Lesson 24: Fighting (part 2)
Read James 4:1-10 - www.bible.com/bible/59/jas.4.esv

Food and the appetite for it is a gift from God. But do we eat to live or live to eat? Sexual appetites are also God given and are intended for pleasure but they have to be used the right way. This appetite can cause us to violate God’s law if we don’t control it. Material things are a blessing from God but we are to avoid materialism. When all the above mentioned blessings are abused and allowed to become a means to sin – they never satisfy! James warns us not to allow the normal and natural God-created desires give birth to sin.

These are strong words. They probably were not actually resorting to murder because of their jealousy, but note that jealousy did lead Saul to attempt murder. Lust and jealousy not only caused David to commit adultery but murder also. Can this happen to a Christian today? There is more than one way to commit murder as there is more than one way to commit adultery.

*How did Jesus define murder and adultery in Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28? _____ _____

These Christians who had legitimate desires took matters into their own hands and did not ask God. Before long they were fulfilling their desires in sinful ways. When they did ask God they went about it improperly. Their motives were selfish. They tried to manipulate God and as a result, God turned a deaf ear to their prayers. (James 4:3)


They were at war with each other, themselves and now James says they are at war with God (a losing cause). At this point James goes straight for the jugular - James 4:4 – “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” He called them adulterous people, a phrase any Christian Jew would recognize. Jeremiah 3:20 – “Surely as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so you have been treacherous with me, O house of Israel, declares the Lord.” The New Testament church is referred to as the bride of Christ. The picture is clear. Many of these Christians to whom James is writing were committing spiritual adultery. They were having a love affair with the world. The root cause of every war whether external or internal is rebellion against God. By aligning themselves with the world they had declared war on God. Friend of the world, enemy of God. The believer is married to Christ (Rom 7:4) and ought to be faithful to Him.

James 4:5 – “Do you think that the scripture says in vain, ‘The spirit that dwells in us envies intensely?" (Wants us for Himself, alone). Living for the flesh means grieving the Holy Spirit who lives in us. There is a loving, holy jealousy that the Spirit has for us as the bride of Christ, just as a husband has for his wife. The Spirit jealously guards our relationship to Christ.