To Encourage You

James 4:1 “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?”

It’s so important that we realize that the Bible is to be taken personally.  This is particularly true when we see the word “you” used.  One such place is the verse above.  It’s a question that is being asked of us, i.e., every single one of us. And, incredibly, since “all Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16a), it means that this question is being asked of us, personally, by God.  Have you ever thought about it that way? You should, because it’s the truth. 

What’s more, since all Scripture is breathed out by God, what it says to us, and in the present case, what this verse asks of us, and also the answer it gives us are “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16b-17).  It’s a question that we need to be asked.  It’s something we need to think about. And then we need to hear the Lord’s answer. We aren’t meant to be left hanging. Nor are we meant to lean to our own understanding. Rather, we are to hear the answer that is coming to us from another realm, i.e., from heaven. It’s an answer from the omniscient mind of God.  

So, back to the question. God is asking us, “What causes the quarrels and fights that you are experiencing in life?”  In other words, why are the difficult people in your life so difficult? Why can’t you get along with them? The natural answer, and perhaps the first answer that might come to our mind is that that other person has a real problem.  The fact that they don’t agree with you about some issue, the reason you are always quarreling with them, is because there is something wrong with them, or at least there’s something wrong with how they see certain things in life. Maybe they’re just downright evil!  But that’s not what God’s answer is.  Notice what He says.  He’s telling us that the reason we are in conflict with others is largely because there are “passions at war within (us),” i.e., within our own heart and soul. 

You’ve heard the saying, “it takes two to tango.”  It’s a saying that means that in any disagreement or conflict between two people, the blame for that conflict is often shared.  It’s rare that any person is 100% in the right about anything for that matter. So, when there is a conflict, God is telling us that the first place we should look to come to terms with it is within our own heart.  We should ask ourselves about what we really want from this fight. Do we want to just be right? Do we want our own way? Do we want something we don’t have and that other person is standing in our way?  Maybe we want to be respected or affirmed, that sort of thing.  Whatever it is, is that desire, that passion, a good thing or is it a self-centered and selfish thing? Is it something that is so incredibly important that we need to fight about it? Whatever the case, we should remember that elsewhere in God’s Word we are told, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). Again, note how this is addressed to YOU.  

But what if you’re in the absolute right on an issue and even though you’ve done all you can, there still is no peace in the relationship?  THEN what do you do? What did God tell us to do? Listen to these words from Jesus, to you and me, personally, from Matthew 5:44-48: “I say to YOU, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  It’s such a high standard! No wonder, for it’s coming from the very mouth of God. 

And this extends, by the way, even to conflicts over spiritual matters, including situations in which you are absolutely convinced that your interpretation of what the Bible says about something is correct, yet someone in your life strongly disagrees with you, and maybe you are convinced that their view on the issue will lead them straight to hell!  Listen to Paul’s wise counsel to Timothy on this exact issue in 2 Timothy 2:24-26: “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”  

So, back to that question, “What causes quarrels and fights among you?” God’s answer is to first look deeply within our own hearts.  And if we see something that isn’t right there, He has told us that, wonderfully, He has the cure.  You see, to the scribes and Pharisees that were so convinced that they were correct about everything that they were willing to argue with the very Son of God, Jesus said this: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). You see, the first step to any healing is to admit that we have a need.  And since He is the wonderful Great Physician, it is to Him that we should take that need every time.