21.08.07
James (10): What Lies Beneath Disunity - James 4:1-10
There is no greater cancer in the Christian church than that of disunity – Christians argue and fall out; Churches break up and relationships are soured. We, in the Scottish Presbyterian Church have had our fill of disunity – schism and break up in the name of truth and righteousness. But what lies beneath disunity? Is it all so cut and dried – is it all so simple? In James 4:1-10, James looks beneath external disunity and sees inner turmoil, war and struggle. He has already discussed the two forms of wisdom in Chapter 3 – heavenly wisdom and earthly wisdom. Now he states what happens in a fellowship of God’s people when earthly wisdom dominates – there is disunity. I want to see three things about this disunity from James 4:1-10:
[A] Disunity Reviewed (vs. 1-3)
In vs. 1-3 James gives us a picture of a church fellowship in disarray – members who are literally at each other’s throats. He gives us a picture of the kind of fellowship with pursuing the worldly, devilish wisdom of Chapter 3 produces. I want to see four features of James’ picture:
1. What is Disunity? (vs. 1a) – disunity in the fellowship is nothing short of fights and quarrels. The Greek word which the NIV translates as ‘fights’ is the word from which we get our English word ‘polemics’ – it is a long, drawn-out war composed of a series of battles. I have recently been shocked at billboards advertising what they are calling ‘cage matches’ where two fighters are locked in a cage and fight it out, no holds barred, until one of them either gives in or is knocked out. Although it may not be quite so in your face as that kind of cage match, disunity in a church is, in reality, the same distasteful, violent thing.
2. Where Does Disunity Come From? (vs. 1b) – according to James, disunity in the fellowship comes from our desires – literally, our passions. The word used for passions here is the word from which we get our English word ‘Hedonism’ – it literally means, according to one commentator, “feelings that please themselves, that are pleased when they obtain what they want.” Disunity comes from selfishness, from a desire to please oneself - to get your own way. And notice how James describes this unhealthy hedonism in the last part of the verses – these passions literally serve as soldiers among you. They are the combatants – if it wasn’t for our sinful passions, there would be no war, no fights, no quarrels. Our sinful desires for what pleases us are the soldiers which fight against each other.
3. What Does Disunity Lead To? (vs. 2a) – lusting after things (whether that’s your own way, a desire for recognition etc), murder, jealousy, quarrelling and fighting are all symptoms of disunity. Perhaps you feel that James is taking his argument too far – that we’d never murder anyone just because we didn’t agree with them, but remember what Jesus said about hatred – that hatred is mental murder. James is exposing the rotten belly of the disunited fellowship where this list of evils prevails and members are willing to go to any lengths to get their own way.
4. Why Does Disunity Happen? (vs. 2b-3) – disunity is, at heart, a lack of relationship with God. We want something and would be pleased to get what we want – but what we want is a selfish passion – a desire for recognition, our own way all the time, etc – and so we don’t go to God for it, because if we did, we would know that our desires were wrong. Prayer, which is what vs. 3 is all about, presupposes that we want what God wants – we want Him to get the glory (not us) and we want Him to get His way (not ours). And so we find ourselves stranded – detached from our brothers in Christ because of our selfish passions; and more importantly, detached from God because of our selfish passions. At heart, therefore, our selfish passions, those hedonistic tendencies within us, cause war between believers because they cause war between us and God. Disunity is a theological problem because it has to do first and foremost with our relationship with God. Selfish passions are diametrically opposed to a desire to glorify and follow Christ.
It’s far too easy to point at others and accuse them of selfish hedonism – but what are the things which please us and for which we are willing to fight – and do they please us because they please God and give Him glory; do they please us because they are the things God wants for His Church? See what happens in a fellowship when we let our selfish passions govern us – war breaks out!
[B] Disunity Revealed (vs. 4-5)
James has already uncovered the spiritual problem at the root of disunity. But now, in these verses, he goes on to leave us nowhere to run. If we let our sinful passions run away with us in the church, only doing those things which make us feel good, then we are guilty before God of three things:
1. Worldliness – friendship with the world is another way of talking about worldliness. And that’s the way the world operates – someone sees something and they go after it, not caring about who he hurts in the process or what it will cost other people. A man desires another man’s wife and so he goes after her, no matter how much it costs her or her husband. Whatever holy mask we put on it, being driven by our own desires, even in church things, and not Gods is worldliness.
2. Adultery – God has placed His Spirit within us, and the relationship we have with Him is similar to, even more intense than, marriage. That’s often the way the relationship between God and His people is represented in the Old Testament. So for us to desire other things – in essence other gods – is to commit adultery against our spiritual husband. We don’t only commit adultery against our wives when we go with another woman, but whenever we place anything before our wife – whether that’s our pleasure, our careers or our reputations. We commit spiritual adultery when we put other things, like our own sinful desires, before God.
3. Enmity – I’m sure you have all heard the expression, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” – well, James uses the same reasoning here and basically says, “the friend of my enemy is my enemy”. If we pursue intimate friendship with the world and its values, if we fall in love with the world, which is the enemy of God, then we become the enemies of God. If we are friends of God’s enemy, then we are God’s enemy. And that is what disunity produces in a church – those pursuing worldly agendas, even if they are dressed up in holy costumes – they become God’s enemies.
Perhaps we hadn’t thought along these lines before, and maybe we’d better start because that’s how serious disunity in the Church is – it is worldly, adulterous and produces enemies of God.
[C] Disunity Remedied (vs. 6-10)
Conflict prevention and resolution in the Church is not impossible – in fact, it should be natural for Christians to make peace rather than make war. But whereas in the world, conflict resolution depends only on the two parties and their abilities and decisions, in the Church, it depends upon 3 parties – the two people, or sides, arguing, and God, who can give us everything we need in this respect. In these verses, there are 5 things we need to prevent or avoid conflict in the Church:
1. Grace (vs. 6) – However deep the bitterness runs, God gives more grace. However persuasive the sinful passions, God gives more grace. God’s grace is always there for us if we will but ask Him for it. If we are humble enough to acknowledge the sinfulness of our passions and hedonistic desires, and humble enough to admit that we need God’s help, He will give us His grace and strength.
2. Submission (vs. 7a) – the problem of disunity in a Church is basically a breakdown in a relationship with God – one person, two people, factions, whole churches, think of themselves more highly than they ought – they think that their ideas, and theirs alone, are the right ones – pride gets in and God is pushed out. We try to force God into submitting to our agendas and petty likes and dislikes. But, God is to be the top figure in the Church and it is to Him we must submit – we submit to Him in His judgement of us, in His knowing of the right way to go, in His desire for His own glory and our good. We submit our lives to Him and are therefore more God-like in our approach to others.
3. Resistance (vs. 7b) – we must actively resist the devil – notice I said we must be active in our resistance. Resistance isn’t a natural, automatic or easy thing – but we must resist the devil. He will come in to our fellowship and seek to break us apart through specious arguments and by exploiting our sinful passions. But, by God’s grace we must resist and we have the promise that he will flee from us. Wouldn’t it be great to know that the devil runs from our fellowship with his forked tail between his legs because we won’t let our sinful passions dominate!
4. Repentance (vs. 8-9) – repentance is almost a foreign word in today’s Christian literature. We talk of new, better, more professional strategies for Church growth and conflict resolution – but we don’t talk about repentance; or when we do, we look at others and then look at ourselves and say, “what have I got to repent of?” But when we draw near to the Holy God, as James commands us to here, each one of us is too occupied with our own sinfulness to contemplate the faults of others. Rather, we go to Christ and wash our hands in His blood; we purify our hearts through His cleansing Spirit. But the over-riding conviction for us all must be this – when did we last hear the sound of weeping? In days of great revival, conviction of sin was at a premium – tears flowed freely as people realised that they were more sinful than they had ever imagined but that God loved them in Christ more than they could ever know.
5. Humility (vs. 10) – we all want to be exalted, and so, if we follow this world’s advice we will push ourselves to the fore; we will assert ourselves – but James says that the path to true exaltation is not through self-assertion, but through self-abasement – not pushing oneself forward, but putting Christ first, others second and oneself last.
Disunity is a disease which has reached epidemic proportions in the Christian Church, and it is a truly disgusting thing – it is worldly, vicious and adulterous – it produces prickly, belligerent Christians who are always looking for a fight. But God has given us His remedy – do not be double-minded. Double-mindedness leads to disunity. By contrast, James encourages us to be single-minded in our devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. So will you be that tonight – repenting of all the pride and desire to get your own way, will you focus upon the glory of Christ? AMEN