Creator, Father, King #335

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?

WAR IS A TERRIBLY brutal business.

World War I, fought between 1914 and 1918, was history’s first truly global war. It officially involved nations from three continents (Europe, Asia, and North America) and left approximately 8.5 million soldiers dead. It was called “the war to end all wars.”

That moniker lasted a whopping twenty-one years. In September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and began World War II, which dwarfed the previous world war in scope and carnage. Approximations vary, but the National World War II Museum estimates the battle deaths at 15 million, the battle wounded at 25 million, and civilian deaths at 45 million worldwide.

Wars wreak havoc on nations and on individual lives. So does sin. That’s why the apostle James combined the two for a powerful metaphor in today’s verse to describe what happens inside our hearts when we allow “evil desires” to consume our relationships with others.

Just like war, the results can be devastating.

What’s It Mean?

The human heart is a spiritual battleground. Sin, our powerful enemy, has been entrenched in our hearts since the day we were born. It has built a huge base—barbed-wire fences, booby traps, foxholes, bunkers, supply depots, airstrips, etc.—all with the goal of launching offensives. Don’t believe it? Read Romans 7.

When we quarrel and fight with others, it’s easy to shift blame and accuse others. But as today’s verse says, the source of all this is the warring nature of our sinful hearts. The animosity we experience in our relationships is typically our selfishness, pride, anger, greed, unforgiveness, and lust bubbling to the surface.

But fear not! Every follower of Christ can win this war. Through his death and resurrection, God’s Son broke the power of sin in every Christian’s life. The enemy has not been destroyed yet. Dying pockets of sinful resistance still remain in your heart, tempting you to lob grenades of unkindness and fire missiles of hostility at others in your anger. But you can achieve victory over these dying vestiges as you pray, walk by the Spirit, and humble yourself.

Don’t be a relational warmonger. Be a peacemaker!

Now What?

“Humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you” (James 4:7-8).

Did You Know?

The Civil War remains the deadliest conflict in US history, claiming the lives of nearly 498,332 military personnel. In comparison, US mortality figures reached 405,399 in WWII.