| Verse | KJV | Barlow Paraphrase |
| James 4:1 | From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? | Hey, where are all these fights among you coming from? Remember, if there are outward fights there are inward fights. You are conflicted within yourselves and its leaking out. |
| James 4:2 | Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. | You’ve got strong, even sinful, desires and they are not satisfied. You’d even kill for things and you still can’t get them. Why? Simple! You don’t have because you didn’t ask God! |
| James 4:3 | Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. | Even if you do ask Him, you’re still messing it up. If you ask for the objects of your lust it would be wrong of God to give it to you. He loves you too much for that. |
| James 4:4 | Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. | What you are doing is like adultery. You are married to God yet you are in love with the world. Choose. Who are you going to love? God or the world? You can’t have both. If you choose the world, God will be your enemy. If you choose God, the world will be your enemy. |
| James 4:5 | Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? | Even the scripture lets us know that the Spirit He placed in us is jealous. Jealous for our love and if we love another He feels it and knows it. |
| James 4:6 | But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. | But we have an empowerment from God. His grace is on us. So, standing in that grace, let’s resist pride, when we do He pours out His grace on us. The humble will receive from God; the prideful will not. |
| James 4:7 | Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. | So get control of all your sinful desires, trust God and submit to His way. In doing this you are literally resisting the Devil. You’re not trusting the Devil anymore by following after the desires he’s trying to give you. The Devil flees when no one listens to him. |
| James 4:8 | Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. | So pull your hearts right in with God. Set your desires on Him. Not on far away places. This is like washing your hands and purifying your hearts. Now we are not split in our desires wanting to go to God and the world at the same time. |
| James 4:9 | Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. | God helps us turn away from the world and its desires. Sometimes there’s a sadness with that. A true repentance where your heart is sorry for the things you’ve done. Go ahead and be sorry. Let that work in you for a time. |
| James 4:10 | Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. | Bring yourself to the point where you completely realize that you totally need God. From that position you don’t think you can do anything and you realize you have to totally rely on God. God answers that! He can tell when your heart is pure. |
Tag: james
Put A “Joy” Sticker On It!
Why do little kids like to play with stickers? When my girls were younger, if the grocery clerk would give them stickers it wasn’t long before there were stickers everywhere. Maybe they are trying to improve their world? What is on the sticker appeals to them? They can change things by labeling them. Works for them. We’re supposed to ‘become like little children’. Maybe there’s some wisdom here?
In the Bible, James 1:2 ESV says:
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds
When you look in your refrigerator for something to eat you begin to see each item and you begin to categorize it, you’re taking inventory. Maybe you want something sweet and you see the eggs there, in your mind you may say ‘breakfast’ – ‘not sweet!’ – ‘not now!’ Then you find the key-lime pie! (I have some in my fridge right now.) In your mind, if you were to put some word stickers on that pie you might consider these: ‘happy’, ‘yes’, ‘delicious’, ‘tempting’, ‘diet!’, ‘vacation from diet’. There are many ways you might label that pie. Some might say, “I don’t have time to label anything! Where’s the fork?”
James said, in the Bible, to count it all joy when you run into all kinds of trials. Now if someone hands me $100 bill I can see in my mind, taking inventory and putting a ‘joy’ sticker on that. Or if someone served me that key-lime pie on a plate with a fork, I can put a ‘joy’ sticker on that! But, what if someone steps on your toe? OOOWWW!!! Some people yell as loud as they can, making it clear and plain to everyone around them that they are hurt and they want everyone to know it!
Proverbs 12:16 NIV says,” Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult.”
If something angers you or annoys you and you instantly lash out with a strong negative response it most often doesn’t do anyone any good, including yourself. Many times the complaint is a bigger problem than what they are complaining about. In turn complainers can become too much for people to handle.
Years ago I was talking to a mechanic (he obviously wasn’t a very good one) who couldn’t get a light to go off in a car so he broke the light with a screwdriver. He saw the light not going off as his problem, so he fixed his problem. When people complain a lot, they are like a red warning light telling you that something is wrong. The logical thing is to try to fix the problem that is causing the warning light to go off. But people aren’t always logical…some people just want to get rid of the warning light.
If you complain too much about things, you may end up lonely, because people just want to get away from you. We don’t want you to be lonely. God doesn’t want you to be lonely. Loneliness is the first thing in creation that God disapproved of. “It’s not good for man to be alone.”
When you see trials coming your way, any kind of trial, imagine putting a joy sticker on it. Label that thing “JOY!” In your mind call it “Joy”. Now you could, instead, call it “Mighty Problem That Has The Potential To Destroy Me” or “The Thing That Could Ruin My Life.” But if you name it that, then it has the power to become that. In your mind categorize it as a simple problem that you and God can overcome. Remember, it’s not a big deal! Call it Joy. When it comes to problems, remember this phrase: “It came to pass.” It didn’t come to stay.
If you call your problems “Joy” you are giving them way less power to overtake you.
So, today my advice is simple, see a problem? Put a joy sticker on it.
Have a great day!
Joseph Barlow 