7/28/2023 0 Comments Christian life church![]() 11)ġ1 Do not speak against one another, brethren. Don't judge each other in sinful ways (v. We may mentally know the source of sin and possess a genuine fear for the effects of sin, but without an alert and tender heart to the presence of sin, we fall into sin.Ħ. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.".34:27, it's talking about a sensitive conscience. When Scripture speaks of a tender heart as in 2 Chr.8:15), which meant that Pharaoh had seared his conscience from heeding God's will. Moses recorded that Pharaoh "hardened his heart" ( Exod. ![]() Rather than talking about the blood-pumping organ in our chest, James refers to the inner person, the soul, the conscience./p> To this originally Jewish audience who were the first recipients of James' letter, it would be common knowledge that the Hebrew counterpart for the Greek word for heart in verse 8 refers to the conscience. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 8-9)Ĩ Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.ĥ. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 7-8) Such an obvious, self-evident truth needs little explanation.ħ Submit therefore to God. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.Ĥ. We Christians need to continually view ourselves as needy recipients of God's grace, not dispensers of self-made virtue.Ħ He gives more grace. Humbly seek God's grace to overcome sin (vv. In life, we recognize that having a healthy fear of danger is the mark of maturity, not weakness.ģ. It's your own heart.ġ What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have Realize the true source of sinful conflict (vv. ![]() The seven implicit commands in James 4:1-12 are for us as well by extension. And sin tends to bring about devastating effects.īut the Holy Spirit, through James's letter, instructed these believers how to become communities of peace in Christ's power. Why? Because Christians can, and do, still sin. Even a casual reading of this short letter shows that the author spilled a lot of ink addressing the ongoing problem of sinful human conflict among Christians. The Epistle of James was the first book of the New Testament written slightly more than a decade or so after Jesus ascended. Then the book of James drops a bomb on that rose-colored view of history and gives the real picture of the early churches. Instead of separate denominations, seminaries, and theological societies there was just a small, despised group of disciples who clung to Christ and turned the world upside down with the message of grace and salvation. Instead of multiple churches in a city, there was just one. Looking around at the seemingly fractured state of Christianity in the world today with all of its various camps and divisions, it's tempting to idealize the early church as a perfect time of relational harmony.
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