I came across a recent article titled "Air Jordan Sales Draw Police" that piqued my curiosity. The article read in part, "Fights, vandalism and arrests marked the release of Nike's new Air Jordan basketball shoes as a shopping rush on stores across the United States led to unrest that nearly turned into rioting...A man was stabbed when a brawl broke out between several people waiting in line at a Jersey City, New Jersey mall to buy the new shoes...In Richmond, California, police say crowds waiting to buy the Air Jordan 11 Retro Concords at the Hilltop Mall were turned away after a gunshot rang out." It was an eerie reminder of a sermon I gave years ago. Solomon's words are again true when he said, "There is nothing new under the sun." (Ecc. 1:9) As a result, I want to share the following teaching with you from James 4:1-12.
Do you remember when Nike first came out with Air Jordan basketball shoes? Although designer basketball shoes are now the norm, back then having a pair of Air Jordan basketball shoes meant you were somebody. Even though they cost a ridiculous amount of money, retailers couldn’t keep them on the shelves. Unfortunately, the shoes were extremely popular among communities of adolescents who could ill afford to spend that kind of money on a pair of basketball shoes. Nevertheless, for some, the desire to have a pair of those shoes pushed them over the edge. On May 2, 1989, the body of 15-year-old Michael Thomas, a ninth grader at Meade Senior High School in Maryland, was found strangled behind the school-yard. Charged with first-degree murder was 17-year-old James Martin. Martin was a basketball buddy who killed Thomas then stripped him of his two-week-old Air Jordan basketball shoes and left Thomas’ barefoot body in the woods near the school.
Two lives ruined over a silly pair of basketball shoes! Crazy? Maybe. But I’ll bet you know some people who act like this. I’ll bet there are people who act like this in your very own church. People who “have it” and people who “want it”. Maybe it hasn’t led to murder as in the case of young Mr. Thomas but you’ve seen how ugly it can get when the “have it’s” flaunt it and the “want it’s” hate them for having it. The pursuit of the things of this world is a vicious cycle and the Church isn’t immune to its effects. In Christian parlance, this feverish pursuit is better known as “worldliness”. Here’s how it’s defined: It is a passion for sensual satisfaction, an inordinate desire for the finer things of life and the self-satisfaction of who we are, what we have, and what we have done. Worldliness is a preoccupation with ease and affluence. It elevates creature comfort to the point of idolatry—large salaries and a comfortable life style become necessities of life. So how does the Christian overcome this ugly spirit of worldliness? At first glance, it would seem that you would either fall into the “have it” camp or the “want it” camp. But is there another option? This is exactly what James had to deal with. Let’s look at what’s going on in James 4:1-12:
1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
11Brothers, do not 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. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
Let me put these verses into a little context. Throughout the Roman Empire, wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few large agrarian landowners. Middle-class merchants aspiring to be counted among the rich and powerful worked closely with such landowners to further control all segments of the agrarian marketplace. The result, therefore, was a growing dependence on landowners for survival. This resulted in practically inhumane conditions for the poor working-class. Of which James’ audience was no doubt a part. In large part, the Palestinian population was forced to live in working-class ghettos with no hope of an improved life.
James’ audience is desperately poor. They have nothing! So they deserve to be in the “want it” camp. Right! No! That’s not what James thinks. Even though they have nothing, what should be their attitude? Humbly submit to God who will ensure that they get whatever they need. So there’s another group to which we can belong—the “submit to God” group. According to James, the answer to overcome worldliness belongs not to those in the “have it” camp, nor to those in the “want it” camp, instead the answer is held by those in the “submit to God” camp. When James talks about their desires, he isn’t talking about the desire to satisfy their daily necessities. In v. 1, the word there for “desires” is best translated as “evil desires” and the word for “spend” in v. 3 is best translated as “squander”. The picture James is painting is precisely like the one painted by Jesus in the parable of the Prodigal Son. If you recall, the son goes away with his inheritance and “squanders” (same word) it all on prostitutes and wild living. This is the kind of desire James is talking about in v. 1. They have not humbly submitted to God but to their own evil desires. In fact, some in his audience are so intent on satisfying their evil desires James says in v. 2 and v. 11 that they’ve resorted to at least verbally abusing one another if not actually physically abusing one another. James is incensed with their behavior. These aren’t lives humbly submitted to God. Instead, to what have they submitted their lives? James tells us in v.4—they’ve submitted their lives to the things of the world. James calls it friendship with the world. A better translation would be that they love the world. As a result, they render themselves enemies of God. You see for the Christian, it’s one or the other. Do you remember what Jesus said about money? In Matthew 6:24 he says you can’t serve both God and money. He doesn’t say you can’t have both but that you can’t serve both. We either serve and submit to the things of the world or we serve and humbly submit to God—not both. Clearly, there are many who try to rationalize their worldly behavior by saying that although they enjoy the luxuries of the world, they are not obsessed with pursuing the things of the world. Yet virtually all areas of their lives tell a different story. James has a name for these people in v. 8—he condemns them as being double-minded.
In a survey in Discipleship Journal, readers ranked their areas of greatest spiritual challenge. The top three, in order, are; 1) materialism, 2) pride, and 3) self-centeredness. You see, it’s easy to talk about a life submitted to God but why is it so difficult to live such a life? James gives us a clue in v. 5 when he says, “the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely”. The spirit God placed within each of us to desire Him, after the fall, began to desire the things of the world instead. However, those who have accepted Christ as Lord and Master have agreed to live a life humbly submitted to Him. Yet that spirit that envies intensely is still there! So how are we even able to live a life humbly submitted to God? James tells us in v. 6 when he says; “But he [God] gives us more grace.” By God’s grace! It is by God’s grace that we can live a life humbly submitted to God. Does James say anywhere that, “God opposes the humble but gives grace to the wealthy, popular and powerful?” No! It’s to the humble that he gives grace! Those humbly submitted to Him and to no one and to nothing else.
How then do we live a life humbly submitted to God? First of all, James says in v. 7 that we are to resist the devil. I heard a story once about a sheep rancher who consistently lost a large percentage of newborn lambs every year to coyotes. She tried everything. Electric fences, dogs, you name it. Then one day while she was in town, an old rancher told her to put a llama in with her sheep. As strange as that sounds, when sheep is your livelihood, it doesn’t take losing too many before you try just about anything. So she went out, bought a llama and put it out to pasture with the sheep. To her amazement, the llama solved her problem. Oddly, when the coyotes came prowling, the llama would raise its head and run straight at the coyotes. This sign of aggression by its potential food wasn’t worth the effort for coyotes who are opportunity hunters. As a consequence, they moved on to hunting grounds where they would be unopposed by their prey. In this same way, we humbly submit to God when we aggressively resist the devil’s temptations. When the devil has moved on to hunting grounds where he will be unopposed, James says in v. 8 that we are free to turn unopposed to God. In doing so, however, James goes on to say we must wash our hands and purify our hearts. James’ audience, being primarily Jewish, would have understood this metaphor in the context of the ceremonial cleansing that took place before the Jewish priests entered the temple. Although we now have direct access to God through the work of Christ, we are nevertheless called to prepare ourselves before we presume to enter into the presence of God. What then does James mean when he says we are to wash our hands and purify our hearts? The key is found in James’ condemnation of his audience as “double-minded.” Double-minded, according to James, is professing to be humbly submitted to God yet aggressively pursuing the things of the world. Washing our hands and purifying our hearts, therefore, means that we are single-minded, focused on only one thing—living a life humbly submitted to God. In general, how does that single-minded focus manifest itself in our lives? James tells us in v. 9 that it shows by our attitude toward our sin. We are to “grieve, mourn and wail.” It is only when we live a life humbly submitted to God that we can truly grasp the tremendous cost of our sin. Understanding what our sin cost God should have a profound impact on our lives. Our lives can no longer be defined by carefree laughter, frivolous living and the obsessive pursuit of worldly pleasures. This does not demonstrate a life humbly submitted to God. Finally, what happens when we humbly submit to God? James tells us in v. 10 that; “He will lift us up.” God’s objective is not that we live a life of perpetual grief and sorrow, but simply that we live in submission to Him and not to the world. When we have done that, He then gives us His grace to continue to live our lives in submission to Him.
Hopefully by now you got the point that Christians overcome worldliness by humbly submitting to God. But since we still have to live in the world, what does that look like? Some early Christians believed that the only way to truly submit to God was to be isolated from the world. As a result, ascetics perched atop high rock outcroppings became a spectacle during the early centuries of Christianity. Now that might be your approach to combat worldliness, but this is clearly not the preferred lifestyle for the vast majority of Christians. Most Christians have to deal with one or all of the following: jobs, money, homes, cars, etc. Since these things exist within the culture of the world, does their possession define worldliness? Biblically, people have always had jobs (something dealing with livestock), compensation (sometimes in livestock), homes (amongst the livestock), and transportation (usually livestock). Yet none of these people were condemned on the principle of their possessions. The myth that these things define worldliness is generally easy to dispel based on Biblical cultural patterns. Some believe that the key is found within these things themselves. What kind of job is biblical? How much money is reasonable? What size home is practical? What kind of car is necessary? If only we had the answers to these questions then we could check them off our piety list and be in good standing with God. The problem is that the most pious people in the Bible were the ones Jesus had the most trouble with—the Pharisees. Why doesn’t God just give us a list so we can know where the boundaries are and avoid this problem altogether? He did and we wound up with Pharisees. Therefore, instead of asking what kind of job is biblical, a better question might be; do I do my job as though I were doing it for God? Instead of asking how much money is reasonable, a better question might be; do I spend my money for the charitable benefit of others and God’s kingdom or do I spend it to satisfy my own desires? Instead of asking what size home is practical, a better question might be; is my home open to those who have nowhere else to go? Instead of asking what kind of car is necessary, a better question might be; is my car a tool used to serve others or is it only a luxurious convenience for myself? The point is not whether or not God allows us to have these things; the point is our attitude toward them. When you look at all areas of your life, ask yourself these two questions: 1) What’s in it for God? and then, 2) What’s in it for me? Then take a close look at all the areas of your life were there’s more in it for you than for God. Because how you answer these questions will give you an idea of whether you are living a life submitted to the world or whether you are living a life humbly submitted to God.
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