James 4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 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. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
External conflict between fellow believers is an indicator of a wrestling within. There s this spiritual battle that goes on between two occupants: our sinful passions and the Spirit of God. What we often do is turn our frustration with that battle onto one another. Rather than asking (praying), seeking help (turning to God's people instead of the world), and humbly accepting grace, we instead turn on one another with worldly responses and arrogant words. As with Paul in Ephesians, grace is the key. Are we willing to accept God's ability to win the war within, or are we going to go it on our own, lose in that battle, and create unnecessary battles with one another?
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