For August 26, 2026
Keeping In Spiritual Covenant by Greg Holmes, D.MIN – Director of Missions serving 17 churches
JAMES SPEAKS INITIALLY of the conflict between peoples in this passage in his letter. But there is an underlying theme, and it deals specifically with the internal struggles of the individual. “Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1b) These issues are inevitably made manifest in those external disagreements, wherever and whenever they may happen. Paul, speaking to this same theme, says “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col. 3:2) This is very difficult for us at first, for we have spent a lifetime in the world below. Everything that we are has been shaped by the world below, for that has been our total experience, until we have been reborn, and given a new Spirit. Jesus, the master of all teachers, says “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:5-7) And James warns us that the Giver of “the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?” (James 4:5)