Chapter is describing how living according to the world’s wisdom has led to great conflict among James’s Christian readers. They were fighting with each other because they couldn’t get what they wanted. James says that living that way is adultery. It’s ”cheating” on God. 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. Specifically, James’ use of the word “neighbor” (4:12) probably shows that he has in mind the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. Judging your neighbor (in the sense that I have explained) is not to love him. It is rather to set yourself up in a position that belongs to God alone. The entire passage leading up to this verse has been about the difference between earthly, worldly wisdom, and heavenly, godly wisdom. Most recently, James has pointed out that speaking about human plans without acknowledging the influence of God is evil. A Christian is to live a life of complete trust in God. God should be the friend you wake up to in the morning. He is your first neighbor, first love and He loved us first. So God should always be first. If it wasn’t for God, I would not of woke up this morning to do this video. Amen!
{Let’s read James 4:1-17}
From whence come wars and fighting’s 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 ” means not quite right; inappropriate or out of place.”, 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 resists 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 judges 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 judges another? Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeared for a little time, and then vanished away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
{Let’s Pray}
Father God, I can honestly say that my heart bleeds and cries for others when they are hurting and there is nothing I can do. Pretty much how You feel when we mess up or ignore You like You aren’t even here. Judging You wrongfully. I know how that feels when others judge me for something I didn’t even do and all I did was try to be a light. I am sorry for all the wrongs in my life when I ignored You and went my own way. Help me to stay humble before You and draw me away from worldly stinking thinking. I know worldly thinking grieves the Holy Spirit. I am totally believing to seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness and to be careful of needs of my brothers and sisters in Christ. I believe I may think of others before myself and ask that I may truly die to my own desires and any judgmental thought that enters my mind erase it! Jehovah Rapha thank You for Your continued healing, strength and blessings in others’ lives and my own. Let Your will be done. I love You, thank You, praise You and give You all the honor and glory in Jesus Precious Name Amen.
{Power Verse}
“The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness. “Proverbs 11:6
"Only Life Changes" 