James worksheet 8

Grace and getting along & Submit yourselves to God

James 4:1-6

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James 4 meaning

James 4 context

James 4:1-6 (NKJV) says 1Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your

for pleasure that war in your members? 2You and do not have. You murder and and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? 6But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives to the humble.”

In this section we dive into what a living faith looks like. Why is there strife and conflict among the believers in the first century church? James gives reasons in the first three verses. There is a root of carnallity, flesh, anger, murder in the heart (verse 2), criticism, our own desires for pleasure (verse 1), covetiousness/lust (verse 2), and rebellion. Believers fail to walk in the Spirit. Isn’t this foolish?

Q1 What is the fleshly problem described? Verse 3 says Yet you do not have because you do not ask. Who needs to to be asked? Does James refers to the power of prayer? Does God want that we ask (Matthew 7:7)?

Q2 Evaluate you own prayers. Do you hit the target when you ask God for something? Or is your prayer selfish, like a lack of aligning my will with God’s will?

Q3 Now read verses 4-5. When James names the Christians in the early church adulterers and adulteresses. He means all kinds of (spiritual) idolatry, non only sexual idolatry. It’s a painful passage for those who live in the flesh (carnal Christians). What is the result of seeking friendship with the world? Do you think that we can not be a true friend with the adulterous world in terms of allegience and moral standards? Remember that Jesus said that we are in the world but not of the world.

Q4 After all the rough talk in verses 1 through 5, there is a fresh closing statement in vers 6. Read that verse out loud. Write your own commentary on this verse.

What has touched your heart most in this study? Tell it gratefully to the Lord in prayer.

Memorise God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).