Up Close and Personal

Read James 3:13–5:20

1. What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?
2. You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.
3. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
4. You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
5. What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy?
6. But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. James 4:1-6

The Wild West brought about new kinds of heroes: the lone wolf, the independent pioneer, and the classic rugged individualist. No one could tame the untamed frontier like they could. They did not obey rules—they made them.

The Christian life is not an untamed frontier demanding Wild West heroes. Rather, it is a sanctuary for settlers who respect the boundaries. As you read this passage, look for the boundaries in which believers are to live.

Here James also discusses the nature of true wisdom; getting along with other people; faith and what it can do; and having the right perspective on the future. If you want to blaze a trail to God, this is a good spot from which to start.

Getting close to God requires a transfer of ownership—a humble submission of our lives to him (James 4:7-10). Once that transaction takes place, we must continue the fight against the forces that draw us away from Christ. We must resist the devil and flee from him. We must embrace God’s will and let go of our own evil desires. We must grieve our sinfulness rather than celebrate it. And we must purify ourselves.

To sign away your life won’t mark you as a distinctly heroic person in most people’s eyes. But it will lead to intimacy with God, and it will allow God to “lift you up” (James 4:10)—something he does not do for lone wolves.