Living in Two Worlds
I love this picture of my son Will.
We were on our way to Mexico on a mission trip, and when we got to the border, I told Will, “Here’s the border. This is the actual line. Put one foot in the US and one foot in Mexico, and I’ll get a picture of you standing in two countries at the same time!”
We were headed to Mexico again, just a couple of years ago, and we remade the picture.
We took the picture and thought about how cool that was, that for a moment, he could stand with one foot in one country and another foot in another country. But then it hit me later, he could stand there for a moment, but he couldn’t live there.
He could stand on the border and have one foot in one country and the other foot in another country, but he couldn’t live there. You can’t live in two places at once.
Yet we try to do this all the time. We try and live with one foot in two worlds all the time.
We’ve got one foot in the world and one foot in church.
On the one hand, we’re doing whatever it takes to climb the corporate ladder and have it all, and on the other, we’re showing up at church and putting a few dollars in the offering plate.
On the one hand, we’re bingeing Netflix and News stations, and on the other, we’re cracking our Bible for a few minutes every day.
On the one hand, we want what we want, and on the other, we remember that we’re supposed to care for others.
And so we feel this constant tension in our lives, and by the way, it’s not supposed to be this way, but you’re going to feel this tension as long as you’re trying to live in two worlds. You’re going to feel this tension within you, AND we’re going to feel this tension within God’s church.
It’s not supposed to be this way, but there’s going to be conflict, there’s going to be tension, whenever we’re trying to live in two worlds.
The Tension
James calls this tension out and calls Christians back to a virtue that we see valued in the life of Jesus that… if we can get our hearts and minds around this, if we can find our way to follow Jesus in this way… it leads to living out the Gospel in a powerful way in our personal lives and in our community.
In chapter 4, James writes…
1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
Remember, James is talking to Christians. To Christ followers. To people just like you and me who belong to a local church. These people, these Christian people, are caught up in fighting with one another. In constant arguments that are causing division within the church.
Which, by the way, let me just say this AGAIN… Our enemy is real, he is relentless, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain, he seeks to kill, steal, and destroy, and he often does that through division. Our unity is constantly under attack.
That was true 2000 years ago, and it is true today. Any time we let a spirit of divisiveness in, the enemy wins. We have to protect God’s church from division. We have to be committed to loving one another, to being united together in Christ! We have to remember that what unites us is greater than anything that could come between us!
James calls out the divisive spirit among Christians and asks…
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?
The Fruit
When James talks about the “fights among you” and the”evil desires within you,” he’s not talking about you personally. He’s talking about the church community. That “you” is plural. In other words, what’s causing the division among your members? And then, James suggests that the problem is that within the church, within the people within the church, the wrong kind of fruit is coming to fruition.
Right before this, James says at the end of chapter 3,
17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.
If you ask me to show you a church where there is no division, no quarrels and fighting, no conflict, and no wars being waged within, then I’ll have to show you this church. The church that is full of mercy and the FRUIT of good deeds. The church that is full of peacemakers who plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness!
We want the Holy Spirit to cultivate His fruit within us. Individually? YES! But also collectively!
I don’t know if any church does this perfectly, but isn’t this who we want to strive to be?!
Shouldn’t we be praying, God… fill us with MERCY. Cultivate the FRUIT of your Spirit within us as a church that others may see our good deeds, our good fruit, and glorify our Father in Heaven. God, make us peacemakers.
Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers. Make us peacemakers who plant seeds of peace and God, may those seeds of peace planted by your people produce a bountiful harvest!
Adulterers?
If we don’t do this, if we decide to allow wars to wage within our church because of our own evil desires, listen to what James says next in 4v4:
4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him.
Strong words! James calls these Christians who allow sinful desires to divide the church “adulterers!” Why?! Because you can’t live in two worlds.
An adulterer, by definition, is a married person who is having an affair with another person. A second person. It is sinful. It is wrong. You can’t be in that kind of relationship with two people. You can’t live in two worlds.
In the same way, if you, as a Christian, are trying to live your life in two worlds, with one foot in one world and the other foot in the other world, you are an adulterer. Not my words. Those are the words of brother James. He says that… “God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him.”
So how do we do this? How do we live lives that are faithful to God and God alone? How do we keep wars from raging within God’s church? How do we keep evil desires at bay? How do we keep the enemy away?
What’s the Key?
How do we live with both feet firmly planted in the Kingdom of God?
I’ve got Good News, James tells us!
6 And he [GOD] gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
What’s the key?
What the virtue we see valued in the life of Jesus that James brings to the forefront for our consideration?
One word.
One virtue.
One way.
One value.
Humility.
Humility Redefined
You’ve probably heard humility defined a 100 different ways. One of the definitions I hear most often goes something like this:
Humility is thinking of yourself less and others more.
That’s good. But I think it falls short of the biblical concept of Humility. Here’s my definition. And by the way, if you have a better one, I’d love to hear it. I mean that, truly. But here’s the way I define biblical humility:
Humility is thinking of Jesus more and living for others.
If we really want to live humbly, to walk humbly with God, Jesus is our example. Jesus is the one we imitate. Jesus is the one we think about, we fix our eyes on, we try to emulate.
The more we think about Jesus, the more time we spend in His Word, the more time we spend in prayer, the more we’ll find ourselves look for ways to live for others because… because, that’s what Jesus did.
Everything He did, He did for others. And it cost Him everything, even His life. Humility will require you to live in self-emptying ways, self-sacrificing ways, for the sake of others. But when you do, as you do, you will be following the example of Jesus.
James tells the Christians he was writing to,
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.
In other words, it’s time to repent of trying to live your life in two worlds. Plant both feet firmly in the Kingdom of God. When you do, here’s the promise…
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
Are you a humble person?
Are you ready to live a life marked by humility?
In 1980, a country music singer and songwriter from Lubbock, TX, by the name of Mac Davis released a hit song entitled “It’s Hard to Be Humble.”
It starts out like this…
Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble
When you’re perfect in every way
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
‘Cause I get better looking each day
To know me is to love me
I must be *some kind of a man
Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble
But I’m doing the best that I can
I know, for some of you it’s hard to be humble, but you’re doing the best that you can! And we appreciate your humility!
About 30 years later, a Christian songwriter named Dennis Jernigan released a song about humility. Dennis has written more than 2000 songs, and we sing some of them. Songs like You Are My All in All and I Belong to Jesus. He also wrote this little song. I’m not sure it was ever that popular, but I thought the lyrics were beautiful.
You look good in humility
it brings out who you’re called to be
for pride just hides your heart
and masks your pain and your real beauty
You look good in humility
clothed in righteousness and peace
it brings out all the features of the heart you’re called to be
you look good in humility
Can I tell you something, church?
You look good in humility.
Today, I want to call you to be humble. To think more about Jesus and to live for others. To plant both feet firmly in the Kingdom of God. To stop living for the things of this world, to stop pursuing the things of this world, and to live for Jesus, to live like Jesus!
In fact, could I ask you today to find a way, just one way, one simple way, to humble yourself like Jesus for the sake of another person? Find someone and find some way to humble yourself and bless them.
I’ll tell you what happens when you do that. You prove that you are striving to be full of mercy and the FRUIT of good deeds. That you are striving to be a peacemaker who plants seeds of peace and who will reap a harvest of righteousness!
You look good in humility.
What would happen if we did this? If we committed ourselves together to thinking more about Jesus, fixing our eyes on Him, and living for others?
I think then, not only would we prove that we value the same virtue that Jesus valued in His life on earth, we would prove we are His disciples by our love for one another.
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