James 3&4 - Two Tales of Kings, War & Peace, Greed & Righteousness (part 3 of 3)

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War & Peace. Greed & Righteousness.

In the third chapter of his book, James compares two types of wisdom – natural wisdom and heavenly wisdom. Natural wisdom results in envy, selfish ambition, disorder, and evil. Heavenly wisdom results in peace. James ends chapter three with the evidence of a person following God’s wisdom, calling them peacemakers, and then continues to flesh out the practical consequences and ends of the natural wisdom of envy and selfish ambition.

James 3:17-4:3

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 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. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Each one of us has a King Ahab in our hearts, selfishly desiring things that are not ours, sulking over not being able to possess them. Not submitted to God, they can set our communities on fire, and lead to disunity, destroying us from within.

The passions and desires that lead to fights and quarrels are natural desires. But, just because something is natural does not necessarily mean it is good. In James 3:15, he calls the wisdom of the world “earthly, unspiritual, (and) demonic”. “Earthly” means “common”, in the same way we use the word in “common sense”.  “Unspiritual” does not necessarily mean evil, but natural, like the natural instincts of an animal. “Demonic” wisdom is unnatural, the wisdom of the world that goes against even what is commonly understood, or consistent with the natural laws of Creation.

There are many evil acts that are common, and therefore go unquestioned.  Furthermore, acts of self-preservation or self-gratification are not automatically justified simply because they are “natural”. God doesn’t want us to live “commonly” or “naturally”. God calls us to live supernaturally.

Peacemakers live supernaturally.

These passions and desires in verses 1 and 3 both come from the Greek word hēdonismos, which means “delight”. It’s where we get the word “hedonism”.

Hedonism is living as though pleasure is the only thing that has intrinsic value, the only thing that is truly good. Actions are justified based on their pleasure produced against their potential for pain. If a hedonist wants to do something that feels good, it is good, and that is all that matters.

James says that this pleasure seeking wisdom, though natural, is not God’s wisdom. The result of this wisdom is selfishness. It ends in quarrels, fights, and murder.

Does this remind us of Ahab the king and Naboth’s vineyard?

Though we may quickly apply these verses to international conflict, James writes this letter to regular Christians, like you and me. Examples like Naboth and Ahab, or wars on the world stage may be grand examples of these horrible consequences, but James’ warning is not just for people “out there”, it’s for us, for you and me.

The end of coveting, is fighting, quarreling, and disunity.

The end of lustful desire, is murder.

James Chapter three begins with a warning that people should be careful about desiring a position of leadership with wrong motives. It continues by saying people who rely on their own wisdom, instead of God’s, need to jockey and campaign for position. James condemns those who would, in seeking to be a teacher, bless God out of one side of their mouth, while cursing others from the other side. Think of the way candidates speak about one another at election time, and then imagine this happening in the church.

This doesn’t just have to apply to people seeking leadership or control explicitly. What is the greatest currency in our community? Is it sharp wit that cuts people down well? Is it knowledge of pop culture? Having the best job, or the best looking clothes, or the best looking partner? To fight and grasp to remain at the top of the social pile is the fruit of the wisdom of the world, and the lust of our natural being.

Every one of us has the opportunity by word or action, to attempt to steal Naboth’s vineyard for ourselves. In our relationships within our community, do we seek to honour one another before God, or do we manipulate and campaign to build up our own opportunity for control?

The spirit of God cannot dwell in a community where the members fight with one another for position.

Mark 9:33-37

And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Of course, someone will think, “yes, quarrels can happen in any community, but certainly not murder. We’re good people.” But James is warning of the final outcome of the consequence of empty, covetous hedonism. No addict began by seeking to become one. But in the end, the self-gratification that has consumed a person may bring them to the point of being willing to murder.

The United States consumed a total of 6.87 billion barrels (18.83 million barrels per day) in 2011 and 7.0 billion barrels (19.18 million barrels per day) of refined petroleum products and biofuels in 2010. For both years, this was about 22% of total world petroleum consumption.

The U.S. uses more than twice the oil of China, the second highest oil consuming country in the world.

A person in the USA consumes 1,046 kg of course grain a year.
A person in India gets to eat about 178 kg of grain in a year.

If all the grain currently fed to livestock in the United States were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million.

If everyone in the world consumed as much grain as Americans per capita, 2.5 billion (of the world's 7 billion) people could eat. If everyone ate as much grain as the average Indian, the same amount would feed 10 billion people.

Our insistence on personal consumption may cost others their basic needs.

This is true on a global level, but it is also true in a small community. When we strive to take as much as we can for ourselves, it will be at the expense of others. When we hold all we have with open hands, trusting God as our provider, we may also find ourselves becoming agents of generosity in the lives of others.

Murder begins in the heart.

Remember Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:21-24

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgement.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Everything we need comes from God. God is happy to give it (James 1:17-18). If what we need is according to God’s will, we don’t need to fight and strive and campaign for it. Like Elijah, God is our provider, and will take care of us. In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus also said (Matthew 6:28), “look at the lilies of the field, the birds of the air . . . your Father feeds them.” James says we can ask God for wisdom, and God will give it, generously (James 1:5).

If our motive is selfish gain,  . . . money, power, glory . . . our prayers are not prayers at all. The result of disunity and hatred is the same.

When we pray, we may not begin prepared to ask for something truly according to God’s will. It is not God’s hand that we move in this case. Just as David was changed when he humbledhimself before God, so that he could act justly toward Araunah the Jebusite, it is in the posture of true prayer that God changes us.

We receive from God when we ask according to the will of God, and with our hearts submitted to God. Anything less than this treats prayer as superstition, (or tradition). Prayer to God is not a slot machine. The power of prayer is in the one who hears, not the one who prays, or the prayer itself. We pray to a God that’s real. Do you believe that? If so, at the moment you bow your head, your heart will be revealed to you, your motives will change, and then your requests will follow.

If we receive an answer to prayer that we did not want, our hearts are revealed in our response. An Ahab will curl up and face the wall, cry and manipulate when he can’t get what he wants. A David will respond with humility, setting aside their own perceived rights or justifications for the good of others and the glory of God.

Isaiah 54:5

 For your Maker is your husband,

    the Lord of hosts is his name;

and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,

    the God of the whole earth he is called.

The entire book of Hosea compares the relationship of God’s people with a marriage. God is faithful. God is merciful.

Our decision to be faithful to God is a binary one, it does not have degrees. We’re either walking in the wisdom of the world, in self-gratification, covetousness, envy, one-upmanship, or in the wisdom of God, peaceable, humble, childlike, and serving.

James 4:4

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.

The word “world” in this passage is the exact same Greek word as in John 3:16, “God so loved the world”,  and Romans 1:20, “since the creation of the world God’s attributes are clear”, and Matthew 4:8, “the devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world”. So our understanding of this word “world” must be taken from its context. Clearly God does not mean that we aren’t to love people in the world (to contradict John 3:16), or to not be friends with the universe (which is silly). This is a specific reference to the worldly, natural way of being compared with the Godly, childlike way of being. It is not necessary for you to not be friends with, or fearfully remove yourself from the world.

James 1:27

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Remain in the world. But do not go to bed with, sneak off with, flirt with, or even be a little friendly with that common worldly life of empty ambition and self-gratification.

Matthew 6:24

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Those are Jesus’ words. It’s one or the other. Choose your master.

1 John 3:13-18

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

The proof is in the action. Faith without deeds is dead (James 2:14-26).

If we live like Ahab, a life seeking the power and pleasure and corruption in this fallen world, we will die consumed by that which we will never possess.

If we live like David, our hands open to give whatever we have for the sake of the glory of the only true King, living as peacemakers, resisting the corruption of world, the fruit of our life will drop seeds in this world that will grow the eternal Kingdom of Righteousness.

James 3:18

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Amen.

PART 3 OF 3

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James 3&4 - Two Tales of Kings, War & Peace, Greed & Righteousness (part 2 of 3)

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The second tale: Ahab and Naboth’s Vineyard

As earthy and flawed and even corrupt as David may have been as king, he is the closest any of the Bible’s kings come to being truly just. In this fact we are reminded that such a government never was God’s best, but was only allowed by God because the people themselves demanded it. Even when the prophet told the people on God’s behalf that a king would be corrupt and violent and oppressive, they still demanded it to satisfy their need to be like the powerful nations around them (1 Samuel 8). But during David’s reign the children of Abraham were given a promise of a better king to come. This new and better king, their Messiah, would be entirely just, serving the people and setting them free. The story of David and Araunah the Jebusite is one of many in scripture that show a type and shadow of the ministry of Jesus, the Messiah to come. Though David the king is incredibly flawed, of all the kings he is held up as the best ideal of a human king, foreshadowing his descendant, Jesus, the King of kings.

The Corruption of the Kings: From David to Ahab

David’s story is mostly told in the second book of Samuel in the Bible. But if David is as good a king as it gets in the story of scripture, we can imagine that things only get worse after him. This is exactly so. The Book of First Kings (right after Second Samuel) begins with the death of King David. After describing more than six generations, civil war, and a division of Israel into two nations, it ends with the death of King Ahab. The book vividly compares the corruption of the governments of the world with the justice of the Kingdom of God. The governments of the world apart from God are always corrupted. God is worthy to be the King of kings. But God’s rule has been rejected by the kings of this world. In First Kings, God is the true king of Israel. But God’s just authority is not reflected in the government.

In 1 Chronicles, David’s purchase of Araunah’s threshing floor (1 Chronicles 21) is followed immediately by preparations for the building of Israel’s first temple on that very land (1 Chronicles 22). David’s son, Solomon, becomes king after David, rules in a time of peace and prosperity and builds the temple on Mount Moriah, on the hill in the land of the Jebusites. After this high point in the history of the kings, everything goes downhill. Solomon’s success and wealth leads to pride and power, and from there a violent and corrupt dictatorship (1 Kings 12:4). Israel is turned into an empire like Egypt, the empire from which they were rescued. The people are treated as slaves, as they had been before they were an empire, while under the burden of Egypt. All of this is just as God had warned the people when they first demanded a king in 1 Samuel 8.

After Solomon, it goes from bad to worse. The nation splits in two, with David’s line ruling Judah in the south, and a new line of kings ruling Israel in the north. They are both a line of violent dictators. Some make reforms that temporarily appear to heal the nation, but they are always patchwork attempts and temporary. By the time of Ahab, Israel is entirely apostate, nothing at all like they were before the time of the kings, living under a feudalistic system, controlled by a king married to Jezebel, representing an unholy alliance with the worshippers of the Ba’als.

For Each Greedy and Violent King, 

a Righteous and Peaceful Prophet

Though God’s just rule has been abandoned by the government and the mainstream culture in the nation, it is still kept alive and communicated through the prophets. Each story of a corrupted king has a parallel of a righteous prophet, strange men often living on the margins of society, counter-cultural to whatever degree the government and the culture following it has abandoned justice and righteousness. These lights in the darkness speak Truth to power, boldly revealing the wickedness of the government to itself and to the people, calling the government and the nation to repent, to turn around, to go back to being the just people they once were. In the time of Ahab, this prophet is Elijah (1 Kings 17-21).

Elijah vs. Ahab

Like a single loud activist ever-present at a corrupt premiere’s every press conference, so was Elijah an offense to the selfish and greedy King Ahab. The two men had several confrontations in 1 Kings, often with Elijah presenting some piece of performance art or witty message that would expose Ahab for a fool (activists take note). The most well-known of these confrontations is probably when Elijah predicts a drought (1 Kings 17:1), punishment by God wrought upon the king for “doing more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.” (1 Kings 16:32, ESV). After nearly three years of drought, Elijah confronts Ahab again. Irritated, Ahab calls Elijah “the troubler of Israel”, for which Elijah exchanges the zinger “I have not troubled Israel, but you have … because you have abandoned the commandments of the LORD and followed the Ba’als.” (1 Kings 18: 17-18, ESV – activists take note again: good mirror-messaging*). After this witty exchange is the oft-told account of Elijah and the prophets of Ba’al on Mount Carmel. They each make an offering on an altar, and ask their god to burn it up. Elijah’s burns. The prophets are killed (1 Kings 18:20-40).

Ahab, the King of Israel and Naboth

Ahab’s rule in Israel is a lifetime of selfish, violent corruption, addiction to power, greed, and occasionally embarrassing self-pity. Along the way, God’s prophet Elijah is there to reveal to the king his own injustice, and to call him to repent and turn the nation back to righteousness. Nowhere is Ahab’s cruelty and selfishness more clearly seen than in his treatment of his subject, Naboth of Jezreel (1 Kings 21). Ahab kept his capital in Samaria (today’s Palestinian territory), but also maintained a palace in the land of Jezreel (33 kilometres to the north**). Ahab notices a vineyard near his palace, and approaches Naboth to buy it from him. Naboth tells Ahab that he cannot sell the land by conviction. It is his family’s traditional land, and he believes that to sell it would be wrong. We do not fault Ahab for offering to buy the land, but when Naboth refuses to sell it, Ahab’s privilege as king is offended.

Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, finds her sulking husband lying curled up in bed with his face to the wall, refusing to eat. After he whines his story of rejection to her (leaving out the part about Naboth’s conviction not to sell because it was traditional family land), Jezebel promises to get the land for him. Her appeal for justification is that Ahab is king of Israel. In Jezebel and Ahab’s world, a king may do whatever he pleases.

Jezebel did exactly as she promised. With Ahab’s blessing, she sets up a mock trial in which Naboth is accused of treason and stoned to death. Once he is dead, Jezebel returns to Ahab with the news, and Ahab takes over Naboth’s vineyard for himself. Right away, Elijah arrives with God’s accusation of the king. Elijah calls Ahab twice condemned for his actions, for murder and for theft. He pronounces God’s judgment on Ahab and Jezebel both for their sin, predicting that they will both die dishonourably, and that in their deaths Naboth would be vindicated.

Two Kings, Two Pieces of Land

Ahab’s story is a near mirror image of David’s. While David could have easily justified taking possession of a threshing floor by the power of his position, he does not. Ahab has no justification whatsoever for claiming the vineyard as his, yet he takes it. David possesses the threshing floor to build an altar of sacrifice to God. At best, Ahab’s only intention for Naboth’s vineyard is to increase the beauty of his home. At worst, the text suggests that his intention to plant a “garden of herbs (literal)” may have been for the purpose of Ba’al worship (which uses garden herbs). While David finds himself commanded to possess the land while lying prostrate, repentant and humble before God, Ahab responds to Naboth’s rejection by curling up on his bed and sulking selfishly. David responds to Araunah’s generous offer of free land by nobly insisting to pay him well for it. Ahab responds to Naboth’s rejection of an offer to sell the land by manipulating his wife to murder.

From these two parallel stories are revealed much about the nature of greed, of injustice, violence and war, of humility, of peace, and of just and righteous community.

Of all these things, James tells us this:

James 3:16-4:6

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 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. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 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. 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”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Because any one of us can be an Ahab, kings in our own little world.

Or, submitted to the justice and righteousness of God, we can live for the glory of God alone, our lives a sacrifice for the eternal kingdom.

PART 2 OF 3

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*(On Mirror Messaging)

A good technique for activists to use when engaging the media. When faced with an accusation, or accusatory leading question (usually a yes or no question), follow the ABCs:

Acknowledge the question

Bridge through a common term/notion if possible

Communicate your message

Q: Isn't it criminal to be occupying private property?

A: Well, I don’t know about that, but what I do know is that it is criminal for the 1% to continue to benefit from a system that oppresses the 99% of us.

** (On Jezreel)

Joshua 15:56 – Jezreel is part of a long list of lands in the inheritance of the tribe of Judah from the hill country.

Judges 6:33  - One example of many times that Jezreel is mentioned as a strategic place of war.

1 Samuel 25:43 – King David married a woman from Jezreel.

1 Kings 18:45-46 – Elijah runs past Ahab to escape the rain until they reach Jezreel, possibly indicating that Ahab already lived there by this point.