Quarrle and Fight #1 James 4

James 4:1a
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

This is an universally appropriate question.  However what we need to have in mind is that this question is being asked of believers, of the church.

We are all aware of the "big" quarrels and fights that divide and destroy churched and we are all appropriately distressed by them.  Whether the issue is critical or seemingly trivial it will destroy the church when it is allowed to.  Sometimes a local group must pass through such a time of pruning and distress but that should be the exception not the rule.  Just as there are blessed additions to the Body so too there are sanctified subtractions.

However we will not be addressing this passage (James 4:1-10) from some corporate viewpoint.  If the "you in verse 1a is plural than we can extrapolate it's application to each and everyone of the "you(s)." it touches.  The seed of quarrels and fights is the sin abiding in each one of us.  We are the cause.

But just knowing the cause and not addressing it is a distressing sign of the ambivalence that may lurk in our hearts.  I meet with many believers who harbour ambivalence and apathy in their hearts concerning the holiness God calls us to and works toward in us.  It is as though they have found some comfortable and manageable place of compromise where their hearts are more at peace than not and they are willing to bear the incongruity of their position and the difficulty it brings.

God's call on our lives is not to "radical living," or even "radical faith>"  His call is to holiness - plain and simple.  Certainly our lives and beliefs will seem radical as we strive with His Spirit toward holiness but the point isn't to Wow the world but to grow in holiness after the image of Christ.

We've sadly forgotten and in some ways forsaken the quest for holiness and godliness and exchanged it for a display of radical distinction on the outside - in public and come to think that what we do will change what we believe.  It won't.  Only a deep and humble commitment to godliness/holiness and an utter humiliation before God in seeking it will produce in us His desired objective.

Again, though this applies to the big quarrels and public fights we see in the church, they are simply symptomatic of the little quarrles and fights we have against the will and providence of God.  I hope and pray you are open to and seeing your guilt in this and how insidious our sinful hearts are even as we are being conformed into the likeness of Christ.

I close with this quote from John Flavel from his work, Keeping the Heart:

To repress the outward acts of sin and compose the external part of thy life in a laudable manner, is no great matter; even carnal persons, by the force of common principles, can do this:  but to kill the root of corruption within, to set and keep up an holy  government over thy thoughts, to have all things lie straight and orderly in the heart, this is not easy.  John Flavel

Romans 8:7 "The Problem"

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.  Romans 8:7  ESV

John Milton wrote,
"The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.   Paradise Lost

Though the very center of our "self" is the heart, the mind is no less important to the comfort and growth of the believer.  We have looked at - and will continue to look at - the keeping of the heart, it is the mind my attention is drawn to today.

We do not get a lobotomy or even a de-frag when we come to Christ.  Not only the content of our minds, but the very manner in which we employ it is relatively the same.  We keep our memories and we think in the same old way.

This is a great source of confusion and consternation for the believer.  It is in the conflict between the mind of the flesh and the mind of the spirit that the believer senses trials and temptations.

A simple thing like - well - right and wrong is a good example.  Prior to our redemption, right and wrong tended to be fluid.  We were much more "tolerant" in drawing a line between the two.  For the sake of relationships, status, acceptance, etc., we were inclined (that is "bent") towards cutting a lot of slack for those to whom we looked for companionship, acceptance, success and comfort.

This manner of thinking does not automatically change when one comes to Christ.  There is no re-installation of the operating system.  The mind works in the same old way - the information we had before is unquestioned and figured into our decisions.  So we find ourselves making what were once "good" decisions, sound decisions that now, because of our new loyalty, are - wrong.

But, we all found that there were very few who challenged or questioned our thought processes (much less their own).  So, we brought our fleshly/worldly knowledge and thinking into the Kingdom with us and tried to make it work.  Of course, we discover that it doesn't.

That's ok, however, for such is the case with many of our fellow believers.  We think in worldly ways based on worldly knowledge using worldly processes.  Is it any wonder that we struggle in our minds concerning our salvation?

Any simple run of the word mind via a concordance will make it very clear that our minds are just not right - neither content nor processes nor propositions "fit" any more.

Two verses highlight this point:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,  Phil 2:5
and
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by d the renewal of your mind,  Rom. 12:2

We see two things.  We are to have the mind of Christ and our minds are to be transformed.  Hence, the assumption that there is no wiping of our minds when we are redeemed and we are able and expected to change them.

The "mind of Christ" is the goal; "renewal" is the method.

This is no easy or quick task.  It is a daily - if not momentary - duty in which we are to be engaged.

The means:
This renewal of the mind has at least two elements.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,  2 Cor. 10:5a

To do this, we must first recognize those arguments and opinions which pit themselves against the knowledge of God.  We do this by taking every thought captive.

We have all heard this verse used in reference to the world's objections and arguments against the faith - but we need to understand that this same kind of argument and opinion dwells in us - not just outside us.

Unless we accept the duty of taking every one of our thoughts captive and discerning whether it is in obedience to Christ, our "arguments" and "opinions" will continue to be stumbling blocks to our growth, security and comfort.  To fail in this duty - to fail to accept this duty - will be to fall short of the comfort and effectiveness of which we are rightful possessors.  We will be weak and pliable.  We will be tossed and thrown.

"Duty"??  Did I say duty?  Yes, it is the duty of every citizen of the Kingdom to give honor, homage and obedience to the King.  We certainly don't expect it of His enemies.  But to not expect it of ourselves is to put the vassal over the Lord.  It is to make ourselves sovereign and Him just a servant.

These duties are not for our salvation but rather because of it.  We are indeed new creatures but such naive and clumsy ones.  The "duties" of prayer, study, worship, stewardship are our means of training, our means of growth.  Though you may not see it, there is a great deal of work done between the acorn and the oak.  There are principles and providences and processes at work in the acorn that we can say are its duties.  However, though we may indeed be nuts as well, unlike the acorn, we are able to intentionally avoid our duties - and this much to our harm.

So let us accept the duties of capturing every thought and subjecting it to the scrutiny of the Word and the Spirit.  Let us, through the duty of prayer, study, and attending to the Word preached and taught meticulously examine the content and operation of our minds.

Secondly, we are to direct our minds to particular things.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Phil. 4:8 ESV

This is not rainbows and puppies and cute little bunny rabbits.  The true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable - excellence and praise worthy are those things which God describes thusly.  It is His criteria we much discern by and not our own.

Here we have very clear ends to the stick.  What does and what does not meet this criteria?  Are we seeking the one and avoiding the other?  Or, are we just wandering about stumbling upon the one and wallowing in the other?  What influences your thoughts the most?  Is it TV or the Word?  Is it Vogue or Romans?  Is it God's whatevers or just whatever?

Though it is beneficial to look, to hunt for those things about which God would have us think, it's benefit is hindered when we accompany it with what the world offers.  It's like eating a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts and drinking a Diet Coke - dubious in its benefit at best.

We may not be able to think God's thoughts but we are able to think about God's Word.  But how beneficial is it when we spend a couple of hours engaged in the Word and many more passively taking in the babble and confusion of the world.  Again - Kripsy Kreme and Diet Coke - it's just self-deception - silliness - dumb.

No, if we are to really take up the duties of a servant of the King, there is much about which we must think and much about which we must not.

Let me stress that word "MUST."  We must - not that we might be saved, not even that we might stay saved - but rather that we might actually experience the glory and comfort and security of being saved.  The "imperatives" in the scriptures are imperative for living the faith.  They are not optional, they are not occasional - they are immediate imperatives - right now and always now.

In light of the quote I cited from Milton - many believers long for heaven but because they do not attend to their minds, they live a hellish existence here.