At War with Ourselves (James 4:1b–3)

At War with Ourselves (4:1b–3)

James is asking in verse 1, what makes people fight and argue with each other? His answer is given as a question as he asks, 'don't they come from the desires that are fighting inside you?' (James 4:1). The church wars are caused by the war in the heart! "But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth." "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." (James 3:14, 16).

Selfishness is the result of sin and in essence is sin. Eve didn't listen to God because she wanted to eat from the tree and become wise like God. Abraham lied about his wife because he wanted to save his life (Gen. 12:10–20). Achan took some forbidden loot from the ruins of Jericho (Josh. 7) and caused Israel to lose. "We have turned everyone to his own way" (Isa. 53:6).

We often hide our religious fights behind what we call "spirituality." We are like Miriam and Aaron, who complained about Moses' wife but were really jealous of Moses' power (Num. 12). Or we act like James and John, who asked for special thrones in the kingdom when all they really wanted was to be recognized today (Mark 10:35–45). In both of these cases, selfish desire led to punishment and division among God's people. For a whole week, Miriam's sin stopped Israel from moving forward!

Selfish desires are usually harmful. James 4:2 says you kill, fight, and go to war, and James 4:3 says you don't get what you ask for because you ask with wicked motives to spend on your pleasures. If we pray incorrectly, our entire Christian life is misguided. Prayer is meant to fulfill God's will on earth, not man's will in heaven.

"Thou shalt not covet" is the last of God's Ten Commandments, but breaking it can lead us to break all the other nine commandments! Someone who is greedy can kill, lie, dishonor their parents, cheat on their spouse, and break all of God's moral laws in some way. Living and praying for yourself always leads to war. If there is war inside, there will be war outside.

People who are at war with themselves because they want things for themselves are always unhappy. They never really enjoy life. They fail to appreciate what they have; instead, they complain about what they lack. They can't get along with other people because they're always jealous of what other people have and do. They constantly search for a "magic something" that they believe will change their lives, not realizing that the true issue lies within their hearts.

We sometimes use prayer to cover up what we really want. One of the best excuses a Christian can use is "But I prayed about it!" We don't ask God what He wants; instead, we tell Him what He should do and get angry when He doesn't. We get angry at God, and then we get angry at God's people. Angry churchgoers have caused more than one church to break up. If people just looked into their own hearts and saw the battles going on there, a lot of church and family problems would be solved.

God made us one, and our minds, feelings, and will should all work together. James explained why we are fighting with ourselves and, as a result, with each other.