James 4 Discussion

Conflict rarely starts with “the other person.” It starts when our desires get loud, our pride gets defensive, and our loyalty quietly shifts toward the world. James 4 doesn’t let us hide behind excuses, so we slow down and trace quarrels back to what’s happening inside the heart, including prayerlessness and prayers aimed at feeding our passions instead of seeking God’s will. 

We talk through one of James’ sharpest warnings: friendship with the world can put us at odds with God, not because we can’t love people who don’t believe, but because allegiance matters. Along the way, we unpack what it means to submit to God, resist the devil, and draw near to God with a humble spirit. We also wrestle with a practical tension in Christian discipleship: when do you resist temptation, and when do you flee, especially when sexual sin is involved? 

Then James turns to our speech and our plans. We clarify the difference between sinful judgment that speaks evil and faithful discernment that measures life by God’s law, and we end with the sobering reminder that life is a vapor. Planning isn’t the problem, pride is, so we learn to hold our calendars with open hands and say, “If the Lord wills.” If you want a clear, Bible-driven guide to humility, repentance, spiritual warfare, and everyday Christian living, press play, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

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Transcript

James 4 Big Picture Outline

Pastor Plek 0:10

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Fleck, that's Pastor Holland. We're talking James chapter four, and we're going to outline, observe it, interpret, and apply it so you can be equipped to take the word of God to push back the darkness wherever you live, work, or play. So James chapter four, verses one through six gives us a source of conflict and worldliness. Quarrels and conflicts come from sinful desires within people. And ultimately, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Verses seven through ten is a call to humility and repentance. Submit yourself to God, resist the devil, he will flee from you. And then humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Then you have verses 11 and 12, a warning against judging others. Believer must not speak evil against one another. Then you've got verses 13 through 17, a warning against prideful self-confidence. Human plans are uncertain because life is temporary like a vapor, and knowing the right thing to do, but failing to do it, that is sin.

You Don’t Have Because You Don’t Ask

Pastor Plek 1:10

All right. What observations are you making right here?

Pastor Holland 1:13

Okay. You get, we mentioned before that James is uh getting a lot of his, you know, source material from uh Jesus, teachings of Jesus and the Proverbs. You see that again here. One that sticks out to me is he says, You do not have because you do not ask. Right. Um, which remember in G Jesus, I think in Matthew 7 7, ask and you shall receive. This is just saying that same idea another way, um, but pointing out kind of framing it negatively of like, you are not praying. Yeah. And um, you're praying wrongly.

Pastor Plek 1:46

Right. Yeah, I like how he starts off. You you don't have because you don't ask. Like, you are not praying. Let's just be honest about your prayer life, it's non-existent. Uh, which I appreciate that in the early church, first this we believe that this to be the first um New Testament letter written, correct? I think so. Yeah. And so therefore, the what Christians need to hear at that time is you need to pray, which is sort of why like this is where you're seeing these miracles, you're seeing Jesus has risen from the dead within your lifetime, and you are not praying. Yeah. Like that's kind of wild to me, but it's it's comforting in a way because uh how many of us in our churches are not praying? And then for people who are praying, you are doing it wrong, which I've always sort of heard there's no way to pray wrong. There's a way. There's definitely a way, there is a way to pray.

Pastor Holland 2:39

James is like, let me clear it up. There is a way to pray wrong.

Pastor Plek 2:42

Yeah, you can do it wrong.

Pastor Holland 2:43

You turns out you ask wrongly, verse three, to spend it on your passions. So praying for things that are not the will of God, but are rather just serving your own selfish ambitions.

When Prayer Becomes Selfish Desire

Pastor Plek 2:54

I did have a story back when I was a new Christian. I was I was witnessing to uh a friend of mine, and he was like, I think I believe in God now. I go, I was like, wow, what happened? He's like, Well, I prayed that I could have sex with this woman, and then it happened. God answered my prayer. And I go, I don't think it was God who answered your prayer. Anyway, but you might be praying to demons. You might be praying to demons.

Pastor Holland 3:19

And so I'm guessing this was an unmarried man's fornication we're talking about.

Pastor Plek 3:23

Yeah, and uh, it was, it was adulterous. He saw a girl in a red dress at a bar and he was just like, God, please.

Pastor Holland 3:29

And yeah, that's where you go. You ask wrongly to spend it on your passions, you adulterous people. Right. And I think this this another observation do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Right. Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James is so blunt, black and white. I really appreciate the way that he writes.

Pastor Plek 3:51

So this is I'm I'm more of a friend of the world person, so I know you're kind of more anti-world, which I appreciate. Uh however, like this feels like like circle up the wagons, weapons oriented toward the enemy, and get ready for the onslaught of the bad guys.

Pastor Holland 4:09

Wait, did you just say that you are a friend of the world?

Pastor Plek 4:12

Well, I'm more, you know, like I'm not like quite as much.

Pastor Holland 4:15

James says you have enmity with God and you're an enemy of God.

Pastor Plek 4:18

I'm just asking what it means, because it seems like that that means it's time to circle the wagons because everyone out there is bad. Yeah.

Pastor Holland 4:26

Um, this is good. So what he I think what he's not saying is you can't be friends with anyone out in the world. He's saying you can't be friends, meaning like you can't be yoked together with that which is of the world. You cannot um partner with that makes sense. Worldly way of thinking and living.

Pastor Plek 4:47

Yeah, that's good. Uh, but I I do think, you know, when you the the the risk of evangelism, especially relational evangelism, is that your friendliness with one of the world might make you a friend of the world if you're not careful and vigilant for your own soul.

Pastor Holland 5:05

Yeah. And so this is where, you know, um, with Jesus being called a friend of sinners, right? You know, is like, hey, he is friends with worldly people, therefore he must be one of them, right? A worldly person. Right. Whereas, you know, you have New Testament teaching that says, you know, things like um that we are in the world and not of the world, um, that uh that we can't be friends with the world in this in the sense of like, I am giving my allegiance to the world, my loyalty is to the world. But you can be friends with worldly people. So in the way that your allegiance is to God and your friendship with them is um loving them with the love of Christ and pointing them to God, rather than them dragging you down into the world.

Friendship With The World Defined

Pastor Holland 5:53

Okay.

Pastor Plek 5:53

All right, so that's good. Um, but what about this? And he goes, Um, submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Now, this is sort of contrary to First Corinthians 6, 18, where uh he says something to the effect of flee sexual morality. Like it, you know, every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexual and moral person sins against his own body. So, how do we like uh reconcile that? Because he's talking about, hey, you have you know you adulterous people, like he's kind of leaning into an adulteress, but like resisting the devil, the devil will flee from you here, but with sexual morality, flee sexual morality, run away from it. So who what's going on here with the resisting and fleeing? What are your thoughts?

Pastor Holland 6:45

Yeah, uh so uh resist the devil and he will flee from you. The he there like is the devil, right? Like Satan. Um meaning when Satan approaches you to tempt you, um and you resist that, then um he he flees in the way that um demons also fled from Christ. Um and I think the devil here, meaning he even just saying Satan, meaning Satan or one of his many demons.

Pastor Plek 7:12

This is like I think sometimes the King James Version would call demons devils.

Pastor Holland 7:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Um and so the devil could be Satan or one of the however many demonic you know servants that Satan has, but when you resist, they flee from you.

Pastor Plek 7:26

Yes. And so there's two things. There's one that's the demonic activity where you stand strong in Christ, they run away. Right. And then there's also your own internal uh sexual morale or your internal desire that's evil, you need to run from that. Is that a good way to put that?

Pastor Holland 7:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You flee from the sexual temptation, and in doing so, you do that by standing firm on Christ and getting yourself out of those situations. And when you do that, then the devils also flee from you. Nice.

Resist The Devil, Flee Temptation

Pastor Plek 7:56

Okay, that's good. Um, all right, what one of my favorite things here is God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Like, and uh whenever I you know preach on this, I always go to um uh the the word in the Greek here is uh hooper ephanoi, uh, or from the the root word hooper uh phonos. And you're just like, oh, what does that mean? It's it is a military conquering uh or battling with another. And so I I really appreciate that God opposes the proud, like within it like almost a militarily, yeah, but gives grace to the humble. What any thoughts there on on that?

Pastor Holland 8:43

Uh yeah, it you know, God, the people of God, God will have a humble people. Either you will humble yourself before the Lord, yeah, or he will oppose you and humiliate you.

Pastor Plek 8:56

Yeah, so don't get on the wrong side of God.

Pastor Holland 8:59

Yeah, God will have a humble people, either way, though. And so the better way is to um submit yourselves therefore to God. Verse 7, humble yourself before the Lord, yeah, and he will exalt you.

Humility That Draws Near To God

Pastor Plek 9:10

And the other part about this, on on that same note, only if you're humble can you draw near to God. Verse 8, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Yeah, which means this, and I and I want people to lean into this. You are as close to God as a Christian as you choose to be. Yep. So that means that if you can humble yourself and say, God, I need you, I want you. You know, in the same way in chapter uh one, you know, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask of God who gives generously to all. Like he's inviting you to ask. You can ask the why God questions in hard times. And then you can draw near to God and he wants to draw near to you, but it takes a humble heart. If you have any pride, he's gonna resist you and he's gonna, he's gonna overcome you. Yeah.

Pastor Holland 9:59

Yeah. Um, I think it was Tozer who said who kind of popularized that quote of you're as close to God as you want to be. Yeah, yeah. I I heard it from Rick Warren back in the day on his like uh uh I mean it's just one of those great, yeah, purposefully memorable quotes. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, this verse just really says like to the person who's like, Oh, I just I feel so far from God. It sometimes it can feel like I'm trying to get close to God, but I feel far from him still. Um, and it may be that uh there's some aspect that you are prideful, you know, there's some kind of pride keeping you from God, there's some humbling of yourself. There's and pride goes two ways.

Pastor Plek 10:39

It's pride and that you think so low of yourself, or in a sense, like, I'm so awful, Jesus wouldn't want to save me. And then what you've done to Jesus is you've made the cross really small. Um, or on the flip side, it's like, I'm so awesome, I don't really need Jesus, and you're like, same way making the cross small.

Pastor Holland 10:57

Yeah.

Pastor Plek 10:57

Um, and so uh that's I think that's the problem with our pride going either way of like I'm either too bad or I'm uh not bad, I'm not that bad.

Pastor Holland 11:07

Yeah. And that's why, you know, so the the following verses cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify you hearts, your hearts, you double-minded, be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laugh let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. It's like what? You don't really see that on like uh Christian cards. You don't get uh James four, eight, and nine. Um turn your joy to gloom. With you know, a little like flowery uh, but you know, then it says again, humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you, verse 10. And so you have verse seven, submit yourselves therefore to God. Then verse 10, humble yourselves before the Lord. What's in between that is a call, is an explanation. Here's how you do it. Yeah, if you are a proud, so this is speaking to proud, arrogant people. Right. And I think of like when my kids do something really bad and I'm like disciplining them and they're like still laughing about what they did. That's kind of the idea. I'm like, why are you laughing? You should be mourning, like um laughter be turned into mourning in your joy to gloom right now. Do you not realize like you did something bad? Your father is displeased with you. Like, repent. And that's what James is saying to Christians who are arrogant. Right.

Pastor Plek 12:16

Okay, what about um just continuing

Judgment, Gossip, And God’s Law

Pastor Plek 12:19

down? Sh there's a shift, and and and it feels like um it's disconnected, but I think it's super connected. So here's why I love this. He starts with where where do conflicts and quarrels come from? He goes, Oh, it's actually your friendship with the world. Yep. So therefore, don't be a friend of the world, be submit yourself to God, and do not speak evil or do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. All right. So, like, there's this place where uh in verse do not speak, verse 11, do not speak against one another brothers. The one who speaks against a brother judges his brother. Now, this is the part where I think we use this verse a lot. Who are you to judge me? You know, like uh and it seems like this is a clear hey, don't judge another Christian, but clearly that's not it because Paul writes about the ones we are supposed to judge are the ones that are in the church. So, what is he saying here?

Pastor Holland 13:13

What is he saying? He says there's only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? To me, what stands out about that is that God it's uh God reserves um the right to be the final judge. And so if we're judging other people in a way that's inconsistent with God's law, right? Um, if we're adding additional things to God's law, if we're judging people by some standard other than God's law, um, then it becomes a sinful, worldly, destructive kind of judgment.

Pastor Plek 13:53

Right. So you just become like the world when you judge like the world. Don't do that. That doesn't mean we don't do church discipline, or that doesn't mean that we don't like if someone is living in sin. I mean, clearly um James is writing to people that had an adulterous heart, and he's saying repent. So he's saying he's judging, he's making a judgment, right? Yeah, right.

Pastor Holland 14:14

And he explains what he means. So when he says, um, he says, Do not speak evil against one another. Right. Um, the one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. And so he's making a relationship, uh, he's making this connection here. Here's what he means by judging his brother. He means speaking evil against them in a way inconsistent with God's law.

Pastor Plek 14:36

Yeah.

Pastor Holland 14:37

On the other hand, to judge your brother in the sense of um measuring them according to God's law and calling them into conformity with God's law, that's actually a good thing. That's exactly what James is doing in this whole letter. Right. Um, and that is a way to help and save and build up your brother.

Plans, Pride, And Sins Of Omission

Pastor Plek 14:56

Okay. So then in this next last part or ne the last part of come now, you say today, tomorrow we'll go into such and such a town. It also feels disjointed, but no, it's going back to what causes quarrels and fights among you. Yep. What's causing quarrels and fights is you have this boastful heart of like, this is what I'm gonna do. And it's making other people like, oh yeah, well, how do you know that's gonna be true? And it's almost this the double boasting. So he's the the challenge is uh don't speak evil of someone else because they might have business plans, but that the person who's got the business plans uh don't say today or tomorrow I'm gonna do this or that, but say, um, if the Lord wills, we'll do this, that. So he's pointing at to the probably the primary thing of conflict, which was business ventures that the people in the church were wanting to do. And someone's saying, You're arrogant, or you know, how dare you think you can do anything, you know, move out of town, or what, you know, whatever. And then James is hitting both of those people who are quarreling against one another. That's how I feel like that passage shapes out.

Pastor Holland 15:54

Yeah, I mean the like the deepest thing underneath all of it is this human pride of like, I'm the one in control of my life. I I say what's right or wrong. I make my own law, I set the own standard, I judge you against it. I'm in control of my life and what's gonna happen, here's what I'm gonna do. All of this is exalting yourself against God who's really in charge.

Pastor Plek 16:15

So that last verse then of verse 17. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Like, if you know not to judge another person, like like talk down about another Christian, speak evil against another Christian, and yet you do it, for you it's sin. Even if you're like you, you're guising it in a right judgment. Or if you're, you know, boastly saying about all the great things you're gonna do, it's not wrong to want to plan stuff, but if you're doing it from a heart of like uh of a self-glorifying way, then that is also sin.

Pastor Holland 16:46

Yeah. And this and that brings up that there is more than one category of sin. You have sins of commission, you commit a sin by doing the wrong thing. Right. But this is also a sin of omission. You you sin by knowing the right thing to do and not doing it. Right. Um, and so James doesn't leave anybody out.

Pastor Plek 17:03

Yeah, it's wild. He is a uh a hammer of uh a prophet in a sense. Okay, so let's get into some stuff about the nature of man. What are some truths about the nature of man that we can just see here?

Pastor Holland 17:15

Um, we are prone to arrogance, pride, boasting, thinking that we're in charge, we're in control.

Pastor Plek 17:21

Yeah. And I think that comes from also the humans naturally battle selfish desires that lead to the conflict and sin. It's the passions that war within us. That is that is a human thing that we have to overcome. Yeah. Um, how about just one that's super easy? Uh, because it talks about in that last chunk there. Uh, human life is uncertain and short. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Pastor Holland 17:46

Man, that is humbling. That's the kind of stuff of um, you know, Proverbs and Psalms and Ecclesiastes, those reminders of yeah, the vanity and brevity of human life.

Pastor Plek 17:57

Oh man. Okay. Um, all right. What about let's get into some character of God. You are a mist. That's what it's saying. I'm just like, man, that's yeah. You're a mist. That's just so profound right there. You are a mist. All right, character of God. Uh, how about just God is gracious, he gives, generously gives grace to those who are humble. And I think also it's gracious for him to oppose the proud.

Pastor Holland 18:18

Yes, yeah. He and he's also in verse 12, the lawgiver and judge. And so this is like so important. I think some you can really get into this antinomian version of Christianity.

Pastor Plek 18:32

Which means anti-against nomi law. Yes. So does you don't fall against the law. Against the law.

Pastor Holland 18:37

We don't need laws, we don't need rules, we don't need commands, we don't need religion. It's just all about, you know, a personal love relationship with God. But that is really diminishing what the Bible teaches about God and Christianity. He is He is our the lover of our souls. Jesus is our friend. We do have a personal relationship with Him as our Savior, but He is also Lord, King, Judge, Ruler, Lawgiver. Um, and you need both law and gospel to have a healthy Christianity and to understand the Bible.

Pastor Plek 19:10

And on that note, I say, so God is jealous for us because of that great love, because of that great care, he is jealous for us to follow according to his way, which is the ultimate best way. Amen. Okay. Um, what else you got for uh uh character of God? How about just how about he alone is judge and rules over human plans and all future events? He is sovereign. Yeah.

Pastor Holland 19:35

Yeah, that's good.

Pastor Plek 19:36

Okay, let's get into some applications. So sin to avoid or a promise to claim, an example to follow, or uh command to obey, or knowledge to believe. What do you got?

Pastor Holland 19:45

Draw near to God. I think of this, you know, it's a command, uh command to obey, um, but it's attached to this great promise of he'll he'll draw near to you. And I think that's that's just so encouraging. If you you again, you're as close to God as you want to be, but sometimes drawing near to God requires you to admit like areas of pride, things that you need to lay down, repent from, things you might need to let go of that are holding you back from being close to God.

Pastor Plek 20:16

I love that. Okay, how about uh command obey? Stop speaking evil against others. Yeah. Um I think it's convicting. Go ahead. I think that's a convicting just church wide. I think there's just a natural tendency, just this is how the world operates. I think that's why this gets back to friendship with the world. Like, there's a natural tendency just to be like, just have a critical spirit about people. Um, and and maybe a lot of it rightfully so, because you've been hurt or wounded, you've you've had a lot of past experiences, which is then when you become an old man or old lady, you're like, get off my lawn, I know what you're gonna do. You're like, you have a get off my lawn attitude, and that's not Christ-like, that's of the world. I mean, get off my lawn.

Pastor Holland 20:58

What if you got a really nice lawn and it's people should respect that? Just saying. Come from AM where you know you don't walk on the grass at the MSc. It's have some decent have some daggum respect around here. Okay, also if you're in that place of judging other people in this sinful way, coming from a place of arrogance, you know, the the command to obey here is cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded, be wretched, mourn, weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Yeah. You cannot like repentance requires like a godly sorrow. Yeah, godly sorrow and really um uh really dealing with from the inside out, from the heart level, um, rooting that out of you.

Pastor Plek 21:49

Yeah, it's huge. Um, just how about this send to avoid making plans without acknowledging a dependence on God? I I love that. That is especially in uh ministry, we have all sorts of plans. And then you had to throw some God willings on that. There you go. Uh all your plans with open hands. All all your plans with open hands. Um okay. Uh what else? Anything else to land the plan here?

Pastor Holland 22:16

Uh, if you know the right thing to do and fail to do it, it's sin. So if there's something right you know you're supposed to do, do it. You better do it. All right.

Pastor Plek 22:23

Hey, thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.