Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

James 4:1-4
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.

I led our small group through a discussion of this passage this evening. There is much to be said about these four verses. (Unfortunately for my small group very much was said) One thing that struck me tonight was the connection between life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (and I'm not talking about the declaration of independence).

Here's the connection:

The things that you do and don't do in your life are determined in large part by your view on Christian liberty. Subsequently your view on Christian liberty and the resulting actions can (doesn't have to) play a large part in determining how you pursue happiness.

Here's what I mean...if you are a member of a extremely conservative church that practices secondary separation there are lots of things out in the world that you aren't going to do and therefore aren't going to be exposed to. You probably won't go to or sometimes even watch movies, you won't listen to anything that resembles secular music and certainly won't attend a concert. Sometimes you won't own a television. You won't drink alcohol, and probably simply because of the way you live your life and things you avoid you won't have very many unsaved friends.

I personally think that this view of life and Christian liberty is wrong. I don't think that it allows a Christian the true freedom that we have in Christ. While I do appreciate what these folks are trying to accomplish by setting up parameters, all too often in my experience you wind up with a group of people who base their standing before God on the things that they are avoiding and not the grace that results from the shed blood of Christ. Their pursuit of happiness in the Christian life becomes a checklist of things to do and even more things not to do. To often true joy for them is looking at the person next to them and saying "God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector" (Luke 18:11)

One thing that you would have to say about this group is that they generally don't fall into the category that James describes in verse 4; they are anything but "friends of the world". Call them Pharisees, call them legalists, you can even call them white-washed tombs, but you can't call them friends of the world.

Now, let's look for a moment at the antitheses of this group.

This is the group who has what in my opinion is a more biblical view of Christian liberty. They have the freedom to watch movies, and even go to the theater if they want. The definitely own a television and probably have a favorite sitcom. They listen to CCM regularly and sometimes might even through in a few secular songs on their ipod playlist. Someone from this group might even drink alcohol occasionally as long as they aren't doing it in excess or causing a brother to stumble. I'm certainly not saying that you have to do all these things to have a biblical view of Christian liberty, but I do think that someone who truly understands Christian liberty will probably feel free to do at least some of these things, as long as they don't take precedence over their walk with Christ or cause themselves or a brother or sister to fall into sin.

They will never be called a pharisee and avoid the term legalism like the plague. However, this group stands a far greater chance of falling into the category of verse 4 than the other group. Because of their view on Christian liberty, this group finds themselves right out in the middle of the world very often. They are exposed to much sin and temptation in the world that the other group is not. (The other group is exposed to sin and temptation as well, but it seems to come from those inside their ranks and not so much from the world which they avoid.)

My friend Roy described it like this tonight. For the Christian there is a fence that separates us from the world and creates a divide. One side is the world's side, and one side is God's side. Both of the aforementioned groups would say they are walking on God's side. There is however a difference. The first group has erected a huge fence that keeps them almost completely safe from the world, but also hinders there ability to make a difference in the world for Christ. The second groups fence is very small and they can jump back and forth from one side to the other. They spend the majority of their time on God's side, but jump over to the world's side from time to time.

This is where the problem lies. What if the person is second group begins spending more and more time on the "other" side of the fence. They really enjoy some of the things on the world's side, and hey, there's nothing wrong with them in and of themselves. Then what if that person begins spending more time on the world's side of the fence than on God's side. Their pursuit of happiness has changed from a passion for the things on God's side, to a "desire for pleasure" on the world's side that only fulfills the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Suddenly, without even realizing it they have become a friend of the world! Based on James 4:4 they are not only an friend of the world but they are an enemy of God.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians he made it clear that we must be careful in our excercise of Christian liberty:

1 Cor 8:9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

We must also ensure that it doesn't become a stumbling block for ourselves either. While I pray that we all adopt a more biblical view of Christian liberty, I also pray that we take a long hard look at James 4 and are very careful that the object of our affection is the Creator and not the creations on the other side of the fence.