The Passion of God

The Passion of God

James is startling passionate. Especially for what we sometimes call, “Wisdom literature.” James boils with passion, frustration that Christian’s in the church are not living out the faith Jesus gave us. A lot of James is this great man calling on, “Come on! Let’s follow. Let’s be authentic disciples of Jesus.”

Brewing at the center of James is something easily missed; the Passion of God.

James 4:1-6

• This text is not about you and other people. It’s not about broken relationships you have with other humans. It’s about your relationship with God.
• James 4:3, James suggests that the reason our prayers are unanswered is that we prayed wrong. That seems offensive at first. We prayed wrong?! But he says that we prayed not seeking God’s will, but desiring only that God answer our prayers so that our flesh might be satisfied.
• James 4:4 is a reference to spiritual adultery. Chasing things other than God.
• I think the center of this text, and possibly the Epistle itself is James 4:5. He is referencing, but not directly quoting, Exodus 20:5.
• God is a Jealous God is a big deal doctrine. Just meaning it’s not something mentioned once in Scripture. Over and over God is described as a Jealous God. If this is part of God’s nature, we need to understand it. (Psalm 79:5, Deuteronomy 4:24, Exodus 34:14.)
• James 4:6 answers the question, If I wander, will God take me back? Yes. By his grace. How do I come back? You don’t strut back to God! You come back humbly.

1. I was created in the image of

• James 4:5, he is jealous of the spirit He put in us. The spirit he put in us is our own spirit. Our inner being. Our self. The living being that you are, your soul, was created by God for God. You were created unique and able to commune with God unlike anything else in creation. There is nothing else in all the universe like the human soul! The soul is capable of knowing God deeply. In fact, the soul can know God more deeply than event he highest realm of angels, because the soul was created in God’s image.
• Living under the fog of sin, we don’t now what we are supposed to be passionate for. We allow the flesh to direct our passion.

What Misdirected Passion does:

• (James 4:2)
• It causes prayers (James 4:3)
• Makes me (James 4:4)

2. What does God want?

We are always telling God what we want. When is the last time you asked God, “what do you want?”

*** God wants

To be clear, he does not worship you (that would terrible!), he loves you. Throughout the Bible God’s love is described like an intense lover. But human love, as intense as it is, can only be a hint of the strength of God’s love. God’s love is a burning, blazing passion.

Notice how emotional James 4:5 is. He “yearns” jealously for us. That’s so emotional it almost makes us uncomfortable.

“Yearns” (epipothei), only here in the New Testament. It means, To intensely crave possession of. To earnestly desire. To long after. To lust. (God does not lust after us. The idea of “desire” or “yearn” conveys the gist of the text.) The point is that God is not an algorithm, He is alive with passion.

• NAS: He jealously desires the Spirit
• KJV: in us lusteth to envy?
• INT: with envy does long the Spirit

We misunderstand God’s jealousy.

We think of jealousy in terms of petty human emotions that God does not possess. Is God envious, like we might be of a car or a talent? Not at all.

God’s jealousy describes the passion of relationship.

3. For God have me fully, I must deal with

……………

Illustration:

Ordinary guy or gal meets someone amazing of the opposite sex. Since I’m male, I’ll describe the other person in terms of female.

• She has a great job.
• She’s beautiful.
• She has an amazing personality.
• She falls for you! Hard. And the two of you have a wonderful romance. There’s long walks and you talk deep into the night. She share’s things with you that she loves, and you don’t know why, but she’s passionate about you.
• Let’s me clear, she’s way out of your league! But for reasons known only to her, she peruses you with vigorous passion.
• One night you walk under the stars and you admit to her, “Hey, I’m kind of broke.” And she says, “It’s okay. I love you anyway. I’ll pay your debt. In fact, you dress shabby, too. Let’s buy you a new wardrobe.” She loves giving you gifts. She enjoys it when you’re happy.
• What would you say to yourself? What advice would you give to you? Marry her!
• Imagine, you do marry her. And life is beautiful. She’s kind to you, sweet, she brings home a great paycheck and just wants you to be a faithful partner in the marriage. She’s passionate for you and for the relationship.
• But… there are other girls out there. And every now and then your flirting with them.
• Now imagine gong to your wife, the love of your life, and asking her for money to buy the other women you like flowers. To court them. What would you do? You would stir her jealousy.
• We long for things that take us from God. Worse, we ask to give us funds so we can commit adultery. James says, that’s why God doesn’t answer our prayers! We are asking for things that steal us from God.

……………

James 4:4, look at the verbiage. He calls it, “Adultery” “enmity” “enemy.”

James 4:5, “he yearns jealously” is quoting Exodus 20:5. The commandment is tied to the nature or person of God.

• How serious is the doctrine of a “Jealous” God? He wrote it in stone in the Ten Commandments. We write our loves name with a heart in a tree. God wrote it in stone. My daughter Annie pointed out, he wrote it with His own hand!
• Idolatry is more than statues, it’s giving our hearts away.
• Numbers 25, Hebrews were enticed into adultery. Numbers 25:11.

4. Promises in this text: (James 4:7-9)

• The Devil can (James 4:7)
• God is (James 4:8-9)
• The Lord gives richly (James 4:10)