You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit hat he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Calling his Jewish audience "Adulteresses" was a big slap in the face. We are called to choose God over this world. In the world, but not of it.
"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money" Matthew 6:24
His audience was clearly stumbling with inner-conflict, and the desire of the world over God (James 4:1-3). Our choice is world or God. A constant theme throughout the passage is humility or submission to God. James uses this word to get his point across. Verses 4-10 talk about man's spiritual unfaithfulness to God. Just as an adulteress is unfaithful to her husband, so are we to Christ. Verses 11-12 command that we're to not judge one another. This is wisely placed after 1-10; James knows that he's dealing with sinners, and rightly explains that when we see someone chasing the world, we are not to judge them. Verses 13-16 give us a great application for what has been said already. Tells of a Jewish merchant not submitting to God's will. We are called as Christians to submit and respect God's will. Hold everything we want to do with an open hand, and be willing to let everything we have go. I love the simplicity of the passage, "If the Lord wills, we will live" amen. It's not a bad thing to set goals such as graduating, getting a job, or a family. Just be cautious, remember God in the midst of your "success". Pray that He would be glorified, not you.
Pray for poverty.
My pray recently, is that if God wills, He would let me be poor. Not just in spirit, but in wealth. I'm not saying that to impress anyone, I could care less what people think of me. I say that because it lines up with scripture, and although I realize that God calls some to be rich and do it well....my hope is that I would be in poverty.
Verse 17 raps up the passage with, "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin". Basically....Our failure to submit/humble ourselves before God = sin. This is James main idea, just summed up in one sentence. We are called to humble ourselves to God; "draw near" to Him. Our hope lies in verse 8, that He would surly draw near to us.
God enable us to draw near to you,
So you can draw near to us
So you can equip us
So you can use us
