Reflection on James 3:13—4:3, 7-8a

James 3:13—4:3, 7-8a

The wisdom God gives unites our hearts and minds. Instead of living to satisfy our own wants and desires, we manifest this wisdom in peace, gentleness, mercy, and impartiality toward others.

13Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 14But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. 15Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. 17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.4:

1Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8aDraw near to God, and he will draw near to you. 

Reflection

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8a).  This promise in James of God’s presence with you whenever you reach out toward God brings to mind the image of a little child, grabbing onto a mother’s dress, covering eyes with the fabric when a fearful sight comes into view.  In this image, Mother God, reaches down and draws us closer as we draw near and cling to her dress in fear.

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8a). 

In fact, this entire reading from James makes me think of drawing close to my parents as a child.  In particular, it makes me think of all the times I rode on my dad’s shoulders as we walked around.  If you remember, my dad was pretty tall, so when my tiny self was on his shoulders, I felt like I was on top of the world.  From up there I could see the tops of counters, the tops of tables, and better yet, I could even see the dusty tops of the cupboards.  I feel bad for really tall people.  The world is so much dirtier up there. 

Back to my dad, when on my dad’s shoulders, I felt big.  I also felt powerful.  I would shout down from up there and people would actually listen to me.  This so rarely happened when I was on my own two feet, where it was easy for everyone to look over my head and ignore me completely.  But, up there, I felt like I was a part of the world, rather than being overlooked by the world.

In fact, I felt so big and powerful that my imagination would allow me to forget about my dad below.  I would sink into my own world, imaging that I was the tall one, stomping about in the world, in control of my own world; a real grownup.

That illusion; that daydream of control came crashing down one day while we were walking along a trail.  Ahead of me, as I moved forward on my dad’s shoulders, I saw a tree branch approaching.  I panicked, starting to shift from side-to-side, searching for a way to avoid the inevitable.  I started grasping ahead, toward the branch, in order to maybe grab it and push it out of the way.  It was all of no use though, no matter what I did, the tree branch was approaching and there was no way that I was going to be able to avoid it.  I immediately started crying in a panic laced whimper, arms flailing and legs kicking.

And, I think that is the sort of reality that James is trying to paint for us.  It is a reality where we become concerned only for ourselves, shifting, swaying, and grasping around so as to control our realities.  Because, let us admit it, the world is out of control.  At least it seems to be out of my control.  There are people who we cannot control who say and do things with which we are just never going to agree.  There are situations in which we are placed that are difficult, with few “right” answers, but we try our best to control them all the same.  We live in a world that is out of control, but we try to bend it in our favor anyway, because what else are you going to do?  “You have to think about yourself and fight for yourself in this world,” we reason, “because there isn’t going to be anyone else to do it for you!”

James gets it.  He gets that self-concern and selfish ambition comes naturally; almost expectedly.  People will naturally fight for their lives when they see the tree branch coming.  People will naturally force the ways of the world to bend in their favor in order to live a good life.  People will work the system to eke out a few extra bucks for themselves.  People will say what others want to hear in order to gain their trust.  People will cut down oxygen rich trees in order to create the field.  People will find substances that will bring joy and sedate when the prescribed ones do not work.  People will dispose of helpless, unimportant people if it serves a greater good. 

James gets it.  But, he warns: “where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind” (James 3:16).

James says that wherever there is a passion to get ahead and not be left behind; wherever there is selfish partisanship that only seeks to win rather than seeking the good and seeking the truth, then the only thing that you can expect from all of that is disorder and wickedness.  Shouts, blood, tears, anger, rage can all be expected.

“You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts” (James 4:2).  James says that all of these cravings are at war within us, and they are the cause of all of the conflict in our lives (James 4:1).

I once witnessed a community theatre completely fall apart, volunteers leaving left and right, because there was a disagreement over the color of the new seats in the theatre.  One faction wanted a warm orange, to brighten up the place and make it inviting.  The other faction wanted a dark, subdued blue, so as not to distract from what was happening on the stage.  It was a battle that devolved into name calling and votes that were nothing more than power plays during the board meetings. 

You might be thinking, “Who cares if it is orange or blue?  Just flip a coin!”  But, you would only say that because you think that the fight was really about orange and blue seats.  In fact, it had nothing to do with orange and blue seats and had everything to do with the branch of financial hardship that everyone knew was coming soon as their funds dried up, and everyone was trying to get control of the situation.  Everyone was in it to gain power and control so as to secure the future they envisioned.  And, as James says, “disorder and wickedness of every kind” followed close behind.

James gets it.  He understands how easy it is to curl in on ourselves and do whatever possible in order to gain control of the situation.  He gets it in the same way that Jesus understood that worries will arise within your soul; you do not need to seek the worries out.  He gets it in the same way the Jesus understood that anger will come and rage within your heart; you do not need to seek the anger out.  Selfish ambition and the need to control will come; we do not need to seek it out.  But, he also understands that we do not need to let it overwhelm our lives and the lives of those around us, all of whom we are supposed to be demonstrating our love.

About worry, Jesus says in the Sermon of the Mount, “Do not continuously worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear” (Matthew 6:25).  Instead, he invites us to “Look at the birds” and “Consider the lilies of the field” (Matthew 6:26 and 28).  Jesus means it.  He wants us to actually stop what we are doing, look, and meditate on the birds and the lilies, because in the stopping, we might both come to our senses and see something in a new way.

In the same way, Jesus tells us, “If you are continually angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment” (Matthew 5:22).  Once again, Jesus invites us to stop, abandon what we are doing immediately, and make things right with the one with whom we disagree.  “First be reconciled to your brother or sister,” Jesus says (Matthew 5:24).  That is the most important thing.  After-all, by making up with those with whom we are angry, we might come to our senses and see something in a new way.

James, who I remind you is a scholar on the sayings found within the Sermon on the Mount, follows Jesus’ lead and tells his people: “If you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth” (James 3:14).  In other words, if you feel envy and selfish ambition at work within, stop, do not say another word, close that mouth, and first “make peace” (James 3:18).  James and Jesus are both big fans of taking a deep breath before you do anything.  They are both big fans of, first, making peace within ourselves and with those around us.  That comes first.

There is no reason to completely lose control when you see the branch coming.  How will that help anything?  Your kicking and slashing about will just either hurt yourself, or someone else.  We know this to be true.

And, what do we discover if we just take a moment to stop?  What do we discover if we first seek peace within and without?

Do you know what I forgot that day when I saw that branch coming my way and I completely panicked?  I forgot that I was on my dad’s shoulders.  I was so consumed with saving myself that I forgot that he had a hold of me the entire time.  He had a tight hold on my legs, and he was not going anywhere without me. 

Something that I never even stopped to consider was that he could see what was about to happen just as well as I.  And, as soon as he felt me thrashing about, he reached up and held me close to his head as he swooped low and safely navigated the branch.

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you,” Jesus promises (Matthew 7:7). 

“You do not have, because you do not ask,” James says, reiterating Jesus’ point (James 3:2)

Or, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly,” and you use what you have been given only for yourself (James 3:3).

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:7-8a). 

Draw near to God, because God chose to draw near to you.  God came to you as a child.  God came to you in the healing hands and feet of Jesus.  God came down out of the heavens into this troubled world to go to a cross in order to save you from this troubled world; in order to lift you up on his shoulders and bring you home.  God has already chosen to draw near to you.  You are already sitting on the shoulders of our loving God.  You are not walking alone, nor are you walking unnoticed in this world.

So, grasp onto the one who is holding you.  “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8a).  Our lives are about drawing near to one another.

One day, while Jesus was teaching about how he was going to suffer and die and rise again, two of his disciples were arguing about which one of them was the greatest.  They became wrapped up in themselves.  In response, Jesus drew a child close, took it into his arms and said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me” (Mark 9:37). In a self-centered world, Jesus’ followers are all in the business of drawing near to one another just as their God has drawn near to them.  And, so we repeat again and again this simple truth: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8a).