Lusts and Longings

2005-10-02

This is a Bible study on James 4:1-10.

After discussing taming the tongue, self-control, and yielding to others at length with his Jewish audience in the last chapter, James confronts various arguments that are breaking out among believers. Being a General Epistle, James is not necessarily speaking about particular incidents, but he is discussing something that must have been common amongst the believers around the known world. He originally was speaking to Jewish people (1:1) who were being persecuted because of their faith (1:2). Abandoning what was considered the Jewish faith to subscribe to a faith that was predominantly Gentile often left Jews ostracized and alienated from their families and in their communities (such as in John 9:22).

James confronts the issues of the feuds that are consuming the church. These feuds come from “lusts that war in your members” (4:1). “Members” refers to parts of the body; therefore, these “lusts” or sensual pleasures, that are warring against each other are literally within each individual person. In 4:2, however, the word “lust” seems to be of a different source, such as regular, legitimate desires. These are unlike the lusts in 4:1. The people have legitimate desires, but they do not have them, and attempt in their own efforts to satisfy these desires.

In James 4:3, he uses the word “lusts” again, likely referring to personal selfish desire, because people are asking the Lord what they think they want according to their pleasures. For example, the Jewish audience has experienced great pain, and therefore may have asked the Lord that their feelings of rejection or that their persecution would go away. However, the Lord has clearly stated repeatedly in the Gospels that persecution is a part of the faith just as the world has rejected Jesus (Matthew 5:10-12). For enduring such pain and trusting in the Lord, as Jesus has promised, there is great reward.

Therefore, if we are asking amiss, and praying for the Lord to fulfill our pleasures, we will be left empty, because we are asking for something that God does not want to grant us. If we become friends of the world, then we are alienated from God. God is seeking to transform us to be like His Son, which is not to follow the desires within us (to avoid pain and conflict and to feel good), but to trust God in the midst of conflict. Because we belong to Jesus, we are standing in the middle of a great conflict. We stand between the Lord Jesus, who has no darkness within Him (1 John 1:5), and the world that hates Him and is filled with darkness. We are caught in the middle of a fierce battle, in the both the realm of the physical and also in the spiritual realm, where the devil prowls like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8).

The Spirit yearns within us for us to yield to God’s purposes, and He gives us the power to choose what is right and not yield to our own pleasures (4:5-6, Proverbs 3:34). Oftentimes we are unaware of how we miss the mark and how we are double-minded. We think we are seeking God and doing what is right, but we have hidden motives to satisfy ourselves and not submit to God.

The scope of this Scripture is not only for the immediate audience, but also to all people everywhere. We need to be sorrowful about our sin. This sorrow is necessary because we in ourselves are helpless to sin. Sin is so subtle and is so carefully entwined within us that there is no hope in completely escaping it this side of heaven. Hence the capstone to this passage is “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up” (4:10). The legitimate longings James speaks of in 4:2 cannot be fulfilled by anyone or anything but Jesus. He alone can perfectly love us and give us the value and purpose for which we long. We also can take great comfort that Jesus went before us and suffered at the hands of lawless people, but is now in Paradise at the right hand of the Almighty. The promise is the same for us when this short period in the middle of eternity ends and we can enjoy unbroken fellowship with God and experience no more pain.