The Wise Love Peace

FROM: MARCH 27 @ APRIL 2, 2018

TOPIC: "The Wise Love Peace" James 4:1-10

The wise man is the one who loves peace ("James 3:18 Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness."). When James writes, I suppose he remembers the tragic fights, quarrels that so often occur within the people of God (James 4:1, 2). What is the cause for this? Why are there so many unhappy homes and so many churches torn apart by divisions? Why are there so many bitter conflicts among Christian leaders? The great reason is that we are incessantly yearning to achieve pleasures and possessions to surpass others! The sad thing is that this is why wars and fights between comrades abound. Intense passions sprout within us seeking to be satisfied. There are many efforts, a big impulse in search of prestige. We are never satisfied; we always want more. However, it seems that we are constantly frustrated for not getting what we want. The unfulfilled desire to become so powerful causes those who seem to hinder our progress to be trampled. James says: "...you kill and covet...". 1 John 3:15 says "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer..." It is not killed literally, but the anger, jealousy and cruelty that we generate are fledgling homicides (in its beginning). You covet, but you cannot reach. We want to have more and better things than others. And in this we find ourselves fighting and devouring each other. Let's take an example: John and Joan just got married. John has a good job with sufficient salary. But Joan wants a house as good as the other young couples in the Church. And John wants a car of the latest model. Joan also wants fine furniture and good household goods. They manage to have these things with credit, in installments. But, John's salary is barely enough for him and he has to put up with the tension. Then, a baby is born; and this means other expenses that add up to an unbalanced budget. As Joan's demands increase, John becomes grumpy and irritable. Joan reacts with quarrels and tears. Soon the walls of the house are vibrating with the crossfire. Materialism is destroying the home! Joan may be envious of Robert and Susan who have a more prominent position in the Church than her and John. Then, sarcastic attacks are soon launched on Susan. As the hostility between them increases, John and Robert become involved in the conflict. Then the other Christians take sides and the congregation is divided due to the greed of a person for a prominent position. Here we have, well, an example of the source of altercations and quarrels among believers. It proceeds from the desire to want more and more and from envying others. "Not wanting to be less than the neighbor;" it's a polite way to call it; but the precise way to call it is greed and envy! Desire becomes so powerful that people will do almost anything to satisfy their greed. It takes them a long time to learn that true pleasure cannot be found in that way but rather in contentment with food and shelter (I Timothy 6:8). Don't fight, don't argue; Pray! "You do not have, because you do not ask." Instead of taking those things to the Lord in prayer, we try to achieve what we want through our own efforts. If we want something we do not have we should ask the Lord. If we ask and the prayer receives no response, what then? It simply means that our motives are not pure. Let's be clear that we are not because of how much or little we possess. We seek to have much but not for His glory or for the good of our fellowmen. We seek for our selfish enjoyment, to satisfy our natural appetites (Vs. 3 "When you ask...that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."). God has not promised us to respond to this type of prayer. If we were satisfied and were content with what God has given us, how much pain would we have avoided! Disorderly love for material things is like adultery; this is how James sees it (Vs. 4 "You adulterous people!") The more you love the ephemeral, the more you will be unfaithful. Greed is a form of idolatry. We desire intensely what God does not want us to have. We have raised idols in

our hearts. We value material things above the will of God and that is enmity against God, that is the worldly spirit (Vs. 4 "Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?"). The world is the system that man has built for himself in his effort to satisfy the concupiscence of the eyes, the concupiscence of the flesh and the arrogance of life (I John 2:16). The Holy Spirit, whom God allowed to dwell in us, does not originate the greed or jealousy that provokes the struggles; but rather longs for us with zeal so that we consecrate ourselves entirely to Christ (Vs. 5 “Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely?”) He says in Vs. 6 “…God gives grace to the humble.” How evil can the old nature be! We cannot face the lusts of the flesh with our own strength. Thank God He gives more grace or strength whenever necessary; He does it to the humble. God resists the arrogant (pride, above others) but the Lord receives those who come with a broken spirit (Vs. 6). What we should do is submit ourselves to God, subject ourselves to Him, always be ready to listen and obey Him (Vs. 7). Tender, not proud or stiff-necked. We have to resist the devil by closing our ears and hearts to their suggestions and temptations. If we resist him, he will flee from us. We must approach God (Vs. 8). The safest way is with prayer. We will see that then He will approach us. We approach Him and He forgives us of so much foolishness. Clean your hands those who are double minded and purify your hearts. Our hands speak of our actions and our hearts represent our motives and desires. We cleanse our hands and purify our hearts through confession and the abandonment of sins, both externally and internally. As sinners we need to confess the bad actions; as double minded, we have to confess our mixed motives. Grieve, mourn and wail (Vs. 9); this produces the confession of sin. Grieve and mourn and change your joy to gloom. If God visits you with conviction of sin, it is not a moment of frivolity, but rather it is time to prostrate ourselves before Him and to lament our sinfulness, impotence, coldness and sterility. We should humble ourselves and mourn for our materialism, secularism and formalism. Let us bear fruit of a repentant sinner. Humble yourselves before the Lord (Vs. 10). If we take with honesty to prostrate ourselves in the dust at His feet, He will exalt us in due time. This is how we should respond when the Lord exposes us to ourselves. But, how many times do we ignore it? Sometimes, for example, we are at church and God speaks loudly to our hearts. We then are motivated by the moment and we are filled with good resolutions, but when the service ends we dedicate ourselves to a trivial conversation and the atmosphere of the service changes, the power dissipates and the Holy Spirit is extinguished. What a pity! Let us allow this not to happen to us and that we always go to God in humility, truth and with all our heart. This way we will be men and women of peace! Amen.