James certainly must have been the owner of a well-worn pair of wading boots.  His words prove that he was totally undeterred, always prepared to stride straight into the middle of the nearest squabble.  He wasn’t one bit afraid of issues or people. He had no hidden agendas of his own and allowed none with his readers.  He kept on swinging and thrashing, uncovering and exposing thoughts and actions all the way to the motives behind them.  The promptings of the Holy Spirit pointed these things out to James and he charged right in to point them to the Savior and HIS solution. 

Last lesson, Brother (of Jesus) James gave us a tongue lashing…well, actually, he told all readers to LASH their own tongues…as in tie them down until they had something appropriately valuable to share.  He encouraged folks to keep quiet rather than to speak and light fires or launch verbally destructive rockets.  This lesson, James stands directly in the middle of actual fights and warfare and sends everyone back to their respective corners of the ring and sits them down HARD on their thinking stools.  Every reader is sent to time out, including me and YOU. 

 I’ve told you before that my favorite bible commentator is Warren Wiersbe.  Before he passed away in 2019, the Lord had helped this man write a commentary on every book in the Bible.  I have them all in my study library.  In this passage, WW identifies three types of common wars that we see among believers.  WW delivers them in reverse order, I think, for dramatic effect. 

 There are wars against each other.  There are wars within ourselves.  There are wars against God. As David said so very well in Psalm 51:6, “Lord…against Thee and Thee alone have I sinned and done what is evil in Thy sight…”.  All fightings are first against the Lord.  They begin inside of us when our hearts are not right with God.  When our hearts are out of sync with God, everything else is off kilter…out of balance and totally out of harmony. People who are at war with themselves will look for a fight with others to deflect personal responsibility.  “I” trouble is contagious and affects all of our relationships. 

 James was not writing to an individual like Timothy or Titus.  James was writing to the scattered tribes of Israel and new believers in the first century.  He knew how important it was for them NOT to be divided in this infancy stage of the early church.  His half-brother, Jesus, gave His life for the church. 

 First, James spoke of their trials.  Their need for godly wisdom.  Their need to stand against temptation.  Their religious pride.  Their neglect to care for the poor and the orphans and widows.  Their dangerous tendency toward prejudice, favoritism and partiality. Their need to produce tangible works that should naturally follow genuine faith.  Their need to tame their tongues.  Chapter three ends with a Holy Spirit inspired screed on jealousy and selfish ambition.  Then there’s chapter four…

 Most commentators and writers say we can’t identify the issue in chapter four.  Well, scroll back through these several sentences.  There are enough seeds there to start a range war.  James left nothing on the field.  Neither should we.  James speaks of quarrels, conflicts, pleasures, lusts, murder (of character or of body?) as well as envy and operating navigationally with completely wrong motives. 

 James calls them adulteresses because of their friendship with the world which sets them immediately at ODDS with GOD.  That is never a good place to be.  James closes the chapter with the antidotes for the madness of these spiritual maladies.  Humility.  Submission, first to God, then to each other.  Giving first priority to God settles the storm surge of personal agendas.  Resist the devil and he will flee.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you!  Cleanse your sinful hands.  Purify your divided, double-minded, dirty hearts.  Mourn and weep over your currently estranged condition from the Lord. 

 First, find the feet of the Lord and kneel there. 

Stay there long enough to confess and repent. 

Rise to serve.