In James 4:4-6 James accuses the hearers of Spiritual adultery, by following the idols of their heart. According to this passage, we are chasing after the things outside our covenant relationship with God. The danger is friendship with the world. This is putting things that are temporary before that which is eternal. Jesus says in Matthew 6:24 :”No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” According to this we see that idols of the heart break our fellowship with God. James seems to be saying with this passage, “You are living proof of the truthfulness of Scripture, which clearly teaches that the natural man has a spirit of envy Here we see that those who are in a permanent state of spiritual conflict with God, not only are His enemies, but also reflect that hostility by not trusting or obeying His Word. It is impossible to hold Scripture in genuine high regard as God’s own Word and yet not trust Jesus Christ for salvation and life. He concludes in verse by reminding us … READ MORE

Why is it that we struggle with idols of the heart? Often we pursue the lusts of our hearts instead of desiring to know God in a deeper richer way. In James 4:1-3 we see three reasons that we struggle with our desires: First, in verse one we see that we do what we do because of our desires. The chief among those desires is the desire to bring pleasure into our lives. Second in verse 2 we see that envy and jealousy (covetousness) become the motive for our behavior. We want what we want, and because of this we will sacrifice what we know to be right, for what we want. And third, in verse 3 we struggle with selfishness. Life is not about “ME” it is about service. Unfortunately, the desires of our hearts cause me to want what I want! We must learn to evaluate our heart as we come before God.… READ MORE

Until we are able to examine our hearts, we are not able to understand the struggle that is in our hearts. We look back at the Old Testament and see that they served many gods, as idols were spread throughout the land. We feel a sense of pride that we do not have statues in our homes that illustrate our worship of other religions. However, our struggle is that our idols are much more insidious, and dangerous, because they are idols of the heart. They are things that we have placed in our lives that motivate us to do what we do. It can be a simple as the “idol of peace” which is the idol that a husband craves when he does not take the leadership role he should in his house, or the wife may choose to worship when she refuses to deal with the behavior of the sinning child. We do what we do, because we want what we want. Our choices reveal what we are truly worshipping. James 4:1-10 gives us a call to examine our hearts, we need to take time to evaluate our heart motivation and what we are truly worshipping.… READ MORE