The captain of the ship looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message" "Alter your course 10 degrees south." Promptly a return message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north."

The captain was angered; his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am the captain!" Soon another message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am seaman third class Jones." Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am a battleship." Then the reply came "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a lighthouse." (www.sermonillustrations.com)

James writes to people who were headed for disaster and destruction unless they changed their course. They were proud, worldly, and self-seeking. Living in the midst of severe affliction and persecution, instead of watching out for one another and helping one another, they had the attitude of every man for himself. They were quarreling and fighting with whomever got in their way and kept them from what they wanted. As a result, they lacked peace.

The book of James was written to encourage believers to have a living faith that produces fruit even in the midst of pressure. One of the products of living faith is peace. Trusting God produces peace, even in the midst of hard times.

Are you trusting God by seeking the wisdom that comes down from heaven for the solutions to the problems you face?

• Are you seeking God’s wisdom when your children’s behavior is really getting on your nerves and you are finding yourself wanting blow up at them?
• Are you seeking God’s wisdom when extreme pressures at work cause you to feel stressed and tired, making it difficult to be loving and patient with your family members when you come home?
• Are you seeking God’s wisdom for how to handle your disappointment and frustration after having been slighted out of a promotion at work or let go from your job?
• Are you seeking God’s wisdom for how to handle the hurt you feel from what someone said about you at school?
• Are you seeking God’s wisdom for how to handle your frustration from having been cheated or mistreated by another believer?

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given him" (James 1:5).

Too often, instead of looking to God for wisdom, we approach our problems from man’s point of view. We turn to the world, the flesh, and the devil for wisdom in how to handle our problems, which results in conflict. Man’s way of seeing things leads only to bitter jealousy towards those who have what we don’t and selfish ambition for the things others have that we want.

We will never be satisfied when we look for solutions to our problems man’s way. When we pursue man’s solutions, we will have nothing but frustration.

• We will not get what we want.
• We will not be able to have what we kill and covet to get.
• We will not have what we quarrel with and fight others for.
• We will not receive what we selfishly ask of God.

Try as we may to solve our problems and conflicts man’s way, when we leave God out and don’t trust Him for the solution, we will find ourselves spinning our wheels and getting nowhere in terms of finding peace.

We don’t find satisfaction when we try to solve our problems man’s ways because:

• We are looking for our own solutions and not looking to God for what we need.
• We are seeking our own comfort and pleasure—we want what we want—instead of seeking God’s will—what He wants!
• We are seeking friendship with the world.

James wrote to people who had been expelled from their synagogues, they had lost their jobs, they had been cut off from their families, and they were under constant verbal attacks—these folks were suffering much for their faith. Under the pressure, many were trying to stay on good terms with the world. They were maintaining friendship with the world, hoping their friends would help them out.

The problem with this approach is that to be friends with the world, we must give up on God. The world is the evil system that Satan rules that encourages people to leave God out of their lives. It is determined to oppose God and try to get rid of Him along with those who follow Him. The world wants a God-free society.

Friendship with the world is completely incompatible with faithfulness to God. We can't bring God into a friendly relationship with this world system. The world and God are headed in opposite directions! We can't remain faithful to God and seek the same things the world seeks.

James’ instruction about how friendship with the world is the wrong solution to our problems reminds me of what John writes in 1 John 2:15-16- "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world."

Just as friendship with the world is incompatible with faithfulness to God, so to is love for the world incompatible with love for God. The two cannot exist at the same time. It is impossible to love or commit oneself to the direction of both the world and God because they are in opposition to one another.

The world encourages us to pursue the cravings of the sinful man or the lust of the flesh. It encourages us to live our lives doing our own thing, without God’s help.

The world invites us to go after the things that we see and then want, even when God forbids those things.

The world also encourages us to boast about what we have and do. It encourages us to pursue the "pride of life" as the King James Version puts it. The word translated "life" in the KJV is used of the goods or stuff needed in order to maintain physical life. Coupled with the concept of pride, the idea is that when man loves the world, he finds himself boasting that he has all he needs from the material stuff he has managed to provide for himself and he doesn’t need God. Those who love the world say, "I have acquired for myself the property, the possessions, the stuff I need to live day by day and I don’t need God’s help—thank you."

When in keeping with the ways of the world we seek after our own comfort; when we think that we have a better way of handling problems than God does and pursue our own way of dealing with pressures of life—we will not find peace! The wisdom of man that tells us to look out for ourselves when the going gets rough brings havoc to relationships. It doesn’t look pretty when everyone is thinking only about their own welfare and concerned only with improving their own situation.

When we live as practical atheists and act as if God doesn’t exist, it not only produces conflict with others, but also brings opposition from God. When our attitude is pride and we think we can handle life without God’s help, He promises to oppose us. It is not just that God withholds blessing from the proud, but that He sets Himself up against them.

If trying to handle life on our own without God isn’t the way to find peace, then what is the solution?

"But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’"

James’ statement in 4:6 is the underlying principle that reveals the solution to our conflict. When we humble ourselves before God—when we submit ourselves to do what He wants and depend on Him to help us, we will receive grace. This is not to say that grace can be earned by our being humble, but rather that God has chosen to extend His grace when we are humble.

The choices are ours—pride or humility before God?—being opposed or being given the grace we need to live a righteous life? The only solution to our fighting is to turn from pride and humble ourselves before God. We need to stop proudly relying on ourselves and humbly rely on God for His abundant grace instead. James 4:7-12 shows us what this will look like in our lives.

Is your life filled with conflict? Are you in constant battles with those around you because you have been self-seeking and proud, looking out only for yourself, and disregarding what God thinks? James gives the solution to your conflict and shows you how you can find peace in 4:7-12. (Quote Passage)

James’ Problem: Believers following man’s worldly wisdom which led to bitter envy and selfish ambition which in turn led to quarreling and fighting.

James’ Goal: To encourage them to have a living faith that produced peace and love.

The Solution: Turn to the Lord in humble submission and submit to one another in love.

The solution to conflict begins not with our working hard to iron things out, but with submission to our Lord. Submission to God is the only means of eliminating fights and quarrels. When we find ourselves in conflict, we need to surrender our wills to the leadership and control of God, submitting to His plan and doing what He wants us to do. Granted, submission towards others is also important for peace to exist, but all other kinds of submission flow out of our submission to God. Until we submit to Him, we will never submit to anyone else and will be unable to enjoy peace.

In James 4:7-10, James lists specific exhortations which flow out of our submission to God and define what submission to God looks like. With the vigor and language typical of an Old Testament prophet, James gives 10 different appeals, calling these worldly sinners to turn to God in submission. We need to be careful to consider each of James’ exhortations in the light of their situation, and the quarrelling and fighting going on around them.

1. Submitting to God involves resisting the devil so that he will flee (4:7b).

The devil’s goal is that we would submit to his plan to leave God out of the picture. He wants us to be like himself by proudly refusing to bow in submission to the Lord. Using his evil schemes, he tries to cast doubt on God’s plan for our lives. The devil wants us to see his plan as a better and more attractive alternative.

When the going gets tough in life, he wants us to fight for what we want. He wants us to look at God as being able to offer little or no help when life is difficult. "Every man for himself" is the motto he inspired. When Satan presents his blueprint for life, we need to resist him and say "No!"

We need to reject the devil, taking a deliberate personal stance of resistance when he attacks. Notice that I did not say that we need to go out and fight the devil. The Christian is nowhere instructed to go out and attack the devil or to look for new ways to lure him into combat. We don’t need to go out and look for a battle with Satan as we regularly find him attacking us. When he does level an assault, we need to stand our ground and not give into temptation. When we do, there is the promise of victory—"…he will flee." The devil is a powerful enemy, but we have the assurance of God’s Word that he can be resisted and when he is, he will flee.

We have an example of this in Matthew 4. The devil attacked Jesus, trying to tempt Him into doing His own thing independent of what the Father wanted. Jesus, of course, submitted to the Father’s plan, using God’s Word to withstand Satan’s attacks. When Jesus resisted, the devil left Him. When we resist the devil by surrounding ourselves with the strong armor of protection God provides for us (Ephesians 6:10-18), he will flee us.

2. Submitting to God involves drawing near to Him so that He will draw near to us (4:8a).

Simultaneous to our resisting the devil so that he will flee, we need to come near to God. James’ appeal is that those who had been estranged from God by following the ways of the world and the devil return to Him, giving their allegiance back to Him. The command to draw near to God is accompanied by the assurance that God will draw near to us. When we say "Yes" to God, committing ourselves afresh to Him and seeking Him first, He will be there near us in no time.

In this first couplet of imperatives, James makes it clear that we have a choice to make. Will we be friends with God or friends with the world? Will we oppose the devil or will we find ourselves opposed by God because we have made the proud choice to keep Him out of our lives? "Resist the devil and he will flee. Come near to God and He will come near to you."

In the second couplet of imperatives, James calls for the purifying of our lives when we have been caught up in the sin of worldliness.

To draw near unto God demands His cleansing. We need to take responsibility for seeing that our actions and attitudes get cleaned up. We need to wash our hands. Hands are an appropriate metaphor of our outward activity. We need to cleanse ourselves from the sin of not trusting God and seeking after self.

Hearts is a metaphor for our inward thoughts or attitudes. We need to purify our hearts from the contamination caused by being double minded. We need to acknowledge that we are wrong to think that we can have divided interests and waiver between following the world and God. We need to admit that we cannot befriend the world and remain committed to God at the same time. We need to have pure hearts, fully committed to doing what the Lord wants.

Psalm 24:3-4a- "Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart…"

When we find ourselves not trusting God and seeking self, we dare not take our sin lightly—God certainly doesn’t. The seriousness of sin in God’s eyes is unmistakable here. We need to lament our sinful condition. James piles up three terms to depict the appropriate response of the sinner when he or she has been proud and living life without God. "Grieve"—our sin should produce a sense of misery and deep affliction within us. "Mourn"—We are to passionately grieve over our sin. "Wail"—We should weep and cry over our sin.

James is not saying that grieving, mourning, and wailing are to be a constant characteristic of the Christian. He is not contradicting Paul’s teaching that the Christian is to rejoice always (1 Thessalonians 5:16). When the situation in our lives is like that which gave rise to these commands in James, when we have been living as practical atheists because we have allowed the world to get a foothold, then these responses are both necessary and appropriate.

When we have lived our lives, leaving God out of the picture, our state of laughter needs to change to a state of mourning and our gladness needs to be replaced by gloominess. There is a time when laughter and gladness are inappropriate.

James concludes where he began—God gives grace to those who humble themselves before Him. Instead of having a proud, exalted view of ourselves, thinking that we are really something and can make our way through life without God, we need to submit to Him by humbling ourselves before Him. We need to make ourselves low—prostrating ourselves before God in order to seek His mercy and grace.

The irony is that when we humble ourselves before God—when we resist the devil, draw near to God, cleanse ourselves of sinful deeds and thoughts, and seriously acknowledge our sin with appropriate grief—it is then that we are exalted or lifted up. The ultimate answer to the problems of worldliness and the misdeeds that flow from trying to live life without God is humble submission to our Master. Making ourselves low before our Master is the only way we will get on our feet and find the peace we have sought.

When we humble ourselves before the Lord, He will lift us up. By His all-sufficient grace, He will forgive sin; He will restore us to fellowship; He will give us peace and joy; and He will strengthen us to live in purity and righteousness.

Transition: The solution to quarrelling and fighting begins with submission to the Lord, but it doesn’t stop there. There is another necessary step that flows out of submission to God.

2. Peace is produced when we submit to one another, showing our brothers love and respect (4:11-12).

In keeping with the Royal Rule to love our neighbor as ourselves, we need to love and respect one another. It is easy, especially when we are under pressure and in the midst of affliction, to criticize and judge one another instead of loving one another.

There are two groups of people we tend to bad mouth and judge when life gets rough:

1. Those who cause us to suffer.

When we criticize them, we fail to realize that God is the true source of all that happens in our lives. He sends these experiences for our good and we are wrong to angrily speak out against those who hurt us (see 1:2-4; 17-20). What is your speech like when other believers bring you harm?

 

2. Those who don’t suffer as much as we do.

"They must be less spiritual than we are"

Or, perhaps "they are compromising with the world to get better treatment."

Here are some other areas where we need to be careful today not to be judgmental and critical:

• Condemning the motives behind others’ words or actions in church ministry or business.
• Condemning others for how they spend their money.
• Condemning others for how they are raising their children or where they decide to school them.
• Condemning others when their church doesn’t do church exactly like we do. Sure, there is sometimes good reason for healthy disagreement when our philosophies are different than others, but being judgmental of our brothers is never acceptable.

1. Stop badmouthing and judging one another if you want peace!

Someone has said, "Satan is the accuser of the brethren, let’s not do his work" Love one another, don’t subject one another to biting criticism.

The word translated "slander" in the NIV is better translated "speak against." When we think of slander, we usually think of speaking false things about others in order to hurt them and bring them down. While this idea was certainly included in James’ prohibition, he had a broader meaning in mind. James’ is prohibiting the continuation of speech, whether true or false, that is intended to tear others down or to inflame others against a person being criticized.

It is an unfortunate thing that far too many Christians have come to think it is O.K. for us to convey negative information as long as it is true. Is passing along damaging truth with the intent of bringing others down O.K.?—I don’t think so. If we are speaking truth or untruth about someone, intending to criticize or belittle another person, we need to stop it. Don’t badmouth one another, friends.

In verse 11, James equates speaking against our brother with judging him— "Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it." Often times sinning brothers jump to this verse and Matthew 7:1-2 to prove that someone is wrong for confronting their sinful behavior. James is not prohibiting our calling sin what it is. He is not telling us to stop confronting people living in sin. We are not judging or condemning our brothers and sisters in Christ when we confront their sin with the desire that they be restored to fellowship. James himself addressed his readers as sinners (4:8) when calling them to wash their hands of sin and submit to God.

What James is prohibiting is our being critical, judgmental, and condemning of others rather than extending mercy and love as God would have us to do. Remember James 2:8, 12-13- "If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right…Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!" Instead of speaking against each other in a judgmental, condemning way, James’ readers were to demonstrate love and mercy toward one another.

2. Judging others is actually speaking against and judging the law.

When we speak against others and judge them, it is God’s Word that we are ultimately judging and speaking against. It is God’s Royal Rule to love our neighbor as ourself (Leviticus 19:18) that takes a beating when we badmouth one another.

We are supposed to honor God’s Word and do what it says. It is not our role to sit in judgment on it. And yet, that is exactly what we do when we know what it says and violate it anyway. Our failure to keep the law amounts to our judging it to be invalid, unnecessary, and unworthy of our adherence.

We are acting as if we are over the law and it is our right to choose which laws to obey because they are good and which to set aside because they are bad. We don’t judge the law, but it judges us. Regardless of how we might judge the law of love, when we aren’t obeying it, we then become lawbreakers.

3. God is the only one qualified to judge people (4:12).

God is the only true judge. Only He has the right to judge. He has given us the standard of the Royal Rule and He is the one who will hold us accountable. He will evaluate fairly and repay each one what they deserve. That is not our place. It is God’s decision to decide human destiny. He decides who will be delivered and who will be destroyed and He alone is able to bring either judgment to pass. Who do we think we are to think that we can take God’s place? When we speak against and judge other believers, we have tried to usurp authority that belongs to God alone.

In the summer of 1986, two ships collided in the Black Sea off the coast of Russia. Hundreds of passengers died as they were hurled into the icy waters below. News of the disaster was further darkened when an investigation revealed the cause of the accident. It wasn't a technology problem like radar malfunction--or even thick fog. The cause was human stubbornness. Each captain was aware of the other ship's presence nearby. Both could have steered clear, but according to news reports, neither captain wanted to give way to the other. Each was too proud to yield first. By the time they came to their senses, it was too late (Closer Walk, December, 1991).

A peaceful journey on the sea of life is quickly disrupted when we refuse to submit. When we continue in our pride, rather than humbling ourselves before the Lord, our lives will come to a conflict of disastrous proportions. Submit yourself then to God. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.