Context No. 2732 of 4322 · James

James 4:1-10: in context

1Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 3You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? 6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

James asks a blunt question and gives a blunter answer. Where do the fights and quarrels among you come from? From the desires at war inside you. You want and cannot get, so you fight; you do not have because you do not ask; and when you do ask, you ask only to spend it on yourself. Friendship with the world, he warns, is enmity with God.

Then the whole tone turns on four small words: but he gives more grace. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. James traces every conflict down to appetites we would rather not name, and then offers a remedy that is not self-improvement but surrender. Submit to God. Resist the devil. Draw near to him and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, humble yourself, and he will lift you up. The way up runs straight down through humility.

When I am in conflict, do I look outward for the cause, or let James turn me to the war of wants inside me?

Sources

James 4:6: "But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
1 Peter 5:6: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time."
Matthew 5:4: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."