In beauty pageants, “world peace” became a stereotypical (and sometimes satirized) answer to questions like, “if you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?” It’s an ideal everyone agrees on and no one really thinks that war is a good thing. Sure, there are people who use wars to their advantage, but everyone in their right mind sees the atrocities of war and rightfully concludes that the world is worse off because of it.
So where do wars come from why do wars continue, despite the universal recognition of their folly? These questions are relevant given the current events of the day in the Middle East. But perhaps more relevant to each and every person is this: the “mini”-wars that exist (i.e. conflicts between individuals, whether physical or not) – where do they come from? After all, every global war is the result of thousands of “mini”-wars between people.
Wars begin because of conflict within (Jas. 4:1). Very simply but profoundly, James tells us that all external wars originate from an internal war within ourselves. What exactly is at war within us? Boiled down, there is a battle being waged in our minds over whether or not we should gratify our own desires, or instead fulfill God’s desires for our lives. The Greek word translated as “desires for pleasure” in the NKJV or “passions” in the ESV is the word from which we get our English word “hedonism.” Hedonism is the philosophy that one should pursue (at all costs) the gratification of the flesh and its desires. Paul says that some are “lovers of self, lovers of money…[and] lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:2-4).
Paul makes a similar argument to the churches of Galatia when he said, “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh” (Gal. 5:17). Put another way, our passions and desires are lobbying for us to choose our own self over God and others. In the simplest of terms, I am faced with the internal conflict of whether to be selfish or selfless. When we choose to put ourselves first, it will always result in a battle of wills with others. Long have the wills of men been at odds with other men who want their own will imposed. And even longer has mankind’s will been at odds with God’s!
Was it not the case that when Eve saw “the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate” (Gen. 3:6; emp. added)? It was the inner conflict in her mind over whether she should give into her selfish desires (despite the cost) that ended up being her demise. With God as her foe, a battle of wills was not a skirmish she had a chance of winning.
Is it not the case, also, that conflict arises between people when both parties choose to gratify their own desires instead of having the mind of Christ and looking out for the interests of others (Phil. 2:3)? When two selfish people are at odds and neither is willing to relent, at some point something has to give – and that’s where wars begin to break out, outwardly.
Wars break out when we see we’re without (Jas. 4:2-3). When the battle within us ends up crowning the wrong victor (selfishness instead of selflessness) and our eyes behold perceived injustices or shortchanging of blessings, we lash out in response. The battle of wills is no longer only internal, but is now manifested in outwardly sinful actions. When one unsuccessfully wages the war within, they will see something that they want that another has, and they will do whatever it takes to get it in their possession.
The phrase “that’s not fair” is a phrase that (for the most part) we have outlawed in our home. It’s not that the phrase in and of itself is always incorrect or shouldn’t be used, but that most of the time it is being said by our children to express what they believe to be an injustice. Ultimately, the claim of unfairness often boils down to pride: what my sibling has (or gets to do), not only do I want, but I also deserve. A prideful spirit says, I deserve for my desires to gratified, not them! The Proverbs writer says, “By pride comes nothing but strife…” (Pro. 13:10).
Sadly, though the phrase “that’s not fair” may not leave our lips, the sentiment is still very much alive and present in full grown adults. It’s the spirit of pride and a failure to win the battle within that one begins to act upon those passions. According to the immediate context of James, it is outwardly manifested in two ways:
We take blessings from others and misappropriate them for ourselves (Jas. 4:2a). When we take blessings from others, we are in effect accusing God of being unfair in his doling out of those blessings. Despite the fact that God “sends rain on both the just and the unjust” (Matt. 5:45), we take from others what we believe they don’t deserve. Outward wars exist in pursuit of others’ wealth, other’s property, other’s relationships, and other’s prestige and honor. Until mankind rids itself of pride and selfishness, battles over these things will remain.
We use blessings from God and misappropriate them for ourselves (Jas. 4:2b-3). To make matters worse, instead of tools for His glory, blessings from God like prayer turn into tools for gratification (Jas. 4:3). Some take prayer and try to make it a personal line of credit to attain whatever they want. God never intended for prayer to simply be a hotline for which we hope to gratify our inward pleasures. Others use prayer as a means to get the respect and recognition that they seek after. This is what Jesus spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount saying, “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matt. 6:7). The desires at war within these people were more concerned about what people could bring them because of their prayers, than they were concerned about what prayer truly had to offer them outside of the physical.