What Seems to be the Problem?

James starts the 4th chapter of his epistle with a question that any parent of more than one child has likely asked: "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?" Yeah, we've all seen that and we've all likely, whether intentionally or in passing, wondered the same thing. Just what is it that is making two people quarrel? Maybe it's not people; maybe it's nations. I'd suspect the answer is the same.

James answers. "Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?" That's the ESV. There is the elegant KJV -- "Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" The New American Standard says, "Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?" So ... which is it? Is it passions, lust, or "your pleasures"? Because these don't seem to be the same thing. Well, at least not in our minds. "Passions" refers to anything about which we are passionate, and we even encourage that. "Lust" in our vernacular is sexual. And, of course, "your pleasure" is generic enough, not requiring real "passion" and broader than sexual desire. We're all waiting to figure out what is the cause of quarrels. What did James say?

James used the Greek word, ἡδονή. "You know, Stan, that doesn't help at all." Yeah, I know, but some want to know the actual word, like it would make a difference. However, in the phonetic spelling of the Greek word, I suspect you'll begin to find your very own answer. The Greek word, when spelled out like we would pronounce it, is hēdonē. Now, surely you see an English word origin there, right? The word, as it turns out, both in sound and in definition, is the source of our English term, "hedonism". It refers to pleasure or the desire for pleasure. You know, your passions, your lusts, your pleasures. What is hedonism? It is the doctrine that pleasure is the highest good. Oh! Welcome to the 21st century!

What seems to be the problem? Why are children killing children? Why are there fights in Congress? Why do your neighbors hate each other? Why is there conflicts between races? What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? It is the search for pleasure. It is our drive to satisfy our desires. Maybe they're personal desires for sex, for power, for money. Maybe they're for more "understandable" things like respect or even just to be left alone. Maybe they are national desires for land, for power, for glory. The conflicts are always based on the pleasures of the combatants. They cannot occur if one or the other or both are not concerned about pleasure. And when these desires are elevated to the highest priority, they become wars, either between individuals or between groups or nations.

The Bible warns that hedonism -- the doctrine that pleasure is the highest good -- results in conflict and struggles. The world tells us that hedonism is right, normal, normative. We ought not set it aside. We ought to embrace it. And if you say otherwise, you're just a bigoted, narrow-minded hater. You decide.