Functional Faith + Our Fighting | James 4:1-10
How many of you like to fight? We live in a day of conflict everywhere, and it is a part of our every day. We have conflict at work, school, Walmart, and at home. My first ever fight was when I was 11 years old, it was at the playground over a basketball. The kid’s name was Woody (same friend). Here is how the fight went down. He swung at me and missed. I swung at him and missed. He then hit me, and I hit him and then we both ran away crying. The US last year, there were over 900,000 cases of aggravated assault, which is the most common violent crime in America. 20% of US high school students have been involved in some kind of fight or conflict at school. The average couple argues about 7 times per month, and around 60% report having serious fights monthly. 34% say they’ve been personally involved in a social media argument, and 59% have experienced cyberbullying. It doesn’t take long to reflect on many incidents of conflict in your life. Some people walk around looking for a fight. How we deal with conflict speaks about how we are walking with God.
James, our blue-collar scholar, finished his wisdom section by telling us that true wisdom from God leads to peace, order, and best practices, while wisdom from the world leads to disorder (chaos) and every vile practice. He now shifts gears to talk about conflict. He turns up the heat. This is a difficult passage not because the teaching is unclear but that it is very clear. Real faith responds to conflict in everyday life differently than the world. Functional faith is humble and deals with the real cause of the conflict, not just the symptoms, by running to the grace of God. James wants us to understand the cause and core of our conflict with others so that we can find the cure we need in the grace of God.