Submit Yourselves to God
Comments for Study 4
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I. Submit Yourselves to God (4:1-12)
>1. Is it possible for believers to have disagreements? (Acts 15:39-40)
* Acts 15:39-40 "They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord."
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>What's the source?
* James 4:1 "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?"
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>2. What are some common ways that people obtain material possessions? (2)
* James 4:2 "You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God."
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>What should be the first thing we do when we want something?
* "You do not have, because you do not ask God"
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>What is one reason God will say, "No" to our request? (3)
* James 4:3 "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."
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>Why is this best for us? (4)
* James 4:4 "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."
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>3. What does God desire from us? (5; Luke 20:25)
* James 4:5 "Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?"
* Luke 20:25 "Caesar's," they replied. He said to them, "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
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>4. What is grace and why is this greater than all the riches in the world? (6)
* James 4:6 "But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
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>5. When we are tempted by material possessions what should we do? (7)
* James 4:7 "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
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>How is resisting the devil only part of the solution? (8)
* James 4:8 "Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."
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>6. How is the reverse logic in verses 9 and 10 true?
* James 4:9 "Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."
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>7. What does vere 11 mean?
* James 4:11 "Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it."
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>Why can judging others be wrong? (12; Rom. 2:1-4)
* James 4:12 "There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you--who are you to judge your neighbor?"
* Romans 2:1-4 "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?"
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II. Boasting About Tomorrow (4:13-17)
>8. How do most go about looking into the future? (13)
* James 4:13 "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.'"
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>What is one reality that most ignore? (14)
* James 4:14 "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."
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>9. Since physical life is so fragile, what should we consider about the future?
* James 4:15 "Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
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>What can be learned from verse 16 about humility?
* James 4:16 "As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil."
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>10. What can be learned about Bible study from verse 17?
* James 4:17 "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."
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