Draw Near to God Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard Sunday, April 27, 2014 Studies in James, Part 8

James 4: What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. 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 wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

James 4: You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which 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.”

James 4: Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near 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 to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Difficult passage... Follows passage about “wisdom from above” These verses seems harsh, unkind... Perhaps a rhetorical style of an earlier time Perhaps exactly what we need to hear at some points in our lives

“Cruel to be kind” Pastor as funeral director... Sometimes we need more than a band-aid, we need someone to help us cut the ties with ideas or things that are hurting us “There, there” is not always appropriate (In the OT: “Peace, peace, when there is no peace”)

What’s the meaning? Seems to be a filter to help us see that our appetites can lead us astray We can seek the wrong things, or the right things the wrong way Ultimately leads to the question of how a believer in God ought to relate to the rest of the world

My opinion I’m going to try to take the warning in this passage seriously and yet add my own reflections from other parts of the Bible and from life in general One of my ideas will seem to directly contradict an idea from this passage, but perhaps there is a way to understand them both in context

First, “the World” Kosmos... more than one meaning: remember John 3:16—God loves the world that He has made and all the people in it What He’s not so crazy about is the ‘world’ of economics, politics and culture that rewards greed, power and privilege Our passage is a warning not to get stuck in the wrong jet-stream

Mapping the Problem The situation (anti-wisdom): Wrong desires leading to violence of any sort Problem attitudes: – Taking by power (v. 2) – Living in frustration (v. 2) – Living in defeat (v. 2) – Living with harmful dreams (v. 3)

“friendship with the world” Better: don’t you know that friendship with the world of systems and people that exploit others for their own gain is hostility toward God Really comes down to another Scriptural adage: “we should be in the world but not of it” (taken loosely from John 17: 14-15)

The antidote... “submit to God”—to His ways “resist the devil”—and the pull towards prideful advance and exploitation “draw near to God”—use your energy and resources for His kind of life in the world “cleanse your hands”—this is practical stuff! “purify your hearts”—there’s a better economy to serve (rejoicing, lifting others)

My own map First part is God’s, for building of community and of good things in the world Next part is for the future (blend planning with open hands) The rest: flow in generosity (toward others and toward self) This last idea seems to contradict v. 3, but the word for pleasure is “hedone” (from which we get hedonism)—perhaps a wrongful pleasure

Go low, so that you get lifted “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (v. 10) Die to the present world order that would have you striving in competition and violence to take all that you can

Come alive to God and His purposes in the world and live in active pursuit of dreams and all good things, with a heart to build community, lift others, and rejoice in God’s gifts Celebrate life!