Faith and Humility: Grace for the Lowly

James 4:1-12  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, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.  (3)  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.  (4)  You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  (5)  Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?  (6)  But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  (7)  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  (8)  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  (9)  Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.  (10)  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.  (11)  Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.  (12)  There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? (English Standard Version)

Pastor Jason Boothe unpacks the source of conflict and worldliness among believers—our own sinful desires. James confronts the pride and self-centeredness that cause strife, reminding us that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Yet even in the midst of this sobering warning, we find one of Scripture’s most hope-filled truths: “But He gives more grace.” God’s People are marked by humility—by a heart that submits to God, resists the devil, and draws near to Him in repentance and trust. God opposes the proud (the self-righteous) but gives grace to the humble (His elect children). Join us as we explore what it means to live humbly before the Lord, resting in the abundant grace of Christ alone, even while our war with the flesh rages on!

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Jason K. Boothe serves as a Pastor at Redeemer Church of Piketon, Ohio.