Epaggelia

v1-3, The first point here is the exact opposite of peace from our last discussion, now it’s war! What lays behind the peace was the purity that is the first mark of God’s wisdom from above. So now we discover what lies behind the wars and fighting, which are so common among the professed people of God. The impure lust of the human heart, the lust connected with worldly wisdom which is fleshly & devilish. Notice some versions use “lusts” and others use “pleasures”. That is because the Greek (  ἡδονή hedone ) word means the pleasure that comes from the gratifying of our desires, rather than the desires themselves. If our desires run riot and we find a sinful pleasure in their gratification, we at once have the root of endless contentions and warfare. See Luke 15:13-30 and remember Jesus died to forgive us of this kind of behavior.

v4, The strong language of James in calling professed Christians, “adulterous” is justified because we are personally responsible for making our self an enemy of God, even after He made us to be friends! If we choose to keep living like an enemy, even after He once treated us like a friend, then we will be treated with the worst of punishment, see Luke 19:27. Look closely at the word ‘abomination’ in Luke 16:15, then you will understand why friends of this world are enemies to God.

v5, has a wonderful revelation of God’s desire joined with the purpose of Scripture. That is to have His Spirit live within us, ever since our first day when God breathed his breath (pnuema) into Adam, to the day Christ breathed upon his disciples, His Spirit has desired to live within us. Gen. 2:7 & Jn. 20:22, Acts 2:38-39 & 17:25. Do you believe this? Our God is a jealous God, 2nd Corinthians 11:2.

v6-10, These words are written to help us know how to repent. The key is wanting to repent! Sometimes for the desire to repent, we need to ask God for help in giving us the opportunity to repent and start personally employing these instructions from James. Afterall, we can’t make ourselves cry! But God can, so asking God to help us repent isn’t an impossible request, it’s just rare that we do it, but try we must! See Acts 11:18, 2nd Tim. 2:25. If Christians get good at doing anything, it should be in doing repentance! Why? Because the ultimate goal of every Christian is surely to end up “exalted” by God. That can only be done in Christ, who is the Victor, wherein real exaltation & glory truly exists. “Exalted” is something God wants to do for each of His children, if we will only submit to his beautiful will in repentance. The word exalted means that God will lift us up above our greatest dreams of glory, and it seems the human imagination is incapable of having a clear vision of how glorious this magnificent position is, or how high the infinity of grace truly is around His Throne of Grace. Please read Luke 18:14 & 1st Peter 5:6. Do you believe this?