Consistency Between Faith and Conduct

In public life, you may encounter divisive opinions or heated debates that lead to frustration. It’s easy to feel superior in our views and criticize others, forgetting that Ya’akov 4:11 warns against slandering fellow Believers. Commit to engaging in constructive dialogues instead of arguments. This week, I approached conversations with grace, assuming positive intent. If you hear someone speaking harshly about a different viewpoint, gently steer the conversation towards understanding. Promoting kindness and humility will represent Yeshua in a world desperate for peace.

Wisdom Shown by Good Life

¹³ Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him demonstrate it by his good way of life, by actions done in the humility that grows out of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor in your hearts bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, don’t boast and attack the truth with lies! ¹⁵ This wisdom is not the kind that comes down from above; on the contrary, it is worldly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where there are jealousy and selfish ambition, there will be disharmony and every foul practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is, first of all, pure, then peaceful, kind, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And peacemakers who sow seed in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

Compare Ya’akov 1:5–8, 13–18. There are two kinds of wisdom. That which is worldly, unspiritual, and demonic produces jealousy (or “bitter zeal”) and selfish ambition, followed by disharmony and every foul practice (see, for example, the lists at Romans 1:28-31, Galatians 5:19-21). But the wisdom from above is “from the Father,” with whom “there is neither variation nor darkness” (Ya’akov 1:17); it is extolled at Proverbs 8:22ff.

Materialism Brings Conflicts

¹ What is causing all the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it your desires battling inside you?

While pride and selfishness are natural to fallen humanity and often serve as a basis for advancement in worldly rank, Ya’akov names them as the source of wars and fights within the congregation. “Wars and fights” indicate physical conflict among members and/or factions within the congregation. The source of conflict was the cravings … at war within you. “Cravings” refers to the pleasures of life, the pursuit of which leads to conflicts.

² You desire things and don’t have them. You kill, and you are jealous, and you still can’t get them. So you fight and quarrel. The reason you don’t have it is that you don’t pray! ³ Or you pray and don’t receive, because you pray with the wrong motive, that of wanting to indulge your own desires.

Two statements distinguished by paired opposites (desire … do not have and murder and covet … cannot obtain) and two direct assertions (fight and war and do not have because you do not ask) describe the problem to which the circumstances had led. People were killing one another to appease their misplaced desires! Their desires were unappeased because they were asking with wrong motives. The source of conflict was selfish desire and envy run amok (3:13–18).

Godliness Brings Joy

⁴ You unfaithful wives! Don’t you know that loving the world is hating God? Whoever chooses to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy! ⁵ Or do you suppose the Scripture speaks in vain when it says that there is a spirit in us which longs to envy? ⁶ But the grace he gives is greater, which is why it says, “God opposes the arrogant, but to the humble he gives grace.” (Proverbs 3:34)

The phrase but He gives greater grace introduces the main point—God’s grace can overcome unfaithfulness. The exhortation to repent is backed by a stark reality expressed in Prov 3:34 and quoted here by Ya’akov: God opposes the arrogant. To remain in sinful pride is to invite God’s battle array against you. In contrast to this, God gives grace to the humble (Ya’akov 1:17).

⁷ Therefore, submit to God. Moreover, take a stand against the Adversary, and he will flee from you.  ⁸ Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded people! ⁹ Wail, mourn, sob! Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom! ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Ya’akov issued ten commands needed to resolve the conflict within the congregation. The theme is repentance and forgiveness. The use of imperatives followed by and suggests that the result of each command is conditioned by the response to it, which yields the idea, “if you do X, then Y results.” Submitting to God carries the idea of self-humbling; standing against the adversary suggests active resistance against temptation. Sinners and double-minded people are parallel ideas that characterize both the teachers and the congregation. “Double-minded” recalls the doubter of 1:8. The words humble yourselves … and He will lift you up summarize the path to forgiveness from God and reconciliation among congregation members.

Obeying Versus Judging

¹¹ Brothers, stop speaking against each other! Whoever speaks against a brother or judges a brother is speaking against Torah and judging Torah. And if you judge Torah, you are not a doer of what Torah says, but a judge. ¹² There is but one Giver of Torah; he is also the Judge, with the power to deliver and to destroy. Who do you think you are, judging your fellow human being? [1]

Criticism is malicious, judgmental speech toward others. It violates the “royal law” (Ya’akov 2:8) and, by extension, the Mosaic Law. Since the One who gave the law also judges according to it, there are never grounds for critical speech directed toward another congregation member.

In our next post, we continue to dig into the Letter of Ya’akov.

Click here for the PDF version.

[1] Ya’akov 3:13-4:12.