James 4-5

James asked for the causes of the unprofitable effects that believers exhibited. Remember, one of James' main themes was the importance of words. This chapter was extremely focused on the causes of our words.

James explained that all our attempts to use our own strength to get benefits ended up in getting the opposite of what we wanted. Then, James gave the reason: we do not get because we do not ask.

We think we ask, but we actually ask wrongly (with the intent on spending the benefit on ourselves) that it does not even qualify as asking: we are not humble when we ask. Instead, we act like "people in the world" and want to immediately experience the selfish benefit.

In the Bible, friends were able to speak for each other. We are a friend of God when we are able to speak for God by allowing God to speak through us via the Holy Spirit, which is grace. Being a friend of the world means we speak for the world, we let bad fruit come out of the same vessel that brings forth good fruit by the Holy Spirit. James did not allow the contradiction. Speaking for the physical/world is making yourself an enemy of God. Striving to get personal benefits at the expense of others is proving yourself to be a friend of the world, because you are speaking for the world and it is apparent to all. Humbling yourself, handling suffering well, and focusing on others is proving yourself to be a friend of God, because you would only be able to do these things by grace (the work of God) and that you are speaking for God would be apparent to all in this world.

James blatantly addressed the contradiction between us choosing to speak for the world while we asked God for the Holy Spirit within us, and then tried to say that when we spoke envying (for the world) we were really speaking by the Holy Spirit.

James referenced Proverbs 3:34. The proud were the ones who were speaking in their own strength for the world. This actually limited the ability of the Holy Spirit to speak through the person, which was grace. James referenced the scripture to show that God resisted the proud. The only way God can grow a person not flowing in grace is from the outside, from resisting them. However, God gives more grace to the humble. God grows the humble person more from the inside. Believers are humble and will be able to speak more and more for God via grace. God has provided everything necessary for Salvation. The proud people are at fault when they do not receive grace. Pride is "unwilling to consider you are wrong and in need of nothing." Someone in pride is not going to reflect God's influence in their life, they are going to present their own influence which is actually from the world. They will speak for the world.

Therefore, obey God (humble yourself) so that the Holy Spirit can speak through you via grace. Instead of God resisting you from the outside, you ought to resist the devil. In fact, attacks from the devil ought to cause you to obey God more...and that will cause the devil to flee from you because attacking you more would only help you become more humble.

As we have seen was James' approach, he restated the previous conclusion: drawing near to God via humility would cause God to draw near to you via grace. The more you obeyed God and allowed Him to speak through you, the more grace He would give you, the more He would speak through you. Believing that you can speak for the world from your own strength and be a believer is contradictory/double-minded.

The more attacks you get, the more you ought to humble yourself. Worldly people think the more attacks they get, the more they need to retaliate. James believed we ought to focus inside when outside circumstances became difficult. WHY?

James again repeated the previous conclusion: responding to external attacks by humbling yourself would result in God lifting you up, via grace.

Again, James was focused on words, this time between believers. James showed that we should not attack believers. James stated that we should not judge another believer. Why do some "Christians" today think Jesus told us to judge when He said in Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, lest ye be judged."?

James logically presented the contradiction: If you were a judge of the Law, then you could not be a doer of the Law. Again, James' Doctrine could have been placed within the Old Testament. We know from Paul's writings that God's Law is now written on our hearts via grace. James' perspective would still apply during our dispensation.

The Greek word for "judge" was krino. It meant "to equal out Justice." Judging was not simply determining if something was right or wrong. Judging in the New Testament included taking actions to equal out Justice. Only God can Rightly judge. If we judge, we prove we are not humble.

James continued proving that people were wrong when they were not humble. His example was when we stated with words a future event as a fact when it had not happened yet. We would be proving with our words that we were not humble, but actually considered ourselves to be God. We would be speaking for the world.

James blatantly focused on the exact words we ought to use when we planned things for the future. We ought to humble ourselves and recognize God as God. We ought to state it in the form of an "if"/then.

James stated the opposite of speaking in this fashion was glorying in yourself. James then said all glorying like this was evil.

Doctrine: To him that knows what is good (Right and Just) and does not do it, to him it is sin. This was right in line with the definition of sin from Romans 14:23 - "...for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Sin is different for different people. (Let me be clear, sin is "whatsoever is not of faith" to everyone. However, not everyone has the same amount/level of faith and therefore, sin is different for different people.) Some people make that point to justify their sin. Actually, Paul's writings in 1 Corinthians 10 and James' statement here place a higher requirement on people who were more excellent. If someone used this mentality to justify what they wanted to do, they were saying they were unexcellent and (possibly) not a believer.

Theme of Chapter 4: You cannot speak for the world and speak for God. People who speak for the world are prideful and destructive because they retaliate when external circumstances get tough. People who speak for God are humble and focus internally when external circumstances get tough. James' focus was words and how they proved during times of affliction whether we were believers or unbelievers.

In the previous chapter, James showed the afflictions were to be used to grow in grace. James made the logical conclusion that the rich whose heart sought the pleasures of the world would experience eternal affliction through Justice.

James exhorted believers to have patience for the Lord and use the time establishing your heart.

In this verse "murmur" meant "to groan against." Do not groan against another believer. If you have a fault against a brother, speak it to him...use words, not groanings.

James used the prophets as examples to us of believers who were patient in their external afflictions. God used the prophets to make His message apparent to the entire world. One of the reasons people during those times were guilty was they did not listen to the prophets. The proof these men were making God's works apparent to all was not just that the words eventually came true (a lot of the prophetic words did not get fulfilled until long after the prophet was dead). The proof was how well the prophet handled unjust suffering at the hands of the "people of the world." The prophets were forerunners of Jesus, who perfectly handled the ultimate suffering due to the ultimate injustice. James stated we ought to look to the prophets as examples to us today...after all, the prophets had the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, just like believers today. Those who endure are counted as happy. The term "patience of Job" came from James. From the Book of Job, we know that Job continued making progress by using his words in a logical manner even though he was in the midst of external afflictions.

Doctrine: Let your "yes" be "yes" and your "no" be "no." Do not swear at all (see Matthew 5:33-37). Again, James spoke about profitable words that had weight behind their usage and spoke against vows, words that deceived us into thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought, words that led to pride.

Doctrine: The sick should call the elders (pastors) of the church and let them pray over them while anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.

Again, James spoke Doctrine concerning using words in a profitable manner: prayer. The prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up and forgive his sins.

The first sentence was the premise and the second sentence was the reason. Again, James spoke Doctrine concerning using words in a profitable manner: confession. Confess your faults to each other, which required humility. Pray for one another, that you may be healed. The "supplication" or "effectual fervent" prayer of a righteous man "availeth" (to be strong) much, it was a profitable use of words. James supported this with an example of someone in scripture who used their words profitably...

James referenced 1 Kings 17. Elijah prayed for the rain to stop.

James referenced 1 Kings 18. Elijah prayed again for rain.

If you convert a soul from erring from the truth, you have saved a soul from death. This was the ultimate profitable use of words.

Theme of Chapter 5: James gave many examples that encouraged the reader to use words profitably.

The next mini-section of the New Testament after the Pauline Epistles contained epistles from four separate writers. The first of these writers can be seen as the most physically-focused writer. The author of this book was known as the following: James the Lesser, James the Just, and James the half-brother of Jesus. Acts 12:1-2 stated that Herod killed James the brother of John, who was also known as James the Greater. In Acts 15:13-21 we saw James, the author of this book, was the head of the first Christian council and concluded the dispute concerning circumcision brought by Paul and Barnabas. This occurred before Paul's second missionary journey. The Book of James was written around 45 AD in Jerusalem before the first Christian council (which was around 51 AD). Chronologically, this placed this letter prior to all of Paul's writings. Consequently, the Doctrine of this book could be placed wholly within the Old Testament other than two references to Jesus. In this book there was no mention of: the Gospel (death, burial, resurrection), the incarnation/life of Christ, the Messiah having come, and redemption through Jesus. Instead, James used logic to present Doctrine from a physical perspective and focused on the importance of words.