We are over in the book of James again this evening. It seems that my lot here lately has been to deal with difficult passages on Tuesdays, dealing with Zechariah, which most believe the most difficult prophecy of the Old Testament. And then tonight we're dealing with what many consider to be the most difficult verse in the New Testament as far as understanding it and so forth. We're going to take a look at it. started to try to cover this last week and saw that, no, this wasn't going to work. We needed to take an evening just to sort of examine this. We're in James chapter four and tonight in verse five and six. In fact, why don't we start from the very beginning? I may throw Charles off back here, but follow, please, if you would. James four, beginning in verse one, and we'll read down through verse six. He says, from whence come wars and fightings among you? And come they not hear even of your lusts that war in your members? You lust and have not. You killed and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not. And you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And then here's the passage that we'll look at tonight. Do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. The difficult verse is verse five. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? Now, remember, we've just come through a section at the end of chapter three where we're dealing with the contrast between two kinds of wisdom, one which comes down from heaven, the other which is earthly. And the earthly wisdom brings about, well, what he calls here in verse 16, in being and strife. But the wisdom, notice in verse 17 of chapter three, the wisdom that is from above is pure and peaceable, gentle, easy to entreat, full of mercy, good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. So we've just come through that section. And by wisdom, we mean more or less your philosophy of life, how you look at the world. your worldview. And then he goes on into chapter 4 and asks this question, where does all the fighting and feuding and fussing come from? And he's talking about among believers, by the way. Not just out there in the world, but in the church. In the assembly of Christ's people, why is it that we don't get along sometimes? What is it that we're at each other's throat? And he says basically it all comes back there in verse 1. They come from the lusts that war inner members, our desires. And that then he goes through the section that we dealt with. You have not because you ask not. And then the adulterers and adulterous is because friendship with the world is enmity with God. If you will be the world's friend, then you will be the enemy of God. OK, that's the that's the preparation for the next verse. Do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit that dwells in us lest of to envy. One of the problems is that, here I am getting behind already, several questions about this text, about this verse. First question, is verse 5 actually one sentence or two sentences? A number of commentators believe it should be divided into two statements, Could we understand verse 5 in this sense? The first is a question, do you think that the scripture speaks in vain? And then a second assertion, the spirit that dwells in us lusteth to envy. You see the possibility there that this could be two sentences. The other possibility is that, no, that what is going on here is very similar to what we saw in the Gospel of Matthew, where the statement, he shall be called a Nazarene, also is attributed to the Old Testament. But there is no text that says that. But it appears that it's simply referring to a number of texts where the Hebrew word netzer is used to speak of the branch. And that's the root of the town named Nazareth. The same thing could be going on here, is that there is no specific text of the Old Testament that says these words, but there's a number of texts that would say something like this, that the spirit within us dwelleth to envy. Okay? Would you agree? Alright, that's the first question. The second question is the word spirit here referring to your human spirit, Or is it referring to the Divine Spirit? The Holy Spirit? If you're reading out of a King James, you'll notice it's a little s. If you're reading out of another version, it may have a capital S there. The Spirit that dwelleth in us, lust of envy. How many people have a capital S in their translation? Okay? What are you all reading out of? New King James? The King James has little s. What do you got? The NIV has a capital S. Oh, small s, okay. What's that? N-A-S? Heretical, yeah, okay. It has a little less or a capital S? Capital S, okay. So you see a difference of opinion depending on is this talking about the human spirit that resides in man or is this the Holy Spirit? And then a fourth text, what is the correct, or question, the correct text, the correct textual reading behind the word dwelleth. I won't go into all the technical details here, but is it katokayo or is it katakizo? As strange as it sounds in the actual text of scripture, the change of one letter from an iota to an epsilon changes from one root to the other. Katakayo simply means to dwell. Catechizo means to cause to dwell, to make something dwell, okay, which changes the flavor of the verse. Is something being made to dwell or is it simply dwelling? You see the difference? Is it causative or is this just an intransitive statement? It dwells somewhere. And the change of one letter from iota to epsilon changes that root word. And most, if you've got anything other than a KJV, you're going to find cause to dwell. How many have cause to dwell or something similar? Wayne, what are you reading? ASV. The ASV. OK, OK. I'm using King James. What do you have? Made to dwell. And what text do you read? ESV. Cause to live. Yeah. In other words, you see one, that's the catechism reading. If it's catechism, it means to make something dwell or cause it to live or cause it to dwell. Whereas if you're reading the King James, it's just dwell. OK, and then there's a fourth question, is the word spirit the subject of the verb or is it the object? of the verb. Is the spirit doing the action, or is, if you're reading out of the King James, the spirit that dwells in us lusteth to envy? It's the spirit that's the subject. However, if you've got one of these that talks about made it to dwell, the spirit is probably going to be the object of the verb, not the subject, like God made the spirit to dwell, or something like that. Who has a reading like that? Anybody got the spirit as the object of the sentence instead of the subject? Oh, come on, somebody does. Who's got an ESV? All right, what does the ESV say? OK, he yearns jealousy over the spirit. Notice the spirit's not the subject of the sentence. It's the object of someone else yearning. Get the picture. OK, so or if you're reading, for instance, the King James reads the spirit that dwells in us, lust, envy. So those are four questions that sort of you have to sort of answer in order to try to make sense of what's being said here. First of all. Are we dealing with one sentence or two? I'm saying that's not a biggie. You know, whether you split this in half, the arguments are, well, one argument is this introduces an Old Testament citation in a very unusual way. If it's introducing an Old Testament citation, the more natural way to understand it would just be as a separate sentence. Do you think that the scripture speaks in vain? Is it saying, what it says in vain, not necessarily referring to anything in particular. Or, if you take it the other way, it is saying something. It's giving you an Old Testament text, but not a specific text, the gist of a number of Old Testament texts. All right. Well, what are the possibilities then of what this verse means? First of all, you could look at this that the human spirit is the object of the verb. the verb to dwell. The human spirit is the object of the main verb. If you're reading an NIV or an ESV, that's the way it reads. Basically, He, God, yearns jealousy for the spirit He caused to dwell in us. That's how the ESV or the NIV and the ESV would read. In other words, in this case, the human spirit, little s, is the object of God's yearning, God's desiring, God's lusting. Keep in mind the word lust, although to us always seems to carry with it negative connotations, in Scripture it's used both ways. Jesus at one point says, with lust I have desired to eat this supper with you. He's talking about the Last Supper. Sometimes lust is used in a good sense, sometimes it's used in a bad sense. In this case, since it is God yearning jealousy for the spirit he calls, in other words, he lusts jealously for the spirit he calls to dwell in us, God is lusting in a good sense. He's jealous in a good sense. That make sense? And what If we take that reading, then this stands in contrast to what we just had in verse 4, that God is like a spurned lover whose people have committed spiritual adultery. That's what the previous verse is talking about, being a friend of the world and therefore an enemy of God, committing spiritual adultery with with the world. And so God yearns jealousy, jealously for the spirit he calls to dwell in us. In other words, God is a jealous God. Is that true? Where would you find that? Well, in Exodus 20 and the Ten Commandments, you don't worship any other gods because he's a jealous God. What does that mean? He's jealous of the affections of his people. And so if that's the reading, And part of the problem here is because almost any way you look at this verse, and there's a number of different ways, and we'll give you about four ways to look at it, all of them are true. It's just which one is James saying? And this is the first way of looking at it. All right. Secondly, you could read this with a capital S, that the divine spirit is the object. Notice in this case, the NASB, I don't know if anybody here is reading out of the NASB, that's the way it reads, that God is yearning for the Spirit, capital S, that dwells in us. Now, in my mind, that's the least likely of these four options, because I can't hardly envision one person of the Trinity jealously longing for another person of the Trinity. Doesn't make a lot of sense. But the NASB, that's how they translate it. Then a third reading is that the human spirit is the subject of the main verb. Now that's the King James reading. Notice in this case, he sees our own spirit as perversely lusting and longing for evil things. And of course, agrees with a whole lot of passages in the Old Testament. Hold your finger here. Go to Genesis six a minute and just a couple right here early in Genesis. Notice in verse five, Genesis six, verse five, the law, then God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of his and thoughts of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Well, that's sort of saying The same thing James is saying, just saying it in different words. Look in chapter 8, verse 21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. This is after the flood. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Notice that statement. That's basically saying the same thing James is saying if you understand it like the King James is stating it. That the spirit that dwelleth in us lusts to envy. It desires to envy. Okay? There is, however, one fourth way of looking at it is that the divine spirit is the subject of the sentence. The Holy Spirit is the subject of the HCSB. Anybody? That's Holman's. New King James says that has capital S. That would be that the Holy Spirit who is given to us in salvation then desires jealously that we, for us, for our affections. It would be very similar to the view that God desires that we love him, not some other lover. Well, this is basically saying the Holy Spirit that's imparted to us at the time of salvation yearns for our affections. And so it would be similar to what Paul says in Galatians five, where he talks about the spirit and the flesh lusting against one another, warring against so that you cannot do the things that you would. In other words, this would be saying that the Holy Spirit within us is not is not passive when he sees our spirit lusting after other lovers or other things. So the Holy Spirit desires that we worship God and God alone. So it's speaking of the war that's going on within us, the Holy Spirit battling with our spirit, the lust of the flesh to bring us in line. OK, those are there's even probably other possibilities, but those are the four main possibilities that are out there, what do you think? After you stare at that a minute. I study, I mentioned that I have big screen and I have five translations in front of me when I study. I've got the ESV, the NIV, the NASB, the King James, and the HCSB. I got all five of these. In those five translations, all four of these positions are represented. In other words, you got a couple of them that have this one, one has this one, another has another. All four of these positions are divided on my screen. And so the question is, well, which one is the right one? What's the right reading? What is James saying? Any thoughts? Just throw in your two cents worth here. And notice, are there any of these that aren't technically correct? That's what makes it difficult, is that all of these would, and in many other cases, they agree with other texts of Scripture. Nobody's going to launch out there and take a gamble. I mean, wait a minute, if you just look at that, which one do you prefer? If you just had to lean to one, which one would you like, and why? Yeah, Barry, go ahead. Here's a brave man. Had never thought of it. Yeah. All right. In other words, you're saying in your mind the view that this is God causing notice that's that other verb that the one who calls to dwell. That God, is that right? Is that what you're saying? That He yearns jealously for the Spirit He calls to dwell in us? Yeah, okay, got you. And you've got scriptural references that you could cite to back that up elsewhere. Alright? Bear is a brave man. Yeah, David? Change one letter in catecheo, catechizo. Well, it's in the King James, the received text is the catecheo. The others are the catechizo. But it only changed. And that I'm giving you the root word. the root word. If you're looking at the text itself, they're spelled identical except for one has an iota, the other has an epsilon. So it's very easy, you could see how a textual difference could be an error, could creep in, that one or the other is not correct. And if you've got, in your translation, caused to dwell or made to live, something like that, they're using the other reading, not the Texas Receptus reading. Okay? So that flavor your preference? If you're a Texas Receptus guy, then you're going to go with the dweller, the catecheo, not the catechizo. John? Okay, that the context is saying the idea, if He is yearning for us, then that is expressing that yearning, perhaps? Good observation. that the spirit there is the object of the yearning of God. Anybody else? Yes, Charles. In general, yeah. Okay. You're going with these guys, the majority. Yeah, right. And in spite of Barry going for this, you're going to say that you agree. Yeah. OK. And you can say you're on firm grounds as far as being biblical is concerned, whether that's what James means or not. You're being biblical. You're persuaded contextually. OK. Anybody else go the other direction? Well, I'm going to go the other direction. Just to be ornery. I will admit that the immediate Context, verse 4, supports this idea of God being a jealous God and therefore jealous of the affections of his people. That's true. However, the larger context, if you sort of look back where we've come from, it's all about the human spirit envying Notice that that's what we've got going on back in chapter 3, verse 14. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, it's your spirit that's doing the lusting here, the envying. Notice in verse 16, where envying and strife are, there's confusion. Well, that doesn't really speak to it. But chapter 4, verse 1, from whence come these wars and fighting? Come they not hear even of your lusts, war in your members. In other words, we've got the context of your spirit lusting, desiring to have things that it can't have. So we've been in that theme now for a little while. And that's why it sort of pushes me in the directions of how the King James translates this in verse 5, where it says, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy. That's what we've been talking about for the last about seven or eight verses. Our spirit envying, desiring things that it should not have. So this would be a summation of that saying that's what the Old Testament teaches us. The scriptures have taught us that fact. The other problem is why I think this is speaking of the human spirit in that If it is the Holy Spirit that's being mentioned here, it's the only place in the entire book of James that the Holy Spirit's being mentioned. You see, in other words, all of a sudden we're introducing something that James has not introduced elsewhere. Now, that doesn't mean it can't be, but it sort of tilts the thing in the direction that we are talking about our spirit, not the Holy Spirit. And then the question of whether we're talking about causing to dwell or simply dwelling. The problem is catecheo is a relatively common word in scripture. Catechizo appears nowhere in scripture except right here. If that's the correct reading that does appear in the Septuagint. in certain places, but this would be the only spot in the entire New Testament that that word appears, which seems again to be somewhat strange when you have catecheo as a rather common word. In other words, just simply to dwell. And so on that basis, I lean towards the reading of the King James, that they got it right. I'm not saying they always get it right, but this to me seems to be the sense of the verse. Now, the other consideration is not just the preceding context, but look at the next, the first part of verse six, but he giveth more grace. Why interject that if it is not the fact that we have this spirit within us that, in other words, if this is God lusting over our spirit, then giving more grace to who? God doesn't need more grace. He's the subject of the action. But if it is our spirit that is lusting after evil things, then the next phrase, but he giveth more grace, is telling us the remedy for this problem. In other words, well, are we then just doomed to be under the power of the lust of our heart, these unlawful desires? Is that just the way it is? But the next verse, then, would tend to imply that, no, there is a remedy for this situation, and it is God giving us more grace. And grace here, not being just God's favor, but unmerited ability. And that would be the giving of the Holy Spirit to overcome the lust of the flesh, the warring of the flesh and the spirit that we read about in Galatians. And then the ensuing verses, we'll get to those next week, is telling us then, what is the process by which we receive this more grace? How do we get this more grace? And of course, the first principle is that, well, God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Here's your clue as to how do you get this more grace that enables you not to lust after evil things. not to lust after the world. So you see my logic here, that it's not just the preceding verses. In other words, if we go back seven or eight verses, we begin to see there's a whole pattern of this being our spirit, envying, lusting, and this would fit that pattern. And then the following verse would give us the remedy for that, God giving us more grace. Regardless, of which way we go, let's not lose sight of the fact that clearly we have within us a spirit that lusts to envy. And that's where our problems stem from, getting along with one another. You say, what do you mean? He's just explained it, that we want stuff. I said a week or so ago that you have somebody in a fight with you, One of the first questions you ought to ask is, what do you want? What are you after? Because that is the source of our frictions. I want something that I'm not getting. And that may be stuff. It may be your approval. It may be your praise, your recognition of me. But generally, if there is friction going on between believers in particular, there's a reason we're not getting what we want. And what is it that we want? That's a good question to ask when we face these situations. Plus, it's getting us ready for what He's about to teach us is that this is not a hopeless situation. Yes, we have this indwelling sin, this spirit that lusts for evil things, but God gives more grace, that there is a way to overcome this negative pull. Am I the only one that senses the power of this spirit within. Anybody have any personal testimonies along that line, at least that you can share? I'm sure we have a number of personal testimonies along that line that we can't share. But anybody have any observations of how easy it is for our spirit to lash out? to attack. I mean, it could be something as simple as somebody getting a piece of pie we were going to get, or cutting us off in traffic, or you know what I'm saying? Or simply getting somebody's recognition when we thought we should get it. All sorts of situations. Somebody giving the right answer when you don't. Yeah, Wayne has that problem all the time. He's hardly ever right. Yeah. When you're falsely accused, you're saying, wait a minute, I deserve justice. I demand justice. I'm not getting it. Any other scenarios out there, Charles? Yeah, he's just paraphrasing what James tells us here. your frustration because you can't get what you want. And like you say, it's all rooted in selfishness. And that's what James is pointing out in chapter 4, verse 1. Don't look out there for the problem. The problem is right here within us. Do we need to have testimonials about conflict in marriage? I thought you were fixing to share something juicy here. Well, that's true. I'm sure our spouses could help us out if we have one. See, I'm a free man for the moment. I get away with stuff. My days are numbered. What do you find, I mean, just to have a little time of sharing here, what do you find that is your weak spot? What sets you off? I mean, we've all got weaknesses. What do you find? You know, we talk about somebody pushing your button. You don't like the way something... Okay, just in general, this isn't happening the way I want it to happen. And what is the problem there? Yeah, it's you, but what is it? Yeah, in other words, I have this expectation of how things ought to work out, and these are not meeting my expectations, which is just another exhibition of selfishness. I demand it this way, and it's not happening. All right? Somebody else? Yeah, Sherry. That's what Al was saying a moment ago, being attacked. Or you, or your family, or somebody that's unfairly... And basically, you're wanting your righteousness. You want vindication. And you're not getting it. Somebody else? We don't have anybody brave enough. Here's Charles. Where wise men fear to tread, Charles rushes in. It will never be about you because by our very nature we were born into a world whose very existence is from and for someone else. And so it will never, never be about us. So for us to be thinking about ourselves, to not think about the very reason of our existence, I think what he's saying is that the world is also self-centered. The whole world system is self-centered. So, if we think that the world is going to be focused on us, we've got a rude awakening. Because the world is focused on itself, just like we're focused on ourselves. It comes back, I use this illustration, that if your goal in life is to rule everybody, room full of people, and your goal is to rule somebody, how many happy people can we have if everybody in that room wants to be number one? There can only be one number one, and he better be watching his back. But if it is your goal in life to serve, how many happy people can we have? You can have a whole room full of happy people. In other words, the list of people that will let you rule them is a short list. And that seems to be what he's saying, that the world is also trying to play king of the mountain. Okay. Yeah. It's never going to be about us. That's a good way of looking at it. You're right. That it wasn't made for us and never will be for us. Yeah. All right. Any other true confessions here? Things that set you off? Not getting our way? Things not going? Being falsely accused? How about somebody stealing your stuff? taking what belongs to you. I was ribbing Al a little earlier tonight. We were talking about a situation he had several years ago when he was working for a juice company and was over, well, in the hood. And these guys just started hepping themselves and trying to stop him. They started throwing juice bottles at him. There is a sense in which we get angry, don't we, when Somebody is treating us like that, taking what is ours. I suppose you got, of course, when you quit running, you're probably angry. Yes, Jennifer? Just injustice in general? Uh-huh. what Solomon called vexation of spirit. You know, like Lot vexed his righteous soul with the ungodly conduct of the Sodomites. Yeah, just, and that's back to sort of what Sheryl's saying. Things just not going like you want. In some cases, it's like I don't, they're not going like I want it personally, but the big picture isn't going like I want it to either. Too much wrong out there. Okay, but we'll stop. Do you see the problems with understanding this verse? This is an interesting text. And again, when we deal with texts like this, we have a lot of different arguments for different understandings of it. And part of the problem here is they're all right. In other words, there's probably not any one of these that's not technically true. It's just the question, is that what James is saying? And you begin to understand the problem that translators have with which reading, what's the right words, how do we understand the right order, and what exactly is being said. And most times, nine times out of 10, context is the rule. Context is going to govern how you translate it. But here, you can see, we've got two possible contexts, one supporting one way to read it, another supporting another way. Okay. Well, next time we're going to come back, here's the question. God gives more grace. He gives, and again, not just favor, but unmerited ability. the ability to overcome this inward lust. But clearly, as the next few verses show, there's some responsibility on our part to seek this grace. Yes, he gives it. He's willing to give it, but we must seek it. That's our responsibility. And here he sort of tells us, well, here's how it's done. The first one, get off your high horse. Humble yourself because he resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. Well, let's pray tonight again.