Your Pleasures (1-3): Heavenly wisdom produces peace and order (3:17-18), but if there are “quarrels and conflicts” in the church,[1] worldly wisdom is dominating us. Hostility exists among people because of a precommitment to their own pleasures. If we embrace God’s wisdom and give up our own desires, namely, “jealousy and selfish ambition” (3:16), our squabbles come to an end. Certainly, when we have needs, we should bring them up to God (Matt. 6:8), but if we are pursuing our own pleasures, God will not hear. Prayer is a means to God’s ends, not ours.[2] We must stop coddling our own pleasures.

Spiritual Adultery (4-5): Devotion to our own desires is a serious problem. James calls it adultery (“You adulteresses”) and tells us this commitment is “friendship with the world” and “hostility toward God.” Put it another way, an allegiance to our own pleasures is a declaration of war against God.[3] We cannot have it both ways. Even as an adulteress can’t have both her love affair and her husband, so we too can’t maintain a love[4] for ourselves (worldly!) and a love for God. We must choose. God is a jealous God who doesn’t tolerate a two-timing worshipper (Matt. 6:24). He wants our souls,[5] which rightfully belong to Him (after all, He’s the One who put them in us!).[6] God means what He says; Scripture is never just noise. Our souls are meant for God.

[1] This is shameful and should never be the case, but it is sometimes true (1 Cor. 1:11; 3:3-4; Phil. 4:2).

[2] Prayer is meant to advance God’s will (Matt. 6:10; 1 John 5:14). Christ’s example: Psalm 40:7-8; Lk. 22:42. When we are walking with the Lord, God and His will become our greatest delight (Psalm 1:2; 37:4; 119:16).

[3] Mind set on the flesh is enmity toward God (Rom. 8:7), who is the most terrifying enemy (Heb. 10:30-31).

[4] The word for friendship is rooted in the language of love. It is appropriate to see the idea of love here.

[5] God always wanted our inner person (Deut. 4:29; 6:5; 10:12; 11:13; 13:3; 26:16; 30:2, 10). Cf. Matt. 22:37.

[6] NASB’s “Spirit” is best understood as the human “spirit” (ESV). God is jealous for our soul/spirit. The Bible teaches a dichotomistic anthropology. Cf. MacArthur, Biblical Doctrine (Wheaton: Crossway, 2017), 421-24.