Wednesday, March 28, 2018

James 4:1-4 -- On Lust and War and Unity

"From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
James 4:1-4


Some of the ideas here are that lust causes a lot of problems, that we need to ask God for what we want, that we shouldn't ask to fulfill our lusts, and that trying to embrace both the world and God is not going to work.  What this reminds me of is the scriptural idea of the "natural man" which we read about in 1 Corinthians 2:14 and Mosiah 3:19, or the idea of the natural body vs the spiritual body in 1 Corinthians 15:44.

The main idea in all of these things I think is that there is war in all of us... the "lusts that war in your members" as it talks about here.  Not just something that causes war and fighting externally, but something that is born of an internal struggle... the natural versus the spiritual self.  Or, earthly lust versus spiritual desire.  Maybe even Id and Ego. :)  This struggle is basic to our mortality: we came to earth in part to gain physical bodies, and those bodies have "natural" lusts in addition to the spiritual desires that our spirits/souls had before we were placed in bodies.  This causes inherent internal conflict, and this is the core of God's plan for us.  He helps us to resolve this war, taming our bodies (or bridling our passions (Alma 38:12)) and allowing our spirits to have control.  The world encourages something very different--allowing our spirits to succumb to our animal instincts, and in essence giving in to our lusts.

What we are taught very clearly here is that we can't have it both ways.  We can't allow our bodies to have whatever they want and also fulfil our spiritual needs.  We have to follow God's plan and learn to place our spiritual needs above our physical desires.  This is a fundamental task in learning to resist sin and embrace God.  Also, tellingly, it doesn't make what we choose less "us" or cause us to lose ourselves (except maybe in the sense of Matthew 16:24-26).  It only emphasizes the spiritual part over the physical.  It is still all us, and we still have the joy of our bodies and our senses and so much more... only within the bounds that the Lord has set.

Today, let's ask and trust and work to put the Lord and our spiritual desires first, not killing or abandoning or hating our physical selves, but learning to control them and make sure that they serve us, rather than the other way around.  Let's be the friends of God and not of the world, and in so doing, be blessed with the wholeness that God promises us, when we are one with him, and there is no more internal war, but we have learned and are filled with unity and peace.

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