James: Living Faith, Wisdom from Heaven

James: Living Faith
Wisdom from Heaven (James 4)
March 21, 2010

Our Greatest Enemy
Pride is our great enemy, taking our eyes off of the treasure of Jesus Christ and the great purpose for which he created and called us, and refocusing on ourselves and our kingdom. Martin Luther rightly said “pride is the mother of all sins,” because every sin from Genesis 3 on begins in a heart that seeks to be god rather than submit to God in humility. Though we are created to find our fullest joy in worshiping God, pride removes God from the picture and worships the god in the mirror. Because pride cannot exist near our Glorious God, it drives us away from God in a suicidal strategy of deafening our ears to rebuke, hardening our hearts to the Holy Spirit, and blinding our eyes to our own sin, giving us a high view of self and a small view of God.

James showed us earlier that the selfish ambition of a bitter jealousy of pride

When Christians embrace the systems and values of worldly kingdom building—boasting in selfish ambition and bitter jealousy to tear others down in an effort to exalt themselves—they are committing spiritual adultery and setting themselves up as enemies of an all-powerful God who opposes the proud.

God graciously calls proud Christians to radical repentance by humbly resisting pride from hell, drawing near to God, repenting of both the actions and the prideful heart from which they flow, and recognizing the weight of their double-minded adultery before their God.

In light of the goodness of God in extending grace to ill-deserving proud, people, James exhorts his brothers to leave the judging to our gracious God and not their own tongues