Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from James 4:1-5.

 

“¹ What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?  Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?  ² You lust and do not have;  so you commit murder. You are envious 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 with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.  ⁴ You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?  Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  ⁵ Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose:  “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?  James 4:1-5.

 

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“The flesh” is the source of quarrels, conflicts, lusts, envy, fights, wrong motives, and friendship with the world which are mentioned in today’s Scripture. 

 

“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are:  immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  Galatians 5:19-21.

 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;  against such things there is no law.”  Galatians 5:22-23. 

 

 

“For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”  Romans 8:5-8. 

 

“For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;  for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”  Galatians 5:17.

 

 

“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?  Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  Verse 4.

 

“No one can serve two masters;  for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth.”  Matthew 6:24.

 

 

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did:  sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”  Romans 8:2-4

 

“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.  But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”  Romans 8:9-11.

 

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”  Galatians 5:16. 

 

“Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”  Galatians 5:24.

 

 

“Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose:  “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?”  Verse 5. 

 

The jealous desire of God for His Spirit within us guarantees our salvation.  Because God desires His Spirit within us so much, God will not abandon us.  God placed His Spirit within us as a pledge or guarantee that He will not forsake us nor forget to redeem us to bring us to Himself in heaven.

 

“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.  Ephesians 1:13-14.