Confronting the Enemies of Unity: In Our Hearts

In our current study of Unity in the Body of Christ, we have seen that unity is a high calling of God, our birthright as a partaker of the Divine nature possessing the Living God in us. We're supposed to manifest that in our relationships. We've been looking at James' Epistle as a practical book dealing with the issue of unity and confronting the enemies of unity. The enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil. The three battlefields of confrontation are: Our words, Our attitudes, and Our hearts. Although James doesn't use the word “heart” in the text, he refers to our desires, affections, and yearnings. In the Bible, the seat of our affections is the heart.

Our passage today is one of those that “slap you in the face”. James is continuing a Spirit-inspired diatribe against disunity in the Body. He's making righteously stunning statements to shake us out of our lethargy. We are prone to allow conflict into our lives and to get comfortable and happy with it. We get used to it and then we “fall asleep” with it. What seems hyperbolic about the passage at first glance is actually a reality that we aren't used to hearing. Words like “murder” and “adulteresses” are applied in the same manner as our Lord uses in the Sermon on the Mount.

Our goal today is to understand where conflict comes from, to see the true nature of it, and to see how it develops.