James 4:1 "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" The Word "lusts" as used here is "self gratification" or "pleasures". Your desire for pleasures and self gratification can cause you to war against many things. That war may be against your family, the community, and even yourself. You have an example here of person that is void of wisdom and discipline. Wisdom is what you obtain by your studying of God's Word for the Spirit of God gives understanding to the knowledge that is there. It is searching the whole Word for complete understanding. Discipline on the other hand comes from the word "disciple", and it means that you are a student in training preparing to do a service at the finish of your training. When you discipline yourself, there is a constant improvement in your life. So what James is talking about here is that the lusts or pleasures that you seek to satisfy in your desires of the flesh, will cause much war within you and between those around you, if you allow it to go on. This is not to say that you cannot enjoy the pleasures of life, for Christians have more pleasures then those of the world, because we are disciplined in them. Many of the problems related to the pleasures of the world are not there. Those problems include AIDS, and other diseases, drunkenness and all the problems that go with it, as well as all the problems that go with drugs, the keeping up with the neighbors, and so on. This chapter is not to put Christians in bondage but it is given to take you out of the bondage that the world puts you in through their so-called pleasures that they offer you in life. This is taking off the shackles and opening up the happiness to you. Just don't allow anyone to chain you or enslave you to a set of do's and don'ts, for God created our bodies as they are, and He left us instructions as to how we can get the most out of them, with the greatest satisfaction. This is why we are to do all things with moderation, and with discipline. James 4:2 "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." When you allow yourself to let the flesh part of you take control and get what it wants, you won't get those things that you want. When you demand, bribe and try the ways that the flesh man seeks to get what he wants, there will always resistance be to receiving what you seek to have. Whether it be from a fellow Christian or from God Himself, you don't get your way by lording yourself over others, and by grumbling to get what is suppose to be given joyfully. It just doesn't work that way. The killing of someone doesn't have to be done physically, but you can kill someone spiritually by the way you treat them and what you say to them. It doesn't take much to kill a person's spirit in the words you say and your attitude towards them. We are to build up our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and not tare them down. When we are focused on that fact that all blessings that we have come from God, it changes our entire view-point of how things are, and how we are to treat others. James 4:3 "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." James is telling us that we do not receive what we ask for in our prayers, because we ask in the wrong way. There are conditions for the Lord to answer your prayers, and when you do not satisfy those condition, He is not interested in even listening to your prayers. When you ask to satisfy your pleasures of the flesh, it is out of the will of God. You just don't ask right. First of all, you get right with the Lord by repenting of those things that have come between you and our Father. Then you ask for the wisdom and understanding that only comes from His Word. You ask God to give you the frame of mind to where you are a pleasure to be around. Then you will have all the friends that you need, and the right type of friends. Don't ask amiss for thing that you know are foolish and go against His Will, and cause you to be undisciplined. Seeking lusts or self gratification is far deeper then sex, for it covers anything that places your satisfying of your flesh body and its animalistic nature over the things of God. Be on your guard against those habits and moods that are of an undisciplined nature that can take you down. Be protective of your mind and what you feed into it. Take the time to tell those next to you that you love them, and care for them, and then do what is necessary to show that love in your actions. The little things mean a lot in building a good binding relationship. Don't ever take for granted the most beautiful gift that God has given you, and that is your wife. James 4:4 "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." James has the boys and the girls together lined up for this instruction. When you go out and do those things that the world likes to do, that go against God's Word, then you have placed yourself as an enemy of God. It is pretty hard to try to be a Christian, and remain a friend of the world also. There is not much room on the fence to straddle it, and once you declare yourself a Christian, the people involved in the lusts and pleasures of the world don't want to be around you. If you live your Christian life, then this convicts them of their sins, for darkness simply cannot exist where there is light. Then if you try to live their way while being a Christian they lose respect for you, because they know that you are undisciplined and not to be trusted. The word "enemy" as used here means "opposition" and "hostility". The moment that you side with the world, and the things of the world, you place yourself in opposition to God, and build a hostility between yourself and Him. Why then would God answer any of your prayers, except the one that he will always answer, the prayer of confession of your sins, in our Lord Jesus Christ's name. James 4:5 "Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?" That is to say, that the natural man that is within us will desire its personal pleasures? Do you think the Scripture is empty when it declares this.? Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that all is vanity to flesh man that walketh under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:2: "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." Solomon points out that everything will happen exactly as the laws of God designed it to, the water goes into the clouds, and falls on the ground, then flows into the rivers, and back out into the sea to be taken up unto the clouds again. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and will continue to do that day after day. All of God's laws will continue to junction exactly as God has planned it, every second of the day. Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes and it was not written to teach us how to be happy in our spiritual man, but it is written to the man that walks under the sun, to the flesh man. It was written to tell us how to be happy in our flesh body. The Scriptures are not empty concerning how to live in our flesh body. Without God in our lives, all is vanity, or emptiness. James 4:6 "But He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." This is directed to the person, once he or she has accepted Christ. It is reminding us that we are always going to have some problems come up while we are in your flesh body. Don't allow yourself to become so proud in your spiritual life that you overlook the fact that you can fall. When you approach God in prayer, not asking in amiss, but be humble and direct and within the will of God, then He will begin to pour out His blessings to you. James 4:7 "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." This is one of the reasons that when a strong Christian enters into a room, any evil spirit that is there will leave. They know the power that the Christian has to order them out and back to where they came from. This is why that you can feel and see the difference when a Christian enters into a room. God gave us power over Satan, and he will run from us. Luke 10:19 "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." The "serpents" are the Kenites, the sons and offspring of Cain from the garden of Eden. These people are from their father the devil, Satan, through the sexual union between Eve and Satan in the garden of Eden. From that union came Cain. The scorpions are the fallen angels that will return to earth in the latter days with Satan, when he returns in his role as the "instead of Christ", or Antichrist. This is not talking about the snake that crawls in the grass, or the scorpions for they have not read the Scriptures, nor do they act in any other nature then what God created them for. Snakes and scorpions will bite you when you get to close to them for that is their nature. Luke 10:20 "Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." The "spirits" spoken of here are the evil spirits that exist amongst men today, not in physical form, but in spirit. Jesus is telling us that we have the power to order them out or our lives and homes and those evil spirits back to where they came from, for they are subject out you, and to all Christians. So if you want to war against anyone, let it be against Satan and his realm, and not against your own people, and especially not against your own mate and family. James 4:8 "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." When you try to get close to God, He in turn will try to get closer to you. God will be just as close as you will let Him. However, before you can draw nigh to God, you must clean up your life, and we do that when we confess all of our sins to the Father in Jesus name, and purify your mind by changing your thoughts and attitudes. This is not a public thing, but your confession is between you and our Heavenly Father. Here again we see the double minded entering in, that we saw in the last chapter. You cannot have pure and polluted water flowing from the same well, and you simply cannot have your mind directed to our Lord and His Word, the same time that you are seeking the pleasures of the Word. The two just don't mix. When you seek the ways of the world, God will leave you alone and not bless you, and when you seek the things of God and His Word, the devil and his spirits will flee from you. When you do fall short then confess those sins and get right again with Him. James 4:9 "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness." This is directed at our guarding against being double minded. James 4:10 "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up." Any time you have something happen that should cause you to mourn and be afflicted, if you turn to God and humble yourself, He will always lift you up, and those around you. James 4:11 "Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth 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 only one judge and that judge is God, and when you begin to set yourself up as a judge of God's Word, you are going to get hurt. Instead of judging your brother, we are to pray for your brother and help him in any manner that will steer him away from trouble. Don't judge him with respect to the law. Why? It gets back to Genesis when God said, "let us make man in our image." Your brother is made in the image of God. This does not mean that if you know that your brother is doing wrong, that you should not speak to him about it. We are not to treat him as an enemy, but we are to set ourselves apart from him and pray for him. We are not to do those things that He does that goes against God's Word. You are not judging the person when you have set yourself apart from him. If he is headed to hell by his own choice, you don't want to go there with him. James 4:12 "There is one Lawgiver, Who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?" This again goes back to Matthew 10:28 where Jesus said: "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him Which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Man can only do harm to the flesh body, and that harm is only possible here on this earth and for a very short time. However, God is the true judge who can condemn your soul to hell fire, where the very soul can be turned to ashes. James is warning us that when you start judging another person, be very careful. This is not to decide who is good company and who is not good company, for God gave us the right of discernment. James 4:13 "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:" James is asking you; "Come on now, why would you say that today or tomorrow you will go to another city for a year and make a lot of money?" You can forget who our Heavenly Father is, for sometimes He allows us to keep our plans and many times even the best made plans go bad. When you do make plans that far ahead, you had better leave part of those plans to the Father, for He can see the future and He knows what is best for you. James 4:14 "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is you life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." You don't even know that you will be living tomorrow, for no one knows what will happen that could snuff out your life. This is exactly as the spirit body ascends back to the Father at death, as a vapor that was for a short time, and puff, it is simply not there. While it existed for that short time, it did give life to what it touched, but when it is gone, the spirit is out of here. Our Heavenly Father can require that vapor of life to come in His presents any time that He so chooses. Therefore as a Christian, don't you think that it is proper to consider God in your long-range plans. After all your eternal rewards are tied directly to your works while here in the flesh, and what you do with your life. You can't separate yourself from Him when your are a Christian, for you are in Christ and He is in you through His spirit. James 4:15 "For that ye ought to say, "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that." James is now telling us what we ought to say, when we make plans or commit to something. We "ought to say "If the Lord will, we shall live, or do this, or that." " By doing this and saying this we are leaving the outcome in the hands of the Lord. Then go ahead with your plans and do your best in what ever you do. Then if God wants to alter your plans, He will throw a block in your way, and turn you to another direction. God can slam doors in your face, and He can also open doors that seem to be impossible to open. Planning is important, and gives happiness to your life. It gives peace of mind when you know that you are going and the direction that you are taking. Set your goals and stick with them until God shows you another direction. James 4:16 "But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil." However to those that think they can cut their own deals and leave God out of their plans, they are looking for trouble and evil to come their way. This is why we must say, if not publicly, "If it be God's will." James 4:17 "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." An act done in ignorance is not necessarily a sin, but when you know to do right and you do it not, that is a sin. When you know you are a Christian, and that our Father loves you and cares for you, it does not harm you to bring God into your confidence when you do your planning and in your thought pattern. He is the true Judge, and He knows what is best for you.
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