James, a little book of wisdom: how to not pick a fight
Today’s wisdom:
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:1-3
My random musings:
As we read these words from James, the chances are that we are not taking them literally. We do not really believe he is talking about killing people and fist fights. He can’t be talking about actual violence, can he? What kind of followers of Jesus could justify that?
However, in that essay I explored in James, a little book of wisdom: a context of unrest, author Jim Reiher believes that in the context of unrest into which James was writing, actual violence was exactly what James was talking about.
Rendall, also, writing of the words “wars and fighting” observes: “The words used are not applicable to the disagreements and quarrels of a congregation: they refer to fierce and murderous affrays, the `wars and battles’ of rival religious factions.”…What we do have here, is an indication that there is indeed fighting, covetousness and even murder happening – and some Jewish Christians are involved in it. James is speaking to a real life setting. James’ vocabulary leads us to the conclusion that there is something extremely serious and violent happening. He is writing to a very real historical occasion. From “Violent Language – a clue to the Historical Occasion of James.” for the Evangelical Quarterly. Vol. LXXXV No. 3 by Jim Reiher
In the face of injustice and exploitation, some Jewish Christians were turning to the worldly option of using violence to address injustice and so compromising the Christian message. Murder can never be excused or justified, however right you believe yourself to be.
We may feel that this has nothing to do with the world in which we live now, that followers of Christ would never resort to murder to defend their position in the modern world. Really? Is that what you think? Just look around you. I think there are examples all over the world today of Christians who would do exactly that: who resort to violence to get their point across and can justify it because they feel they are 100% right and are doing the work of God. Who is to be held accountable for the deaths of those children held in camps in America right now for example?
James is clear in his message. A Christian cannot be a part of such activity. A Christian can not join in violent uprisings , or even go as far as to kill for what they stand for. James presents Jesus as a non-violent activist. And so as his followers, we are all called to live non-violent lives, even when confronted by injustice.
We may not be directly involved in violence ourselves but we need to examine our hearts and minds to see if we are supporting and condoning violence in any way in the name of the God we believe in.
There’s also something in here on a less literal level. I’m interested in what we can apply to our daily lives from this passage. And so I have come up with these points based on this passage and on wider wisdom on this subject.
We pick a fight when we are struggling within ourselves and have no inner peace.
We pick a fight when the desire for what we want is stronger than anything else.
We pick a fight when we believe we deserve what we do not have and will do whatever it takes to get it.
We pick a fight when envy turns to resentment which turns to hatred.
We pick a fight when we feel the need to bring someone else down to make ourselves look better and feel better.
We pick a fight when we compare ourselves to others and end up dissatisfied with who we are.
We pick a fight when we come to God with a list of demands rooted in wrong motives and then wonder why He does not give us what we want.
We pick a fight when the pursuit of our own pleasures is more important than the health and happiness of others.
We pick a fight when we don’t know how to handle our own fear and vulnerability.
We pick a fight when our own insecurities give us a chip on our shoulder and cause us to take offence far too easily.
My questions for you:
What do you honestly believe causes you to pick a fight? How can you follow the example of Jesus as a non-violent activist?
