-12 Warning against Judging Another
Vs. 11 begins
a new essay on passing judgment on others - generally understood in the New
Testament as the act of one who feels superior in righteousness to
another. Such judgment is considered synonymous with speaking evil of
another and judgment is the purview of the righteous God. To
judge another is to judge (and speak evil of) the law because it
is the law that delineates the grounds upon which a person can be
judged. As Paul wrote, it is the law that identifies sin and judgment
cannot violate the law. Thus it is true that a person who judges another cannot
be a "doer of the law." The two are mutually exclusive. James uses
the separation between the judge of the law and the doer of the law to affirm
that there is only one who can be both lawgiver and judge, the one who
is able to save and to destroy, i.e. God. (The final phrase,
"who are you to judge your neighbor") reminds us of Jesus' statement,
"Judge not lest you be judged; for the judgment you give is the judgment
you will receive."
James,
Chapter 4:13-17 Boasting about Tomorrow
The new passage has been interpreted as a couched
warning of the coming new age - the reign of God. However, the style is more in
keeping with the traditional Pauline admonition to use the time one has
doing good and remaining confident in the hope of the Gospel. The normal
activities James mentions are seen as tenuous and cannot define
the meaning of one's life. This is not a call to give up all human enterprise
and endeavors to wait for the end such as the Millerites of 1844 who gave up their
livelihoods to gather awaiting the Parousia. The message is one of realism.
Whatever we plan life has a way of interrupting those "best laid
plans." We can only guess at what tomorrow will bring. James uses the
evocative image of human life as a mist - here for the moment, swept away
in the next. In James' understanding of history, our future depends
upon Christ. All other human views of the future's possibilities are
arrogant boasting at best, evil at worst. What matters is "doing the
right thing" now. To repeat
an afore mentioned adage by John Wesley:
"Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all places you can,
At all times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can."
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