Study 6 from “The Work of Faith” Study on James: James 4:1-10
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.”
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
Helen Howarth Lemmel (1922), from “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”
Questions for initial thought: Where do you find yourself unsatisfied in your life? What do you do with your dissatisfaction? How do your actions influence the lives of those around you? How can our own dissatisfaction mar the witness of the church?
How many “good works” are enough to prove my faith? To what extent must I learn to control my tongue before I can show that the Gospel is at work? Perhaps we find ourselves asking these things as we study the book of James. Yes, in a society ruled by social expectations, the temptation for us is to want to measure fruit by human standards. “Look! I’m doing a good deed by serving on the PTA!”, though at home, I struggle to have patience with my children. “See her faith! She volunteers weekly at the homeless shelter!,” while privately, it’s just another monotonous act to try and prove her own worth. “He must be a good Christian: He’s always posting on social media about different political causes,” though privately, he finds it beneath him to lift a finger around the house, or help his elderly neighbor rake the leaves. But as James has shown us, such type of “fruit” is no fruit at all.
Yes, James is a highly practical book for learning to live out faith as Christians (as we have seen). But James is not simply concerned about the works that come from faith. Rather, he wants to address the root cause of the issue, in order to yield a harvest that continues to increase in abundance, season after season, even through the storms of life. We saw this in chapter 3, as James called us to examine the “work of the tongue.” Now, in chapter 4, James is going to unpack this idea in another way: instead of calling us to simply treat one another well, he wants us to examine the root cause of dissension, and learn the work of controlling our passions, through a life of humility and repentance. Yes, a “harvest of righteousness” comes through learning to make peace (Js. 3:18). And learning to make peace must come through the work of discovering the root of passion in our lives; through finding grace as the antidote to passion, and learning to be controlled by a greater passion.
The Root of Passion (vv.1-4)
Ask yourself: What do you think is the connection between an “untamed tongue” (from ch. 3), and the passions James is speaking against in ch. 4? How can our passions become divisive?
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” James asks (Js 4:1). Let us remember that James is speaking to a context of Christians within the early church, and yet, the church is full of division and arguing. How can God’s people exhibit such this sort of behavior amongst one another? We might be quick to judge. And yet, as James has shown us, “we all stumble in many ways” because the tongue (armed by our sinful hearts) is a “restless evil” (3:2, 8). It needs constant attention to keep sin in check. Perhaps quarrels and fights are not immediately evident on a Sunday morning: but what about the ugly comments on social media regarding politics, church politics, or theology? What about the gossip among members that decides to exclude certain individuals who may be too “different” from them?
Yes, James wants to show that the church is exhibiting anything but the “wisdom from above” which he has just described in the previous verses. Remember that God’s wisdom is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” and which yields “a harvest of righteousness” (3:17-18). Quarrels and fights in the church are the result of the untamed tongue that James has just warned against, but James wants us to see that, even more so, they are the outward expression of an untamed heart. The work of faith to which the book of James calls us starts by examining the heart: by working on what is going on within!
So James answers his own question:
“Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (Js 4:1-3).
James has talked previously about the sin of partiality (cf. Js. 2:1ff); now, he is going deeper to discover the root causes. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” Jesus warned (Matt 6:21). Indeed, fights and quarrels are the outworking of misplaced treasures and uncontrolled passions. When “desire” for earthly treasure (whether it be riches, a good title, well-behaved children, etc.) is greater than the desire to grow more into the image of Jesus, the result will be doing whatever it takes to try and achieve it. That may look like using words to tear another person down, in order to try and improve my own image, which the Lord Jesus tells us is the same as murder (cf. Matt 5:22).
Yes, misplaced passions and desires are quick to control our hearts and actions. If we feel dissatisfied as Christians, James says we have forgotten to ask the Lord! And yet, this asking should not be with a demand for worldly treasures, to “spend on our passions” (Js 4:2-3). If our requests are for earthly desires instead of God’s good gifts, James warns us that “friendship with the world is enmity with God” (4:4). Rather, James has already told us that we can ask God for His wisdom, which He gives “generously” and “without reproach” (cf. Js 1:5). It is God’s wisdom that helps take these worldly passions and desires, and reshape them into His good desires for us! It is His wisdom that He gives generously that makes “the things of the world…grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace” (from “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”).
Grace: the Antidote to Passion (vv.5-6)
Ask yourself: What are we to do with our earthly passions? How do we control them? And how is this related to our works?
Yes, it is only learning to see our lives in the mirror of His glory and grace that provides the antidote to uncontrolled passion. Indeed, as James points out, all of Scripture points to the fact that God “yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us” (Js 4:5).1 God desires our hearts! He desires to take our hearts and our lives and mold them into lives that reflect His glory and His grace, as His treasured children! This is why Jesus came. It is why He offers His perfect blood on our behalf. Because of His jealousy for His children, “of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth” that we might bear fruit for His glory (1:18).
We can ignore this truth, and allow our worldly passions to control us, and to stir up in us hearts of bitterness and discontent. Or we can learn to see our passions in light of His perfect passion for us, and allow it to transform us. This is, as the 19th century Scottish theologian, Thomas Chalmers, so aptly put it, “the expulsive power of a new affection.” Even when we have allowed our passions to cause fights and quarrels, to spark great fires with the words that have carelessly come off our tongues, James tells us that “he gives more grace” (Js 4:6).
And because He assures us of His jealousy for us and His grace, we can do the hard, heart work of asking ourselves about what is driving our words and actions (or lack thereof). We can ask: What are my passions? In what particular areas have I allowed my tongue (and my heart) to run after things that are less than what God offers? Where are the areas in my life where I feel deeply unsatisfied, because I do not have what I think I want or deserve? How are these passions clouding the way I view and treat others? James wants us to see that the work of faith is not simply doing more for the sake of doing. The work of faith involves examining our hearts in the mirror of His perfect law and grace, and seeing where “friendship with the world” has replaced our friendship with God.
As we come before His throne to examine the passions of our hearts, such work must necessarily tear down our pride: the pride that tells us we deserve a certain blessing, while our neighbor does not; the pride that tells us God owes us something, or that we have earned His favor by our “good works,” when our hearts are far from Him. And this tearing down of our pride is also a work of His grace. Quoting Proverbs, James reminds us that “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble” (Js 4:6). The antidote to uncontrolled passion is coming in humility before His throne to see and confess our longings, and asking for Him to fill our hearts instead with His wisdom and His grace. And the guarantee is that “He gives grace to the humble,” and wisdom generously to all who ask (4:6, & cf. again 1:5).
Controlled by a Greater Passion (vv.7-10)
Ask Yourself: How can we do the “work” of leaving behind earthly passions? What does it look like to find joy and fulfillment in Jesus instead? How can we train our hearts?
Still, Chalmers points out that “it is not enough to hold out to the world’s eye the mirror of its own imperfections.” That is, simply seeing our failing is not enough. Rather, “The best way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure one; and by the love of what is good, to expel the love of what is evil.”2 We must find a greater passion to control our hearts, our tongues, and our actions. And this greater passion is learning to live our lives, day by day, in humility, and in grace. It is learning to recognize sin, to say no to sin, and to allow His wisdom and grace to fill us.
And so it is that James urges his reader to “Submit yourselves therefore to God” (Js 4:7). Submitting is not a word of blind, apathetic obedience, but gives the idea of bowing before our worthy King and Creator, in humble recognition of who He is. Only as we see the beauty of the One who is Our good King and Savior, can we “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (4:7b). This resisting is work, and it is difficult. It requires knowing our hearts and our weaknesses, and knowing the truth of Scripture. It is what Jesus did when He was tempted for 40 days by Satan in the wilderness, as He resisted Satan’s lies with the Word of Truth. Jesus did it perfectly. We are not Jesus, but we have this word of truth implanted in our hearts!
Again, the “work” is not just resisting, but learning to replace those passions with a greater passion. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you,” James assures us (Js 4:8). The reality is, as Christians, God (by the implanted word) “is very near to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it” (Deut 30:14). But in telling us to draw near, James is reminding us that growth in faith takes work and action, trusting that He will do as He has promised!
These are James’ exhortations of vv.8-10. Truly, if the “work of faith” were simply about external work, it would be relatively easy. But James is reminding us that the true work of faith stems from the heart. Examining our hearts is hard, because we see that we are indeed “double-minded” and that the severity of our sin should cause us to “be wretched and mourn and weep” rather than laughing it off (4:8-9). But it is this work of heart-examination and drawing near to His throne of grace that can truly yield a “harvest of righteousness” (cf. 3:18) in our lives, and the lives around us.
The promise in James as we learn to examine our passions in light of His truth, learn to resist sin, and draw near to His truth, is that He will fill our hearts and lives with a far greater passion. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (Js 4:10). He will lift up our heads as we see that only in Him are we complete; in Him we have treasure and status far greater than anything the world could ever offer. In Him, we are exalted because He has made us sons and daughters, heirs of His perfect, eternal Kingdom! This is the passion from all other work for His kingdom should flow.
As we study James, may we not content ourselves with external “works” that look good, while our hearts and tongues reflect bitterness and fighting. May this study encourage us to do the work of examining our passions in light of His grace, because He is at work within us! May we see His hand as we learn to resist the devil, and may we find joy and laughter not in our own “works,” but in the life He offers!
Questions for Reflection & Prayer:
How does today’s study challenge or encourage you? What do you think self-examination looks like? How are the things that make us the most upset (or “cause fights and quarrels among us”) a good indicator of where our passions lie? What makes you scared of self-examination? What encourages you from James about self-examination? How can we learn to “resist the devil”? What are some practical ways the LORD might equip us to do this? How can we encourage one another and pray for one another as we seek to do the “work” of humbling ourselves before the LORD?
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- Note that James attributes this quote to “Scripture,” although it is not a direct quote from anything in the Old or New Testaments. But we should not be troubled by this. Rather, James is “quoting” the meaning of the truth found throughout Scripture: that God is jealous for His children, to see them formed in His image! This is the driving point of the entire Old Testament narrative, and the reason that Jesus Himself comes to shed His perfect blood on our behalf! We are indeed “his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). And because of the perfection of His plan, and His blood and jealousness for us, we can be certain that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). ↩︎
- Thomas Chalmers, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/ExpulsivePoweDiscourseIX.pdf, accessed October 20, 2026. ↩︎
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