The Sin Nature: the enemy within; James
4:5-7a
James 4:5 NASB “Or
do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: ‘He jealously desires the
Spirit which He has made to dwell in us’?” Notice that there is a quote in this
verse, and it is not in upper case letters. There is
also a quote in verse 6 and it is in upper case letters. The reason is that
what appears to be a quote by its introduction “the Scripture speaks,” is not
found in any verse in any Old Testament version, in either the Hebrew Old
Testament of the Septuagint. So nobody knows there that comes from and that
creates a tremendous amount of confusion among Bible students. Verse 6 is
clearly a quote from Proverbs 3:34.
Whenever you do Bible study
two things are very important. The first is translation. Before we get to any
application we have to make sure that we have the correct interpretation.
Interpretation means: What did the original author intend to communicate? If we
don’t understand what the author intended to communicate and we misunderstand
that, then our application is going to be way off target. So we have to know
the author’s original intent. But before we do that we have a slight problem
because the Bible was not written in English, it was originally written in
Koine Greek (New Testament). As a result of that we have to get into the
original language to make sure we have a correct translation. Once we have a
correct translation then we can approach the issue of interpretation.
Interpretation asks the question: What did the author mean? Application answers
the question: What does that mean to me? Too often we jump over to application
first, and if we jump there before we have done translation and interpretation
work we end up in pure subjectivity and whatever we are applying may have
nothing at all to do with God’s instructions to us.
So we have to look at a
couple of things in context. First, the point of this question, Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose? In
to confront the readers with the reality of their own subjective arrogance in
either reinterpreting or ignoring what the Scripture says. That is the problem, they think the Scripture doesn’t really mean what
it says. If we broke this down into plain English James is saying, Do you really think the Scripture doesn’t mean what it says?
The word “thinking” here is DOKEO [dokew].
There are two words for thinking that are common in Greek DOKEO and PHRONEO [fronew]. PHRONEO has to do with objective thinking, doctrinal
thinking; DOKEO has to do with subjective thinking. That means you
are thinking in terms of your own experiences. By using the word DOKEO James is
implying that they are being subjective. They are living in terms of antinomianism, they are abusing the grace of God and so are thinking
that they can just do whatever they want to do without regard for God’s
commandments. To even suggest that the commandments of God in the New Testament
are irrelevant is absurd. There is something like 80 or 90 different imperative
verbs in this short five-chapter epistle, i.e. commands directed to the
believer. James certainly wants to communicate that there are certain
principles for the spiritual life and that the believer is supposed to live in
accord with those principles. He cannot treat them and is not to treat them
lightly or to think or rationalize his sin by just thinking that well, God has
forgiven me, Christ died on the cross and has paid for my sins, so it really
doesn’t matter what I do, I can go ahead and do it. God is going to take care
of that in divine discipline, and when you treat God’s grace lightly. You might
think you get away with it but you never do, the Supreme Court of heaven will
always make sure that we are taken care of in divine discipline. James is
waring these believers that he is writing to that they are living in carnality,
in fact they are in reversionism, they are treating
the grace of God lightly, and they need to recover. The real problem is that
these believers have failed to renovate their thinking, they have failed to let
their human viewpoint thinking that they brought with them into salvation be
transformed by the renewing of their minds.
James 4:6 NASB
“But He gives a greater grace. Therefore {it} says, ‘GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE
HUMBLE.’” It is important to notice that
this verse begins with a “but” in the English. It is a conjunction of contrast,
DE
[de], and this is the first time there is a shift. So the
first thing we need to notice is that from verses 1 down through verse 5 he is
castigating the carnal believers in his letter. So that means that in verse 5
whatever he is saying is still part of correcting these carnal believers. He is
still confronting them so their arrogance is still in operation. There is no
passage like the quote in verse 5 in the Old Testament, so we do have a
problem. Probably the best explanation is that he is going to quote Scripture
and he starts off and says: “Don’t you realize that the Scripture says.” Then
there is a parenthesis because he wants to remind them of a principle. Then he
comes back and gives the quote in verse 6. He has been challenging them with
their wrong behaviour and now he is going to give the solution starting in
verse 6. The quote in v. 6 is clearly from Proverbs 3:34 which reads a little different in the English: “Though He scoffs
at the scoffers, Yet He gives grace to the afflicted.” So one of the things we
have to deal with is that quote is not a quote from the Hebrew Old Testament,
it is a quote from the Septuagint [LXX]. But God then Holy Spirit still made sure that what
the New Testament writers quoted, even though it might have differed from the
Hebrew at some point, it still was an accurate reflection of truth; He
preserved it in terms of inerrancy.
“He jealously desires the
Spirit which He has made to dwell in us.” We have to ask what the main verb is.
It is EPIPOTHEO [e)pipoqew], the same word we have seen earlier and it has to do
with lust, desire, a deep or strong desire for something, longing, recognizing
that there is a lack in the life. It is a present active indicative. This means
it is a continuous action, the subject performs the action, and it is in the
mood of reality. But it is the third person singular—he, she or it. In Greek,
if you want to say, He did something, then all you have to do is say EPIPOTHEI. You
don’t have to use the pronoun “he.” The 3rd person singular is
embedded in the meaning the verb. Sometimes the pronoun is there and that is
for emphasis to make sure you get the point. Then it will also mention the
subject. In this case, after identifying the verb, the next thing to do is ask
what the subject is. In English you determine the subject by looking at its
position in the sentence, usually right before the verb. In Greek you have to
look for the word that is in the nominative case, and it can be anywhere in the
sentence. The way the Greek structure is laid out the very next word after the
verb has the definite article TA [ta] and
then noun PNEUMA [pneuma], the word for breath,
wind, spirit, Holy Spirit, human spirit. The troublesome thing here is that PNEUMA is a
neuter gender verb. That means that the nominative case ends with the letter A
and the accusative case also ends with the letter A. So when you look at TA PNEUMA it can
either be the subject of the verb—“the Spirit desires”—or it can be the direct
object of the verb—“He desires the Spirit.” Now we have a problem, we have to
figure out what is going to be the subject of the sentence. The next problem is
that you have to decide what PNEUMA means. Are we talking about wind or breath? Are we
talking about the Holy Spirit? Are we talking about the human spirit, a
mindset, disposition, mental attitude, or what?
So now we have a lexical
problem and a grammatical problem, and all that revolves around a theological
problem. The NASB translates this “He jealously desires.” So the
translators are making a decision that the subject of the verb is going to be
God, and PNEUMA there is not only the Holy Spirit but it is also
going to be the object of the verb. The KJV states it completely differently: “The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.”
It takes “the spirit” here as the subject of the verb. The translators are
saying that it is the spirit that dwells in us and it is not God that is
performing the action. At the point of “lusteth to
envy” it goes right over our heads and the thundering diction of the KJV loses
all meaning for us. But the KJV translators were exactly correct in taking the TA PNEUMA here
as the subject—“The spirit.” It still needs to be defined what the meaning of PNEUMA is but it
is the spirit that it is talking about. Why? Because if you take the
interpretation “He [God] desires the Spirit” what you are saying is that this
is saying God has placed the Holy Spirit in you and you are a carnal believer
but God desires to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. There are a couple
of problems. First of all, it is taking this sense of jealousy as a positive
thing. The word that is translated “jealousy” is the Greek word PHTHONON [fqonon] and in the New Testament it always has a negative,
sinful connotation. It never is applied to God anywhere. So if we are going to
take it the way the NASB does we are going to have to take this jealous desire
as a good thing and there is no basis for it anywhere in the Old or New
Testament. So it is wrong. Secondly, it is making this a positive verse and the
contrast doesn’t hit us until verse 6, the “But,” so that verse 5 must still be
in the negative challenge, the corrective stage of the first five verses. It is
not a good thing, it is a bad thing. So it doesn’t fit the context the way the NASB translates
it. So we take PNEUMA as the subject and we should translate this, “The
spirit,” and then the verb EPITHUMEO [e)piqumew]
“deeply desires,” and then we come to the phrase “envious lust,” indicating its
negative connotation” “The spirit greatly desires envious lust.” That is still
a little fuzzy so we will try to clarify this a little.
There is another phrase in
here, the phrase HO KATOIKEO [o( katoikew]. HO is the relative pronoun, it should be translated
“that.” The verb is an aorist and it means to settle, to establish, to place,
to put, to reside in, and it should be translated “the spirit that has resided
in us is attracted to envious lusts.” Now we have to decide what the author
means. What he means when he says “the spirit that has resided in us,” is he is
not using this as a technical term for the human spirit of the Holy Spirit, he
is talking about the mental attitude that is now controlling the recipients of
the letter in their carnality, and can control any of us in our carnality. This
mental attitude we would call the carnal mind, as Paul does in Romans chapter
eight, and what James is saying is that when you get into carnality, you get
into reversionism, the kind of mental attitude that
takes over your soul moves in the direction of envious lusts. What James is
doing when he gets ready to quote the Scripture, then scriptural solution to
their problems, is that he takes the parenthesis out in verse 5 to remind them
that they are being controlled by a carnal mental attitude that is promoting
envious lusts which is the underlying cause of the division, the animosity and
the hostility in the congregation.
Translation: “Do you think
that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: ‘Remember, the spirit that has taken
up residence in you [your mental attitude] is prone toward envious lust”? James 4:6 NASB “But He gives a
greater grace.” See, he is going to come in and emphasize the solution. God gives
a greater grace, greater than what? It starts of the comparative adjective MEIZON [meizwn], indicating something that is superior to or greater
than something else. Greater than what? Greater than
what it is contrasted to which is the carnality, the mental attitude sins, the
destructiveness, the divisiveness, all of the problems and stress that is
fragmenting the people and the congregation he is addressing. God’s grace is
greater than any problem you can ever face in life. Remember the human solution
is no solution; God’s solution is the only effective solution. That is what he
is saying.
James 4:6 NASB
“But He gives a greater grace. Therefore {it} says, ‘GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE
HUMBLE.’” He quotes Proverbs 3:34 from
the LXX. The word here for “opposed” is ANTITASSO [a)ntitassw], a compound word. TASSO has to do with putting
someone in a particular position. The ANTI can mean against or in substitution. In compound
words is tends to mean “against.” It means to set opposite, to put then against
someone, to range in battle against, and to set one’s self against in a
confrontational position. That was its meaning in classical Greek. The reason
for emphasizing that is because when the LXX was translated somewhere between the second and third
century BC, Koine was still developing in its infancy. So the meaning of ANTITASSO
probably had more to do with classical Greek meaning than later Koine meaning.
Even in the Koine it means to oppose someone, to be hostile toward someone, or
to show hostility to someone. The portrayal in classical Greek where Homer used
it to describe opposing combat forces indicates that God is making war against
the arrogant. God sets Himself against the arrogant. If you are a child of God
then God is going to set Himself against you in your arrogant carnality. The
word translated “proud” is the Greek word HUPEREPHANOS [u(perhfanoj] and it is not the normal word for just pride, it is
instead a technical word for arrogance. It is much stronger than simply pride.
“… but
gives grace,” and it is the Greek word DIDOMI [didomi].
Whenever we have this word, which means to give, we ought to think about grace.
This is the verb for grace, that God gives freely out
of His own character based on who He is and what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
“… to the humble.” And here we have the word TAPEINOS [tapeinoj] which is related to the adjective TAPEINPHROSUNE [tapeinofrosunh] which is the character quality that Jesus exhibits
when He is not going to stay in heaven but is going to voluntarily restrict the
independent use of Hs attributes, and even though he was God did not think that
equality with God was something to be grasped, and He limited Himself and took
on the form of a servant—Philippians 2 is the classic passage in illustrating
the essence of true and genuine humility. So we see the importance of humility
as the character quality that is going to characterize those who rule and reign
with Jesus Christ. So what we have here is a topical sentence. The issue is
that God is going to be against you if you are in carnality because you are
operating under the arrogance skills, but He will provide grace if you humble
yourself to God.
Humility begins with
authority orientation. We have to remind ourselves that God is the one in
charge of our lives and not us, and so the issue is what God says and not what
we feel, what we think, or what we would like to do. Verses 7-10 are going to
explain the principle given in the quote from Proverbs 3:34. There we are going
to have 10 aorist active imperatives. An aorist imperative emphasizes a
priority item, and it often conveys a sense of urgency. And, of course, when
you are in carnality it is a matter of urgency for you to confess your sins and
recover the filling of the Holy Spirit, fellowship with the Lord, and start
moving forward. That is why he is expressing this urgency towards these carnal
believers who have all these conflicts and quarrels and antagonisms. The first
thing they have to do if they are going to move in the direction of humility is
to submit to God.
James 4:7 NASB
“Submit therefore to God. Resist
the devil and he will flee from you: Here we have the word HUPOTASSO [u(potassw]—HUPO = under; TASSO = position under authority. The Scripture says a lot
about submission, this verb is used several times.
Romans 13:1 NASB “Every person is to be in subjection to the
governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those
which exist are established by God.” If you start violating the principle of
authority orientation and start sitting in judgment on whether or not the
authority ought to be obeyed you are putting yourself in the position of God,
you are creating a trauma in your soul that will make it easy for you to
violate any other authority, even when that authority is right. You are setting
a soul precedent of disrespect and disobedience to authority, and this is why
we always have to remember that we have to respect the position of authority
even though the person may not be worthy of respect. 1 Corinthians