James 4
King James Version (KJV)
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
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.3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
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.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
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.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
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:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
(1.) Vs. 1-5 we are continually fighting against our flesh. Our earthly, sinful desires is what we are fighting against.
ReplyDelete(2.) Vs. 6-10 if we put away lustful/sinful thoughts and focus on the one who died for our sins and worship him, we will have victory. Christ loved you enough to die for you and yet you're still going to spit in His face with giving in to temptation or telling a small lie!?
(3.) Vs.14 what is your life? It's here for a minute and gone the next. The time here on earth is much shorter than the "time" in heaven. Before we know it we'll be 65 years old wondering where our life went and thinking back on how many more things we could've done for Christ. Do something for Christ today, but also tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next.
1. V. 3 I constantly ask God for certain things. However, I need to make sure that what I am for is in His will and not for my own purposes. I often fall into the mindset that praying to God is like a wishing well, but I need to start refocus my attention to the fact that He has an ultimate purpose and plan.
ReplyDelete2. V. 4. As humans, we are adulterers and adulteresses. How often do we love the things of this earth instead of the things of God? He is supposed to be our first priority and love. Loving anything more or taking our eyes off of Him, we are betraying Him.
3. V. 13-14 In my current stage of life I am continuously making plans, but often God has something different in mind. Not becoming bitter and submitting to Him is a constant battle. I am plan oriented, but I know that God’s plans are bigger and better. After all, my life is His and I need to bring glory to His name.
Ah don't we all... The mindset of going to God like going to a wishing well is so easy to have. Thanks for posting! Great points!
Delete1. V 8. I see this verse as a challenge to seek to know God better everyday. To strengthen my relationship . To draw closer to him by purifying my heart and cleansing my life of the things that work their way between God and I. The sins and pleasure(things i put before God) that hinder an amazing relationship I can have with God.
ReplyDelete2. V 11-12 Convicting verses. I'm so guilty of being cynical and judging others. Who am I to say that I have the right to speak about others and judge them? Such an easy sin to fall into. God knows the heart and ultimately he will judge. It's not my place to do so. I definitely needed this reminder today.
3. V. 13-15 Sometimes I feel like I have forever to live, but "a vapor that vanishes away" really puts some perspective on life. God has an exact amount of days planned out for me, I don't know when my life might end. How will spend each day? Will i just live my life with the mindset that "I'll get right with God later"...or "i'll spend time with him another day"? Life is short, we need to respond to that truth. Tomorrow might not come, today is the day to start living life for God.
1.V3- I pray asking God for things all the time and wonder why they don't happen. Then, realizing that I ask them out of context or for the wrong reasons guilt plagues me. God doesn't want us to be of the world, but most everything I ask for are worldly possessions.
ReplyDelete2.V7 "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."I've been Noticing recently that this is definitely true! From past failures and experiences, I wasn't focused on God. Change and Godly influence has turning that around.
3.V15 "For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that." I think living for ones self comes natural in a way, but once your a child of God we should be living for him and serving him by doing "this, or that." and telling others of Gods greatness!
This chapter was very in your face and eye opening.
ReplyDelete1. Everything contentious and abrasive in our lives is rooted in our own pride and lust. We ask God for things selfishly and then complain when we don't receive them. James starts off the chapter by putting how bad we really are back into perspective. Then he straight up calls us adulterers. Considering how many times we've walked away from God and slapped Him in the face, this term is painfully appropriate.
2. Verses 7-10 give a great list of practical principles of how to live a life pleasing to God and how not to be like the adulterers described above. Submit... Resist... Draw nigh... Cleanse... Purify... Be afflicted... Humble yourself. Sound like a sermon/series outline to me. Going to start trying to apply these more regularly.
3. Verse 17 nails me. No matter how good a job I do at staying away from sin and doing wrong, if I'm not actively doing good things I know I should do (witnessing is a big one) then I'm sinning all the same. Ouch
V6 God resists the proud. This was a good reminder to me that when I feel like I'm hitting a roadblock in a situation, that God is resisting my sinful pride. BUT gives GRACE to the humble. One of my favorite verses is in 2 Tim and says the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the love and faith that are in Christ Jesus. If I step back and examine every month/day of my life, I can see God's grace has indeed OVERFLOWED for me. Despite the fact that I struggle with pride. God is good.
ReplyDeleteV8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Love this promise.
V13-14 These verses spoke to me that God's will in my life needs to be #1. Above my plans and goals. That my life is short and I need to redeem the time for him.
His grace OVERFLOWS! So true. So thankful
DeleteJames 4
ReplyDelete1. V. 5 Our flesh desires jealously. We are in-content people. Envy kills. And that's our flesh...so impure and disgusting... Yet, right after it discusses one of the nasty things of our flesh, it says...
2. V. 6 But God giveth more grace!!! What would we do without his grace? I can't imagine! It cant be put into words how awesome his grace is! We are some pretty nasty and filthy people but God has powerful transforming grace that he freely offers. The grace of God does not end in salvation. Thank you God for your grace!
3. V. 7-11 Wow, if only we committed to following this blue print. For starters, even just verse 7. If we purposed daily in our hearts to submit ourself to God and to resist the devil (it's crazy just to think of the many ways we could do this resisting) we would save ourself so much pain and disappointment. I want to commit to you Lord!
V3 This, to me, seems to act as a sort of disclaimer to the verse "...ask and ye shall receive...", if that makes any sense. I believe that if I ask God for something, he has all the power to give it to me, no matter what it is. But, he also has the authority to give it to me. If I ask for something out of my own selfish will, like money for new shoes or a nice jacket, then he probably won't give it to me. That's what this verse is saying. But, if I ask for something in his will, then he will meet that request because it will help me in my relationship with him.
ReplyDeleteV4 This sounds about like "...ye cannot serve two masters..." to me. We can't be friends with the world and say we love God, because God is holy and the world is full of sin and iniquity. We have to choose between the two. It's like being a cop and saying you legitimately want to help people, and then going out after work and beating some random dude up in the parking lot. It just doesn't work that way. We need to live our lives out completely for God, and leave the world behind.
V17 We seem to always consider that sin is the bad stuff that we do. But what about the stuff that we don't do? An easy example would be a Christian not reading their bible. Obviously it's not right, and we should read our bibles. But it's not sin if we don't, right? Wrong. This verse tells us that if we have a situation and we know to do right and we don't, then it's sin. That's quite convicting for me, because now I know that I need to honor and serve God not only in what I do, but with what I do that I don't have to.
Wow Seth! You have some great insight!
DeleteJames 4
ReplyDelete1. vs.2: It's funny how nothing really works out unless we're asking from God. It reminds me that too many times I try to do things by my own will and without consulting God. I need to make sure that I'm seeking God's will in everything I do and know that He will supply all my needs.
2. vs.6: God gives more grace...whoa. His grace is never ending and I can't believe how many second chances He gives me. I can't fathom the love of God.
3. vs.8: To know that God desires to draw closer to me if I'm seeking Him too is incredible. How could God, as big as He is, want to know me? It's mind-blowing.
V1-2) Why do we fight?? There is one simple answer; WE ARE SINFUL. We all want what we cannot have. If we mange to attain what we are wanting, we just want more. We, as a people, are never content with what we have. God gave us everlasting life that we did not deserve at all. We shouldn't even think of asking for anything more, but we do. This is a reminder that I must continually thank God for what I have and not constantly look for anything more, but if more comes, than to thank God.
ReplyDeleteV4-5) How often do we try to be like everyone else because it's cool or we want to fit in? I bet the answer is almost all of us have. A friendship with the world is an ENEMY of God. I must remember this. That God created me for who I am and I shouldn't try to change it for anyone, especially the world.
V13-15) Im a person that is always worrying about tomorrow. What it will hold, what I must get done. God has a plan, and whatever I do I cannot change that. So why worry about what it holds? I must worry about today. Tomorrow will hold it's own problems.
1. V.4 yet another reminder not to pick the world over God. The world didn't go up on a cross and die for you.
ReplyDelete2. V. 7 always remember to keep God first. Don't give into your temptation. Resist the Devil!
3. V.14 just popped out and yelled you aren't guaranteed a tomorrow!! Not even a right now. So why do we waste our time saying “ I'll do it tomorrow, I have time" when we as Christians know for a fact we don't. Stop putting serving God off. With the very breath and life He gave you. Live for Him
1) v1-10 Our pleasures tend to rule our lives. The more we have the more we want, never feeling satisfied. This is such a selfish attitude. Our desires should be what God wants us to do and be. Instead of praying for our selfish desires we should pray for His wisdom and help, humble ourselves and realize that we are small and weak. God has promised to lift us up, forgive us, and make us strong!
ReplyDelete2) v11-12 Judging others is so easy to do. We see someone not looking their best, hanging out with certain people etc. And instantly judge them. No one has the right to judge but God. He is the ultimate judge and we shouldn't try to take His place in judging others. This is a hard one because its so easy to do and comes so naturally but I pray God will help me quit this habit. God made everyone and we ought to love everyone as He does.
3) v13-17 I'm constantly planning for the future on my own. What I wanna do with my life, where I wanna go etc. When in reality its useless if its not what God has in store. As we plan I think we tend to forget God as if the future is in our hands to control. Planning for the future is good but it must be with God. Its so assuring to know that if I follow God's will for my life I won't go wrong. The future on my own is a scary thought. His plans will never fail!! V17 sin is not only doin wrong but the failure to do the RIGHT things.
Verse 4- a friend of the world is an enemy of God. This was so convicting for me. Sometimes I think, oh well I'm not of friend of the world but my mind can be so deceiving. We as Christians need to constantly be thinking on what's above and not what's surrounding us.
ReplyDeleteVerse 6- God gives grace to the humble. It's so encouraging to know God is willing to give us peace and grace in our time of need. This shows me I need to continually humble myself everyday and put God first because I find myself always thinking of how hard I have it. Lord please direct my eyes upon you!
Verse 14- everyday I think of what will happen the next day or what plans I have for the next day when I'm not even realizing that we aren't guarantied a tomorrow. This verse also mentions that my life is but a vapor that comes for a little while and then fades away. It's amazing to think about eternity and how great it will be to worship our Lord forever and ever. God is who we should be looking towards and not our worldly life.
I. (Verses 1-3) Lust was causing all sorts of havoc among the Christians mentioned in James chapter four. They were lusting, killing, and lusting some more, and they still didn't get what they wanted! Verse 2 says that they didn't ask God. But verse 3 goes on to say that even when they did ask God they were asking "amiss" because their requests were fueled by their lust. Philippians 4:6 ".... by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let let your requests be made known unto God." A lustful heart will get you nothing but wars and fightings.
ReplyDeleteII. (Verses 6-10)
"God does business with those that mean business." - Adrian Rogers
You can't just say that you're sorry and keep on living a wicked life. You have to make a change somewhere. "Cleanse your hands" and "purify your hearts."
III. (Verses 13-16) Our lives so short when compared to eternity. There like a "vapour"! And on top of that.... We have NO idea what tomorrow will bring forth! Yes we should make plans for the future, but we have to realize that God may have something else in mind for us. Isaiah 55:9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts"
When you're making a plan make sure you include God in the picture by saying "Lord willing I will _________________ " (fill in the blank)