Day 77 - James 4-5

James continues in his practical manner in these last two chapters dealing with the topics of interpersonal difficulties (4:1-2), the struggle against pride (4:3-10), the brevity of life and divine providence (4:13-17), instructions to the rich (5:1-6), patient waiting for the day of the Lord (5:7-12), and prayer (5:13-20).

Along the way, James has made some very significant statements. He tells us that the source of interpersonal strife is internal primarily, not external. Problems arise because we end up holding onto desires in such a way that we expect others to fulfill them and when they don't come through as we wanted to, then we punish them! We must learn to hold our desires loosely (4:1-2).

When James tells us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (4:6), he is not saying that we can ultimately "earn" grace by being humble. That would contradict the very meaning of the word "grace." What he is saying is that God continues to shower opposition in the area of pride and continues to shower grace in the area of humility. As we move from one area to the other, we experience both the opposition and grace of God depending on which area we are in. The humble person therefore does not earn this grace, he simply has put himself in the pathway that God's grace normally flows.

5:12 is a verse that calls us to integrity. We should be living lives and speaking with others in such integrity that we don't need to ensure the believability of our words by "swearing." People should just know that we are people of our word and take our word at face value knowing that they are getting the truth. It is a dangerous position to be in if you find yourself needing to go beyond the simple "yes" or "no" to convince people of your truthfulness.

5:16 has proven to be quite the difficult verse to translate. I will not go into all of the reasons for this. The reality is this--prayer is powerful. It would be good to remind ourselves that the reason for this lies not in the person praying, but in the person to Whom we pray. In other words, prayer is powerful because we are praying to a powerful Person. Let us not neglect this opportunity that we have to be a part of what God is doing in this world!