Category: James

“You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'”

Just when you thought James was calming down, it turns out he was just getting started. The prophetic name-calling should certainly get our attention if nothing else. You probably haven’t thought too much about whether or not you are cheating on God before. But most likely you are. We are all incapable of faithfulness (remember those evil desires from yesterday’s post?). Every time we flirt with the world we are cheating on God.

So how do you know if you are dating the world? It may help to look at some of its common forms of seduction: money, power, fame, looks, status, stuff. If you care much about any of these things, the world has you wrapped around its finger and is luring you away from God as we speak. God generously gives us the Holy Spirit when we begin to follow Jesus. Our spirits and God’s spirits unite in a way very similar to marriage, and that union is something God is very passionate about. And yes, there’s grace. But there is also getting over yourself.

Even more accurately, God is passionately pursuing us. As a church. His Holy Spirit uniting with all of our united spirits in a marriage for all eternity. As the church, we must remain faithful to the Spirit of the living God. This faithfulness requires great humility as well as a constant seeking of God’s presence and a deep understanding of Scripture. May we all seek to fulfill our roles well in this supernatural wonder.

“So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.”

If there is a prophetic message for the American church at this exact moment in our history, I think these verses are it. Don’t just glance though today. Sit and simmer. Take it in. What do these verses mean for you, for us as the church? What are some ways you can identify that we as God’s people have divided our loyalties? How are we chasing the American dream while also claiming to chase after God?

Materialism. Power. Greed. Celebrity status. Abandoning the poor. These are just the first examples that come to the top of my head as I think about the values of the American church in the big picture of things. Have we sold our souls for extra money and fifteen minutes of fame? Have we claimed that these things are all necessary for the “cause of Christ”? And what should our responses be to these compromises? Tears. Sorrow. Grief. And then, humility.

The last 7 words of these verses are perhaps the most powerful summary of the Gospel that we could have. After talking about the tears and the grief and the sorrow over our sins, James says that if we choose a path of humility, “he will lift you up in honor.” God is still willing to honor us and raise up the church if we will simply turn from our ways and humble ourselves. What would that look like for us today? How can I identify compromise in my heart and join together with all those who are also willing to turn fully back to Jesus? There are not easy answers, which is why we must continue to wrestle our way towards repentance.

“Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?”

Twitter has adopted a new etiquette policy! No wait, that’s James 4:11-12… Hmm, let’s just let this one convict us today. The strange part is, most Christians seem to view it as very much their role to judge their neighbors. Yet here it says that we have no right to do such a thing.

Because American Christians are at times known for their judgmentalism, I did a search for “judge others” on BibleGateway.com. We are expressly told over and over again not to judge, but rather to show mercy. These verses say that God alone is the judge. So why do we continually try to usurp his throne?

I don’t mean you will not be judged by God. We all will be. (Quick tip: just plead the fifth — known as “the blood of Jesus” in God’s kingdom — and you will be acquitted on the spot if he knows your name.) When I say you can be set free from judgment, I mean you can be set free from the inner turmoil, anger and bitterness that goes on in your heart when you judge others. It’s not your job. You don’t even have to think about it. You have zero decisions to make about another person’s fate. You simply are free to love. If you vehemently oppose what they are doing, you get to love them even more. It’s a really great way to live.

“Look here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.’ Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”

What are you doing tomorrow? Next week? Next year? There’s a right answer that James provides us, and paraphrased it is your basic, “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise…” These verses are not about the exact words you use to describe your future plans. Rather, they are about your heart remaining very in touch with the reality that your every waking moment depends on God willing you to keep existing.

Two words stand out to me in this passage: boasting and pretentious. Sure, a few loud, arrogant people may come to mind. But do we really consider that we are pretentious simply by virtue of falling into self-reliance? Confession time: I am a prideful sinner who boasts about my own plans. There, I said it. And I do not say that flippantly or snidely. I genuinely see my own sin in these verses. (James tacks on one more area of sin that covers anything he missed: knowing the right thing and failing to do it… I’m sure we can all come up with a list on that one.)

How’s that going for you, anyway? Some who are in recovery often acknowledge that it was their own capacity that got them to hit rock bottom… It’s a lot easier from that place to realize that you stink at running the show. God’s got this. He’s got you. He wants to take care of you. So let him. Give up. Do less. Sit in his presence more and simply be. He will carry you to your next place. He will tell you which steps to take. He’s not trying to turn this into a guessing game. He just doesn’t find it necessary to give you as many specific directions as you may demand.

“Look here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags. Your gold and silver are corroded. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the day of judgment. For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed innocent people, who do not resist you.”

This passage might as well begin with the words, “Hey, Americans!” This is a prophetic word for us. You may not think of yourself as all that rich, but if you make $32,400 a year you are in the wealthiest 1% on the planet. Materialism is a constant threat to our spiritual lives. We are surrounded by a standard of living that far exceeds billions of people on earth. What was the last thing you urgently ran out to the store for? How large is your clothes closet? (The Bible’s definition of a lot of clothes is two shirts… Then you have one to give away.)

James is calling our attention to something: the cries of the workers. God has heard them, have you? Our cell phones and shoes and clothing and TV sets were all made by those in great poverty. Factory workers in Cambodia, Vietnam, China are suffering to make our stuff. They do not resist, as James says here, because it is the best job in town. And yet we are still responsible for condemning them to live in poverty and risk death.

Our stuff owns us. The more we say “no” to buying, the more we give away, the more we opt out of materialism the better off we will be. Jesus lived a simple life that we can emulate when we stop chasing “stuff.” It’s okay not to have things. You will be set free when you stop going to the mall. Shop at thrift stores and let your money go to charity instead of big corporations who oppress workers. Or better yet, simply live with fewer items of clothing. Even more than this, develop relationships with people who do not have a lot. This is very hard to do in America, as even our poor people often have a lot of stuff. But they are here, in our cities and in our rural towns. They are our children who are hungry and our homeless in need of a shower. They are our brothers and sisters with mental illness or chronic physical pain. Don’t just volunteer once at a soup kitchen. Move your entire live into a place where these are your actual neighbors. Let’s love and live the way Jesus did.

Want to think more about this? Read Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger or follow Shane Claiborne and his community The Simple Way.