Friendly Fire - James 4:1-12

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

1.     Where do you see a connection between internal conflict and external conflict in your life? 
2.     James says judging others is like trying to fill God’s shoes - seems ridiculous - but many of us still struggle in this way. Why do you think it is so easy and almost natural for you to judge others?
3.     Being God’s enemy because of our sin should be quite a scary position - what are some ways you tend to cope/dismiss/diminish that reality?
4.     Do you believe that God is jealous over you? How does that make you feel? 
5.     Do James’ imperatives - submit, resist, draw near, cleanse, purify, mourn, weep - sound like grace to you? What kind of life picture do they paint for you?