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Several years ago, I bought a book at that I thought was part of a series we owned. When I got the book home, I realized that it was a different author building on the previous series. I wasn’t interested, so less than twenty-four hours later, I tried to return the book. The person in customer service politely told me that books could not be returned. I didn’t yell at her, but I did raise my voice a little, and I definitely had an angry tone. I stormed out of the store with book in hand.
By the time I reached my car, conviction set in. Whether or not the policy on returning books was fair in my circumstance, I responded in anger. The situation didn’t go my way. I had wasted my time driving back to the store. I was inconvenienced, out the money, and embarrassed by being told, “No” in front of a line of other customers. My heart was all about me, and me erupted in anger towards a customer service person who was just doing her job, following a policy she didn’t write. I went back in and asked her forgiveness.
I don’t know about you, but I have been challenged and convicted throughout the first three chapters of James. James repeatedly exposed the disparity between genuine, living faith and worthless religion, dead faith. He has highlighted these differences in suffering, hearing and doing God’s Word, showing partiality, faith apart from works, taming our tongues, and having (and using) godly wisdom. Now, in chapter 4, James targets the heart.
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.[1]
James 4:1-3
James, as he has before, begins this theme with a question: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” James is addressing those within the church. Quarrels and fighting within the church may not surprise you, but I hope James’ question will prompt you to recognize that this is not something to be indifferent about as if it’s par for the course. James’ question should motivate us to be on guard against whatever would cause quarreling, fighting, and the natural result: disunity.
Quarrels can also mean wars or battles. Fights can be physical, but the typical usage in the New Testament describes a verbal conflict (3:1-12; 4:11-12; 5:9). These quarrels and fights can sometimes be a one-time event or sadly, they may be ongoing.
We don’t have to wonder what to guard against. James tells us: “Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” James slams the door on any blame shifting. He points the finger directly at our own hearts as the source for quarreling and fighting.
The word passion, or forms of it, can be used for good things like a passion to read God’s Word. We may also think of passion related to romantic love. James uses passions in a negative sense to speak of a self-indulgent pleasure (material, sensual, or sexual). The Greek word for passions, hēdonē, is where we get our English word hedonism.
“The appropriateness of James’ use of the term here is demonstrated by its description in 4 Maccabees 1:25–26: ‘in pleasure (hēdonē) there exists even a malevolent tendency, which is the most complex of all the emotions. In the soul it is boastfulness, covetousness, thirst for honour, rivalry, malice; in the body, indiscriminate eating, gluttony, and solitary gormandizing.’”[2]
Last week we learned that bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are marks of worldly wisdom. Next week in 4:5, we will see that God opposes the proud. These are all related to self-indulgent pleasure.
Jealousy. Selfish ambition. Pride. We can add idolatry to the list as idolatry is loving worldly things more than God – coveting (vs 2). These things are at war within us. There is a heart war between the things of this world and the things of God. This imagery is reflective of the double-minded, unstable man (1:8), and the double-speaking tongue in (3:8). The internal war overflows into external wars with others.
Peter echoes James: “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:11-12, emphasis added).
James continues: “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask” (vs 2). There is some debate on this verse as to where the punctuation falls. The NIV and KJV punctuates it this way: “You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight.” More of a series of statements.
The ESV, RSV, NASB and some others present the sentences as a series of facts and their result or reason.[3]“This structure places the emphasis on the fact that frustrated desire leads to violence, and it should be preferred because it matches closely a pattern of moral exhortation common in the Hellenistic world.”[4]
Here is a way to picture it:
First, we want something, and we don’t have it. I wanted my money back for the book I bought by mistake and didn’t read. The store wouldn’t give me what I wanted. “So you murder” – there are different interpretations including actual murder, but it is perhaps best understood as the extreme result that unrestrained passions and desires can drive us to. James uses shocking language, so we see the seriousness of this heart war. We need to guard our hearts.
James does not quote Jesus, but it might be helpful to recall Jesus’ words: “You have heard it said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:21-22). I trust that most of us will not actually kill another person to get what we want, but if we are honest, I think we have been willing to sin to get what we want. I was willing to sin by being unkind to the customer service lady. If I berated her, maybe she would give me what I wanted, my money back.
Second, we covet and cannot obtain, so we fight and quarrel. We want something. Now we move to coveting that something. We are in a downward spiral.
Third, we do not have, because we do not ask. We neither submit to God nor admit our dependence on Him. In fact, this downward spiral is a red flag that we are ungrateful and discontented.
“If you may have everything by asking, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is, and I beseech you to abound in it.… Do you know, brothers, what great things are to be had for the asking? Have you ever thought of it? Does it not stimulate you to pray fervently? All heaven lies before the grasp of the asking man; all the promises of God are rich and inexhaustible, and their fulfillment is to be had by prayer.” (Spurgeon)[5]
Fourth, we do ask but do not receive, because we ask wrongly, to spend it on our passions (vs 3). We ask God, but it is selfishness that motivates us. The right motivation for prayer is aligning our will with God’s will (Matthew 6:10). When we ask wrongly, we are concerned with only our will. Idolatry, pride, ingratitude, jealousy, and selfish ambition are winning our heart war. Quarrels, fights, and disunity break out. “Meanwhile, sacrifice and mutual understanding fade away.”[6]
Paul understood this heart war: “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:15, 18-19).
We all have wars raging in our hearts. We are not yet completely free from our sin nature although we are no longer slaves to sin. There is a battle to keep fighting to put off the selfish passions and desires and to put on the things of God. Paul asks the question: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death” (Romans 7:24)? His answer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25)!
Jesus never had a heart war. His will perfectly aligned with His Father’s will. Instead of quarreling and fighting, He spoke the truth in love every time. He came to deliver us from our heart wars. He bore our sins and the Father’s wrath and credited to us His perfect righteousness. There is a day coming when God will complete the good work He has begun in us (Philippians 1:6), and we will be forever free from our heart wars.
Reflection
1. Think of the last time you were in a quarrel or fight. What did you want but weren’t getting or what did you get that you didn’t want?
2. Can you think of a time you didn’t ask God because you didn’t want to submit to Him or acknowledge your dependence on Him? How did it turn out?
3. When have you asked God wrongly? What was your motivation?
4. What is a passion, desire, or idol you need to guard against? What steps can you take? Who can you ask to pray with and for you in this heart war?
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jas 4:1–3.
[2] Douglas J. Moo, James: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 16, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 143.
[3] If you want a detailed explanation why, Douglas Moo’s commentary on James is thorough.
[4] Douglas J. Moo, James: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 16, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 144.
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