James 4:1,2 – “The Victory of Faith”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Where [do] wars and where [do] battles among you [come] from? [Do they] not [come] from here – out of your pleasures which are soldiering among your members? ²You lust and do not have; you murder and covet and are not able to obtain; you battle and war; you do not have because you do not ask.

As I have read a number of commentaries on these verses, the biggest thing that surprises me (but shouldn’t) is how practically everyone turns this into a “those bad people out there” passage. Practically everyone throws up this lustful, murderous, discontent, prayerless villain and concludes with “Shame on them!” Seriously??? How can anyone not see that James is talking about us! This is not some villain “out there.” He’s talking about the villain in me!

Sometimes I wonder if this isn’t at the root of why so much preaching does so little good. If the man behind the pulpit doesn’t see his own face in the mirror, if he can’t see the villain inside himself – this lustful, murderous, discontent, prayerless villain – then it is highly unlikely he’ll help anyone else see the villain in them. Reminds me of Jeremiah 8:11: “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.” The problem is that it is serious! I am of my father the devil and the lusts of my father I will do. He was a murderer and a liar from the beginning and I’ll be just like him unless the wonderful grace of Jesus invades and conquers my heart! Any victory of love and peace that He wins in this black heart is nothing short of a miracle. He isn’t just a nice addition to my life; He is my life. My hope. My help. My strength. My peace. My rock. My refuge. The villain in James 4:1-2 is me. And it takes the Hero of Grace to allow me to see it and then rescue me from it. No one less. God deliver me from me.

Hopefully having convinced anyone reading this that he’s talking about us – we shall move on.

James brought up at the end of chapter 3 the wonderful business of peace, then opens chapter 4 pondering why there is so little of it. “What causes all these fights and quarrels in your life?” He then gives the answer we all should be all too aware of  -- they come from the lusts that are actually battling inside of me. In verse 2, he expands on this problem for the very purpose of helping us see just how bad it is. What he tells us is that we humans are so driven by our lusts that we actually turn murderous . Here again the Lord would have us “beware our wanter.” At the very, very deep root of our sin problem is exactly this – our wanter. He warns us in I John 2:15,16 that our natural bent is to lust after pleasures, possessions, and applause (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life) and it is those very things which rob us of our love for the Father. In II Peter 1:4 He warns us we have need to escape the “corruption in the world caused by lusts.” It is literally our wanter that ruins us, and that is precisely what James is trying to help us see.

Realizing all of this only helps us to see just how badly we need the Lord in our life and very specifically how true it is that “Faith is the victory.” There in II Peter 1, the particular weapon He has given us in order to escape the “corruption in the world caused by lust” is “His very great and precious promises!”  What can possibly conquer this evil, murderous wanter inside of us? Faith. Faith in very great and precious promises. Yes, I “want” things, but what if I had a God I could trust to provide them? What if way down deep, way down at the very root of my “wanting,” what if I could be convinced that the Lord will provide everything that is really, truly best for me? What difference would that make? All of a sudden, I’m not driven any more. I don’t need to be murderous. I can have peace.

Is not this very matter at the root of Jesus’ words: “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt 6:31-33).

Jesus is calling us to truly believe way down deep in our hearts that the Lord will provide. He is saying that “the pagans run after these things” – they are driven by their wanter and they have no one to trust. They have no assurance at all that they won’t end up destitute and starving – so they must take it all upon themselves to get whatever it is they want and need. They must do whatever it takes to make sure they get their piece of the pie. But, again, that is because they have no one to trust. But we do.

Faith is the victory. We have very great and precious promises to rest our weary hearts upon. “Delight thyself in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4).

This is probably precisely why at the end of verse 2, James says, “You have not, because you ask not.” And why wouldn’t we ask? Why wouldn’t we remember to ask of God? Because our wanter is in motion rather than our faith. I like what Albert Barnes said: “The true way of obtaining anything which we really need is to seek it from God by prayer, and then to make use of just and fair means of obtaining it, by industry and honesty, and by a due regard for the rights of others. Thus sought, we shall obtain it if it would be for our good; if it is withheld, it will be because it is best for us that is should not be ours.”

That is a wonderful truth – but can you see that it is useless without faith? “We shall obtain it if it would be for our good …” Therein, I would suggest is exactly where the rub occurs. I might not get it. I want it. I may want it very badly. Rather than letting my wanter drive me, I need to simply trust God to provide it. But what if He doesn’t??? Here is the very point where I need to live my life with open hands and here is the very point I must know the Lord as my wonderful, wise, loving Father, whom I am assured will in fact provide for me all that really is good and best.

Faith really is the victory – faith in a Savior whose plans are to do us “good and not evil all the days of our lives, to give us a future and a hope.”

Lord, I have a dark evil heart. James is talking about me. But You said “Where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound.” May Your amazing grace conquer my evil heart at those very moments when my wanter would take the reins. May Your love be my hope and, in it, may You give me the victory of faith. And may the wonderful freedom of faith be the portion of my family and my friends.