Worldliness & Conflict (I)
This is a transcript. It may contain some inaccuracies.
Several years ago, a group of historians studied world's history and released this incredible conclusion, and really startling conclusion, that if you were to start at 3600 BC and then move to the present day, the world has known less than 292 years of peace. The rest of all of those thousands of years, the world has been plagued, riddled with wars and conflicts. There's been over 14,000 wars. And, by the way, this study was released in 1992, so you could even make the difference in terms of 92 to the present age, if you will. They discovered there's been 14,000 wars in which some 3.6 billion people have perished.
In his book, “The Study of War”, one professor examines just the period between 1480 AD to 1941. So, you've got 461 years. Nations were involved, he says, in the following numbers of major wars, just during those 460 years or so: Great Britain, 78 major wars; France, 71; Spain, 64; Russia, 61; Austria, 52; Germany, 23; the U.S., of course, being a fairly young nation, 13; China, 11; Japan, 9.
It's really amazing to see how the history of the world is really a history of war and conflict and fighting. This has always been true of humanity, starting all the way back with the very first murder, in Genesis 4, running through human history all the way to the end, Revelation 21.
When the end of the millennial reign of Christ, Christ will ultimately demolish all of his enemies, and Satan with his minions and all those who oppose the Lord Jesus Christ - will be crushed. And for the first time, at that time, forward into eternity, there will be no war. There will be true peace, lasting peace.
Sadly, our world is absolutely riddled with fighting, filled with wars, and not just at the level of nations. No part of human life and experience is really free from sinful conflict. Whether it is in the workplace, where there's a subtle infighting or subtle antagonism, whether it's a conflict separating best of friends, the relationship of friendship, whether it is in the home, among family members, conflict for many is a regular part of life, even in their home. It goes on between siblings, between parents, between children, between parents and children, and all too sadly, commonly, between spouses who have promised to love each other till death do them part.
In fact, you may be sitting here this evening, and your relationships - whether it be siblingship or marriage or whatever it is - could better be described as a war, a series of battles, and you know it, and people in your life know it, and God certainly knows it. Conflict.
Conflict even finds a place to hide in the church of Jesus Christ, sadly, tragically. Conflict in the church is so common that caricatures of fighting in churches are part of life, unfortunately, sadly. Like the young father who overheard his daughter and her friends fighting and arguing in the backyard, and he went out to mediate the conflict, and his daughter said, ‘Dad, it's okay, we're just playing church.’
Conflict in every part of life, it's a reality in the world in which we live. We live in a sin-cursed world, we live in a broken world. And I wouldn't be off to state this evening that either you are currently engaged in conflict, or you know someone who is engaged in one. It's a plague. But have you ever wondered why? Why is it so? Or more importantly, have you ever truly tried to discern how it is that we ought to deal with conflict?
As we return to the letter that James wrote to those who had at one time been part of his church in Jerusalem, who had been scattered - the diaspora - because of persecution, James explains how it is that we're able or we're equipped to deal with conflicts, the inevitable reality of conflicts.
This is a loaded passage. It's a really hard one to get our arms around it, and so we're going to do that over the next several weeks. And tonight, like I said, we're going to just simply set the table and just introduce it and see how far we will go. But I want us to take some time on it, because it is important. So, we're going to get started in studying this really life-transforming passage.
And, what James addresses here is that the theme of this paragraph is completely applicable to every single one of us here tonight. We will learn from this passage that there are very specific steps that we must take to learn how to deal with inter-personal conflict and how really worldliness plays a part in all of this. And surprisingly, surprisingly, these steps have nothing to do with resolving the cause of the conflict. This is important for us to keep in mind. James, instead, directs us to take a long, long hard look at ourselves first.
In fact, nothing in these ten verses allows us to point the finger at someone else as the cause for the conflict in our lives. So, brace yourself for impact. It's not about the other person. So, if you're thinking this and trying to project it to the other person, James says, ‘no, no, no, that's not what I have in mind’. Instead, James, as it were, points his finger at us. But he doesn't just rebuke us as scripture does, this paragraph contains several practical steps for dealing with conflict in our lives.
And the first step that we'll begin to look at together this evening, the first step for dealing with conflict, is found in the first three verses that we're going to just begin to scratch the surface this evening, really studying. And it is this: identify the true source of conflict. That's the first step. That's the first step that he points us to: identify the true source. He wants us to identify the true source. You want to deal with conflict God's way, identify the true source first.
Let me just refresh our memory. We just finished chapter three of James, so we spent quite a bit of time on the last few verses, particularly, in fact, all of chapter three. But, particularly, we spent quite a bit of time on the last few verses. We finished this chapter - James telling us that true godly wisdom is not characterized by selfish ambition and jealousy, that is not what marks it. In fact, look at verse 17 of the previous chapter, the wisdom that God gives is first what? Pure, then peaceable, considerate, gentle, submissive, reasonable, right?
And in verse 18, he goes on to stress and emphasize the fact that peace and righteousness always, always, always co-exist. They're like a two-sided coin, double-sided coin. Think about that for a moment. Peace and righteousness always co-exist. Where there's righteousness, there will be peace. And where there's no peace, there cannot be true righteousness. So, that immediately raises an obvious question: what is the source of wars and quarrels, the conflicts, the arguments, the antagonisms, that can often exist even between Christians?
Look at verse 1. Literally, verse 1, the first line of verse 1, chapter 4 reads this way, ‘from where wars and from where battles’. James doesn't even include a verb. From where wars and from where battles.
One commentator believes that James is so carried away, he's worked up about this, that it's as if he's speaking, you know, parent talk. You know, parent talk. Sometimes you're so into what you're trying to tell your kids, you want them to get it, that you just skip necessary parts of a speech, so you can get your message across.
And that's exactly what's happening here with James. From where? Where's it coming from? What's the source? Now, notice that James chooses the language of war, both those Greek words that are here, translated quarrels and conflicts in the LSB, both the Greek words, they
can refer to literal wars and battles or they can be used metaphorically to refer to quarrels and arguments and conflicts, as we see here in this passage. And that's the sense James means here.
Take a look, for example, at the word quarrels. ‘Polemoi’ is the Greek word – ‘polemoi’. Literally, it means armed conflict - armed conflict, literally. From where do the armed conflicts among you come? It was used to describe either a war or a single battle. In fact, it's used later in the Book of Revelation to describe the wars at the time of the end, end time wars.
And then he uses a second word, translated conflicts, ‘machai’. ‘Machai’ originally meant battles. It's used this way back in the Old Testament in Joshua 4.13, in the Septuagint, the LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, to refer to a literal battle with armed men fighting. But it came eventually to be used of battles that were fought solely with the tongue, words. In fact, in secular Greek, this word was often used to describe marital conflict – ‘machai’. In the New Testament, this word translated conflict, ‘machai’, never speaks of actual war, but actually always denotes verbal quarrels or internal arguments.
So, from where? Or as the LSB, NAS translated, what is the source? What is the source of the wars, the battles, the quarrels, the fights, the conflicts? And you know what's shocking? The next two words – “among you”. That's what's shocking. Among you, family of God, professing believers, members of the household of God, Christians, little Christ, remember that word, ‘Christianós’, right? Among you, the diaspora. Among you.
Now remember, James is writing to Christian people. These are professing believers. And he says, where are these quarrels, these wars and battles among you coming from? Sadly, sadly,
tragically, Christians are not exempt from conflict. And you see this, you see it in the scripture. Nothing new under the sun. You see it in the New Testament. You know who comes to mind right away? The Corinthians. And perhaps rightly so.
In 1 Corinthians 1, 11, Paul begins his letter to the Corinthian Church by saying, “For I have been informed concerning you, my brothers, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.” And you fast forward to chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, you find that these quarrels have grown into what? Lawsuits. Can you imagine? They're suing each other. The people at Corinth were so much at each other that some of them were taking other members of the church to court. Drag them before judges. They were suing them.
And when you turn to the second letter to the Corinthians, you learn that things hadn't gotten much better. And by the way, Paul had initially written first Corinthians to them. He'd written a letter that we don't have recorded for us in the New Testament. That would be the second letter, if you will. And then he'd written the third letter, which this is the one we call second Corinthians. So, the in-between letter we don't have a record of. The Lord knows what we need, and He gave us exactly what we need.
But, at the end of this third letter, second Corinthians, and all the time Paul spent in Corinth, let's listen to what he says. Second Corinthians 12:20. Second Corinthians 12:20, “For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances” – in the church.
You remember Paul's letter to the Philippians, that epistle of joy. Even that church, even that epistle of joy, when you come to chapter four of Philippians, you find the same thing happening in the church in Philippi. And, it is such a grave concern that Paul addresses it publicly because it was having trickle down effect potentially to different family members and it had a potential to split the church. There were these two women, Euodia and Syntyche, who were at each other, and he urges them, he pleads with them, to live in harmony in the church. It was a problem, a conflict.
The same problem was true to those Christians to whom James was writing. He writes to these believers who used to be part of his church, and he says, ‘I'm concerned. I'm concerned about conflicts among you that are taking place in your midst and how it damages the testimony of Jesus Christ, and, so, he addresses it.’
A 17th century Jewish philosopher, Spinoza, wrote these really unsettling words. Listen to what he says, and I quote, “I have often wondered that persons who make a boast to professing the Christian religion, namely love, joy, peace, temperance, and charity to all men, should quarrel with such a rancorous animosity and display, daily, towards one another such bitter hatred, that this, rather than virtues which they profess, is the readiest criteria of their faith.” Can you imagine? What a terrible indictment.
What you and I have to do is that we must ask ourselves, and keep in mind what we studied concerning heavenly wisdom, wisdom from above. Am I a reasonable person? Am I easy to be entreated? Am I peaceable? Am I humble? Or is there someone, or are there many people with whom I tend to quarrel and argue constantly?
The people who know me best see me as a what? Quarrelsome person? Contentious person? Or peaceful person? Constantly engaging with at least one person? Maybe a number of people in arguments and fights and various kinds?
Or do they see meekness? Peaceable? When there's a Christian who's engaged in quarreling and arguing and fighting and contention and conflict with others, the question comes, where does it come from? How can this be? Where does it come from?
You know, it's an interesting question in and of itself. Why would James begin his discussion of conflict with that question? Why? Because, beloved, there's an important implication to it. And it is this. You and I tend to look at merely the external. We tend to get carried away with the external - surface stuff, shallow stuff. And we want to fix the problem by doing a little bit better in our interaction with people.
But our God is never content to let us deal only with the outward manifestation of our sinful heart - in this case, quarreling and fighting. Instead, the Lord, our God, in Scripture, we're always being taken to the sinful attitude, or the thinking, or the mindset, or the motive that lies behind the external sinful act. Our Lord goes straight to the heart.
You see, it's not enough to try to get along with the one you're quarreling with. Well, I'll stay silent, and keep my mouth shut. No, no. You've got to ask yourself, why? Why? Where is that coming from? What is it in my sinful heart that's causing me to contend and argue and quarrel with others? You need to discover what prompts you to fight and quarrel. What is the source?
You don't have to look very far, because James tells us exactly here where the quarrels and arguments and conflicts come from. Here it is, and you're probably not going to like the answer. He tells us, those quarrels, those fights that you engage in, that I engage in, they come from our sinful hearts. Plain and simple. We are the real problem. We are.
Now, this is important because what do we all have a tendency to do when we begin to fight? What do we have a tendency, all of us, to do when we get into a quarrel? We are the ones who are taking the moral high ground, right? We're the ones who are right, we convince ourselves. Always. Right away. We have this tendency to define ourselves and immediately assume that we're right, and the person we're arguing with is wrong, that we are the ones who are in the defensible position. We're the ones who are taking some noble defense of the truth, and the person we're arguing with is just simply an ignorant person who can't understand our force of argument.
But James doesn't allow for that. He doesn't. He says, forget about the other person. He's not addressing a situation where you are contending for the faith. You see, you can read James 4, 1 to 10 all you want, and you won't find the other person in the argument mentioned at all. James is talking to you as you hear, to me as I read it. He's addressing each of us individually. He doesn't even think about the other person. You see, it doesn't matter who the other person is. If you're involved in a quarrel, an argument, a contentious situation, the problem is with you. It is with me. James wants us to understand that.
Notice that James never tells us in these verses what the issues were that were causing conflict among these Christians. We don't know, and it really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who was right and who was wrong in this case. You see, because here's the issue. Because you can have even a just cause and go about it the wrong way. So, he's addressing the heart. Because sometimes, we want to really cover over the issue of the heart and really highlight the cause. But my cause is just. Yes, but that's not what James is addressing. James is addressing the motive, the heart. The heart.
If there was quarreling and fighting, both were wrong. That's what James wants us to see to examine our own hearts. If you're engaged in a quarreling, fighting, arguing, contention situation, James wants you to understand that the source of the problem is in the heart. That attitude is part of your former life, apart from God, a point that Paul makes in Titus 3, verses one to three.
But James gets more specific. Notice verse one. Look at verse one, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?” He moves from the external to the internal, right? Right away.
This is obviously a question that is not a question. Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? A question that is not a question? It's a statement, really. You know, it's like when your parents tell you, young people, you know, you're not wearing that at the church, are you? They're not asking you. They're telling you. Right? Not looking for information, but making a point. It's an affirmation.
That's exactly what James is doing here in the second half of verse one. We could legitimately convert this to a statement of fact. James says, the source of the quarrels and conflicts among you is what? Your pleasures.
Now, this is absolutely crucial to understand. The key word here, the crucial concept, is this word. And you can really circle it, really. Pleasures. Pleasures. You'll notice that that word occurs again in the end of verse three. The word pleasures translates a Greek word that you will recognize. It's the Greek word ‘hédoné’ - ‘hédoné’. It's a word from which we get our English word hedonist, hedonism, hedonist.
Originally, this word was used to describe the feeling of desire perceived only through the sense of taste. But eventually, it came to be used for the pleasure or the desire of all the senses. Look with me how this word is used in the New Testament, and it's important to grasp, really, the meaning of this word. It helps us understand what James is driving at. It's only used five times. Two of those times, it's found here in James 4. So, let's look at the other three times it's used elsewhere in the New Testament.
Turn with me back to Luke's Gospel, chapter 8. We need to get a handle on this word, because it's crucial to really unpack, unlock this passage in James. So, Luke chapter 8, verse 14, Jesus, you remember, in the middle of the parable of the soils or the parable commonly known as the parable of the sower, and you remember the one kind of heart, the one soil was the one with thorns, right? And the seed of the Word, the seed of the Gospel is sown there, and Jesus is now explaining what that means.
This is verse 14, Luke 8, and the seed, referring to the Gospel, which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way, they are choked with worries and riches, and here's our word, ‘hédoné’, pleasures of life, and do not bear ripe fruit. And by the way, the word life here is the word ‘bios’, from which we get our English word biology. So, he's talking about natural life. And, he says, these pleasures of natural life, of life here in this world, as opposed to the true pleasures that are found in Christ, in God, choke out the Gospel, the seed of the Word, and cause a person not to truly savingly respond to Christ. So, we find that these pleasures are part of natural fallen life and are antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now turn with me to Titus 3, where we learn something more about these pleasures - ‘hédoné’. Not only are they opposed to the Gospel, not only do they crowd out spiritual interests, but in Titus 3.3, Paul writes the following, Titus 3 in verse 3, “For we ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and” - here’s out word – “pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.” For we ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts, and here's our word, pleasures. Spending our life in malice and envy and despicable, hating one another.” So, we find that, as part of who we used to be, we were absolutely in slavery to fulfilling the demands of our cravings and pleasures - ‘hédoné’.
And, then, in 2 Peter chapter 2, 2 Peter chapter 2 in verse 13, Peter speaking of false teachers, he says, they - the false teachers - consider it a, that's our word, ‘pleasure’ to revel in the daytime. So, here he's talking about false teachers being given over to pleasure - ‘hédoné’.
Now, the other two occurrences are in James 4, as I mentioned earlier - the one we already seen in verse 1, the source, he says, your pleasures. And in the end of verse 3, you look in our text and you'll see the same word used there as well another time. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your…” - that's our word, ‘hédoné’– “pleasures.” Now, what I want us to notice is that this word, ‘hédoné’ or pleasures, as it is translated, is a synonym with another word that you know, that we've studied this word before. It's the word ‘lust’ - ‘‘epithumia’. We've seen that word before in James.
Lust, by the way, as we've learned before, just to refresh us when we've covered James 1, doesn't speak of just sexual temptation. It speaks of craving, strong desire, craving, a strong desire for anything that's opposed to God or outside of his purpose for you, when it is used negatively.
Now notice James, chapter 4 verse 1, uses the noun hédoné’ - pleasures. And then in 4:2, he says, “you lust” - there's the verb from ‘epithumeō’, we have our word ‘epithumia’ - lust. So, basically he uses the two synonymously, and that's important that we understand that because there's a rich theology behind these two words. They are identical. They are the same. They're synonyms.
And by the way, notice James adds a clarifying comment in the end of verse 1. He says, your pleasures that are - present participle - constantly waging war in your members. They're constantly waging war in your members. Your members, reference to - and I agree with Pastor MacArthur - to the physical mental elements of the body which contains man's fallen flesh or humanness.
So, here we have in James a powerful picture. And we need to follow closely. He's saying that within us, within every single one of us, believers, there are strong desires and cravings which are a continual assault on our souls. You see, the New Testament speaks of believers having a part of them that is yet unredeemed. The Bible calls it our flesh - that remaining corruption, that indwelling sin, the flesh.
We are a new person in Christ. We have a new heart. We've been given a new desire to serve God, new power to do so as we are in Christ. Nevertheless, we retain, even as believers, in this world what the Bible calls our flesh. And the key characteristic of our flesh is that it has, within it, these cravings that long to be satisfied. And their clear goal is - these desires, sinful desires - is to secure satisfaction for themselves. And because of that, they war against our souls. Read Romans 7, the things that I want to do, I don't do, and what I don't want to do, I end up doing. O wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of death. There's this battle. And being conscious of the battle is really an affirmation that I am a child of God.
In fact, Peter says, in 1 Peter chapter 2, in verse 11, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul”. They are constantly waging war against the soul -these cravings, those strong desires, or maybe another word would be sinful expectations. They are expressions of the flesh seeking satisfaction.
And here's what you and I need to understand. Go back to James 1, verse 13. You remember, we studied this in detail. When you're tempted, he says, don't say God did it. Don't blame God for it. God doesn't tempt anyone. Here's how it happens, he says, in verse 14. “But each one is tempted when he is…” - what? – “…carried away and enticed by his own” - ‘epithumia’. That's the word, lust - the synonym.
Here's the point that we need to get. Within your heart, within mine, is part of what the Bible calls our flesh, that remaining corruption that we retain - it's not strictly the human body. It includes the human body as its beachhead, but it's more than that. There's a part of our immaterial part that's affected by this as well. As part of who we are, there are these desires, these strong cravings for what will satisfy illegitimately.
And James wants us to know that it's out of those cravings that temptation grows. Our temptations are involved with these cravings. But more than that, these same cravings, these same lusts, these same sinful expectations not only lead us into temptation, but they lie behind every single sinful conflict.
In other words, if you draw a line between your temptation and its root, and your conflicts and its root, they both flow from the same root - the cravings that are in your heart and mind. That's his point. Those desires for whatever it is that's opposed to God, could be sexual, could be for power, could be for acceptance, it could be for security, could be for comfort, could be for certain appearance, could be for a craving for whatever. Fill in the blanks. But those strong cravings are what drive us into temptation as well as into conflict.
You say, how do they produce conflict? How do those cravings produce conflict? Listen to one commentator, how he put it. This is very, very helpful. He writes, “these cravings, in demanding gratification, actively enter into conflict with fellow believers who thwart the fulfillment of those desires”. In other words, our outer conflicts reveal this inner tension.
Another commentator, John Blanchard, puts it another way. I like the way he puts it. “The simple truth is that a man can only satisfy all of his own self-centered desires by conflicting with the desires of other people.” You see, what happens is, when you desire, you’re craving for whatever it is you want and when it is thwarted by that other person and they want what they want, conflict is created. Arguments begin.
And what is the source of conflict? What is the source of the quarrel? James says, it comes from the cravings, the desires, the sinful expectations that are part of our flesh, part of our indwelling sin. But how can we stop those quarrels?
Well, there are several steps to dealing with conflict that are in this paragraph. But we've just begun to look at the first step. James says, identify the source, the true source. The true source, and listen carefully, beloved, is not the issue you're arguing about. The true source is not the issue you're arguing about. The true source of the problem isn't the other person even.
Please listen and get this into your mind, as I need to get this into my mind, because this is the lie that we tell ourselves very often, more than not. When we quarrel, when we fight, the issue isn't really the issue, the issue isn't the other person, it's us, it's you, it's me. That's what James wants us to hone on in. Specifically, it's our pleasures that continually wage war in our members. When those desires, follow closely, when those desires we have go unmet, when our cravings are not satisfied, when our expectations are not fulfilled, then we strike out at the other person who stands in the way of that self-satisfaction.
Here's your homework for the week, as well as it's mine. Every time you find yourself in a quarrel this week, every time you find yourself in an argument, in a verbal war, in a verbal tiff, stop and ask yourself this question, or if you’re carried away and you don't stop, after the fact, ask yourself this question nevertheless. What self-centered craving am I trying to protect by engaging in this argument? What self-centered craving am I trying to protect by engaging in this argument? That's the real issue that James wants us to deal with.
When you argue, stop yourself, forget the other person, forget the issue that is supposedly being argued, and ask yourself this very simple question, what self-centered craving am I trying to protect by engaging in this argument?
And with each argument, it may be different, or you may find a common thread. But regardless, James says, you've got to start in dealing with conflict by understanding where it comes from - the source, the true source. It doesn't come from the issue you're debating. It doesn't come from the other person and their problems. It comes from your heart and from my heart. If we're engaged in quarreling, then we're the problem.
Why is this all so important? Why is it important that we deal with conflict? Why is unity so crucial among the people of God? Why must we overcome conflict with peace? Turn to Ephesians 4. Here's why it's important. He begins this practical section of Ephesians, you remember - Ephesians 4, verse 1 - by saying, “Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” And then he says, and do that “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.” Now, watch verse 3, “being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
He says, Listen, we're all connected. We're part of the family of God. We're members of the body of Christ. We're living stones, intertwined in this living temple of God. He says, in light of that, he says, preserve the unity. Keep the unity. Get over the conflict. Make sure you maintain that unity and grow it and cultivate it.
Why? Verse 4, here's why. “There is one body.” Beloved, we're all connected to each other. There is one body. It is absurd. It is unnatural. It is insane to have your finger poking your eye. “[A]nd one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord”. We worship and bow to one Lord. How can we fight with each other? If the Gospel came and gave us reconciliation, the roof was blown off, and now there's vertically reconciliation, and peace with God. And then all the walls around us were shattered. Now we have peace with each other. How can we be fighting with one another?
If, now, we belong to Christ and belong to all those who belong to Christ, how can we turn against each other? In “one faith” - that is one body of doctrine that we have come to embrace. He says “one baptism; one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” He wants us to understand that we need to be united. We need to get over conflict because of who we are, because of what it says to those around us, how it demeans and destroys and demolishes the beauty and the character of Christ and His church. How we need to adorn the gospel before a watching world.
Robert Johnson, the Scottish preacher, wrote “But men and women who on the Sabbath have sat side by side at the Lord's table and drunk of the common cup of love will scowl at and argue with and thwart each other all the week. And the feeling is not infrequently such as to remind one of the host of Midian when every man's sword was turned against his fellow.” Exactly right.
You see, beloved, every time we partake of the Lord's table, we do so together, don't we? It's a reminder of our unity. We partake the same bread, we drink the same cup, we are one body. Therefore, we must be united as one body because we are one body, and we must live in peace and harmony with each other without quarreling, without arguing. We worship one Lord. We eat one bread. We drink one cup. May God help us to be committed to living together in peace, and in the body of Christ, in the church, in our homes, in all of our relationships. That's the wisdom from above.
Well, there's a lot more to cover in this passage. Let me stop here, and we'll leave the rest to begin to delve with in more details next Lord's Day.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for this passage and the reminder of our own sinful hearts. Help us not to be content to deal with the external only Lord - surface stuff. Help us to go deep as your spirit does, identifying the wicked sins within our hearts - those sinful cravings and desires and expectations, that when unfulfilled, they cause us to break forth in arguing and fighting and quarreling with others. Oh, Father, we cry out to you. Help us dwell together in unity.
And thank you, Father, for this wonderful reminder that we do live in unity, and that we all have shared of one provision that you've made for us in Christ. And we humbly come and ask you that you would forgive us. We've come to you as those who belong to you - who've been bathed, washed, sanctified - but who have, as our Lord reminded us, gathered dirt in our feet, as it were, as we walk through this world. And, so, we run to you. We look to you. We seek your forgiveness and cleansing, O Lord.
And we confess to you our self-love and our selfishness and self-centeredness. We confess, to our shame, our desire above all else, at times, to meet our own desires, to fulfill our own cravings. Forgive us, Lord. And forgive us our pride. Forgive us our argumentative spirit, our lack of peace. Lord, forgive us. And forgive us, Father, for not loving you like we ought to love you, not loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. And, oh Lord, forgive us for using at times our mouths to maim and injure others. Forgive us for speaking those things that are contrary to your revealed will, and doing things that are in disobedience to you. Cleanse us, oh God, cleanse us. Give us a renewed resolve to follow you, to serve you, to love you, love your son, and honor you, being peacemakers, being peaceable. Help us, Lord, to strike at the first rising
of sin when that remains of corruption rears its ugly head. Help us to strike. Help us to be other oriented. Help us to be like our Lord. We pray in His name, Amen.
In his book, “The Study of War”, one professor examines just the period between 1480 AD to 1941. So, you've got 461 years. Nations were involved, he says, in the following numbers of major wars, just during those 460 years or so: Great Britain, 78 major wars; France, 71; Spain, 64; Russia, 61; Austria, 52; Germany, 23; the U.S., of course, being a fairly young nation, 13; China, 11; Japan, 9.
It's really amazing to see how the history of the world is really a history of war and conflict and fighting. This has always been true of humanity, starting all the way back with the very first murder, in Genesis 4, running through human history all the way to the end, Revelation 21.
When the end of the millennial reign of Christ, Christ will ultimately demolish all of his enemies, and Satan with his minions and all those who oppose the Lord Jesus Christ - will be crushed. And for the first time, at that time, forward into eternity, there will be no war. There will be true peace, lasting peace.
Sadly, our world is absolutely riddled with fighting, filled with wars, and not just at the level of nations. No part of human life and experience is really free from sinful conflict. Whether it is in the workplace, where there's a subtle infighting or subtle antagonism, whether it's a conflict separating best of friends, the relationship of friendship, whether it is in the home, among family members, conflict for many is a regular part of life, even in their home. It goes on between siblings, between parents, between children, between parents and children, and all too sadly, commonly, between spouses who have promised to love each other till death do them part.
In fact, you may be sitting here this evening, and your relationships - whether it be siblingship or marriage or whatever it is - could better be described as a war, a series of battles, and you know it, and people in your life know it, and God certainly knows it. Conflict.
Conflict even finds a place to hide in the church of Jesus Christ, sadly, tragically. Conflict in the church is so common that caricatures of fighting in churches are part of life, unfortunately, sadly. Like the young father who overheard his daughter and her friends fighting and arguing in the backyard, and he went out to mediate the conflict, and his daughter said, ‘Dad, it's okay, we're just playing church.’
Conflict in every part of life, it's a reality in the world in which we live. We live in a sin-cursed world, we live in a broken world. And I wouldn't be off to state this evening that either you are currently engaged in conflict, or you know someone who is engaged in one. It's a plague. But have you ever wondered why? Why is it so? Or more importantly, have you ever truly tried to discern how it is that we ought to deal with conflict?
As we return to the letter that James wrote to those who had at one time been part of his church in Jerusalem, who had been scattered - the diaspora - because of persecution, James explains how it is that we're able or we're equipped to deal with conflicts, the inevitable reality of conflicts.
This is a loaded passage. It's a really hard one to get our arms around it, and so we're going to do that over the next several weeks. And tonight, like I said, we're going to just simply set the table and just introduce it and see how far we will go. But I want us to take some time on it, because it is important. So, we're going to get started in studying this really life-transforming passage.
And, what James addresses here is that the theme of this paragraph is completely applicable to every single one of us here tonight. We will learn from this passage that there are very specific steps that we must take to learn how to deal with inter-personal conflict and how really worldliness plays a part in all of this. And surprisingly, surprisingly, these steps have nothing to do with resolving the cause of the conflict. This is important for us to keep in mind. James, instead, directs us to take a long, long hard look at ourselves first.
In fact, nothing in these ten verses allows us to point the finger at someone else as the cause for the conflict in our lives. So, brace yourself for impact. It's not about the other person. So, if you're thinking this and trying to project it to the other person, James says, ‘no, no, no, that's not what I have in mind’. Instead, James, as it were, points his finger at us. But he doesn't just rebuke us as scripture does, this paragraph contains several practical steps for dealing with conflict in our lives.
And the first step that we'll begin to look at together this evening, the first step for dealing with conflict, is found in the first three verses that we're going to just begin to scratch the surface this evening, really studying. And it is this: identify the true source of conflict. That's the first step. That's the first step that he points us to: identify the true source. He wants us to identify the true source. You want to deal with conflict God's way, identify the true source first.
Let me just refresh our memory. We just finished chapter three of James, so we spent quite a bit of time on the last few verses, particularly, in fact, all of chapter three. But, particularly, we spent quite a bit of time on the last few verses. We finished this chapter - James telling us that true godly wisdom is not characterized by selfish ambition and jealousy, that is not what marks it. In fact, look at verse 17 of the previous chapter, the wisdom that God gives is first what? Pure, then peaceable, considerate, gentle, submissive, reasonable, right?
And in verse 18, he goes on to stress and emphasize the fact that peace and righteousness always, always, always co-exist. They're like a two-sided coin, double-sided coin. Think about that for a moment. Peace and righteousness always co-exist. Where there's righteousness, there will be peace. And where there's no peace, there cannot be true righteousness. So, that immediately raises an obvious question: what is the source of wars and quarrels, the conflicts, the arguments, the antagonisms, that can often exist even between Christians?
Look at verse 1. Literally, verse 1, the first line of verse 1, chapter 4 reads this way, ‘from where wars and from where battles’. James doesn't even include a verb. From where wars and from where battles.
One commentator believes that James is so carried away, he's worked up about this, that it's as if he's speaking, you know, parent talk. You know, parent talk. Sometimes you're so into what you're trying to tell your kids, you want them to get it, that you just skip necessary parts of a speech, so you can get your message across.
And that's exactly what's happening here with James. From where? Where's it coming from? What's the source? Now, notice that James chooses the language of war, both those Greek words that are here, translated quarrels and conflicts in the LSB, both the Greek words, they
can refer to literal wars and battles or they can be used metaphorically to refer to quarrels and arguments and conflicts, as we see here in this passage. And that's the sense James means here.
Take a look, for example, at the word quarrels. ‘Polemoi’ is the Greek word – ‘polemoi’. Literally, it means armed conflict - armed conflict, literally. From where do the armed conflicts among you come? It was used to describe either a war or a single battle. In fact, it's used later in the Book of Revelation to describe the wars at the time of the end, end time wars.
And then he uses a second word, translated conflicts, ‘machai’. ‘Machai’ originally meant battles. It's used this way back in the Old Testament in Joshua 4.13, in the Septuagint, the LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, to refer to a literal battle with armed men fighting. But it came eventually to be used of battles that were fought solely with the tongue, words. In fact, in secular Greek, this word was often used to describe marital conflict – ‘machai’. In the New Testament, this word translated conflict, ‘machai’, never speaks of actual war, but actually always denotes verbal quarrels or internal arguments.
So, from where? Or as the LSB, NAS translated, what is the source? What is the source of the wars, the battles, the quarrels, the fights, the conflicts? And you know what's shocking? The next two words – “among you”. That's what's shocking. Among you, family of God, professing believers, members of the household of God, Christians, little Christ, remember that word, ‘Christianós’, right? Among you, the diaspora. Among you.
Now remember, James is writing to Christian people. These are professing believers. And he says, where are these quarrels, these wars and battles among you coming from? Sadly, sadly,
tragically, Christians are not exempt from conflict. And you see this, you see it in the scripture. Nothing new under the sun. You see it in the New Testament. You know who comes to mind right away? The Corinthians. And perhaps rightly so.
In 1 Corinthians 1, 11, Paul begins his letter to the Corinthian Church by saying, “For I have been informed concerning you, my brothers, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.” And you fast forward to chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, you find that these quarrels have grown into what? Lawsuits. Can you imagine? They're suing each other. The people at Corinth were so much at each other that some of them were taking other members of the church to court. Drag them before judges. They were suing them.
And when you turn to the second letter to the Corinthians, you learn that things hadn't gotten much better. And by the way, Paul had initially written first Corinthians to them. He'd written a letter that we don't have recorded for us in the New Testament. That would be the second letter, if you will. And then he'd written the third letter, which this is the one we call second Corinthians. So, the in-between letter we don't have a record of. The Lord knows what we need, and He gave us exactly what we need.
But, at the end of this third letter, second Corinthians, and all the time Paul spent in Corinth, let's listen to what he says. Second Corinthians 12:20. Second Corinthians 12:20, “For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances” – in the church.
You remember Paul's letter to the Philippians, that epistle of joy. Even that church, even that epistle of joy, when you come to chapter four of Philippians, you find the same thing happening in the church in Philippi. And, it is such a grave concern that Paul addresses it publicly because it was having trickle down effect potentially to different family members and it had a potential to split the church. There were these two women, Euodia and Syntyche, who were at each other, and he urges them, he pleads with them, to live in harmony in the church. It was a problem, a conflict.
The same problem was true to those Christians to whom James was writing. He writes to these believers who used to be part of his church, and he says, ‘I'm concerned. I'm concerned about conflicts among you that are taking place in your midst and how it damages the testimony of Jesus Christ, and, so, he addresses it.’
A 17th century Jewish philosopher, Spinoza, wrote these really unsettling words. Listen to what he says, and I quote, “I have often wondered that persons who make a boast to professing the Christian religion, namely love, joy, peace, temperance, and charity to all men, should quarrel with such a rancorous animosity and display, daily, towards one another such bitter hatred, that this, rather than virtues which they profess, is the readiest criteria of their faith.” Can you imagine? What a terrible indictment.
What you and I have to do is that we must ask ourselves, and keep in mind what we studied concerning heavenly wisdom, wisdom from above. Am I a reasonable person? Am I easy to be entreated? Am I peaceable? Am I humble? Or is there someone, or are there many people with whom I tend to quarrel and argue constantly?
The people who know me best see me as a what? Quarrelsome person? Contentious person? Or peaceful person? Constantly engaging with at least one person? Maybe a number of people in arguments and fights and various kinds?
Or do they see meekness? Peaceable? When there's a Christian who's engaged in quarreling and arguing and fighting and contention and conflict with others, the question comes, where does it come from? How can this be? Where does it come from?
You know, it's an interesting question in and of itself. Why would James begin his discussion of conflict with that question? Why? Because, beloved, there's an important implication to it. And it is this. You and I tend to look at merely the external. We tend to get carried away with the external - surface stuff, shallow stuff. And we want to fix the problem by doing a little bit better in our interaction with people.
But our God is never content to let us deal only with the outward manifestation of our sinful heart - in this case, quarreling and fighting. Instead, the Lord, our God, in Scripture, we're always being taken to the sinful attitude, or the thinking, or the mindset, or the motive that lies behind the external sinful act. Our Lord goes straight to the heart.
You see, it's not enough to try to get along with the one you're quarreling with. Well, I'll stay silent, and keep my mouth shut. No, no. You've got to ask yourself, why? Why? Where is that coming from? What is it in my sinful heart that's causing me to contend and argue and quarrel with others? You need to discover what prompts you to fight and quarrel. What is the source?
You don't have to look very far, because James tells us exactly here where the quarrels and arguments and conflicts come from. Here it is, and you're probably not going to like the answer. He tells us, those quarrels, those fights that you engage in, that I engage in, they come from our sinful hearts. Plain and simple. We are the real problem. We are.
Now, this is important because what do we all have a tendency to do when we begin to fight? What do we have a tendency, all of us, to do when we get into a quarrel? We are the ones who are taking the moral high ground, right? We're the ones who are right, we convince ourselves. Always. Right away. We have this tendency to define ourselves and immediately assume that we're right, and the person we're arguing with is wrong, that we are the ones who are in the defensible position. We're the ones who are taking some noble defense of the truth, and the person we're arguing with is just simply an ignorant person who can't understand our force of argument.
But James doesn't allow for that. He doesn't. He says, forget about the other person. He's not addressing a situation where you are contending for the faith. You see, you can read James 4, 1 to 10 all you want, and you won't find the other person in the argument mentioned at all. James is talking to you as you hear, to me as I read it. He's addressing each of us individually. He doesn't even think about the other person. You see, it doesn't matter who the other person is. If you're involved in a quarrel, an argument, a contentious situation, the problem is with you. It is with me. James wants us to understand that.
Notice that James never tells us in these verses what the issues were that were causing conflict among these Christians. We don't know, and it really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who was right and who was wrong in this case. You see, because here's the issue. Because you can have even a just cause and go about it the wrong way. So, he's addressing the heart. Because sometimes, we want to really cover over the issue of the heart and really highlight the cause. But my cause is just. Yes, but that's not what James is addressing. James is addressing the motive, the heart. The heart.
If there was quarreling and fighting, both were wrong. That's what James wants us to see to examine our own hearts. If you're engaged in a quarreling, fighting, arguing, contention situation, James wants you to understand that the source of the problem is in the heart. That attitude is part of your former life, apart from God, a point that Paul makes in Titus 3, verses one to three.
But James gets more specific. Notice verse one. Look at verse one, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?” He moves from the external to the internal, right? Right away.
This is obviously a question that is not a question. Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? A question that is not a question? It's a statement, really. You know, it's like when your parents tell you, young people, you know, you're not wearing that at the church, are you? They're not asking you. They're telling you. Right? Not looking for information, but making a point. It's an affirmation.
That's exactly what James is doing here in the second half of verse one. We could legitimately convert this to a statement of fact. James says, the source of the quarrels and conflicts among you is what? Your pleasures.
Now, this is absolutely crucial to understand. The key word here, the crucial concept, is this word. And you can really circle it, really. Pleasures. Pleasures. You'll notice that that word occurs again in the end of verse three. The word pleasures translates a Greek word that you will recognize. It's the Greek word ‘hédoné’ - ‘hédoné’. It's a word from which we get our English word hedonist, hedonism, hedonist.
Originally, this word was used to describe the feeling of desire perceived only through the sense of taste. But eventually, it came to be used for the pleasure or the desire of all the senses. Look with me how this word is used in the New Testament, and it's important to grasp, really, the meaning of this word. It helps us understand what James is driving at. It's only used five times. Two of those times, it's found here in James 4. So, let's look at the other three times it's used elsewhere in the New Testament.
Turn with me back to Luke's Gospel, chapter 8. We need to get a handle on this word, because it's crucial to really unpack, unlock this passage in James. So, Luke chapter 8, verse 14, Jesus, you remember, in the middle of the parable of the soils or the parable commonly known as the parable of the sower, and you remember the one kind of heart, the one soil was the one with thorns, right? And the seed of the Word, the seed of the Gospel is sown there, and Jesus is now explaining what that means.
This is verse 14, Luke 8, and the seed, referring to the Gospel, which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way, they are choked with worries and riches, and here's our word, ‘hédoné’, pleasures of life, and do not bear ripe fruit. And by the way, the word life here is the word ‘bios’, from which we get our English word biology. So, he's talking about natural life. And, he says, these pleasures of natural life, of life here in this world, as opposed to the true pleasures that are found in Christ, in God, choke out the Gospel, the seed of the Word, and cause a person not to truly savingly respond to Christ. So, we find that these pleasures are part of natural fallen life and are antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now turn with me to Titus 3, where we learn something more about these pleasures - ‘hédoné’. Not only are they opposed to the Gospel, not only do they crowd out spiritual interests, but in Titus 3.3, Paul writes the following, Titus 3 in verse 3, “For we ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and” - here’s out word – “pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.” For we ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts, and here's our word, pleasures. Spending our life in malice and envy and despicable, hating one another.” So, we find that, as part of who we used to be, we were absolutely in slavery to fulfilling the demands of our cravings and pleasures - ‘hédoné’.
And, then, in 2 Peter chapter 2, 2 Peter chapter 2 in verse 13, Peter speaking of false teachers, he says, they - the false teachers - consider it a, that's our word, ‘pleasure’ to revel in the daytime. So, here he's talking about false teachers being given over to pleasure - ‘hédoné’.
Now, the other two occurrences are in James 4, as I mentioned earlier - the one we already seen in verse 1, the source, he says, your pleasures. And in the end of verse 3, you look in our text and you'll see the same word used there as well another time. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your…” - that's our word, ‘hédoné’– “pleasures.” Now, what I want us to notice is that this word, ‘hédoné’ or pleasures, as it is translated, is a synonym with another word that you know, that we've studied this word before. It's the word ‘lust’ - ‘‘epithumia’. We've seen that word before in James.
Lust, by the way, as we've learned before, just to refresh us when we've covered James 1, doesn't speak of just sexual temptation. It speaks of craving, strong desire, craving, a strong desire for anything that's opposed to God or outside of his purpose for you, when it is used negatively.
Now notice James, chapter 4 verse 1, uses the noun hédoné’ - pleasures. And then in 4:2, he says, “you lust” - there's the verb from ‘epithumeō’, we have our word ‘epithumia’ - lust. So, basically he uses the two synonymously, and that's important that we understand that because there's a rich theology behind these two words. They are identical. They are the same. They're synonyms.
And by the way, notice James adds a clarifying comment in the end of verse 1. He says, your pleasures that are - present participle - constantly waging war in your members. They're constantly waging war in your members. Your members, reference to - and I agree with Pastor MacArthur - to the physical mental elements of the body which contains man's fallen flesh or humanness.
So, here we have in James a powerful picture. And we need to follow closely. He's saying that within us, within every single one of us, believers, there are strong desires and cravings which are a continual assault on our souls. You see, the New Testament speaks of believers having a part of them that is yet unredeemed. The Bible calls it our flesh - that remaining corruption, that indwelling sin, the flesh.
We are a new person in Christ. We have a new heart. We've been given a new desire to serve God, new power to do so as we are in Christ. Nevertheless, we retain, even as believers, in this world what the Bible calls our flesh. And the key characteristic of our flesh is that it has, within it, these cravings that long to be satisfied. And their clear goal is - these desires, sinful desires - is to secure satisfaction for themselves. And because of that, they war against our souls. Read Romans 7, the things that I want to do, I don't do, and what I don't want to do, I end up doing. O wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of death. There's this battle. And being conscious of the battle is really an affirmation that I am a child of God.
In fact, Peter says, in 1 Peter chapter 2, in verse 11, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul”. They are constantly waging war against the soul -these cravings, those strong desires, or maybe another word would be sinful expectations. They are expressions of the flesh seeking satisfaction.
And here's what you and I need to understand. Go back to James 1, verse 13. You remember, we studied this in detail. When you're tempted, he says, don't say God did it. Don't blame God for it. God doesn't tempt anyone. Here's how it happens, he says, in verse 14. “But each one is tempted when he is…” - what? – “…carried away and enticed by his own” - ‘epithumia’. That's the word, lust - the synonym.
Here's the point that we need to get. Within your heart, within mine, is part of what the Bible calls our flesh, that remaining corruption that we retain - it's not strictly the human body. It includes the human body as its beachhead, but it's more than that. There's a part of our immaterial part that's affected by this as well. As part of who we are, there are these desires, these strong cravings for what will satisfy illegitimately.
And James wants us to know that it's out of those cravings that temptation grows. Our temptations are involved with these cravings. But more than that, these same cravings, these same lusts, these same sinful expectations not only lead us into temptation, but they lie behind every single sinful conflict.
In other words, if you draw a line between your temptation and its root, and your conflicts and its root, they both flow from the same root - the cravings that are in your heart and mind. That's his point. Those desires for whatever it is that's opposed to God, could be sexual, could be for power, could be for acceptance, it could be for security, could be for comfort, could be for certain appearance, could be for a craving for whatever. Fill in the blanks. But those strong cravings are what drive us into temptation as well as into conflict.
You say, how do they produce conflict? How do those cravings produce conflict? Listen to one commentator, how he put it. This is very, very helpful. He writes, “these cravings, in demanding gratification, actively enter into conflict with fellow believers who thwart the fulfillment of those desires”. In other words, our outer conflicts reveal this inner tension.
Another commentator, John Blanchard, puts it another way. I like the way he puts it. “The simple truth is that a man can only satisfy all of his own self-centered desires by conflicting with the desires of other people.” You see, what happens is, when you desire, you’re craving for whatever it is you want and when it is thwarted by that other person and they want what they want, conflict is created. Arguments begin.
And what is the source of conflict? What is the source of the quarrel? James says, it comes from the cravings, the desires, the sinful expectations that are part of our flesh, part of our indwelling sin. But how can we stop those quarrels?
Well, there are several steps to dealing with conflict that are in this paragraph. But we've just begun to look at the first step. James says, identify the source, the true source. The true source, and listen carefully, beloved, is not the issue you're arguing about. The true source is not the issue you're arguing about. The true source of the problem isn't the other person even.
Please listen and get this into your mind, as I need to get this into my mind, because this is the lie that we tell ourselves very often, more than not. When we quarrel, when we fight, the issue isn't really the issue, the issue isn't the other person, it's us, it's you, it's me. That's what James wants us to hone on in. Specifically, it's our pleasures that continually wage war in our members. When those desires, follow closely, when those desires we have go unmet, when our cravings are not satisfied, when our expectations are not fulfilled, then we strike out at the other person who stands in the way of that self-satisfaction.
Here's your homework for the week, as well as it's mine. Every time you find yourself in a quarrel this week, every time you find yourself in an argument, in a verbal war, in a verbal tiff, stop and ask yourself this question, or if you’re carried away and you don't stop, after the fact, ask yourself this question nevertheless. What self-centered craving am I trying to protect by engaging in this argument? What self-centered craving am I trying to protect by engaging in this argument? That's the real issue that James wants us to deal with.
When you argue, stop yourself, forget the other person, forget the issue that is supposedly being argued, and ask yourself this very simple question, what self-centered craving am I trying to protect by engaging in this argument?
And with each argument, it may be different, or you may find a common thread. But regardless, James says, you've got to start in dealing with conflict by understanding where it comes from - the source, the true source. It doesn't come from the issue you're debating. It doesn't come from the other person and their problems. It comes from your heart and from my heart. If we're engaged in quarreling, then we're the problem.
Why is this all so important? Why is it important that we deal with conflict? Why is unity so crucial among the people of God? Why must we overcome conflict with peace? Turn to Ephesians 4. Here's why it's important. He begins this practical section of Ephesians, you remember - Ephesians 4, verse 1 - by saying, “Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” And then he says, and do that “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.” Now, watch verse 3, “being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
He says, Listen, we're all connected. We're part of the family of God. We're members of the body of Christ. We're living stones, intertwined in this living temple of God. He says, in light of that, he says, preserve the unity. Keep the unity. Get over the conflict. Make sure you maintain that unity and grow it and cultivate it.
Why? Verse 4, here's why. “There is one body.” Beloved, we're all connected to each other. There is one body. It is absurd. It is unnatural. It is insane to have your finger poking your eye. “[A]nd one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord”. We worship and bow to one Lord. How can we fight with each other? If the Gospel came and gave us reconciliation, the roof was blown off, and now there's vertically reconciliation, and peace with God. And then all the walls around us were shattered. Now we have peace with each other. How can we be fighting with one another?
If, now, we belong to Christ and belong to all those who belong to Christ, how can we turn against each other? In “one faith” - that is one body of doctrine that we have come to embrace. He says “one baptism; one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” He wants us to understand that we need to be united. We need to get over conflict because of who we are, because of what it says to those around us, how it demeans and destroys and demolishes the beauty and the character of Christ and His church. How we need to adorn the gospel before a watching world.
Robert Johnson, the Scottish preacher, wrote “But men and women who on the Sabbath have sat side by side at the Lord's table and drunk of the common cup of love will scowl at and argue with and thwart each other all the week. And the feeling is not infrequently such as to remind one of the host of Midian when every man's sword was turned against his fellow.” Exactly right.
You see, beloved, every time we partake of the Lord's table, we do so together, don't we? It's a reminder of our unity. We partake the same bread, we drink the same cup, we are one body. Therefore, we must be united as one body because we are one body, and we must live in peace and harmony with each other without quarreling, without arguing. We worship one Lord. We eat one bread. We drink one cup. May God help us to be committed to living together in peace, and in the body of Christ, in the church, in our homes, in all of our relationships. That's the wisdom from above.
Well, there's a lot more to cover in this passage. Let me stop here, and we'll leave the rest to begin to delve with in more details next Lord's Day.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for this passage and the reminder of our own sinful hearts. Help us not to be content to deal with the external only Lord - surface stuff. Help us to go deep as your spirit does, identifying the wicked sins within our hearts - those sinful cravings and desires and expectations, that when unfulfilled, they cause us to break forth in arguing and fighting and quarreling with others. Oh, Father, we cry out to you. Help us dwell together in unity.
And thank you, Father, for this wonderful reminder that we do live in unity, and that we all have shared of one provision that you've made for us in Christ. And we humbly come and ask you that you would forgive us. We've come to you as those who belong to you - who've been bathed, washed, sanctified - but who have, as our Lord reminded us, gathered dirt in our feet, as it were, as we walk through this world. And, so, we run to you. We look to you. We seek your forgiveness and cleansing, O Lord.
And we confess to you our self-love and our selfishness and self-centeredness. We confess, to our shame, our desire above all else, at times, to meet our own desires, to fulfill our own cravings. Forgive us, Lord. And forgive us our pride. Forgive us our argumentative spirit, our lack of peace. Lord, forgive us. And forgive us, Father, for not loving you like we ought to love you, not loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. And, oh Lord, forgive us for using at times our mouths to maim and injure others. Forgive us for speaking those things that are contrary to your revealed will, and doing things that are in disobedience to you. Cleanse us, oh God, cleanse us. Give us a renewed resolve to follow you, to serve you, to love you, love your son, and honor you, being peacemakers, being peaceable. Help us, Lord, to strike at the first rising
of sin when that remains of corruption rears its ugly head. Help us to strike. Help us to be other oriented. Help us to be like our Lord. We pray in His name, Amen.
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