When you go to the doctor for a check-up, he or she will take your pulse, measure your blood pressure, weigh you on the scales, assess your diet and check whether there are any aches and pains and if everything seems to be in good working order. It’s not a detailed consultation needing scans and blood tests. I’m talking about a basic but thorough once over. Well, there’s quite a lot in our reading this morning and I see it as a sort of spiritual check up with six areas for examination. And we’re going to take them one by one.
1. Inner Contentment
The first is to do with the health of the heart - our inner contentment. In v1-2 James asks “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.”
It looks like these verses are about relationships with each other. But they’re not really. Here you’ve got a presenting problem that has an underlying cause. Just as you might complain to a doctor about stress, only to find that the real problem is high blood pressure for example, here the complaint is fights and quarrels. But there’s a real issue under the surface that is causing all the friction; and it’s covetous desires.
The Bible says here that my relational friction with someone basically caused by unhappiness inside me. It’s the public face of my private envies.
James uses really harsh words to describe situations of human disagreement; verbs like to fight, to battle and to kill. It’s the language of war. What do you think about that? Doesn’t it seem just a little over the top? We know, don’t we, that whenever we get into a quarrel (however nasty it turns) it’s never quite on the scale of out and out warfare. We don’t launch air strikes on each other just because we fall out over an issue do we? So why does James use this inflammatory language? Because war is what it feels like to God; The Lord deeply grieves relational conflict especially amongst Christians.
Why? Because if the world will know we are Christians by our love, the world will conclude that our message is irrelevant and untrue by our lack of love.
Do you know people who like to fight? Some people just like a good slanging match don’t they? They fight at home. They fight at work. They fight with relatives. They fight with neighbours. And they fight at church. If you locked them in a room all by themselves, they’d probably fight with themselves.
So how are you doing on the inner contentment test? Are you argumentative and abrasive or are you a peacemaker? What about the underlying cause? Do you find yourself compare yourself with others, envying what they have? I wish I had his money or her figure or his confidence, or her talent – or whatever? Or have you learned to be content with what you have and who God has made you to be? Can you be happy for others better off than you?
2. Prayerfulness
The next item on the spiritual health check is to do with prayer. How are your knee reflexes? James says in v2-3 that our walk with God goes pear shaped when (a) we don’t pray and (b) when we do pray it’s self-seeking.
“You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
James had several nicknames. One was James “the Just” which might ring a bell. Another was James “the Less” which also may sound familiar. Paul called him James the brother of the Lord which you fins in Scripture so you may have come across that too. But he had another name that I bet you haven’t heard before. Tradition tells us that James was nicknamed “camel knees.” Why do suppose would anyone call someone camel knees? Have you ever seen the knees of a camel? They’re all nobly with dead skin. It’s because James was an absolute giant in prayer and his fervent dedication to intercession caused conspicuous calluses on his knees.
Some people feel a bit uncomfortable with the tone of James’ letter. It is a little direct, even severe in places. But I for one am always ready to listen to someone who has spent hours and hours on his knees before God.
The author and preacher John Piper once said “Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing… Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as all-sufficient.”
That’s why the state of our prayer life has to feature prominently on any spiritual health check. God is interested in the state of your knee reflexes. So how are you doing on prayer?
3. Values
The third thing a medical examination might evaluate is weight and height to calculate Body Mass Index - which gives us clues about whether our diet is healthy. Spiritual diet, what we’re taking into our system, is all about our values; what is important to us. In v4-5 James says:
“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?”
When the obsession of my life is me, it can’t be Christ. God does not think his Son should take second place to anything in my life. He is not OK about Jesus being a hobby of mine.
Again, James’ choice of language is startling and shocking. This is how worldliness in our lives feels to God; it’s like adultery. He feels as upset as a faithful and jilted lover would. It feels like enmity to him. It feels like we have changed sides and are now training weapons on his Son.
Worldliness is any unhealthy centring of life around home, health, spouse, stuff children - it doesn’t matter.
Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City was interviewed on ABC News recently and he said this;
“Sin is not just doing bad things; sin is also turning good things into ultimate things. For example, if you love your children, that’s good, but not to the point of making your children’s happiness the very meaning of your life...”
It’s the same for hard work, success, money and sport. One of my biggest challenges in this area runs around in red shirts with white sleeves. They’re all good things – until they become ultimate things.
God Almighty is not OK about anything in this world that he created being elevated in my heart over his Son Jesus Christ. Jesus said “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” That’s money. God will not budge up and share his glorious throne with anybody or anything that is less worthy than him.
Sometimes you just want the doctor to tell it to you straight don’t you? Stop smoking. Start exercising. Eat more fruit. “Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” says James.
So is there anything in your life today that is polluting your values, and challenging the absolute lordship of Christ in your life?
4. View of Self
Spiritual health check number 4 is about how we view ourselves. Believe it or not, how I evaluate myself in relation to others and to God will basically determine whether the grace of God in my life runs free or runs out.
I saw an amusing little ironic comment on my daughter’s Facebook page this week. It said “Try as you might, you cannot match my humility.”
But there’s nothing funny about pride. God actually resists proud people. In v6, the Scripture says: “‘God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble and oppressed.’ Submit yourselves, then, to God.”
How do I know if I’ve got a problem with pride? Well, if I often get frustrated because I know all the answers, but nobody bothers to ask me the questions, it probably means I’ve got an issue with pride.
God is completely and totally opposed to it. The word that’s used here is actually a military term. It’s the word you’d use to describe a full army lined up and primed for battle.
In the first Gulf War the Americans shipped military equipment and personnel to Kuwait via the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic, which served as a refuelling station. Overnight, those islands went from having maybe one or two planes to having dozens and dozens. Every square foot of tarmac in the airports was taken up by fighter aircraft. That image illustrates how God resists the proud. He lines up his entire heavenly army to stand in opposition to human arrogance and self-sufficiency.
But God gives grace to humble people, whose view of self is modest and unassuming. God likes humble souls because they correctly attribute greatness and glory and prominence and worth to the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, and fittingly deflect attention away from mere human achievement – itself a gift from God anyway. Do you want the grace of God to flow in your life? God gives grace to the humble.
So how are you doing on the humility scale? How gladly are you submitting yourself to God?
5. Spiritual Resistance
The next thing a medical examination might look at is your temperature. The thermometer should read 37°. If it’s higher you’ve got a fever, probably caused by an infection. The immune system works when antibodies resist infection. The spiritual immune system works when faith stands firm and resists the devil.
James says in v7-8 “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
So when the devil tempts you to sin - resist him. “Satan, get out of my thoughts.”
When he plays on your selfishness - resist him. “Satan, this is not becoming of a child of God, get behind me.”
When he accuses you of falling below the reach of God’s grace - resist him. “Satan, the Bible says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, so shut up.”
And when you do resist the devil, God promises here that he will flee from you. When under spiritual attack, draw near to God. Worship him. Tell him you love him. Exalt him. Pour out your soul to him. And he will come near to you.
6. Sensitivity to Sin
So on to the last examination in this spiritual check-up. Perhaps the part of the body most sensitive to pain is the teeth. I'll tell you a secret; my dentist gets on my nerves. Quite honestly, the dentist’s drill is not a barrel of laughs is it?
But, when you think about it, sensitive teeth are an early warning system against tooth decay. If we didn’t get twinges chewing toffee we wouldn’t know we needed to take preventative measures against losing our teeth.
In v8-10 James says “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
Just like a toothache, sensitivity to sin is unpleasant. Look at the verbs here; to grieve, to mourn, to wail. Grieving over my selfishness, mourning my prayerlessness, wailing over my apathy towards God’s word is essential. Taking a long hard look at my dark side does look gloomy. It’s not pretty, but if it drives me to repentance, it is a key to spiritual health.
When James says “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” it reminds me of when the kids were very small. I’d lift them up above my head and twizzle them around and they’d laugh and shriek with delight.
Oh, the joy of being forgiven, the blessing of a clean slate with God, the satisfaction of a restored soul are wonderful. Even better than waking out of the dentists – all done, all over.
So how are you doing on the repentance chart? How easily are you turning to God and keeping short accounts with him?
Ending
There’s a brilliant sketch that (I think it was) the Riding Lights Theatre Company used to perform. The sketch starts with a man sleeping in bed. He is all snuggled up under the duvet and his head is buried deep into his fluffy pillow.
Suddenly he sits up in bed looking startled and he shouts at the top of his voice: “I had a dream from the Lord. In my vision I was surrounded by angels going up and down a ladder.”
And he jumps out of bed, saying that he must proclaim this great revelation to the whole world. Seconds later his wife arrives. She looks at the empty bed with the pillow messed up and the duvet draped over the floor and says “Why is it that whenever men have amazing spiritual visions they never make the bed?”
I think James would have nodded approvingly. This letter, we’ve been seeing together, is not a collection of great spiritual abstractions; it’s essentially and unashamedly down to earth. And there’s nothing more practical than a medical check-up. And there are few things more necessary for spiritual vitality than a spiritual check-up.
So, as the summer draws to a close and we prepare to go into the busy autumn time – how’s your spiritual health? How are you doing on these six key indicators of spiritual fitness? Where do you need to tone up?
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 21st August 2011
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