Compromise and Covetousness

[James 4: 7] Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
[17] Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
[11] Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
A rebuke of compromise and covetousness among Christians, James seems to be bothered more by the selfish spirit and bitterness of the quarrels than by the rights and wrongs of the various viewpoints. The types of desires that lead to conflict are described. Covetousness leads to conflict (you lust and do not have). Anger and animosity lead to conflict (murder). James sought to force his readers to realize the depth of the evil in their bitter hatred toward others.
James looks back to the Sermon on the Mount when he uses murder to express more than actual killing, but also as an inward condition of heart, shown outwardly by anger (Matthew 5:21-22).
The reason these destructive desires exist among Christians is because they are not seeking G-d for their needs but ask amiss, asking G-d with purely selfish motivation.
Destructive desires persist, even if we pray, because our prayers may be self-centered and self-indulgent. We must remember that the purpose of prayer is not to persuade a reluctant G-d to do our bidding. The purpose of prayer is to align our will with His and in partnership with Him, to ask Him to accomplish His will on this earth. (Matthew 6:10).
Adulterers and adulteresses is a rebuke in Old Testament vocabulary. G-d spoke this way in the Old Testament when His people were attracted to some form of idolatry. G-d is the “husband” and we are His “wife.” As James sees it here, their covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5) and friendship with the world.
We cannot both be friends of this world system in rebellion against G-d, and friends of G-d at the same time (Matthew 6:24), even the desire to be a friend of the world makes one an enemy of G-d.
The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit has a jealous yearning for our friendship with G-d and the Christian who lives in compromise can’t help but be convicted by it. The same Holy Spirit convicting us of our compromise will also grant us the grace to serve
G-d as we should. But this grace only comes to the humble. Grace and pride are eternal enemies. Pride demands that G-d bless me in light of my merits, whether real or imagined. But grace will not deal with me on the basis of anything in me, good or bad, but only on the basis of who G-d is. It isn’t as if our humility earns the grace of G-d. Humility merely puts us in a position to receive the gift He freely gives.
In light of the grace offered to the humble, there is only one thing to do: submit to G-d. This means to order yourself under G-d, to surrender to Him as a conquering King, and start receiving the benefits of His reign.
To solve the problems of carnality and the strife it causes, we must also resist the devil. This means to stand against devil’s deceptions and his efforts to intimidate.
It is no good to submit to G-d’s authority and to resist the devil’s attack and then fail to draw near to G-d. If we are far from G-d, He hasn’t distanced Himself from us. We have distanced ourselves from Him.
Humbling ourselves and getting right with G-d must result in our getting right with other people. When we are right with other people, it will show in the way we talk about them. So we must not speak evil of one another and not judge our brother.
James rightly will guard us against the illusion that we might be right with G-d, yet evil towards our brother. As John says, he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love G-d whom he has not seen? (1 John 4:20)
When we judge our brother, we put ourselves in the same place as the Law, in effect judging the Law. This is something that we have no authority to do, because there is one Lawgiver - so who are you to judge another?
However high and orthodox our view of G-d’s Law might be, a failure actually to do it says to the world that we do not in fact put much store by it!
The Church says we are to be ‘fruit inspectors’ (still a form of judging) but the Scriptures do not say we are to even do this. If we are watching by one’s fruit it would be: Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 5:9 “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” We have taken on the’ world’s’ form of judging not noticing one’s spiritual fruit. And I wish to take this time to repent and ask forgiveness of anyone that I had judged through the eyes of the world, may I view their godly fruit and not judge.
The solutions for strife: in humility, get right with G-d and get right with other people.