James has a way of bringing out some interesting things that can happen within us. Here he speaks of a war that is happening within our members. We must fight that war with the new nature energized by the Spirit of God. To explain this more fully we would have to go to Galatians 5:17 where it says, "The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and they are contrary one to the other." Verse 2 speaks of the word kill and desire and fight. Could my old nature drive me to that? I better be careful. Kill could mean to defame someone's character.
In I Peter 2:11, what does it mean to not receive by asking amiss to consume it on our lusts? That verse speaks of us as strangers and sojourners in this world. What we have will never be carried out unless it is laid up in Heaven when we get there. Then we have friendship with the world. This is when we live for the present age as if we were here forever.
There are two possible explanations for verse 5. The first is that our spirit lusts for things others have which is envy. The other is that the Holy Spirit who lives within us yearns jealously. He wants us all for Him (God or Jesus) and will stop at nothing until we are in that condition of mind and fear. That will take care of the first five verses.
No comments:
Post a Comment