Active Faith (Part Sixteen): Playing With Fire

Transcript

JRNT 16
03/19/2023
Active Faith (Part 16) Playing With Fire
James 4:4-6
Jesse Randolph

“It started out as a typical office friendship: You ate lunch together and joked around during breaks. Maybe you bonded over a shared affinity for escape rooms (or board games or birding or some other slightly weird hobby). Over time, you became fluent in the nuances of each other’s workplace beefs. By now, you vent to each other so regularly that the routine frustrations of professional life have spawned a carousel of inside jokes that leavens the day-to-day. You chat about your lives outside work too. But a lot of times, you don’t have to talk at all; if you need to be rescued from a conversation with an overbearing co-worker, a pointed glance will do . . . there isn’t anything romantic between you, but you can kind of see why people might suspect there is.”

“The term for this type of collegial relationship – work wife or work husband – has become a feature of American offices. The meaning can be a bit slippery, but in 2015, the communications researchers M. Chad McBride and Karla Mason Bergen defined a “work spouse” relationship as “a special, platonic friendship with a work colleague characterized by a close emotional bond, high levels of disclosure and support, and mutual trust, honesty, loyalty, and respect.” Other scholars have argued that the connection actually sits somewhere between friendship and romance. Although articulating exactly what makes work spouses unique can be hard, individuals who have them insist that they are singular . . . But the language people use to describe this bond is even trickier to explain than the nature of the relationship: Why would two people who aren’t married or even interested in dating call each other “husband” and “wife”?”

Those words come from the February 7, 2023 edition of “The Atlantic.” And those words single out this very modern phenomenon of “the work wife,” or because we’re becoming more gender inclusive these days, “the work husband.” Or maybe we could even say “the work spouse.” And it’s a real thing. And as people spend more and more hours in various business and professional and office settings - in mixed-gender situations - in a society where the institution of marriage is breaking down and crumbling not only in terms of its success rates, but in terms of how the institution is to be defined - in a society where marriage somehow is progressively starting to mean nothing, while at the same time it can mean anything - what happens is men and women start attaching themselves to coworkers of the opposite gender, filling their 9-5 with whatever their actual spouse won’t be able to give them until 5-9 later that night. So there in the workplace friendships are forged and bonds are formed and trust is established and intimacy is developed and longings are pursued and desires are chased, not always sexual, by the way, but it can lead to that. And before a person knows it, they not only have a spouse, legitimate spouse at home, they have a person who functions as a spouse at work. With some even being willing to openly admit that they have “a work wife” or a “work husband” or a “work spouse.”

Why in the world am I bringing this up? Just another soapbox opportunity for Jesse to rail against the decline of the culture? Well, yes, sort of. But more importantly, I bring up this cultural phenomenon of the “work spouse” relationship, because it blends together aspects of each of the topics that we’ll be covering in the text we’ll be in today, including friendship, jealousy, pride, adultery. The people who “play” husband and wife in the office are playing a dangerous game. Especially as it relates to their spouse back home. In a similar and ultimately far more significant way, when we as followers of Christ play around with the world, when we sidle up to the world, when we get cozy with the world and we befriend the world, we’re playing a dangerous game. In fact, we’re playing with fire. Because such attitudes and actions demonstrate a hostility toward God. They bring about the enmity of God and they fan the flame, the righteous jealousy of God.

With that, our text for this morning is James 4:4-6. If you’re not there already, please turn with me in your bibles to James 4:4-6. God’s word reads, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: ‘He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us’? But He gives [a] greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ ”

The title of this morning’s sermon is “Playing with Fire.” I’ve given it that title because it encapsulates the main idea of the text which is the danger that we face as Christians when we play “work wife” with the world. When we play friends with the world. When we commit adultery with the world. We have three points for this morning which track the three verses we’ll be in. Our first point linking with verse 4 is “The Hostility of God.” Our second point which corresponds with verse 5 is “The Jealousy of God.” And our third point connecting with verse 6 is “The Grace of God.” “The Hostility of God,” “The Jealousy of God,” “The Grace of God.”

With that, let’s get into our text this morning, starting with our first point, “The Hostility of God.”
Look at verse 4, he says, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Now, we’ve established throughout this series that James is addressing in this letter this early gathering of Jewish Christian believers. And James himself, of course, was a Jew, a half-brother of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. And he clearly had a kinship with the people to whom he’s writing. We see it all over this letter. James 1:2, “Consider it all joy, my brethren.” James 2:1, “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.” James 3:1, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren.” Not only do these terms of endearment demonstrate that James is writing to fellow believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. They demonstrate his great fondness and affection for them. And that comes out even more starkly in James 1:16, and James 1:19, and James 2:5, where he calls these people his “beloved brethren.”

But then as we embark upon our passage for today, James 4:4, he comes out with some of the most inflammatory things you could say. Especially to a group of people that had made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. He grabs the flamethrower and fires away with these first two words, “You adulteresses.” Now, I wrote a fair number of notes and emails and texts this week. I didn’t begin any of them with, “you conniving, cheating, good-for-nothing,” or “you filthy, black-hearted rumormonger,” or “you backstabbing, soulless scoundrel.” But in a classic case here of “operation crowd reduction,” that’s what James is doing. He wasn’t getting any invites to the church potluck after delivering this message.

Now, there’s a few things to note right out of the gate here. First, I want to bring your attention that the NASB translation that we use here has rightly translated this word “adulteresses.” It’s a feminine noun, not a masculine noun, not a neuter noun. It’s feminine. Now, I know that the KJV and the NKJV have this as “adulterers and adulteresses.” I know that the ESV and the NIV have this as “adulterers.” But those aren’t truly faithful renderings of this term. It’s a feminine noun. So, it’s properly translated “adulteresses.”

This is quite the rebuke. This cuts deep. This would have stung. Because James’ audience, as they see themselves being called adulteresses, their minds would have immediately gone back to the book of Proverbs. And what the Proverbs say about the adulteress and the picture the Proverbs paint of the adulteress is not pretty. We’re told in Proverbs 5:3, that “the lips of an adulteress drip honey,” and that “smoother than oil is her speech.” We’re told in Proverbs 5:4, that “in the end she,” the adulteress, “is bitter as wormwood.” And in Proverbs 5:5, that “her feet go down to death.” We’re told in Proverbs 7:18-19 that the adulteress is the one who says “Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with caresses. For my husband is not at home.” And we’re told in Proverbs 30:20, that this adulteress “eats and wipes her mouth, and says, ‘I have done no wrong.’ ” Strong language, clear language, powerful language, about the sin of adultery and its consequences.

But is this ultimately what James is driving at here with his use of the word “adulteresses”? Is he singling out the act of physical adultery among them? And furthermore, is he singling out adultery as being a problem that was reserved to those who had two X chromosomes? No. James here is not limiting his critique of this early gathering of Christians to females who were engaged in physical acts of adultery. As serious as that sin is, and as heinous as that sin is, whether male or female, the problems facing this gathering of believers were far broader and far deeper.

James here, is using this word “adulteresses” figuratively as a way to describe the spiritual infidelity of these people. He’s describing their spiritual unfaithfulness, their spiritual waywardness. He’s referring to the fact that they are calling themselves followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they’re not acting like it. Rather, they’re acting like the world, and in doing so, they’re departing from the one they had been wedded to spiritually. And in doing so, they were proving themselves to be adulteresses.

Now again, the recipients of James’ letter here, would have known exactly what he’s getting after. Because this term “adultery” and similar terms like harlotry and whoredom, had long been used to describe the spiritual waywardness of Israel in her sordid history. Going all the way back to the days of Moses, God warned the Israelites about pursuing other gods, and in doing so, committing spiritual adultery with them and against Him. Exodus 34:14-15, he says, “for you shall not worship any other god,” this is to the Israelites, “for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God – otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods.” Well, those warnings given by God to the Israelites through Moses didn’t work. Because as the writings of the major and minor prophets who wrote many hundred years later, as their writings reflect, the people of Israel continued to go after these other gods.

And God rebuked them, and He chastised them in various prophetic books, often in very vivid and graphic language. Like in Jeremiah 3:20 he says, speaking to the people of Judah, “ ‘Surely, as a women treacherously departs from her lover, so you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,’ declares the Lord.” Or in Isaiah 57:8 he says, this is God speaking, “Indeed, far removed from Me, you have uncovered yourself, and have gone up and made your bed wide. And you have made an agreement for yourself with them,” meaning the false gods, “you have loved their bed, you have looked on their manhood.” And then of course, there’s the book of Hosea, which we’ve been studying on Sunday evenings. And the theme of that book is spiritual harlotry, spiritual adultery, spiritual unfaithfulness of Israel, which is set in contrast to the steadfast love and faithfulness of God. There are so many places in the book of Hosea I could call to mind here, or call to attention here., to highlight this theme of Israel’s spiritual adultery. But the one I’ll go to is actually the one that we’re going to be in tonight, Sunday evening. In Hosea 9:1 where he says, “Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations! For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God.” In other words, a major theme repeated throughout the Old Testament is how the Lord continually had to call out Israel for its cyclical seasons of drift away from Him, as He, through His prophets, called on faithless Israel to repentance.

But it’s not only in the Old Testament that we see this theme develop, spiritual adultery. It’s also in the New Testament. In Matthew 12:39 Jesus, responding to the Pharisees who said, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You,” He said “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign.” In Mark 8:38 Jesus said “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
And undergirding each of these Old and New Testament passages, if we can reach back a little bit further, is God’s divine, sovereign, purposeful, intentional, and yes, electing love.

Though the world and the culture like to think that they know what love is, and though the world and the culture would like to think that they can define love apart from a conception of God and apart from having a right relationship with God -- the reality is God is the standard of love. He sets the standard of love. No one can love like Him. No one can love more than Him. That’s true, not only because God does love, but as 1 John 4:8 says, He is love. And one of the ways He has expressed His love clearly on the pages of scripture is by choosing a people - Israel in the Old Testament, the church in the New Testament - to be His people. Here's how He said it to Israel in Deuteronomy 7:7-8, “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all the peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” And here’s what this God says to the church, to Christians, in Ephesians 1:3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.”
The church is the “bride of Christ”, as we see in Ephesians 5:22-32. And as Romans 7:4 describes it, we are “joined to another, to Him,” Christ, “who was raised from the dead.” Again, that’s marriage language, which tying it back to our text, James 4:4, solidifies James’ use of the feminine term “adulteresses” here.

All this to say, there’s richness, there’s background, there’s context to what he’s saying here in James 4 when he addresses his audience as you adulteresses. Drawing on the history of Israel as he does often throughout this letter, and drawing on the sayings of Jesus as he does often throughout this letter, James is calling out some in this gathering. For their spiritual infidelity, for their spiritual unfaithfulness. Not to their spouses necessarily, not to James the apostle, but to God. They were adrift. They were in danger of seeing their faith becoming shipwrecked and running aground.

But how? Why? Why this language? Why this concern? Well, James indicates what the issue is, right after he gives this address of you adulteresses, when he says, “do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” Again, another rhetorical question by asking “do you not know?” James here really is saying you do know, of course you know “that friendship with the world is hostility toward God.” He’s intentionally being very pointed here. And each of the terms he selects are loaded with meaning.

Let’s start with the term “friendship.” Now, for starters it’s worth noting that in our times we use that word “friend” rather lightly, like a cordial acquaintance. But in the ancient world, in James’ day, friendship implied far more than a casual acquaintance. It signified a commitment and a fidelity. To say that you were somebody’s friend meant to say that you shared a mindset and a certain outlook on life. You shared interests and values and goals. You saw life in much the same way. In fact, in a lot of ancient Greek literature of this time there are those who describe friendship as being
one-souled with each other. Quite a bit different than how we think of friendship today.

The deep form of friendship that James has in mind here is undergirded by the term he uses for friend here. It’s philos. And that’s a deep affectionate word that is often translated “love” or “beloved, or dear, or loving.” It’s a word that highlights the emotional connection and satisfaction that friends have with being with each other. It’s the type of word that marks again, friendship, love, devotion, even a willingness to die for one another. Which sheds some light and adds some color to what Jesus says in John 15:13 where He says, there’s no greater love than this, than that one be willing to die for one’s friend.

Now, as we’ve seen in James 2:23 a few weeks ago, Christians following in the footsteps of Abraham can have this type of relationship, this type of friendship with God. And what a joy and what a privilege that is! To know that we not only know God, but that we have that depth of friendship with Him.

But that’s not the type of friendship that James has in view here in verse 4, is it? Friendship with God? No. What he is singling out is friendship with the world. If I can quote the esteemed theologian Garth Brooks for just a second, he’s talking about having “friends in lower places.” (Four of you got that.)

Alright, well, that sort of begs the question, what is “the world” when he says friendship with the world? Let’s start here. Well, we need to begin with what is James not referring to when he refers to the world.? Well, he’s not referring to the material creation. He’s not talking about the natural world. He’s not calling out those who have a love for flora and fauna or the shifts in seasons. He’s not calling out enjoyment of birds chirping or waves crashing or snow falling. No. The physical world, the natural realm, that was created by God. And in Genesis 1:31, we see Him describe it as “very good.” Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” Nor is James referring to human beings, when he’s referring to the world. He’s not singling out being friends with human beings. All of humanity is created in God’s image. We are “made in the likeness of God,” James 3:9. And God did love the world, made up of human beings, John 3:16.

So it’s not the natural realm which James is singling out here when he’s talking about friendship with the world. It’s not humanity, per se, which James is singling out. So what is it? What is it that he’s calling out here as he calls out friendship with the world? He’s calling out friendship with the world’s systems, it’s philosophies, it’s ideologies. James here is calling out what the world stands for. That’s the way he used the term back in James 1:27 when he says, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” And the term has the same sense here. That word “cosmos” stands for the world’s system and all that’s in it. It’s representing here what the world stands for.

And what does the world stand for? Well, the world stands for wickedness. The world stands for wickedness. We know this biblically, theologically, logically, experientially. The world is wicked. And there are several contributing factors to this. You know, the world is wicked because of the curse of sin. It wasn’t designed to be this way, but it became this way on account of the sin of Adam. And the curse followed and we live under that curse today. Romans 5:12, “through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” We know that the world is wicked because of the people who inhabit it. People are what? Wicked. That’s the assessment Paul gave in Romans 3:10-12, “There is none righteous,” he says, “not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.” And then we have the words of our Lord, John 2:25, who gave this insightful statement not only into His own deity, but the very condition of man. John 2:25, it says, “He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.” So, the world is wicked not only because of the curse, and the world is wicked not only because of who lives in it, namely, us -- the world is wicked because of who presently rules over it, Satan. The testimony of scripture is clear. 1 John 5:19, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” 2 Corinthians 4:4, Satan is called “the god of this world.” As many have said before me, if Satan is currently bound, he has an awfully long chain!

Fourth, the world is wicked because of where it seeks wisdom. To borrow from James 3:15, the world’s systems, it’s philosophies, it’s ideologies are not seeking the “wisdom… which comes down from above”, but instead they are seeking and are rooted in the wisdom that we saw back in James 3:15, it’s “earthly, natural, demonic.” And in our day, this wisdom is being disseminated through professors, politicians, public school boards, influencers, and the media. This wisdom is now in full bloom and the results are completely evident. The world now tolerates and champions consequence-free sexual relations outside the safety and protection and design of marriage. The world now says it’s ok to terminate a life that has been formed by God in its mothers womb. The world now doesn’t even blink over something God’s word says He hates, no-fault divorce. The world has not only decriminalized homosexuality, its accepted homosexuality, and over the past decade, it has sought to force all to now bow down to our new cultural idol. The world celebrates and claps for and fawns over men wearing dresses. And women pretending to be men. And young and younger and younger children putting hormones in their bodies to block the normal processes of puberty, so that they can eventually look more like the gender they feel they are. Or, let’s be honest, (because it’s always mom) the gender mom thinks they should be The world has tried to normalize taking mothers out of their primary sphere of influence, the home, and put them on the frontlines of war. The world has had no problem with bars opening earlier and staying open later, seven days a week. The world has no problem with drugs becoming not only legal, but often more lethal in their content. The world has no problem with prescribing psychotropic drugs almost reflexively to anyone who is feeling down, or worried, or sad, or lonely. The world after the fall has always been a dark place. But it’s in an especially dark place in our day. James here is saying we are not to befriend it. We are not to become intimately acquainted with it. We are not to pursue it. We are not to love it.

Now, let’s look at the rest of the verse. He says, “do you not know that friendship with the world” is what? “Hostility toward God.” And then he continues on saying, “Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Now note, James here is describing professing Christians. Those who were outwardly associated with the church, but those who at the same time were holding on to their deep affections for the evil world’s systems. He’s just called these people adulteresses. He’s used a word for friendship that signifies a deep and intimate bond, which in their case meant their deep and intimate bond with the world. And he’s identified the world as being this wicked world in which the wicked world systems and ideologies and philosophies dominate the day. And which surely, as I’ve just made the case for, exist in our day.

And now here James is saying, if you choose to befriend the world, not only can you not call yourself a friend of God, you’ve actually made yourself an enemy of God. When you’re enraptured with the world, in love with the world’s systems, when you’re tangled in its snares, the way an adulteress is tangled in the sheets of her lover, you’re acting in an adulteress manner toward God. You aren’t loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You aren’t giving Him the supreme and exclusive devotion that He demands and deserves. Rather, what you are doing is you’re reserving a corner or a pocket of your heart for something that you have no business loving. That’s what John said, similar to James right here, in 1 John 2:15-16. He says, can’t be clearer than this, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” A person cannot be friends with the world. They cannot love the world and love God at the same time. Simple truth, but so important. So, if you’re friends with the world, if you love the world, if you love its system, its philosophies, its ideologies, its way of thinking, you cannot say you love God.

Now note, what James is calling out here is not living in the world. Or navigating the world. Or being a light in the world. Or speaking truth to this world. No. What he’s going after here is one who intentionally pursues the world, and in doing so, turns their back on the Lord. Look at the language of verse 4 again, he’s singles our “whoever wishes” to be a friend of the world. Note, he doesn’t say whoever becomes, or whoever happens to be, a friend of the world. He says “whoever wishes” to be a friend of the world. And then continuing on, he says that such a person, verse 4 still, “makes himself” an enemy of God. He doesn’t find himself to be an enemy of God. Doesn’t consider himself to be an enemy of God. Doesn’t accidentally become an enemy of God. No. He “makes himself” one. This isn’t one who stumbles or falls into spiritual apostasy. This is one who rushes headlong into it. Just as acts of physical adultery don’t just happen by accident. Neither do acts of spiritual adultery.

The world is at war with God. So, when we try to maintain a friendship with the world, we’re ultimately fraternizing with the enemy. Remember, this is the same world that boos the name of God at national political conventions. This is the same world whose media outlets trample underfoot the name of God. This is the same world which seeks to upend all that God and His word stands for. You and I have no business being on that side of the line. That’s what James is saying here. You’re drinking from the wrong well. You’re going to the wrong source. You’re getting in bed with the wrong person. It’s folly. It’s not only folly, though, it’s an act of war. It’s hostility. And it makes us enemies of God just as it says here in verse 4.

Now, you might be thinking, “Jesse, I know my bible. And I know that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And I know that we have peace through the blood of His cross. I’ve read Romans 8:1. I’ve read Colossians 1:20. So if these are Christians, these ‘brethren’ of James how can it be said that they’re ‘enemies’ of God?” I’m glad you asked. First of all, you’d be right. A Christian once a Christian is always a Christian. Assuming, of course, that they are in fact a Christian. Peace with God for the Christian has been declared, and it will never be undeclared. “My name is graven on his hands; My name is written on his heart; I know that while in heaven he stands no voice can bid me thence depart.”
We can’t lose our status before God. Jesus Himself said, John 6:37, “the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” Jesus said, John 10:27-28, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” We can never lose our status as sons.

But can we lose our status as friends? James 4:4 says we can. Let me set the context for you. Again, this isn’t a context of spiritual adultery. We can’t lose sight of the overall picture that’s being painted here. There’s this sense, and James is identifying here, and it’s shown elsewhere in scripture, that we are wed to the Lord. The church is the bride of Christ. We are “betrothed” to Him as 2 Corinthians 11:2 says. When we pursue a relationship with the world, when we seek to pursue a relationship with the world, when we commit spiritual adultery with the world, what we do is we put ourselves in a position of hostility against the One, the Lord, that we’ve stepped out on.

Picture a marriage relationship where there’s a husband and a wife, and imagine one of those spouses commits a physical act of adultery. The marriage is still intact in that moment, is it not? The two people are still married though there has been this act of adultery. To be sure, there’s been a breach of the marriage covenant. And to be sure, there’s been this breach of trust. And to be sure, on both sides, there’s this whole range of feelings and emotions that are rushing through both spouses. Surely this couple will now be going through some very difficult days, where there’s stilted conversations, and anger, and frustration, and questions, and somebody sleeping on the couch. But are they still married? In that moment? Yes. Are they still wed? Yes. Is there tension? Is there hostility? Is there enmity? Yes. That’s the sense of the enmity that’s being described here in James. The person who has genuinely trusted in Christ, genuinely trusted in Christ - hear those words - but has now drifted into this period of spiritual adultery, and they’re falling into this pattern of loving the world, is no less a Christian and their salvation is no less secure because of the promises of God. But they are adulteresses. And they now are considered hostile to God. And now they are making themselves an enemy of God.

So, question, are you closer with the world today than you were a year ago? Or are you closer to God? Are you closer in your relationship with God today than you were a year ago? Or are you getting closer and closer to the world? How would your closest friends answer that question on your behalf as they look in on your life? How would your family members answer that question? How would your spouse answer that question? What input would your screen time report and your search history have on that question? And most importantly, how would God, who knows all and sees all, answer that question? The Lord will not allow the world to reign supreme in the hearts of those who call Him Lord, who profess with their mouth that He is Lord.

But as we see Him do, throughout the Old Testament in particular, God rather than tossing His people aside for their faithlessness pursues His faithless people. He contends for them, He seeks them, which we see in verse 5. Point number 2 this morning, by the way is “The Jealousy of God.”

Look at verse 5, it says, “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: ‘He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us’?” Now, many have called this specific verse, not only one of the most difficult to interpret verses in the letter of James, but in the entire New Testament. It’s been said many times that this is one of those thorny passages that many have tripped up and stumbled over. And there are really two reasons for this difficulty in the translation. First, is this use of the word “the scripture speaks.” Now we see those words “the Scripture speaks”, and our eyes immediately are looking for the scripture that James here is referring to. The problem is the passage of scripture that is apparently being quoted here we don’t find word for word in this formulation elsewhere in either the Old or the New Testaments. That’s one issue. Second issue, there’s this dispute over how to translate the word “Spirit”. Is he referring here to the Holy Spirit or is he referring to our human spirit? You know, we’re body, we’re physical, but we’re also spiritual. This is the human spirit. I’m going to take these topics in reverse order, as I build the case for what I believe this text to be saying. And I have to say, this is not an area where we need to be dogmatic. This has been translated faithfully in many different ways. I’m just going to let you know where I land and why.

We’ll start with this concept of the Spirit. The second part of verse 5, where it says, “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us.” Now again, there have been those who take this word “Spirit” to be not a capitol “S” Spirit, but a lower case “s” spirit, the human spirit. We have physical bodies; we’re spiritual beings. Our bodies go into the grave but our spirits go on and live forever, that’s the human spirit. And then there are those who take this like the NAS translators, as the Holy Spirit. And that’s represented by the capitol “S” here. I actually favor the first interpretation, the former interpretation. It’s no doubt true that the Holy Spirit does indwell believers, Romans 8:11, “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.” But I don’t believe here James is referring to the Holy Spirit. I believe instead, he’s referring to the lower case “s,” human spirit, which He put in all of us when He created us in His image. I think that this view, the lower case “s” view, better fits the context of what James has said up to this point, in verse 4 and in chapter 4. He has pointed out that we are fallen individuals, that we’re sin-corrupted individuals, that we’re sinful individuals. And our spirits, meaning our human spirits, are what lead to these various vices and sins that we’ve seen cropping up in the early parts of chapter 4 here. You know, who’s responsible for the quarrels and conflicts within us, for instance? Who’s responsible for our lusts? Who’s responsible for our envy? Who’s responsible for our fights and our quarrels? Is it the Holy Spirit? Or is our sin-marred human spirit? It’s the latter. And bringing it into our passage for today, verses 4-6, it’s that spirit, our human spirit, which drifts in the direction of spiritual adultery. It’s that spirit, our human spirit, which pursues friendship with the world. It’s that spirit, our human spirit, which takes us in this direction of hostility toward God. It’s that spirit, our human spirit, which ends up with us being called at enmity with God.

And it’s that spirit, our human spirit, which God “jealously desires.” Now, we need to camp out on those words, “jealously desires” for just a bit, because as you see from the text here, jealousy is clearly being attributed to God here. “He,” capitol “H”, He, God, “jealously desires,” what I would contend, would be our wayward and adulterous human spirits.

Now, when you survey the New Testament you’re going to find that that word, “jealousy” typically has a negative connotation. As it’s singling out this trait of being sinfully selfish. In fact, jealousy and envy are highlighted as marks of the unbeliever in Titus 3:3 and 1 Peter 2:1. And this false and sinful sense of jealousy that’s condemned in scripture is typically demonstrated in one of two ways, either an uncontrolled interest in ourselves, or an envy of what others possess and what we lack. And James exposed that form of jealousy, last week in James 4:2, where he says, “You lust and do not have.” That’s sinful jealousy.

Well, clearly, that can’t be the type of jealousy that’s in view here in verse 5 when it’s speaking of God. Because we’re describing the God in whom there’s only light and in whom there is no darkness. We’re talking about the God who is just and holy and upright, the God who cannot sin. So, while it might seem a little bit out of left field for us to hear this word “jealousy” linked to God, James’ audience no doubt, these early Jewish believers, they would have known immediately what this is referring to. That God, going back to the Ten Commandments, calls Himself a jealous God. And as we saw earlier this morning in Exodus 34, it says, “Jealous is His name.” And they would have known that when God refers to Himself this way as jealous it refers to the fact that He has this zeal to possess and protect what rightly belongs to Him. That He is completely intolerant of any rival.

Again, the illustration of marriage, the picture of marriage, just works so well here. Husbands should be jealous for the protection of their wives and the affections of their wives. And it’s a good thing when husbands are that way. Wives, it’s a good thing when wives’ affections are jealously directed toward their husbands and not toward some other man. That’s a good thing. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. In a similar way, God is jealous for the affections of our hearts as followers of Christ. That’s not some insecure jealousy, that’s rooted in fear that we’re going to go find someone better than Him, though that could possibly happen. Rather, it’s a secure jealousy, a righteous jealousy, which is seeking our best by guarding our hearts from the adulterous pursuits that we otherwise would go on. He’s a righteously jealous God.

And that word next to jealousy here in verse 5, “desires,” is also a very strong term. It means to long for, to yearn after, to crave. It’s expressing the greatest possible desire which means that God is jealous for our complete devotion. He claims us entirely for Himself. He wants our undivided loyalty. We have to remember the context here in verse 5, just as was the context in verse 4 where we saw James decrying friendship with the world, is this concept of adultery and drift. God demands from his people an exclusive relationship like that of a spouse. And if His people, if we want to be friends with the world, well, we are rightly called adulteresses. Just as like a husband won’t tolerate a rival lover of his wife, God will never tolerate rivals for His affection. “He jealously desires,” verse 5, “the spirit which He has made to dwell in us.”

Now, I mentioned that we’re going out of order here a little bit in verse 5. And what we’ve just worked through is that quote that you see there at the end of verse 5. And it is placed in quotations. But then immediately before that quoted statement, the beginning of verse 5, it says, “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose?” What’s going on there? Well, those words “to no purpose” mean empty or vainly. James here is saying something like, “Do you think God just speaks to hear Himself speak? Do you think God means what He says? Is His word authoritative? Or do we just sort of pick up what we like and spit out what we don’t like?” The tone here is very sarcastic actually. It’s sharp and it’s biting. And what James is getting after with this statement is that God has revealed Himself. God has spoken. And God speaks to our generation through the scripture. Which is why he says, “do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose”? In other words, He has not spoken with “no purpose”. He clearly has spoken with purpose.

So, James here is stressing clearly the authority of scripture and God’s purpose in giving us the scripture. And our natural response will be, or ought to be, “Great, James, now tell us where in the bible we find the scripture you’re referencing. We’re with you on the authority of scripture, it is the word of God. God has spoken with purpose in the scripture. Is that not 2 Timothy 3:16-17? He gives us scripture for ‘teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.’ So, where in the scripture do we see this statement, ‘He jealously desires the spirit which He has made to dwell in us.’ Is that in Ephesians somewhere or Galatians, it sounds very Pauline.” Well, that’s where things get a little tricky, because there is no bible verse where we can find those exact words, “He jealously desires the spirit which He has made to dwell in us.”

Hmmm, what are we supposed to do now? Well, the fact that James says, “the Scripture speaks,” what do we do with the fact that he says that? But then these quoted words are not found as such as organized in scripture. Well, there are countless theories that have been offered by the scholars who try to wrestle with this passage. One explanation that’s been given is that this reference to “the Scripture” in verse 5 is actually pointing all the way down to the end of verse 6, where you see the quote there, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” and that all the intervening material is parenthetical. There’s actually nothing in the text or in the underlying Greek grammar though that would point to that result. So, I reject that option. Others have said that James is referring here to some non-canonical book. There’s no evidence for that in the non-canonical literature. Others have said that James is referring to an unrecorded saying of Jesus. Ultimately, that’s conjecture. There’s ultimately not enough evidence to support any one of those alternate views.

The best view in my judgment, and a commonly held view, is that what James is doing here is he’s paraphrasing some combination of Old Testament passages specifically. He’s not singling out an isolated portion of scripture. Instead, he’s using the term “the Scripture” in a broader sense, the way that you and I might say, “the bible says,” and then provide a principle that we know is in the bible somewhere. We see that usage of the words “the Scripture”, it’s called a collective singular, in a few different places like Jesus in John 7:38 says, “as the Scripture said.” Or in John 7:42 he says, “Has not the Scripture said?”
Or in Romans 4:3 Paul says, “For what does the Scripture say?” So, what I believe James to be doing here is giving this composite picture of what scripture teaches.

And teaches about what? The jealousy of God, the jealousy of God for His people. That’s the whole context of this section of James. That the people were these spiritual adulteresses. That they were learning that friendship with the world is hostility toward God. And they’re seeing that the person who wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And on the heels of these truths James here references “the Scripture.” And then he mentions God’s jealously desiring the spirit which He has made to dwell in us. So, where does he get it from? I said it’s a composite. It comes from scripture. Which scripture? Well, we’re now back to where we began. There are tons of candidates for where he might be drawing this from. I’m going to give you a list of them. If you’re note takers, you can jot these down: Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:14; Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 32:21; Proverbs 21:10; Isaiah 63:8-16; Jeremiah 17:9; Ezekiel 36:17; Zechariah 1:14; Zechariah 8:2. Each of those brings in some aspect of man’s depravity and God’s jealousy for sinful man.

The point is God through James is highlighting the jealousy of God, the jealousy of God for His people. The people that He had sent His Son to die for. People who had heard the good news message of the gospel. People who had made a profession of faith in Christ. But people who had since befriended the world, and who apparently thought that God had “spoken with no purpose.” And who apparently thought that they could continue on in their worldly ways. And who apparently thought that they could sneak around and commit spiritual adultery without getting caught. To them the “do you not know” question of verse 4, “do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God,” and the “do you think” question of verse 5, “do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose,” were designed to bring about some conviction.

Whether they brought conviction in James’ day, we don’t know. We can’t know. All that we can do as we take in these words is remember that God is a jealous God. And remember that when we befriend the very world from which He saved us, we make ourselves enemies of God. And we need to heed these words by identifying those aspects of the world which still have their grip on us and with the Spirit’s help, freeing ourselves from its grip. So in verse 4 we’ve seen how believers can bring about the hostility of God through their pursuit of friendship with the world. In verse 5 we’ve seen how the spiritually wayward and adulterous ways of Christians, can provoke the jealousy of God.

As we move into verse 6, we’re about to come upon some really, really good news which is that the grace of God is always there. Which we can appropriate, which we can draw from, as we draw near to Him, the One that we have drifted from. Our third point this morning is simply this, “The Grace of God,” “The Grace of God.” Look at verse 6, “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ ” Whatever thorny exegetical issues there are in verse 5, there is no question about the clear truth of verse 6 starting with those words, “But He gives a greater grace.”

Have you ever experienced turbulence on an airplane, like real turbulence? Like that drop in altitude where it feels like the plane is about to fall out of the sky. And then a few seconds later or a few minutes later, the pilot pulls out of it and into some smoother stream of air and it’s back to smooth sailing? That’s what verse 6 reminds me of. You know, after bouncing around some major turbulence in verses 4 and 5, we’ve now found that smooth stream of air, “He gives a greater grace.”
Let’s take it bit by bit in this last verse. The tense of the verb “gives” is present indicative, meaning God is supplying us with His grace continuously. It’s never not available. We’ll never exhaust it. There’s always more available. Romans 5:20, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” John 1:16, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” He gave us, we who have trusted in Jesus Christ, grace in salvation. Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” He gives us grace in sanctification as 2 Peter 1:3-11 highlights. He gives us grace in our temptations to sin. When we are tempted to sin God always graciously provides a way of escape. That’s 1 Corinthians 10:13 which says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” Anybody need to reminded of that truth this morning?

And how do we receive this grace? By asking for it. By approaching the Lord boldly and with confidence. To what? What do we approach Him? Where do we approach Him? At His throne.
Hebrews 4:16, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Whatever our situation, whatever our condition, when we ask for grace, He gives it. He may not give us what our heart craves. He may not give us the specific answer we were looking for. But He always gives more grace. When we approach the throne of grace He gives grace.

So, if you’re seeking wisdom to make a godly decision, if you approach the throne of grace He will give grace. If you’re seeking to overcome the sins of anger, or lust, or selfishness, or pride, or you name it, if you approach the throne of grace He will give grace. If you’re convicted about not being a faithful friend, or a godly husband, or a submissive wife, or an honoring child, or a diligent worker, if you approach the throne of grace He will give grace. If you’re going through the pain of divorce or still sitting with the sting of a death of a loved one, if you approach the throne of grace He will give grace. There is for the believer always grace, greater grace, more grace. John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace,” knew this well. He said, “Through many (trials) dangers, toils and snares, I have already come: ‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”

Now, there’s just one qualification to us receiving this abundant grace though. Look at verse 6, the end of verse 6, it says, “Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ ”
God opposes the one who is proud. That’s drawing on what Proverbs 3:34 says about God scoffing at the scoffers. That’s drawing on what’s said in Psalm 138:6 which says, “the haughty,” meaning the prideful, “He knows from afar,” meaning He doesn’t know them. God opposes the proud. God opposes the one who places himself above others, the one who is high minded, the one whose eyes are high, looking down on people and others. God opposes the one who has this haughty attitude of superiority and always thinks of himself or herself as better and more important than others. God opposes the one who places himself or herself, as though they could, above God. Who think they have all the answers, whose authority is themselves, who perceives their own self-righteous perch as being higher than the throne of God. God opposes the person who is self-reliant, who has no mind or time to think of God or the strength He supplies. This is the person with the “I can do it” attitude, “I’ll be alright” attitude, “I’ll-pull-myself-up-by-my-bootstraps” attitude. And that might be virtuous in the eyes of the world, but in the sight of God it’s prideful.

And God is especially opposed to the form of pride that expresses itself as spiritual self-reliance. He’s opposed to prayerless self-dependence. He's opposed to those who refuse to seek wisdom from Him in His word. He’s opposed to those who refuse to seek godly counsel for the decisions they are about to make. And godly correction and accountability for the unwise decisions they’ve already made. He’s opposed to spiritual barrenness which is brought out of this thinking that we have all the answers within ourselves. And every Christian, I get it, has this tendency to rely on himself or herself more than they rely on God. We have this tendency to think that the world is calling it brave and courageous and strong, how self-reliant and self-willed we are. God calls it pride. And He’s opposed to the proud.

So, while it’s true that He gives more grace, it’s also true that He opposes the proud, but “gives grace to the humble.” So, if you find yourself drifting spiritually from the Lord, and becoming the type of spiritual adulteress who is being called out here in this section of James, what you need to do is look in the mirror. Identify where your pride is blockading the grace that God is offering. Remember what Peter says in 1 Peter 5:6, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” And recall what these last few words of James 4:6 now say, that He “gives grace to the humble.”

Now, humility, of course, has to be that cornerstone characteristic of our lives in Christ. Humility in some ways is just simply seeing ourselves rightly. Seeing ourselves the way God sees us. And practically patterning our lives after the model of humility that was shown by Christ in His incarnation and in His death and resurrection. In His death specifically, Philippians 2:8, “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
But that is also one of the hardest things to do in the Christian life, isn’t it? To acknowledge and recognize that you don’t have enough gas in the tank. To acknowledge and recognize that you don’t have enough strength in your bones. That your upper lip isn’t stiff enough. That your grip isn’t tight enough. To will yourself through just another workweek, or another week at home with the kids, or another year of cancer, or another month of not seeing that loved one that you miss so much. But that’s exactly what James here is telling us to do. To be humble enough to say, “I can’t do it by myself.” To be humble enough to recognize what Jesus said in John 15:5 that apart from Him we can do nothing. When we do so, He gives us grace, greater grace.

So while our God is a jealous God, while our God is a consuming fire, while we are hostile to God and at enmity with God, when we adulterously pursue the world, verse 6 balances this all out by helping us to remember that our God is a merciful, gracious, all-loving God who supplies us with our needs. Who supplies us with the grace that we need to follow Him faithfully.

Speaking of which, the passage we’ll be in next Sunday, is James 4:7-12. You can be reading ahead as you get ready for that next week. But in those verses, verses 7-12, we see ten commands for the follower of Jesus Christ to heed: submit, resist, draw near, cleanse, purify, be miserable and mourn and weep, humble yourselves, do not speak.” How are we supposed to follow those commands? The answer is the grace of God. We need the grace of God, the grace He extends to us. Not when we are proud-hearted, spiritual adulteresses, but rather, when we seek Him, and pursue Him, and depend upon Him, and live for Him humbly. I’m looking forward to that time next week.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You so much for the clarity of Your word. Thank You for the conviction that Your word brings. And thank You for the grace that we have, that we can tap into, we who have trusted in Your Son, Jesus and His finished work on the cross. Thank You for being a God who is just and righteous and holy. Thank You for being a God who is also gracious and merciful and loving; and that grace and that mercy and that love has been shown supremely through the cross of Jesus Christ. I do pray that we each would leave this place spurred on to no longer in any sense live for the world; to identify those areas of our lives, those pockets and corners of our hearts, where there is still a clinging desire for the world. To repent of those desires and to run to You and to seek Your grace. And if there’s anybody here today who does not know You, who has not put their faith in Jesus Christ, I pray that they not hear this sermon as a moralistic sermon about being better or cleaning up the outside, but that they would realize that what has to happen first is a transformation on the inside. A transformation that recognizes who You are God as a holy judge, our sinful condition, the wrath that we face and deserve, and that the solution You provided in sending Your Son into the world to die on our behalf. I pray that if there are those here today who do not know You, that today would be the day that they would trust in Your Son. Trust in Your Son the Lord Jesus Christ, have their sins forgiven, their eternal hopes secured, and the hope of heaven to look forward to. We thank You so much for this day. It’s in Christ’s name we pray. Amen