James 4:1-12 ”Choosing Your Friend”

Last week we celebrated the founding of the church on the Day of Pentecost. We can read about this happening in Acts 2. Therein Luke states that at the time when the Holy Spirit descended over the people in the Temple in Jerusalem, they were all in one accord. Everyone was getting along together. In fact, even though people of different cultures and ethnicities were all talking in their native tongues, the bible tells us that they were all able to understand one another. This is truly the great miracle of Pentecost.

Last week we read in the previous chapter of James how it is that godly wisdom comes to us from above. This echoes the ideals of the pentecost experience. If we are wise in godly fashion, then we allow the Spirit to lead our lives. That is the miracle even today of being a Christian. We surrender to the Holy Spirit’s work in us.

Now, in chapter 4 of James, the bishop of Jerusalem and leader of the council asks the pertinent question “What is causing so much discord among you?” WE were all together at Pentecost! WE were all in one accord. We could understand one another perfectly. What happened?

I want us to read verse 5 of chapter 4 once more. James asks, “. . . .Do you suppose it is in vain that the scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the Spirit which he has made to dwell in us.’?” Note that there is a reference to previous scripture here that is not given a footnote. In fact, I checked many different English versions of study bibles and could not find the scriptural reference. Fortunately my Greek version related the reference back to Exodus 20:5, which is the Second of the Ten Commandments. We are not to make any idols of other gods because God wants us to be exclusively in relationship to Him. God warns “For I am a jealous God.”

God is looking down from heaven after having sent down His Holy Spirit to rest upon our lives–and God is not seeing it anymore! Where did it go? The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity of God that God sent to be in our lives, and yet now God is looking down and saying “I do not see that part of me anymore!” What has happened? James is spouting the godly Truth of the moment over the church! The Spirit of Pentecost has vanished.

We need to look at the context of the times. Again, I am amazed that I could not find one, not even one translation of this text into English, that mentions that the word for “covet” in verse 2 is in fact “zealotry,” or ζηλουτις in the Greek. As I have said countless times, if you have the same exact word in both languages, then use that word. Do not change it! On my side there are commentaries that bring out the point I am going to make: James is talking specifically about a group of warring fanatics in his day that are known as the Zealots. They were a bunch of diehard militaristic extremists with the goal of pushing the Romans back out of Israel.

You may recall in your history lessons or by watching the television miniseries “Masada” that the Zealots were those people who built amazing fortresses out in the wilderness to attack the Romans. The Romans counterattacked of course and rather than surrender to the Romans at Masada after a year long siege, over a thousand Zealots committed suicide up on that fortified plateau. They were an extremely war-centered group.

Our text starts today with the question: “What causes wars?” James was not engaging hyperbole here. The Letter of James, as we read in Chapter One was written to the Jews in the Diaspora. Some of these were actually making war! They were stockpiling weapons, building forts, and training up an army. They were prepared to die fighting. Today we would call these people “terrorists.”

Let me now re-contextualize this: This month two teenage boys, Cain Lee Clark and Caleb Vasquez, armed themselves with assault rifles and attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego–a place of worship. I am sure you heard about this in the news. Three people died of gun shots protecting the children inside–who were kept safe, thankfully. A few blocks away from the shooting itself, the two boys shot themselves in their car before the police could question them. The whole incident, by the way, was livestreamed on the internet. This was meant to inspire others. In their car were neo-nazi symbols and a seventy-five page manifesto filled with hatred of any group or ethnicity that was other than white Christian nationalist.

Wait a minute! I am white. I am Christian. I am a proud American. And, I believe God in heaven is looking down on us right now and asking “I gave you my Holy Spirit, I gave you myself, I gave you my Son in Sacrifice, and this is what you do with all that I have given?” You become violent fanatics? You Zealots! Actually, James says “Whores.” (Adulterers)

With the wisdom that came down through the Spirit at Pentecost, James tells us that we should have a pretty good relationship with God and our fellow believers. And, this is a strange statement when you think about it. Who are our best friends? Are they not from this world? If I were to ask you who your best friend is, wouldn’t you tell me the name of some person from this planet?

If I were to ask you in a different way: “Who is the one in your life who is your primary relationship? Who is it who is always there for you no matter what time of day or where you are? Of course, you will know whom it is whereof I speak! I speak of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, who although he was in this world was not of this world, he who defeated death and gained everlasting life. Because of your relationship to Jesus, you will have your soul ascend to heaven.

Not many of us perhaps would call Jesus our “best friend.” We just do not use that kind of language. And yet, Jesus spoke that way to us in the Bible. Please open up to John 15:12-15, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.”

Yes, we are to count God as our friend—our best friend because God is obviously the best of everybody and everything! Yet, what if we are not friends with God? What if we are not friends with God because we are too friendly with the world? Let us be clear now. The Bible says that there is no middle ground here. James tells us in verse 4 of today’s scripture that those who are friends with the world are enemies of God. We cannot really be friendly with both. So, we have a choice to make.

Please consider that there are many people today who will say that they have no religion. They will say that they do not care one way or the other. They do not have God as a friend or even as an acquaintance. I want us to consider that in the larger scheme of God’s heavenly plan those who believe in God and have a relationship with God are friends with God, and are not God’s enemies and not our enemies either. The enemy of God is the one who is a friend with this world.

The last few verses of our Scripture for today also makes this clear. James warns against judging others. Let us just read these lines together again: verses 11-12, “Do not speak evil against one another brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against 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 and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?”

We have all at one point or another in our lives been judged unfairly. We know how awful that can feel. It seems so silly for any of us to judge another, especially since we are a broken people! When our souls are released from this broken world, then we will know everything, and we will probably be amazed at all of our wrong judgments.

Jesus himself was judged wrongly. He died on the cross because of false human judgment that came down upon him. And, rather than asking for judgment then to come down upon all of us, he forgave us our sins! He knew our brokenness. He knew our temptations. He showed us mercy.

There is a story I heard about two men who are on a ship together. They have never met, but they are put into the same cabin as they both have only paid single fares. They meet one another in the cabin and are cordial with one another. The story continues with one of the men going to see the ship’s purser. He tells the purser that he wants to deposit his gold watch and his other possessions with the purser. He has never done this before, but after meeting the other fellow in his cabin, he felt he should probably keep his valuables in the ship’s safe.

The purser was understanding and told the man: “That is perfectly alright and understandable, Bishop. You see, the Cardinal with whom you share the cabin just did the same thing!”

These are the ways of this world that we must break away from. We must always keep our relationship with God as the number one thing in our life—not our possessions! Not our earthly judgments. Choose God as your friend this day. Make this the most important relationship you have. Amen.