James 3:13–4:10

Bringing the sermon home:

Just as healthy trees bear good fruit and diseased trees bear bad fruit (Mt 7:17), godly wisdom produces one kind of fruit and worldly wisdom produces another. The primary fruit of godly wisdom is humility, while the primary fruit of worldly wisdom is pride. Self-serving pride is always at the heart of strife within churches, for disorder always comes down to people seeking their own interests rather than God’s interests.

As James models for us with his strong rebukes and unyielding demands, this is not to say that there are no battles that must be fought in the church. There can be no peace apart from unity, no unity apart from purity, and no purity apart from truth. There is a sense in which we must fight for peace, “contending for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), but we must do so “with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet 3:15), “speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15), and genuinely aimed at establishing peace.

Having exposed his readers' failure to live up to the three marks of “pure religion” from 1:26-27, namely (1) concern for the needs of others, (2) control of the tongue, and (3) countering the corrupting influence of the world, James reaches the climax of his letter by declaring that God’s grace is greater than all our sin. What’s in focus in not God’s forgiving grace, but His purifying grace that enables our prone-to-wander hearts to stay true to Him. The only antidote for conflict within the church is the unity that comes from purified hearts. May He make us pure!

Sermon Outline:

1. You are either sowing peace or strife. (vv. 13-18)
   
2. You are either enjoying intimacy with God or with the world. (vv. 1-5)
   
3. You are either drawing near to God or to the devil. (vv. 6-10)