1Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 3You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? 6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?
13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” 14Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” 16But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. 17To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.
In the Greek language four basic words are used to describe love: eros (sexual love; not found in Scripture), phileo (three basic nuances, namely, “natural affection”- occurring approximately 25 times in the N.T., “brotherly love “ – five times, and “casual friendship”- only found in James 4:4), storge (tender affection between relatives), and agape. Agape is similar to the Old Testament rendering of hesed, that is, “loyal love.” Agape-love is the commitment of the will to the true good of another. Agape-love entails dedication and is undeserving- even among those who mock, reject, and ridicule the giver (cf. John 3:16).
Agape-love was powerfully demonstrated by God the Father by sending Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to die on the cross for our sins. (cf. Romans 5:8). Agape-love is what committed Jesus to embrace death by crucifixion so that we might have eternal life (Philippians 2:5-11). Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf. It is the type of loyal love that God extends to His children, lavishing them with their best interests in mind (1 John 3:1). Therefore, even though we may not understand why certain afflictions, pains, and troubles come our way, we can trust God, for He is the sum-total of His infinite perfections. God, who is both good and sovereign, has willfully and decisively chosen to love His children. Similar to Hosea’s loyalty to Gomer, God never gives up on us, His children, no matter how many times we raise our fists in rebellion against Him. As a result, we are invited to love Him and love others, believers and non-believers alike, as an expression of His love. This type of love is sacrificial, self-surrendering, always genuine, and demonstrated in meeting the practical needs of others- with no expectation of return (cf. 1 Cor 13:1; 1 John 3:16-17).