James 4 - Draw Close to God

So the bad news is our evil desires are strong and stubborn.  There is often a short distance (like the trenches in war) between what is a good friendship, fellowship, camaraderie, and genuine sharing and caring for each other) and what is evil (jealousy, lust, gossip, telling lies, scheming, favoritism, desiring only pleasure).  As Paul says in Romans 7, people know without confusion what is good, right, sinful, and wrong.  The trouble isn’t identifying the bad conduct, the problem is in winning the spiritual war that rages within us.

Let’s not pretend the spiritual realities of James 4 don’t exist and that our conduct doesn’t matter.  It does.  James 4 and Romans 7 and 8 are both true.  Scripture is always aligned.  That is, the Lord’s way is good and practical.  There is indeed no condemnation for those who belong to God (Romans 8:1).  And yet we must live a blameless life, do what is right, speak the truth from sincere hearts, refuse to gossip or harm our neighbours, or speak evil of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are to become men and women who worship the Holy God with pure hearts.  God’s people are those who despise flagrant sinners, honor the faithful followers of Jesus Christ, keep our promises even when it hurts, lend money without charging interest, and cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent (Psalm 15).  God’s people show our faith by our actions.  In Christ, we live blameless lives.

But how?  How on earth do we overcome our friendship with evil?  It certainly isn’t legalism.  The legalists are almost ubiquitous today.  The self-righteous, those who are quick to overlook wrongdoing and who pretend that evil men are good, gluttons, grifters, drunkards, and those who brag about tithing yet haven’t said a kind word or done a generous deed without expectation of reward in years.  To them, the church and preaching the gospel is a way to enrich themselves and their cronies.  I suspect their consciences are so seared they have little awareness of their conduct.  It is a small but powerful club.  Christian aristocrats.  We do not overcome evil by becoming a legalist.

And we don’t become God’s man by becoming a monk.  That is, we don’t escape the world and bail out on the hard work God has planned for us.  The Christian bubble, the modern-day monkism, is not the answer.  Jesus showed us the example.  He leads by example.  His men go into the hospitals, prisons, schools, workplaces, and everywhere in the community where sinners live.

Okay, so what’s the good news?  The good news is that God knows the human condition.  As we see in Romans it says, “Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?  Thank God!  The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.  So you see how it is: In my mind, I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.  So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.  And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death” (7:24-8:2).

Jesus our Saviour is the answer.  Thank God!  God knows us.  He created Adam and Eve and everything else.  God knows the problem of sin and He provides the solution.  He wants us to succeed.  God wants us to love Him the way He loves us.  He wants us to love Him the way we yearn after the world.  God gives us more grace to stand against evil desires.  He is the author and creator of mercy.

God says, “How about today, is today the day you will humble yourself, admit your sin and your inability to achieve satisfaction on your own?”  Yes, today is the day to submit to Jesus.  Today we say thank you to God for His love.  Thank you for God’s grace and his forgiveness of our sins.  And for all of our lies an evil behavior and our lust for pleasure and worldliness.  Today we wash our hands of evil, we are purified by the blood of Jesus Christ.  Because of God’s sacrifice, once and for all time, we are not condemned as we deserve to be.  

        God loves us more than we could imagine.  We shake our heads at our stupidity and our stubbornness.  And I have no doubt God does as well.  As James tells us we should be saddened by our failure.  We should indeed ask for forgiveness and God will give it to us.  He will not rebuke us for asking.  

Lord Jesus, please be our thought producer and deed convicter today.  Please be our courage builder and our certainty in your Love.  We humble ourselves today as we are nothing without you, Jesus.  May today be the day when we see people the way You want us to see them.  Let us love all people.  And where we are the men and women You want us to be so that we can worship you in Spirit and Truth.  Amen.

Kari and our grandson, Beckett (one day old here).