James 4:1-12
Submit Yourselves to God
1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."
7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
11Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
St. James wrote this letter to the twelve tribes of Israel...He is referring to the Jewish descendants of the twelve tribes of sons of Jacob (and the two sons of Joseph)...He asks what does cause the quarrels among you?... He does want or expect the believers of His brother Jesus to be fighting...They should love one another and be working together for the common good of God...Many times our emotions and desires get in the way and our mood does battle us within, and we wind up quarrelling and fighting with the ones we love...
When we pray we many times ask God for something personal...St. James tells us that many prayers are not received (by our Father) and our prayer(s) go unanswered, if we prayer with the wrong motives...God listens to the personal requests, or our personal desires requests and our pleasures requests, but we must also remember when we pray that we must trust in God...He is the One who knows all things...If our prayers focus on God's plan and His purpose then that motive is the correct one...It is God who knows the whole picture of the heavens and earth...And it is His plan that understands what is going on in the universe...Submit to His understanding of all things...It is our trust in Him, that gives us a deeper faith, which goes beyond right thinking, and just being courteous to others...This trust in Him, takes us to submitting to Him, and then prayer for His purposes and to do His will...
James quotes Proverb 3:34 and tells us that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble...The proud try to resist God...God will give His grace to the humble...He listens and answers our prayers with His grace...Humble yourselves before the LORD, and He will lift you up...We must seek Him, and submit to Him...In submitting to Him we learn to trust Him...Trusting Him will draw one nearer to Him...God is not hiding, we are...Our sins and falling to our temptations take us away from Him...God is the Almighty Energy of LOVE...Like the sun, which gives of light and heat, you will get burnt if you stay out in it long enough...God is perfect grace and perfect love...How can He be anything else?...He must be the treasure we seek and want to get near...Come near to God and He will come near to you....
Do not slander, one another...We are not to judge others...We are not the Judge, God is...He is the Ultimate Lawgiver...Christians are to follow God's moral laws...Jesus teaches us the Law of Moses comes together with the Two Great Commandments...The First Great Commandment is to love God with all your heart, your mind, your strength, and your soul...The other Great Commandment is to love your neighbor...Our judgment has no authority...Any judgment and all judgment is for God...
There is such a healthy thing as disagreeing with others for the common good...Much can be attained with a heated debate and trying to better the church, or community, or yourself...But just fighting among ourselves without a common goal can show a wrong relationship with God...
St. James teaches us to love one another and work together...When we pray we must first believe in Him, then submit to Him, and learn to trust Him...The humble and those mourning will be heard by our LORD...He will not refuse to answer the prayers of the humble and those who mourn...He is our judge, today, tomorrow, and forever...