Kevin Taylor's Bible Study
Title:
The Book Of James Part 7
by Kevin Taylor
The Book Of James Part 7
The Lord bless you abundantly. Welcome to part 7 of our study of the book
of James. This week we will be starting on chapter 4 verses 1 – 12. As with
all our studies so far, we will look at the portion of scripture first,
and then we will focus on some main themes.
James 4 v 1- 6 ‘what causes
fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle
within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covert, but
you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because
you do not ask, God. When you do ask, you do not receive; because you ask
with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is
hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to become a friend of the world becomes
an enemy of God. Or do you think scripture says without reason that the
Spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace,
that is why it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
James 4 v 6-12 ‘submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and
he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash
your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double minded. Grieve,
mourn and wail. Change your laughter into mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Brothers, don’t
slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him
speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not
keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one lawgiver and
judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you; who are you to
judge your neighbor.’
I have split this portion of bible scripture into two parts to help us with
our study. A basic overview points out the main problems that James is addressing
in verses 1-6, and then in verses 7-12 he points us back to the Lord. I
don’t know about you, but I find this portion of scripture very challenging.
In simple terms, if these sins apply to you, then the remedy does also.
In verses 1-6 the main problem he is dealing with is selfishness, and out
of this stems all the sins he talks about, such as fighting, quarreling,
covetousness, and greed and so on. They all stem from the love of ones self,
and we all have to be aware of this sneaking back into our lives. We need
to remember, ‘God forgives Sin, not excuses.’ We have to get to a state
where we realize we are in the wrong before we can turn away from whatever
it is that is wrong in our lives, and pray, “Lord, I have sinned in this
or that particular area, Please forgive me.” Once we have got to this state
of humility, or are humble, then the Lord will pour his grace upon us. Not
before. God will ‘Grace you’ to overcome. One of my favorite bible verses
‘James 4 verse 7’ “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.”
If we draw near to God then it is inevitable that our lives will change
for the better, and coupled with this, if we ‘Resist’ the devil with all
his temptations and divisive schemes then he and his temptations and schemes
will depart, and you will win, you will see. The verses we have been looking
at have been used by the Lord many times in my life to put me back onto
the right track, in-fact, the whole book of James is a “put back on the
right track” and “Build um up” book. In James writing, he says what he means,
and means what he says. He doesn’t pull his punches or beat about the bush;
he calls a “Spade a Spade” as we say over here in England, but we need to
remember one thing! God wrote the Bible. Until we meet again, lots of love,
have a super week and praise God in all things. Kev!
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