Self

    Last Bible Study we wrestled with the idea that we can't control our tongues. Well, actually, we weren't inclined to wrestle with it very much, we all came ready to pretty much confess! But as James' illustration showed us, a fountain can't spout fresh and salty water. So if, by implication, a fountain is salty, how would you control the water spouting from it? You would clean out the fountain! You would figure out where that salt is coming from and get rid of it. But the key is the source, not the fountain itself.
    We all probably spent the last two weeks struggling with that. Convicted. Trying to do better. I just tried to keep my mouth SHUT as much as possible, with varying degrees of success.
    I think Chapter 4 will continue to help us with our tongues, and their polluted source, our hearts.
     James gets right to the point. "What causes fights and quarrels among you?" NASB says, "What is the source?" Where does fighting, [individual squabbles], and quarreling, [disagreement between groups], come from?
     The answer is, from our self. We will look at what chapter 4 teaches us about prayer, but I don't think James is teaching that we ask for the wrong things in the the wrong way. Once again, our source is polluted.  We ask out of our self. Not things for ourself. Self.
    Remember the earthy wisdom in chapter 3? It was envy and selfish ambition. But I don't think James has been talking about selfish as e.g. I want the biggest cupcake. He's talking about Self as the reason we're living.Self as the source of all that we do.
   Why else would he give us the clear choice in verses 4-5, friend of the World or friend of God? I'm not sure we think rightly about the World. We often think of worldly, one of those Christianese words, as having something to do with our dress or our style, or music or TV or the kind of house or job we have. John clearly describes what the World is. "Do not love the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for everything in the world...
     the cravings of sinful man,
     the lusting of his eyes,
     the boasting of what he has and does,
     comes not from the father but from the World. " 1 John 2:15,16
     The world system is the place where we live, and since we've grown up here, it's the way we think. We think it's about us. Self.
      But it isn't: it's totally about God.
      See how those ideas are in conflict. We can't live both ways. No, I mean we can't, it isn't possible. We have to make a choice. Live for self or live for God.
      If that's the true meaning of this passage, then we have to look at the source again, and the way we ask "amiss" when we pray.
     This is way too long. Time to quit. But verses 7-10 are so interesting in the way they are written. Wow. It's like poetry, totally making a point through even the physical construction of the sentences. I hope we get that far.
     And as for verses 13 to the end? Well, it's a continuation of the futility of living for self, as in ""Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow." Isn't THAT a great line. And it totally ties in to chapter 5, so if we don't make it that far Tuesday I'm not going to worry about it.
      I hope you're all ready to dig in again. We (I) have a lot to learn!