Tiago 4
Arthur Pink · Citado em PreceptAustin
Tiago 4
Pink writes that worldly lusts "are those affections and appetites which dominate and regulate the man of the world (ED: BUT CAN ALSO EXERT CONTROL ON THE MAN HEADED FOR HEAVEN!). It is the heart craving worldly objects, pleasures, honors, riches. It is an undue absorption with those things which serve only a temporary purpose and use. "Worldly lusts" cause the things of Heaven to be crowded out by the interests and concerns of earth. This may be done by things which are quite lawful in themselves—but through an immoderate use they gain possession of the heart. "Worldly lusts" are "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16+). (Grace Preparing for Glory) Robert Jamieson explains that the lusts of the flesh "is the lust which has its seat and source in our lower animal nature. Satan tried this temptation the first on Christ: Lk 4:3+, “Command this stone that it be made bread.” Youth is especially liable to fleshly lusts (2 Ti 2:22+). (1John 2 Commentary) A wise man will desire no more than he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully and leave contentedly. Thomas Brooks nails us all with this quote -- "A little will satisfy nature; less will satisfy grace; nothing will satisfy men's lusts." Thomas Manton - Carnal desire is a gulf that is never filled up. Josh McDowell - Love can wait to give; it is lust that can’t wait to get. A. R. Fausset - Lust and lucre follow one another as closely akin, both seducing the heart from the Creator to the creature. Thomas Fuller - Our eyes, when gazing on sinful objects, are out of their calling and God’s keeping. Oswald Chambers rightly warned that "We cannot think anything without the thought having its consequence." (Shade of His Hand) Oswald Chambers also said that "Love can wait and worship endlessly; lust says, "I must have it at once."" (Woe! Are you as convicted as I am?) The Ten Commandments clearly addressed the problem of looking and desiring "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet (chamad = desire, take pleasure in; Lxx = epithumeo the same verb Jesus used in Mt 5:28+ = to set one's heart upon and so to have a strong impulse in this context in a bad sense toward) your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:17+, cp Dt 5:21+) We can't afford to play with fire Nor tempt a serpent's bite; We can't afford to think that sin Brings any true delight. -- Anon. Paul reminds us this battle with the lusts of our flesh is one that believers will wage every day (another reason you daily need spiritual sustenance [Lk 4:4+, Mt 4:4, cf Dt 8:2-3+, cf Jn 17:17+] and spiritual preparation - "Put on {aorist imperative see our need to depend on the Holy Spirit to obey} the full armor" [Eph 6:10-18+] not just one piece or you will be vulnerable!)-- it is a battle we cannot win on our own but only as we begin each morning surrendering our will to the sweet, perfect will of the all-powerful Holy Spirit of God (present your sacrifice in the morning - Ro 12:1-2+)! Why… (see the "for" = a term of explanation). (Gal 5:17+) For the flesh sets its desire (present tense = continually!) against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for (another term of explanation!) these are (continually) in opposition to one another, so that (another term of explanation!) you may not do the things that you please. See Galatians 5:16+ for the ONLY WAY to defeat the incredible power of the lusts of our flesh!) (Gal 5:24+) Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. THOUGHT- These fundamental desires of life are the steam in the boiler that makes the machinery go. Turn off the steam and you have no power. Let the steam go its own way and you have destruction. The secret is in constant control. These desires must be our servants and not our masters; and this we can do through Jesus Christ. (
Tiago 4:4
Pink writes that spiritual adultery is "a giving unto the world that love and devotion, time and strength, which the Lord alone is entitled unto. As natural marriage is a solemn and sacred engagement which is not to be entered into lightly, constituting as it does a lifelong compact—much more should there be the most serious and self-searching deliberation before anyone openly professes to be united to the Lord." J C
Tiago 4:6
Pink wrote that… Just as the sinner's despair of any help from himself is the first prerequisite of a sound conversion, so the loss of all confidence in himself is the first essential in the believer's growth in grace.
Tiago 4:8
Pink notes that… It is one thing to know theoretically the legal way and right of approach unto God—but it is quite another to enjoy conscious access to Him. For that, the aid of the Spirit is imperative—but He will not perform His gracious operations within us if He is grieved (Ep 4:30+). If we have spent the night in ransacking the newspapers, in worldly conversation—or in backbiting the servants and saints of God (Ed: In other words, we let an "unwholesome word proceed from" our mouth! Ep 4:29+)—do you think that the Holy Spirit will draw out your heart unto the Father, when you perform your evening devotions? Not so, unless you penitently confess those sins, and sincerely determine there shall be no repetition of them. "Draw near to God—and He will draw near to you" (James 4:8+). (Access to God) In the OT David wrote… But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works. (Psalm 73:28KJV)
Tiago 4:9
Pink explains that the mourning in Mt 5:4… is by no means to be confined unto the initial experience of conviction and contrition, for observe the tense of the verb: it is not “have mourned,” but “mourn”—a present and continuous experience. The Christian himself has much to mourn over. The sins which he now commits—both of omission and commission—are a sense of daily grief to him, or should be, and will be, if his conscience is kept tender. An ever-deepening discovery of the depravity of his nature, the plague of his heart, the sea of corruption within—ever polluting all that he does—deeply exercises him. Consciousness of the surgings of unbelief, the swellings of pride, the coldness of his love, and his paucity of fruit, make him cry, “O wretched man that I am.” (Ro 7:24-) (Matthew 5:3-4: The Beatitudes) (Bolding added)
Tiago 4:9
Pink comments on the blessing of mourning (from his comments on the parallel passage Mt 5:4) writing that… Mourning is hateful and irksome to poor human nature: from suffering and sadness our spirits instinctively shrink. It is natural for us to seek the society of the cheerful and joyous. The verse (Ed: Again Pink is referring to Mt 5:4 in this note but most of his comments are very apropos to the mourning referred to in James 4:9) now before us presents an anomaly to the unregenerate, yet is it sweet music to the ears of God’s elect: if “blessed” why do they “mourn?” If they mourn, how can they be blessed? Only the child of God has the key to this paradox, for “happy are they who sorrow” is at complete variance with the world’s logic. Men have, in all places and in all ages, deemed the prosperous and the gay to be the happy ones, but Christ pronounces blessed those who are poor in spirit and who mourn. Now it is obvious that it is not every species of mourning which is here referred to. There are thousands of mourners in the world today who do not come within the scope of our text: those mourning over blighted hopes, over financial reverses, over the loss of loved ones. But alas, so far from many of them coming beneath this Divine benediction, they are under God’s condemnation; nor is there any promise that such shall ever be Divinely “comforted.” There are three kinds of “mourning” referred to in the Scriptures: a natural, such as we have just referred to above; a sinful, which is a disconsolate and inordinate grief, refusing to be comforted, or a hopeless remorse like that of Judas; and a gracious, a “godly sorrow,” of which the Holy Spirit is the Author. The “mourning” of our text is a spiritual one. The previous verse indicates clearly the line of thought here: ”Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Yes,” Blessed are the poor,” not the poor in purse, but the poor in heart: those who realize themselves to be spiritual bankrupts in themselves, paupers before God. That felt poverty of spirit is the very opposite of the Laodiceanism which is so rife today, that self-complacency which says, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” In like manner it is spiritual mourning which is in view here. Further proof of this is found in the fact that Christ pronounces these mourners “blessed.” They are so because the Spirit of God has wrought a work of grace within them, and hence they have been awakened to see and feel their lost condition. They are “blessed” because God does not leave them at that point: “they shall be comforted.” “Blessed are they that mourn.” The first reference is to that initial mourning which ever precedes a genuine conversion, for there must be a real sense of sin before the remedy for it will even be desired. Thousands acknowledge that they are sinners, who have never mourned over the fact. Take the woman of Luke 7:36-50, who washed the Saviour’s feet with her tears: have you ever shed any over your sins? Take the prodigal in Luke 15: before he left the far country he said, “I will arise and go unto my Father and say unto Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee, And am no more worthy to be called Thy son “ (Luke 15:21)—where shall we find those today with this sense of their sinnership? Take the publican of Luke 18: why did he “smite upon his breast” and say “God be merciful to me a sinner?” (Luke 18:13) Because he felt the plague of his own heart. So of the three thousand converted on the day of