James 4: Growing Wisdom

​What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet 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 wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves 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 wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
 
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
 
Meditation
Wisdom grows from the ground of God’s grace.
 
The driving question of the larger section of James is, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” (3:13) The wise person produces wise fruit (3:13-18), loves God and not the world (4:1-12), humbles themselves before the Lord (4:13-17), and stewards God’s blessings in justice (5:1-6). These are both inspirational and indicting. We need God’s grace to grow in godly wisdom.
 
Living by passions produces fruit of friction and fighting in the church and faithlessness towards God and His promises (1-12). “Passions” (1,3) is the Greek word “hedone” from which we get “hedonism” – a worldview focusing on maximizing personal pleasure and enjoyment for yourself. We desire to satisfy our passions from the well of the world, rejecting God and seeing other believers as obstacles.  
 
Is my conviction a table for one? Or do you identify with me in feeling indicted?
 
“But there is more grace….” To redeem the fruit of our lives we must sink the roots of our faith deep into the soil of God’s grace. Enjoy God’s grace filled faithfulness by repenting, submitting to Him, drawing near to Him, and humbling yourself at His feet (6-10). Dependance on God’s sovereign love is shown in knowing God owns time (14-14), His agenda wins (15), and His work should be our will (16-17).
 
God promises more grace. To grow wisdom, we must deepen our dependency on the Lord, humbling ourselves to trust Him with all our hearts.
 
Richly Dwelling
-What stands out to you from today’s reading, especially in how James compels Christians to grow in wisdom?
 
-Do you love the world more than the Lord, seeking to satisfy your passions from places the world provides? What fruit has grown from this choice?
 
-How does the inexhaustible riches of God’s grace through Christ invite you to move from indictment to enjoyment of Him and His ways? Where do you need to take Him up on this invitation? Be specific.
 
Key verse
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”