James 4:1-12 Submitting To God
by Daniel Burton
When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we ask the He would become the Lord and Savior of our life. From there, we are radically transformed from the inside out. Yet, within us is the remaining battle we must all face. Our flesh still craves the things of this world. However, our spirit belongs to God. These two things are opposed to one another and the two cannot exist in harmony with one another. The whole of our sins comes from the desire to pursue what our flesh wants rather than what God wants for us. Often times following God means a rejection of our flesh runs counter intuitive to what we want. The choose comes down to whether we choose to display our faith by what we do instead of by indulging our flesh.
Download The Discussion Guide: James 4:1-12
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you 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 means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us ? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
Submit yourselves, then, 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 to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them 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?
Friends with the World or God
Within James’ message, is the constant battle between choosing God or choosing the thigns of the world. It is the direct representation of our faith lived out in a specific context. By instinct, we crave to do things our way and by our own means. Yet, God is willing and able to provide beyond what we are able to need. At a point, we will have to choose whether we will be friends with God or friends with the world. The two are mutually exlcusive as they value very different things.
- What does it mean to be friends with the world? How does this typically express itself?
- What is the motivation behind the things in the first paragraph?
- Why is friendship with the world and friendship with God incompatible with each other?
Submitting to God
For everything the world has to offer, the gifts of God are far beyond anything we are able to obtain on our own. Submissions ot god is not based in this idea that I get things, but rather instead that God provdies what we need, even if we are against it in our flesh. The provision is spiritual; casting out demons and purifying the heart, emotional; with mourning turn to laughter, and physical; with the presence of God drawing near. We willingly give up our friendship with the world in order to
- How does someone submit to an authority?
- What are benefits that James brings up in submitting to God?
- Why does it feel like we have to go backwards before we go forwards when we submit ourselves to God?
- What happens when we resist submitting to God?
- What are the areas that we have the most difficulty in submitting to God?
- Why is trusting God difficult with the things we want? How does submission to God reveal our faith to the world around us?
Download The Discussion Guide: James 4:1-12
Check out the rest of the Series on James by Clicking Here and post pictures of your bible study on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
