Metz 09/17/2017

Warning Against WorldlinessJames 4:1–12

As we come to James 4 this morning in our walk thru the book of James, we encounter a very strong warning against worldliness. What does it mean for a Christian to be worldly? Why do James and other authors of the New Testament feel the need to sound a warning about worldliness? And how do we do an inventory, a self-assessment of sorts, to see if we’ve come down with a case of worldliness?

Those are some of the questions we’ll address this morning.

If you have your bibles, let’s get the entire passage before us…. James 4:1-12….James 4:1–12

4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 

11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? 

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James, the ‘in your face’1 New Testament writer of scripture doesn’t mince words in this passage does he? He begins with a couple “in your face” rhetorical questiona in verse 1: What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

Now thinking about those two questions, if we didn’t know better we would guess James was describing a community of people that were about to self-destruct, don’t you agree? The word quarrels “almost always refers to literal wars and battles.”2 The word fights means ‘battles’ or ‘strife of any kind’. James’ words are quite a surprise and they seem to come out of

1 I think Kent Hughes described James this way2 Moo

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nowhere. If you were with us two weeks ago toward the end of chapter 3, Justin left us with the appealing picture of a life governed by heavenly wisdom--James 3:17,18, pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And here at the beginning of chapter 4 it appears that we have the appalling picture of a church in conflict.

{A father heard a commotion out in the yard and looked up to see his daughter and playmates in a heated quarrel. When he reprimanded her, she replied, “Daddy, we were just playing church.”3 If you’ve been around long enough you know that church life can sometimes seem like that.}

Now most students of scripture believe that James isn’t referring to physical violence. In other words they believe he’s using the words fights and quarrels --and look at verse 2, murder--as metaphors for unrestrained hostility.4 We use the word ‘fight’ like that, don’t we? We say our neighbors are “fighting” and by that we mean they are having a heated argument. But to further tease it out here, at the other extreme it’s pretty clear that James is not simply talking about church disagreements here--the healthy conflicts that occur when a ministry grows and expands.5 It’s way more serious than that.

Well what’s the problem? What’s beneath the quarrels and fights they’re experiencing? It’s the passions that are at war within them--and by that James could mean the internal strife inside each believer OR the passions warring between believers--i.e. the passions could be at war intra-personally (inside each person) or inter-personally ( between several persons)6 OR BOTH!

The word passion there in verse 1 is the Greek word ‘hedone’ from which we get our English word hedonism--‘the belief that pleasure is the chief good in life’. In the New Testament the word is always used in a negative, ungodly sense.7 It’s the pleasures of life in Luke 8:14 that choke the word. It’s pleasures, 2 Peter 2:13, that false teachers revel in. It’s enslavement to passions and pleasures, Titus 3:3 says, that characterized our life before we came to Christ.

{Now it’s often helpful to remind ourselves that the pleasures we experience in life were ‘invented’ by God. They’re good and acceptable as long as they are experienced in God-honoring ways. Didn’t the Senior Devil in C.S. Lewis’ book Screwtape Letters say as much to his understudy Wormwood: ‘I know we’ve won many a soul through pleasure. All the same it is His 3 Mike Andrus, Understanding Conflict4 ESV Study Bible5 Stulac6 Nystrom, page 187“The expression ‘warring in your members’ could refer to internal strife within a person, external conflict between fellow believers, or both”7 MacArthur

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invention (God’s invention), not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our enemy has (invented) and produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden…}

So it’s pretty clear here in verse 1 that James is speaking of ‘self indulgent pleasures’8 or ‘sinful passions’9…’lusts’ So he’s asking…Isn’t it the self-indulgent pleasures, your sinful passions that are at war within you? Isn’t it your lusts run amuck? Don’t your quarrels and fights come from your desires for pleasure that battle within you?10

Now verse 2 expands on the sinful desires that were creating such havoc in the community…You desire and do not have so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain so that you fight and quarrel.

Verse 2 oozes with the frustration and disappointment of wanting something and not getting it: “You want (literally lust for) something but don’t get it (so) you kill (frustration) and (you) covet (literally hotly desire), but you cannot have what you want (frustration), and in frustration you quarrel and fight.”11

So what was really going on inside those to whom James was writing? Were they hankering to be in charge? Were they jealous of one another? Did they have desires to be in leadership? Did they want the wisdom that would enable them to gain recognition as leaders?12 James doesn’t tell us. All we know is that it was frustrated desire that was breeding the intense strife. And that intense strife was convulsing the community.13

One author writes this…. With penetrating insight, then, James provides us with a powerful analysis of human conflict. Verbal argument, private violence, or national conflict—the cause of them all can be traced back to the wrongful lust to want more than we have, to be envious of and covet what others have, whether it be their position or their possessions.14

In the recent marriage material we went through this summer, these verses provided one of the key lessons. So there’s conflict and quarreling in a marriage. What’s the problem? It’s what’s going on the heart. And often times it’s sinful desires run amuck. 8Moo9 Nystrom10 Hughes11 Hughes, page 16912 Moo13 Moo, D. J. (2000). The letter of James (p. 183). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos.14 Moo, D. J. (2000). The letter of James (p. 184). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos.

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So James paints a picture here, doesn’t he? The people in the churches he is writing are driven by a slew of ungodly passions. They have desires for pleasure. They have jealousies: Why does so and so get it and we don’t? They have selfish ambitions. They desire to have but they can’t get. They covet and cannot obtain and it all manifests itself in fights and quarrels. And though James doesn’t say it here--he’ll say it later--I think this is a picture of worldliness in the church.

So at the end of verse 2, James explains to them why their desires to “have” have met with failure rather than success.15 Look at the end of verse 2…. You do not have because you do not ask.   

{It’s kind of an interesting time for a couple of lessons on prayer, but James goes there. You do not have because you do not ask.  Didn’t James’s famous brother say as much, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find…” Why not ask God, James says, for the things that you want, the desires that you have, the wisdom that you need to lead the church? }

“Is it not true that one of the great problems of our prayer lives is simply the fact that we don’t pray?”16

Don’t miss what James is saying--the terrible linkage between passions AND fights and quarrels and….MURDER… could have been avoided with prayer! Instead of asking God, they went to battle with each other trying to extract what they wanted and coveted and were envious about from one another.17

You do not have because you do not ask.

John Calvin offers this…to know God as the master and bestower of all good things, who invites us to request them of him, and still not go to him and ask of him--this would be of as little profit as for a man to neglect a treasure, buried and hidden in the earth, after it had been pointed out to him.”18

You do not have because you do not ask.

Well we could imagine James’ congregations replying, “But we do ask. We ask all the time!”

15 Moo16 Cedar as quoted by Constable17 Richardson, New American Commentary18 Calvin as quoted by Constable

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So James gives us another principle of prayer… verse 33 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Someone has written, “A pleasure driven prayer life finds heaven made of brass”19

You see the kind of “asking” practiced by those in James’ congregations was futile because it was selfishly oriented. They literally asked “in order (to)20 spend /squander (on) (their) pleasures.”21 They were like the prodigal son who ‘squandered’ (same word by the way) all of his father’s inheritance.22

One author writes this “The evil in James’ audience’s asking is evident, because the gift-giving God is here manipulated as a kind of vending machine precisely for the purpose of self-gratification.”23

Think about this with me.  When Jesus said ‘Ask and it will be given to you’ he surely didn’t have in mind a blank check, did he? None of us would argue for that, right? He clearly wasn’t saying that God is a vending machine ready to spit out everything we ask for. Now that being said, what are the kinds of prayers that we can be sure that God will answer? Isn’t it prayers that have as ‘their focus and motive God’s name, God’s kingdom and God’s will?’24 We miss the mark when we ask for more money, more time, more energy to do thing we desire. Isn’t it pretty clear that Jesus had in mind the kind of asking that focused on the glory of God’s name, the spread of his kingdom, and the accomplishment of his will? Isn’t that the kind of asking that Jesus promises to answer? I think so.

Well it’s in verses 4-10, where James begins to highlight the problem he sees as worldliness. Look at how he begins verse 4 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? 

Don’t you wish somebody would send James a copy of Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People?” James is clearly out to rebuke and warn his listeners, don’t you think? What does he mean when he calls them adulterous people? {And by the way he’s been calling them brothers or my dear brothers up to this point!25}

19 Hughes, page 17020 ‘that you may’21 Richardson, New American Commentary22 Moo23 Johnson as quoted by Blomberg24 Moo25 1:2; 2:1,14; 3:1,10,12 or even ‘my dear brothers’ 1:16, 19; 2:5

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Well we know he isn’t speaking literally--they’re not all involved in adulterous relationships with others! What does he mean then? Well no doubt he’s picking up an Old Testament theme that his Jewish brothers in Christ would recognize immediately: God and his people are like a groom and his bride. And when God’s people are unfaithful, they are committing adultery. Said as directly as we can-- James senses that the people he is writing to--at least some of them-- are having an affair with the world. That’s what worldliness is--having an affair with the world. Their affections--and worldliness is all about affections--their affections that had been turned to God when they were saved were now directed to the things of the world.

Let’s look at a couple of Old Testament verses that substantiate the God-as-groom/his-people- as- bride theme in the Old Testament ….

And Hosea 3:1…

See also Is. 57:3; Ezek. 16:38; 23:45

So what was going on in the hearts of those in the congregations James was shepherding? James says they’d become friends with the world---and friendship in antiquity--in the first century was taken far more seriously than today. 26

They were like Demas, Paul’s associate who abandoned Paul, because he loved the present world. You’ve known people like that, haven’t you? James’ audience was having an “affair” with the world;27 having been married to God, their hearts had begun to wander. Using Paul’s

26 Fitzgerald, as quoted by Blomberg, page 190; “Friendship in antiquity was usually taken more seriously than in today’s Western world, as a lifelong pact between people with shared values and loyalties.”27 Richardson, New American Commentary

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words in 2 Corinthians 11, they had been betrothed to one husband but had been led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 

So what is worldliness? Worldliness is a love for this present world. It’s departing from God. It’s a man-centered way of thinking. ‘The goal of worldly people’, says one author, ‘is to move forward rather than upward, to live horizontally rather than vertically. Worldly people seek after outward prosperity rather than holiness.’28

Now just to drive home the fact that worldliness is all about affections--on what do you set your affections, your love, let’s look at 1 John 2:15-17 on the screen….

Notice John foregrounds ‘desires’ just like James does….the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. The desires of the flesh are all about the selfish gratification of our physical nature. Left to ourselves the flesh would lead us to constant entertainment, food, amusement—anything that gratifies the fallen part of us. The desires of the eyes includes the desire for success, profit in business, or materialism. I want more. I want bigger barns. The desires of the eyes describes a person’s intense desire to have something he sees.29 And the pride of life is a person’s exaggerated estimate of his own value as a person.30 “We find ourselves so easily tempted to take pride in our work, our talents or abilities, our physical appearance, possessions, or accomplishments.”31 That’s the pride of life.

But what is the world anyway? You’ll see three definitions on your notes___________

■the whole complex of human institutions, values, and traditions that knowingly or unwittingly are arrayed against God”32

■the organized system of human civilization that is actively hostile to God and alienated from God33

28 Joel Beeke as quoted in Worldliness, page 2729 Gallagher, page 2630 Gallagher, page 2631 Mahaney, Worldliness, page 3132 Nystrom33 Mahaney, Worldiness, page 26

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■the evil world system which lies under the power of Satan34

_________It’s the environment you and I live our lives in.

It’s the “principles and ways of pagan society.”35

It involves hundreds, even thousands of values, pleasures, pastimes, and aspirations.36

It’s a “system of values in any given age, which has at its center our fallen human perspective, which displaces God and His truth (into the very margins of life), and which makes sin look normal and righteousness seem strange”37

John says, “Stop loving the world”

“Do not court the intimacy and the favor of the unchristian world around you; do not take its customs for your laws, nor adopt its ideals, nor covet its prizes, nor seek fellowship with its life.”38

But James says something else in verse 4. When a believer sets his affections on the world, when he becomes a friend of the world he makes himself, he establishes himself as an enemy of God. Now that’s pretty scary isn’t it? Sounds almost like he becomes an unbeliever, doesn’t it? Aren’t unbelievers enemies of God? But I don’t think James is out to clarify who is and who isn’t a believer here. His purpose is to warn any who have begun to drift away from God; he wants to wake them up to their true spiritual condition. Believers who drift away from God, who turn their back on him because they are fascinated with the world, are not in a good place with God.

It seems to me that a believer can be distracted by the things of the world, he can flirt with the things of the world, and even ultimately fall in love with the things of the world for a period. But show me someone who persists in living as a friend of the world and I would have to think they were an unbeliever.

James teaching raises questions for us, doesn’t it? Are we today better friends with the world than we were a year ago? Where do we derive our primary pleasure? From God or from the world? Are we God’s friends or his enemies?39Well I want to return to this whole idea of worldliness more at the end of the message.

34 Hughes35 CH. Dodd as quoted by MacLeod, “The Love that God Hates”36 Boice as quoted by MacLeod, “The Love that God Hates”37 David Wells as quoted by PJ Tibayan on his blog. I had also seen a remnant of this definition in an article by Paige Patterson.38 Law, The Tests of Life, page 14839 These questions from Hughes

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So for now, let’s move on. In verse 5, James reminds his audience and us of God’s jealousy for his people. And in verse 6, James reminds them of the availability of God’s grace.

Look at verse 5   Or do you suppose that it is to no purpose that the scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit he has made to dwell in us.”

Now one author suggests that verse 5 is ‘one of the most difficult verses in the New Testament.40 I share that to set you up for some detail. “Fasten your seatbelt, turbulence ahead.”

It would seem that James is quoting a specific Old Testament scripture in verse 5, “…the scripture says, He yearns jealously…” But search as we may there isn’t one that really fits the bill. It turns out that “James is probably referring to the general theme of God’s jealousy as it is expressed in a host of places in the Old Testament. 41” Exodus 20:5 for example says, I the LORD your God am a jealous God. The point is that God wants us for himself. He saved us for himself. And when we turn to another lover--the things of this world--his jealousy is arroused.

Secondly look at the word Spirit in verse 5. Some of our versions capitalize the word Spirit (and by that they mean the Holy Spirit). And some of our versions use a small ‘s’ and assume that James is speaking of the human spirit which God has placed in each of us. And thirdly, depending on the version that you use, the second half of the verse may be very different from the version I read from, the ESV. Let me show you that on the screen.

Now we’re looking at the second half of verse 5 from three versions.

Again notice the New American Standard version--the second one on the screen--interprets the word ‘Spirit’ as the Holy Spirit (capital S).

{Again I hope you don’t mind this level of detail. At the heart of the matter is we really want you to understand your bible.}

Briefly then, what would the first translation on the screen, the ESV, seem to say? God yearns over the plight of our human spirits which were given to us at Creation. God is jealous for us,

40 Moo41 Hughes, page 177;Ex. 20:5; 34:14; Zech. 8:2

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our spirits, that we won’t fall away from him. The ESV would basically be saying ‘that God has a claim on us by virtue of his work in our lives’.42

What about the second translation, the NASB? The Spirit in question is the Holy Spirit. And the indwelling Holy Spirit is jealous that we not fall into the error of friendship with the world. That makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? That the Holy Spirit lives in us and he is jealous that we don’t fall away from God? The NKJV follows this idea. The Living Bible follows this idea too--“the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, watches over us with tender jealousy”43

How about the third translation, the NIV? The NIV translation communicates the ‘universal tendency we all have toward envy and jealousy of one another’44 I think the KJV falls here. In other words, the NIV emphasizes our total depravity. So the NIV translation echoes verses 1-2…the idea that we have passions at war within us….we desire and do not have… we covet and cannot obtain….it’s universal for man….it’s universal for all of us.

Here’s one author’s helpful take on the NIV translation-- the natural inclination of the spirit, especially when unguarded from the temptations of the world, is to envy. Here is the simple truth about your spiritual adultery. Without active faith, making prayerful request for wisdom from God, you will be at the mercy of your most base desires. Destructive envy, which is as much a relational as a personal sin, will dominate the scene even of the church and inflame all sorts of quarrels and conflicts among its members. 45 Again, that’s an echo of verses 1-2, right?

The NIV translation nicely sets up verse 6 really well….but he gives more grace… 

So the ESV emphasizes God’s claim on our lives….He yearns jealously over our human spirits….The NASB emphasizes the Holy Spirit’s jealousy that we not become friends of the world….The NIV emphasizes that we all have evil desires that have run amuck….

The interesting thing is that all of them work really well to set up verse 6…. But he gives more grace…. That is the answer….more grace….literally ‘greater grace’46 God gives greater grace to live in a fallen world. As Augustine the church father put it, “God gives what he demands”47

42 Moo43 As quoted in Hugnes44 Hughes45 Richardson, K. A. (1997). James (Vol. 36, pp. 180–181). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.46 Hughes47 As quoted in Hughes

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If we’re weak, there’s grace for the asking.If our lives are stunningly self-centered, there’s grace for the asking.If we’re envious and jealous, there’s grace for the asking.If we’re knot heads…anybody a knothead here?... if we’re stubborn to the core….anybody

stubborn to the core here? Anybody married to someone stubborn to the core?....there’s grace for the asking.

If we face insurmountable obstacles, there’s grace for the asking. If we realize that we’re more worldly (in love with the world) than godly (in love with God), there’s grace for the asking.

So it’s God’s grace that we need for our worldliness struggle“(But) is there a condition (for) receiving this river of grace? “48

The rest of verse 6 gives us a pretty strong clue that there is a condition for receiving this river of grace and James is quoting Proverbs 3:34 here …Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  Again this is Proverbs 3:34. “(So) God’s grace demands response: the response of humility.”49 “(But) those who wrap up their selfishness and self-sufficiency in arrogance will receive the full measure of divine rejection.”50

Well verses 7-10 contain ten commands that flow out of Proverbs 3:34. If God’s grace flows to the humble, how do we get there? How do we open up the river of God’s grace to us? One author has called verses7-10 ‘James’ recipe for humility before God.’51 I’m calling it Jame’s recipe for ‘worldliness killing’ humility. If we want to live our lives out in the river of God’s grace, and steer clear of worldliness, here is James’ curriculum in the “School of Humility”.

Notice the first command 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God and the last command 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord…are like bookends.

48 Hughes49 Moo50 Richardson, K. A. (1997). James (Vol. 36, pp. 181–182). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.51 Nystrom, page 228

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Command 1. Submit yourselves therefore to God-- To submit to God means placing ourselves under his Lordship and therefore committing to obey him in all things.52 The call is to stop resisting God in anything53 As believers we are to ‘place ourselves in glad submission under his wise rule.’54

Command 2. Resist the devil and he will flee from you--The verb translated ‘resist’ means to ‘stand against’, ‘oppose’ or ‘withstand’. So you and I are to put up active resistance to the devil. We are to take a defensive posture against the devil. A defensive posture is all that is required to rout the evil one.55 When we resist the devil’s purposes he will, James promises, flee from us. Whatever power Satan has-- and we don’t ever want to underestimate his power or overestimate his power for that matter-- whatever power Satan has, we can be absolutely certain that ‘we’ve been given the ability to overcome that power.’56

Well someone has written, “there’s only one view more welcome than the backside of the Devil, and that’s the face of God.”57

Command 3. Verse 8…8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Wasn’t this the experience of the prodigal son with his father? One author writes this, “Inch toward God and he’ll step toward you. Step toward God and he’ll sprint toward you. Sprint toward God, and he will fly to you!”58

Does James have in mind a drawing near in worship? Perhaps.59 But probably, given the context, he has in mind drawing near to God in prayer60 and repentance.61 James is urging that we repent of our sins and seek God. The issue is a restoration of fellowship. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Commands 4 and 5, are also in verse 8 Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you doubleminded.   Come clean on the inside and outside too! Let your repentance embrace the total person…you doubleminded!62

52 Moo. 53 Richardson54 Moo55 Richardon56 Moo57 Blanchard as quote in Hughes, page 18758 Hughes59 But the same verb ‘draw near’ is used of God drawing near to us60 Hughes61 Moo62 Moo

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{Some detect a progression here from submitting to God, to a mutual drawing near, then “washing” the hands, and finally purifying of the heart.63}

But don’t miss the word ‘double-minded’ there in verse 8. We saw it back in chapter 1, verse 8, he is a double minded man unstable in all his ways.   We even made the point that you can see this doublemindedness throughout the book of James. The doubleminded man hears the word but he doesn’t do it. The double minded man says he loves everyone but he shows partiality. The double-minded man says he has faith but he has no deeds. The double-minded man blesses God with his tongue but curses his neighbor. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you doubleminded.

Commands 6-9 show up in verse 9… 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep.  Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.   These are often the reactions of those who suffer God’s judgment.64 But such language was also used to call God’s people to repentance from sin. The prophet Joel, for example, pictured the Lord as ‘inviting his people to ‘return to (him) with all (their) heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning’65

Command 10 brings us full circle… Humble yourselves before the Lord. ‘To humble ourselves before the Lord means to recognize our own spiritual poverty, to acknowledge consequently our desperate need for God’s help, and to submit to his commanding will for our lives.66 If we want to swim in the river of God’s grace we’ve got to humble ourselves before the Lord. And James has shown us the way in verses 7-10.

Well verses 11-12 form a single argument about the sinfulness of critical speech or slander.

11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? 

Evil speaking or slander is a part of several lists of vices in the NT (eg. Rom. 1:30; 2 Cor. 12:20; 1 Pet. 2:1; 2:12; 3:16)67 With the quarreling and fighting that was occurring among James’ audience, verses 1-2, it makes a lot of sense that slander would rear its ugly head.

63 Richardson, K. A. (1997). James (Vol. 36, p. 185). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.64 e.g., Isa. 15:2; Jer. 4:13; Hos. 10:5; Joel 1:9–10; Mic. 2:465 Moo66 Moo67 Richardson

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So what is James saying in these two verses? The word neighbor at the end of verse 12 gives us a strong clue that James is thinking about verses in Leviticus 19 in the law that address one’s relationship with their neighbor.

Leviticus 19:16 says, “You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people”

Leviticus 19:18 says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”

So James’ argument goes like this. Verse 11, when we slander a believer we slander the law and judge the law. We slander or criticize the law because essentially we pick and choose what we want to obey saying, “This command is worth my obedience but this command about not slandering a neighbor is a stupid command and is not worth obeying” So we’ve slandered the law. And in so doing we’ve judged the law. We’ve made ourselves out to be judges. We’ve moved from being doers of the law to be being judges of the law. And verse 12, rounds out the argument--there is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? 

So when we slander a believer we stand in judgment over that believer and we make ourselves judges of God’s law.

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Well where have we been this morning? In our passage this morning James has sounded the strongest warning against worldliness.

What is worldliness? Worldliness is a love for this fallen world. It’s a love affair with the things of the world.

How do I know if I’ve come down with a case of worldliness?Anything that chills my heart toward God is a worldly pursuit.68 Is there anything you and I are involved in that chills our heart toward God?

C J Mahaney writes this…

“Some people try to define worldliness (in an outside way) (by) a specific set of rules or conservative standards. If you listen to music with a certain beat, dress in fashionable clothes, watch movies with a certain rating, or indulge in certain luxuries of modern society, surely you must be worldly.

Others irritated and repulsed by rules that seem arbitrary (dismiss the importance of externals). Or they (are committed to steer clear of legalism, so they don’t even try.

Ready for a surprise? Both views are wrong. For by focusing exclusively on externals or (by) dismissing the importance of externals, we’ve missed the point.

68 These ideas from MacLeod, “The Love that God Hates”

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Worldliness resides in our hearts”69

Are there other ways that we can assess if we’ve come down with a case of worldiness?

How about this question: “How is your life different from that an of unbeliever?”

“Imagine I take a blind test in which my task is to identify the genuine follower of Jesus Christ. My choices are an unregenerate individual and you. I’m given two reports detailing conversations, internet activity, manner of dress, ipod playlists, television habits, hobbies, leisure time, financial transactions, thoughts, passions and dreams.

The question is: would I be able to tell you apart? Would I discern a difference between you and you unconverted neighbor, coworker, classmate or friend?”70

Or this test--the true God of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention. What do you enjoy daydreaming about? What occupies your mind when you have nothing else to think about? Do you dream of a relationship with a person? Advancement in your job? Your dream home? What do you habitually think about to get joy and comfort in the privacy of your heart?71

Or this test--how do we spend our money? Our hearts follow our money right?

Or this test--what are we really passionate about? When are we most passionate? When it comes to spiritual things, do we flatline? And other things really excite us?

Well God gives more grace when we are humble. And James has shown us the road to ‘worldliness killing’ humility. 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 

Let us pray

69 Mahaney, Worldliness, page 2970 Mahaney, Worldliness, page 2471 These thoughts from Keller, ‘Counterfeit Gods’

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