James 4:1-3

We are going to begin in the book of James. This is exceedingly important because we find ourselves living in a culture that is coming apart at the seams. And it is coming apart because each individual wants to execute his desires. What James is going to tell us here is what happens when individuals begin to execute their desires:

James' basic question is, to the Christian and therefore to you and me, "Are we going to submit to God, or to our desires for pleasures?" Pleasure here does not mean fun, like when you go to an amusement park. There certainly is an amount of desire to do that kind of thing. He is talking about the desire that normally arises within an individual. The individual, then, has to make the choice of whether or not he is going to follow through and gratify himself by fulfilling that desire. So pleasure here does not necessarily mean fun, but it means that which gratifies.

He is saying to you and me that if we seek our desires, then we had better understand that life is going to be filled with conflict. Why? The reason is because everybody else is probably doing the same thing. Their desire might be different from ours—and so our desire runs headlong into their desire—then comes struggle, war, strife, and arguments over whose desire is going to be fulfilled. When people do what is right in their own eyes, rather than submit to the central authority, desires will crash into each other and conflict occurs. It matters not whether that central authority is the family, the culture, or God's Word!