Alright let us turn to our passage for this morning. James chapter 4, this morning we’re going to look at verses 1 through 12. Alright let me again just read this text. James 4, beginning in verse 1. “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge one another?” Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we come together this morning with joy that we are able to be gathered once again after the past many days, the joy of meeting fellow brethren, and the joy of coming together to offer to You worship and praise. We remember our brethren who are not able to be here this morning. We commit them all unto Your hands and pray that You’ll continue to draw them close to Yourself.

And we pray in particular for our sister Sharon and pray that You’ll indeed continue to be with her as she tends to family matter and to her dad. And we pray that You will be specially close to her at this time. At this moment she can continue to experience Your goodness and Your mercy and that she’ll continue to trust in You in all things. So be with us all this morning, for we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright as we look at this passage this morning, I draw your attention to the first verse where James begins by asking a question. The question is this. He said: “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desire for pleasure that wars in your members?”. Now you see, this is a technique that James used frequently in this letter, which I believe again is a technique in teaching that he observed in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you see that James does this a lot of time alright in his letter.

For example, in the previous chapter (chapter 3 and verse 13), he begins the same way. He says: “Who is wise and understanding among you?”. Or you see that in chapter 2 and verse 14: “What does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?”. Now you see, it’s like asking questions to help provoke people to think about a certain subject or a certain matter. You might remember that our Lord did the same. Remember in the gospel of Luke 9:25 where Jesus asked: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world (but loses his soul)?”. Or another passage again in Luke, Jesus asks: “And why do you call Me ’Lord, Lord,’ but do not do what I say?”.

Now you see, that was the approach or the technique used by our Lord Jesus Christ. And we see the same thing here in this letter by James. In fact, if you read through the letter, you find that many other questions are asked in the same way. Now this morning the question is this alright- the question is this: Where do wars and fights come from among you? Now that was James’ question here. So, what does James mean when he said where does war and fight comes from among you? And that is in the New King James version. I think in some other translations are something like “where do quarrels and fights”.

Now I believe that when James uses the word ’war’ here, now you see war is closer to the literal meaning. It is like James uses a picture word. But of course, his meaning is quarrels. And that’s why many of your translations translate that word as ’quarrels’. And James is probably just thinking about quarrels in the church. But James is using a picture word here to try to impress upon us that quarrels in the church alright- quarrels among us is really like war. And therefore, he uses a very forceful or powerful word, a word that kind of help us understand that when we quarrel that is what it tantamount to. And very often alright, that is really like a war scene alright in the church.

Along the way as we study now you think about it, and you think about perhaps some of your experiences where we have church fights alright that is really like a scene in Ukraine or in some of these war-torn nations alright. And that is what James is talking about alright. So he’s talking about really quarrels and these fights in here, but he’s not literally thinking of wars although using that imagery alright- that imagery. Now so what James is talking about here in this question alright, the subject matter therefore is relational conflicts (now that is what he’s talking about) or interpersonal conflicts. We are familiar with relational or interpersonal conflicts. I’m sure you have experienced this kind of things elsewhere.

Example alright you see kind of a sometime war alright in the family. War among or fights among siblings, now even at a very young age. I’m sure Aaron and Grace know that sometimes it’s a war zone alright and they need some peacemaker to come and deal with the situation alright. And sometimes it can be really intense. It’s really intense. And sometimes we think that you know when they’re young they just pull each other’s hair, and when they grow older you know they’ll become more civilised almost. No, you see when they grow older is no longer pulling hairs and pinching each other. And you might actually see knives coming up and scissors coming up alright and even gun as we so often hear of in other countries you know where they have these free access to guns, taking guns and kill each other.

Now you see, that is what James is talking about. He’s talking about quarrels, intense quarrels. Interpersonal relationship that happens even in the home among siblings, between husband and wife. We see that and we hear of that very often between courting couples even before marriage. You know some couples already start. They have this conflict alright and quarrels and intense alright this conflict among them. Of course, we hear not just in families. We hear that in schools, in offices, and in the parliament alright. We hear of this a lot. And this is what James is talking about. He said I’m talking about this kind of things, this kind of conflict interpersonal alright conflict and the many, many manifestations of it. Sometimes I say it’s just mild, just people not talking to each other. That’s one form of that conflict.

Well, others will be will be wars of words where they’ll be shouting matches alright shouting at each other alright or showing your face alright or not showing face or whatever alright. There are many ways we manifest what James is talking about here. The point is that is what he’s talking about alright. That’s what he’s talking about, quarrels and fights, conflicts. Alright so what we are going to do this morning is this. Now first of all, we’re going to look at the why. Why does James talks about quarrels and fights? Why does he now move on to this particular subject? Remember James is a pastor. And do you expect pastors to talk about quarrels and fights and interpersonal conflicts? I think you should alright- you should expect a pastor to talk about that.

And if you are doing pre-marital counselling alright and you’re helping a couple, preparing them for marriage, and one of the subjects is interpersonal conflict alright. They have to be prepared for that. When this thing happens, what do you do? You see, we have to be prepared and anticipate that. And so, it should not surprise us that James as a pastor writing to his members as it were, his people who are now being scattered everywhere, he addresses this issue. So why does he talk about quarrels and fights? Now I think the reason is this. When we come to this, it’s not only simply because alright there are such thing as quarrels and fights alright. It’s not like an uncommon kind of subject matter, quarrels and fight.

But the particular reason why James addresses this issue is indicated in the very first verse. It’s indicated in the question that he asked here in verse 1 when he asked: “Where do wars and fights (or quarrels and fights) come from among you?”. So, what we should take note of here in this question is the words ’among you’. Among you. In other words, what greatly distressed James is this. It’s that it is not that simply that in the world that we live in that this world is filled with conflict. And that we can understand. We see it everywhere. Not necessarily you have to look far in Ukraine or other places to see that there are conflicts?

No, you see right near us alright around us we see that. But this is the kind of world we live in. We are not surprised. We are not surprised at all you know when you one day in the midnight or in the middle of the night and you hear your neighbour, and then there’s this commotion and quarrelling, the wife shouting at the husband and the husband shouting at the wife and the children screaming and then somebody running out of house. Well, you just open your window and you see and say okay, this is the kind of world we live in. Everywhere and all around us we know that the world is filled with violence and conflicts.

But that is not what distressed James here. What distresses James here is this. It’s that the church is filled with conflicts. Now very often we have this idea that you know when you go to the church, of all places this is a church. This is the place where I don’t expect fights and quarrels. Now that is a lot of people’s expectation. Or if you are in the church whereby there’s a lot of fights and quarrels, then you leave that church and say I’m going to look at another for another church, look for a more perfect church, a good church, a biblical church. And they go there and there will be no fights and quarrels. And you go over there and then you see, fights and quarrels again.

Now that is what James is talking about. James is saying that when I talk about fights and quarrels or interpersonal you know or relational conflict, I’m talking about the church. I’m saying that these things happen in the church. And so, he asked this question with immense passion. Now if you are doing Bible study as it were, trying to interpret the Bible, remember one of the tools of interpretation is what we call the tone and feel. And when you read this verse, we ought to read with that tone or the feel of James. Maybe it should be read this way: Where do wars or where do wars and fights come from among you?

Now he’s asking that with intense as it were with immense passion. He’s like asking what is wrong with you people? That’s a famous question asked by R. C. alright. What’s wrong with you people? I think that is the tone. What is happening here? I come to this church, I thought this is a good church. I thought this is a biblical church. You have sound doctrine. And then I see people quarrelling. I see not just quarrels like fights; I see that this church is like a war zone. What is happening here? And that is what James is really talking about. And that is why he is concerned about this subject. He says that in the church- in the church people fight. And so, in the very same chapter here in verse 11, he tells them: “Do not speak evil of one another, brethren.”.

You see, he is saying that don’t do that in the church. We know that outside they speak evil of one another, slander one another. But then the church, I hear the same thing. He said don’t do that. That is what he is saying. Now we see that James is not the only person addressing this problem of fights and quarrels in the church. That’s how we speak of New Testament church. Oh, we are like, we are the New Testament church and we speak of the New Testament church in having this so-called romantic idea thinking that the New Testament is such a perfect church. You know the New Testament church, now this is a New Testament church. And you see that every time alright everywhere you know at that time, you find that the apostles were addressing this problem. They were addressing this problem.

Look with me also in First Corinthians chapter 1. First Corinthians chapter 1 when Paul wrote to the Corinthians. He has many reasons why he was writing to the Corinthians, and among them is this, that he was dealing with the problem of fights and quarrels in the church. And so, in 1 Corinthians 1:11 he writes: “For it has been declared (or made known) to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household (or Chloe’s people), that there are contentions (or quarrels) among you.”. That is what I heard. This church in Corinth quarrels, fights. That’s what James is talking about, wars and fights in this church. And then he writes in chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3:3, he tells them: “for you are still (fleshly or) carnal. For where there are envy, and strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”. Meaning to say they are behaving like the people of the world. You are behaving like your natural self. This is a church. We are people who have been converted, been born again. We are new creatures in Christ. And so, we ought to be new. We ought to be different from the people of the world, but you quarrel and you fight in your conflict. Are you not like the people of the world? How is that so? Why is that happening here? What’s wrong here with us in the church?

You see, Paul addresses that problem as well. And not just in the church in Corinth. Oh, you say oh Corinth like, now that church not much of a New Testament church. Well then when we have a better church in the New Testament, maybe the church of Philippi. And Paul wrote to the church of Philippi in Philippians 4:2. And this is what Paul tells the Philippian believers. Philippians 4:2, what does Paul writes here? Well, this is what he writes: “I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.”. He says don’t fight. You have these two sisters. You see my two dear sisters in the church. You see, don’t get the impression that these two sisters you know they are very maybe they are very nominal, no problem.

You see, these are dear sisters. They are my co-workers. Their people perhaps are very active in the church, but they cannot get along. And it sounds familiar? People in the church who cannot get along with one another. And that is what we see here at the church in Philippi. And so, Paul wrote to the church and he implores, said I plead with you, Euodia. I plead with you, Syntyche. Try to get along. You see, so this not getting along in the church, we see that also in the church of Philippi. How about the church in Galatia? Galatians chapter 5. Galatians 5:13-15, now listen to what Paul writes here.

Galatians 5:13- “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty”. You have been saved. You have been free. “Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!”. So, what is implied that in verse 15? It’s that that is what is happening here. You should love your neighbour as yourself. You should be as it were be doers of the law by loving your neighbour. But you are not. You bite. You see all the terminologies or the words used in the Bible to describe fights or quarrels or conflicts in the church? It is war. It is biting one another. It is slandering.

All kinds of things that we don’t have. Perhaps we don’t happen to, we don’t expect to find in a church. We see in the New Testament. The New Testament tells us that they found it in their churches in those days. And so do not be naive alright- do not be naive. And you come to the church, you go to a church and you see quarrels and you say hey, you know what is this? I don’t expect that. If we find it in New Testament churches, I think we should expect to find in present-day churches alright. We should expect indeed alright we have. I’m sure you have heard of many quarrels and fights in churches before, haven’t you?

I was just doing a bit of research, and I mean not research, just reading up, find out about the quarrels that is being documented alright, fights in the church. In fact, there’s one book by Leslie Flynn called “Great Church Fights” alright. So, we have a book called the Fox’s you know book of martyr where that book is about all the people who die for the cause of Jesus Christ. But here’s a book that tells us all the fights, all the great fights in the church. You know it’s recorded there that they were once a member’s meeting or business meeting in the church that resulted you know, ended up in such a quarrel and conflict and fight that police had to be called in to calm the situation.

And that is actually not uncommon. The police has to come in to control the situation in the church. And to hear of fights and quarrels in church’s member’s meeting is not uncommon. It’s not uncommon. In fact, it is a very common phenomenon alright that church members may end up in quarrels and fights. But there are other causes. There are other reasons. You say why do people in the church fight? There’s written of an account of a church in Canada finally kind of split into two churches. And the reason for that fight was this.

It was called the tie controversy. The pastor of the church was Pastor Horner. He was wearing a tie while he was preaching alright and was so animated and excited in his preaching and he accidentally you know got entangled in his tie and almost got strangulated alright by his own tie. And then from then on, he told the church that we will ban ties from the church. So, no one and no one should be wearing ties when they come up to preach.

But there’s another group who disagrees alright. Oh no they said, we should wear tie. It’s more proper you know, it looks neat. And there was a great argument, resulted in a great fight as it were in the church. And the group that supported the pastor left with the pastor and formed a group called the Hornerites because named after the pastor, and that is the no tie church. And this is the tie church.

I was reading another one is controversy about shoes. It was an argument in the church alright whether we have shoes on or shoes off alright or no shoes. And that was not about the members, about those people who came up to lead the worship. And so, there’s this big argument. And again, that resulted in the great fight. There were those who were really for shoes on, so no shoe policy. Shoe policy. Good thing we didn’t end up in a fight you know when we were deciding about our shoes, otherwise one half of you will be worshipping the other side. Shoe people worship that side, no shoe worship this side alright.

Now you see, they fight over shoes and the one who was writing this account made a comment. I would vote for pants-on policy alright rather than no pants. Now you see, throughout these past two years or so, I’ve also read off this tension and quarrels in churches about the face mask issue. Now some is of the opinion that we should not wear face masks. The others feel that we should wear face masks. Those who are the face mask group says that well if you don’t wear face masks, you are not loving your neighbour alright. And so, they make their argument and resulted in tension. And so, churches have to try to resolve that. Now some of the deadliest fight like I have known or heard about is when I was in JB.

Now the fiercest fight alright happens in the cemetery board meeting when they talk about dead people alright. And literally when they were fighting for their graveyard, it’s a very emotional thing. You talk about dead people alright dead bodies and you know how to allocate alright burial plot for different churches and so on, you can say that it’s not just within the church. That’s interchurch fight alright, fighting over burial grounds. Now you see, that is what James is talking about, fights in the church. Fights in the church. Where do wars and fights come from among you, you people. Alright so that is the first thing alright that I want to point out here that the reason James raises this subject is not only because you know fights are common but because it happens in the church, now because it happens in the church among you.

Now the second thing alright he touches on is so what does he tells us? So first we see why he tells us about this subject because it’s happening in the church. But what does James tell us about fights and quarrels? What does he tell us? Now back to James chapter 4 alright- James chapter 4. So, he mentioned this problem that is so very common in the church. And then he tells us about this. Now the two things he tells us is this. First, he tells us concerning the source of the problem. It’s here, happens in the church. We need to know the source. And then he tells us of the solution or we may say the cause and the cure of this problem.

So first, look at the source alright of the problem. Note again that the question that James asked here in verse 1. He said: “Where do wars and fights (or quarrels and fights) come from among you?”. Where do they come from? What is the source? Now it is important. James, in other words, is saying that It happens in the church. Let us all kind of pause and think about the matter alright cool down alright. Let’s stop for a while and think about this problem that is so real in the church. And the first thing he says let’s think about the source of the problem or the cause of the problem alright. You see a proper diagnosis is important, or else we will never get the correct solution.

So, what is your diagnosis? How do you see the problem alright? Where do they come from? What is the cause? Now you think that the cause is your wife. Then of course then you think that she’s the person to be fixed alright. If fix her, we solved the problem. Now you see, this is very often how we think. And that is what James is talking about. When we think of the source, we tend to look elsewhere. Maybe you look at the church and say what is the source of the problem? Or you say maybe it is the women folks in the church. You know they talk too much, and that’s why resulting in all the problems in the church.

Or we may think that it must be the men in the church. They’re not doing their duty you know. They’re neglecting their leadership, and that’s why the cause of all the problems in the church. Or we may think that it’s a generation thing. All these young people in the church. You know these days, young people. You hear that? Young people, they are the real problem in the church. You remove them, no more problem alright. Or we may think that what the young people are thinking. Maybe it’s the old people, refuse to change. So same old way alright.

Now James says it’s very easy for us to think like that, but we will never get to solve the problem if we are so superficial alright. So, you know we don’t think correctly about the problem and we don’t see correctly where really or what really is the cause or where really is the source of the problem. Now you see, it’s not just in the church that we tend to be so you know simplistic, superficial in the way we try to deal with the problem or understand the problem. We know that oh well it’s the same elsewhere alright- the same elsewhere. When a marriage cannot hold together alright, the couple quarrels and they say oh it’s income, incompatibility.

Or where in a society you know they may say oh this is a class struggle alright. Or maybe it’s a wide supremacy. And on it goes alright. We try to put our fingers elsewhere. Or maybe you just say oh it’s just a bad day for me you know, bad mood. That’s why we have this problem. Now James says let’s think about it. Where do wars and fights come from? Then he answers alright- then he answers the question in the second part of verse 1: “Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?”. Now so you see he puts it in a question form. He said you think about it. You think that that is the problem? You think that he is the problem? You think that those people are the problem?

You say look, does not the problem comes from inside you alright. Here, comes from you. What about you? What about us that creates this problem in the church? He says that it is your desires for pleasure. Now some translation is your lust. Remember I say that some translations you know translate the same Greek word as desires when is you know has a positive connotation, good desires. It’s okay to have desires alright. Your desires to eat you know some noodles. It’s not oh, you cannot have desire. You cannot like pan mee or what. No, no, it’s okay if you like pan mee or Texas chicken. This is okay desires.

But desires. The word ’desire’ also can have a negative connotation. And sometimes some version alright will translate that word as ’lust’. But I think in some of your translation is passion. But whatever it is, now what James is talking about is this passion or this desire, this want, you want something. But this is a bad desire in the sense that you want something so badly that you are prepared to do anything to get that. Now then that desire become a bad desire. It is that you cannot be satisfied. You just keep want and want. An uncontrollable desire alright comes from your desire.

But actually here, James is thinking of desires for pleasure alright. And he’s thinking of a word alright that in the English, the English word is ’hedonism’ or ’hedonistic’, which means self-gratification or pleasure seeking. When you have this philosophy where your pleasure, your personal pleasure is your chief end in life rather than the glory of God as the chief end in life. So, this is what James is talking about here. There is something wrong with us. In other words, he says that is why we have quarrels in the church. So, what is wrong with us? What is wrong with us is that we have this philosophy in life that our happiness, our pleasure is our chief end or is our chief goal and will do anything alright to get to that end.

In other words it’s about me first, my happiness first. So that, James says, is the problem here alright. So, what do you do? What do you do when you do not get what you want? Your pleasure because that is how you live your life. You come to church, it’s all about you. So, what do you do when you don’t get your way? You say no shoes. Then when people wear shoes, what do you do? You say no tie. And when people wear tie, what do you do? Well, James tells us in verse 2: “You lust and you do not have”. So, you do not get your way, you say you want this but you don’t get it. So, what do you do? You kill, you murder, and covet it and cannot obtain. So, what do you do? You fight and you war.

Now James is kind of drawing his, you know to help us follow his logic. He said here’s the problem. It’s all about you- your happiness, your pleasure, what you want. When you don’t get, what do you do? You shout at people. You fight. Again you see, James uses these all very strong words. I said because some commentators believe that it actually happened in the church in James’ days that actually there was someone killed in the church. Possible, now possible. You know I heard a great church fight you know where they do crazy things like this really throwing chairs. I say it happens you know it’s a cemetery board meeting. Now people throw chairs.

In Singapore, now this church very actually quite a well-known church or group or churches, and they quarrel over the King James only version, quarrel over what PPV and all the all the technicalities about translations, about transmissions, about versions to the point whereby they actually go to the court to try to settle the matter. Now you see, that’s what James is so worked up here when he sees that in the church. So, it is very possible that in James’ day that these things actually happen, really big fights and even killing in the church, where people do not get what they want. So where does all this thing come from? Come from you all- your selfishness, your self-centeredness, your self-gratification.

You only want your ways, that’s all you want. You don’t listen to other people. You don’t give in to other people. And then what do you do? These are the kind of things you do. First, you shout. Then you fight, then you kill. And James, remember is talking about situation in the church. Not outside, in the church. That’s the reason why alright- that’s the reason why people fight. And so, James say that is the problem alright- that is the problem. In fact, that problem is our nature, our sinful nature. We know that in a sense that is as a result of the fall. You might remember what we read of in Genesis alright- in Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3, and after the fall, and this is what is said of Eve.

Genesis chapter 3, and God said to the woman alright in verse 16: “To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; And your desire shall be for your husband, but he shall rule over you.””. And the word ’desire’ is the same word. You say but you see, now your life is about yourself. You want to control, and that this desire you see is going to eat you up alright. You see, that is the problem. This lust, this crave for pleasure and your own happiness is eating you up. The same thing we see in chapter 4 of Genesis. Chapter 4 of Genesis and verse 7, and here speaking to Cain.

God says: “If you do well, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin lies at the door and its desire is for you. But you should rule over it.”. That desire is eating you up, controlling you. You see, that is our natural self. See, once we have been born again, remember that although we are new creatures in Christ, but there’s still this lingering alright contention, a conflict in our life described by Paul in his letters to the Romans alright that that flesh within alright, that thing within, the sin within as it were. The sin is referring to that. it’s inside and it’s trying to control us, and eating us up, resulting in this warfare.

So, what we must do is to master it. And that’s why he said you must master it. And you see only those who have come to the Lord Jesus Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit can deal with that in our life. And that’s the reason why outside of Jesus Christ in the world we can always expect conflicts and war and fight out there. Alright so that is the cause James tells us alright is you don’t have to look far alright- don’t have to look far. Only have to look inside us and we see that there is this problem that we have to deal with. And so, we come to the solution alright the cure. So, what is the solution to this problem?

Now if the source or the cause of the problem is inside us, then you see the first thing we need to deal with is the desire alright. We need to deal with the desire within. The desire within. Do they not come from your desire for pleasure that wars within you alright or in your members? So, it’s inside. The problem is inside, so we have to deal with the inside. We see the same thing in verse 3: You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. So what James is saying alright in verses 2 and 3 is this. He says here’s the problem you see.

You see, we are not prepared to submit to the will of God in our life. It’s all about us. It’s all about us. It’s not like you know we live our life according to the will of the Lord and the will of the Lord may not be what we want. Now understand that alright. The will of the Lord may not be what our natural self want. And so, James says here that you in verse 2 that “you lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.”. You see, he says that you should be actually in your life turn to God and look to Him for what you want. But remember alright we have to ask aright.

Alright so he qualified that because he doesn’t want to give the impression oh, we cannot get it by fighting and warring and quarrelling, so I can actually get it from God the same thing. And so, James qualifies that that is not what prayer is. Verse 3: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss”. Why? Because it is still the same problem. Now even when you turn to God alright in prayer it’s still the same problem. It’s still about what you want. It’s still about your gratification. It’s still about your pleasure. It’s still a self-centred prayer. A self-centred prayer is not true prayer alright- it’s not true prayer because prayer according to Jesus is Your will be done, not my will be done. And so, James says that is your problem. It’s all about your will. It’s all about you.

Now James is still trying to help these people see where the problem is. So, we have to deal with that, deal with the “me first” problem, deal with the “all about me” kind of problem alright in our life. So, James says that there’s these things that is ruling you, controlling you. And so, what is the answer? The answer is this. Now you see James, now I say Paul also deal with quarrels and conflicts in the church. And so, he also provides the answer. I will compare the answer there. Now you turn with me again to Paul’s letter to the Philippians in Philippians chapter 2 alright. Remember I say that he was having the problems of relational conflict in mind when he writes to the Philippian church. And this is what he writes in chapter 2, of Philippians.

He said therefore in verse 1: “if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfil my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”. Then he says in verse 3: “Let nothing be done through selfish (or self-centred) ambition or conceit, but in (humility or) lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”. And verse 4: “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”. Now you see the contrast here? And so, Paul is appealing, saying, thinking about the same thing as James. The problem is you. You’re self-centred. You’re proud. It’s all about you.

So how do we deal with that problem? He said you have to change. You have to be humble. He says verse 3: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition”. Selfish means self-centredness. It’s all about you. Don’t do things out of that kind of attitude. He said let each of you esteem others better than yourself. Esteem others, not just esteeming yourself and thinking great about yourself. You see, that’s our problem. It’s all about ourselves. Look out for the interests of others. Listen to other people. So that is what Paul is saying here that there is a way to deal with the problem. In other words alright- in other words, Paul says let us all be like the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so, he continues in verse 5: “Let this mind (this attitude, this mentality) be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. We are followers of Jesus Christ, and so we should follow in His steps. We should be like Christ. How? Verse 6: “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but He made Himself to be of no reputation”. We only think about our reputation, our self-respect. He thought Himself of no reputation. “But taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”. Humility before God, submission to the will of God even to the point of the death on the cross.

Now that is the model. That is the example. That is how we might have peace in the church when each one of us behave like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want to point out here that James says exactly the same thing. So, we turn back to James alright. You turn back to James here. And James as he continues to deal with the problem, he says that so what should we do? What should we do? He says that well this is what we must do. We must be humble. We must be humble. Verse 7, he says: “Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”. And then he says in verse 10: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”.

So, he said it’s an attitude problem here. He said what we should do is to bow before God like the Lord Jesus Christ, be obedient to His will instead of speaking evil of one another in verse 11. He said: “Do not speak evil of one another, brethren (and do not be critical of one another)”. He says: “He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law.”. In other words when you slander other people in the church, when you speak evil of them, when you become overly critical of these people everything these people do are wrong, then you’re dropping a “holier than thou” attitude. Now that is against the law. Which law?

James actually talked about it earlier on in chapter 2, the royal law which is love. He said that is not a loving thing to do. That is the problem in the church. When we are not doing the loving thing, when we are not loving our neighbour or brothers and sisters as ourselves, when we put ourselves on top of them and say you know you are wrong. You are not good enough. Why do you do that? Why are you all not like me? You know, I’m so zealous. I’m so good. I’m so earnest. I’m so holy. And you people, James says, no you don’t do that. That is not love because when you do that, he says in verse 11 that you are actually judging the law and not doers of the law.

When you do that, you are putting yourself above God alright in verse 12 he says there is only one law giver. We end up being a law giver, setting standards for other people. And that’s why we end up with quarrels. That’s why we have fights in the church because you put yourself up there. There’s no humility on your path. You don’t respect other people’s opinion. You don’t talk nicely to people. You don’t try to control yourself. If everybody is like you, no wonder James says we have wars and fights and quarrels and murder in the church of Jesus Christ. He says don’t do that. Let us pray.

“Our Father in heaven, we are humbled indeed this morning by this reminder that even in the church of Jesus Christ, even in churches that believed in Your words, that hold that hold up Your Word, we know that there is this great propensity in us to want our ways and to ignore the opinion of others and to be proud and to quarrel and fight among the brethren. We see that in the churches even in the days of the apostles. We see that throughout the history of the church. We see that today. And we pray for Your gracious dealing with us and help us to learn- to learn to be loving, to be humble, to be selfless that we may have a church that will honour You where we maintain peace in Christ. For these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.