But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
James 3:14
It’s far too easy to walk around with the wrong thing in your heart while maintaining a positive façade. I have seen many product packages that claim to help rainforests, the poor in our communities, and small children, only to find out that these causes benefit marginally by my purchase of the product. Selfish ambition and a desire to take the market share of others causes these companies to boast of their goodness to convince me to make my purchase with them, but in reality, they are deceptive.
Now, I’m not against capitalism, growing business, and supporting causes. However, I think that the words of James would question the ways in which the businesses described above conduct themselves.
James writes that the bitter jealousy and selfish ambition that exists in the hearts of some members of the Church motivates a boasting that causes one to be false to the truth. What does this mean?
The bitter jealousy that James describes refers to a zeal to take what is another’s.* Selfish ambition refers to self-seeking pursuits by unjust means.* In the case of the writings of James, scholars believe that James may have been seeing members of the church attempting to grow followers by setting themselves over and above other leaders.* The selfish ambition that motivated their hearts contrasts the humility that produces real wisdom - the wisdom of God.*
There is a wisdom of this world that provides a path to gain what the world tell us is important. This path leads to foolishness and destruction.
If we fall into the trap of allowing selfish ambition and bitter jealousy to take hold in our hearts and motivate us toward leadership or “high spiritual status,” we are false to the truth because we are fools who claim to be wise.* We claim a wisdom that is not in us.* In fact, bitter jealousy and selfish ambition disqualify us from real wisdom because of the connection between real (God’s) wisdom and humility.*
How does this happen? The dangers of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are not limited to false teachers. Teachers who teach God’s Word rightly may fall into this trap as well. Those who feel that their doctrine is best, their teaching is sound, and their understanding is right fall prey as well. George Stulac puts it this way:
I can gain a reputation for my thorough grasp of theology and be regarded as a protector of the faith; and my teaching may still be earthly, unspiritual, of the devil, resulting in disorder and every evil practice by stirring up suspicion, slander, distrust and contention within the Christian community.
James puts the critical issue to me: Am I teaching from humility or from selfish ambition? If it is the latter, then I am even failing in the matter about which I am most proud: my grasp of truth. For then my claim to be wise is itself a falsehood.
Maybe you can think of a leader in the church that fits this description. Maybe, like my example of the packaging of a product that reports to help others, you bought into following someone who was in fact not wise at all. On the surface they seemed to deliver Godliness, but underneath their façade, bitter jealousy and selfish ambition lurked. I’m so very sorry. Humble leaders exist, and God calls us each to true humility.
The Lord asks each of us today to allow Him to examine our hearts to see if we meet this description of pride. Soberly, I have to submit that bitter jealousy and selfish ambition lurks for any believer not aware, and it has existed in my heart at some times in life.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to ask the Lord to examine your heart. Perhaps today God wants to speak to you about a leader that you have been following or followed at one time. Maybe God wants to bring healing from what these leaders took under the guise of humility. Perhaps today God wants you to begin a new way of doing things: in His wisdom via humility. Maybe today God wants you to lay down bitter jealousy and selfish ambition.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.
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*Blomberg, C. L., & Kamell, M. J. (2008). James (Vol. 16, pp. 172–173). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. H. (2006). James. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, pp. 249–250). Zondervan.
Stulac, G. M. (1993). James (Jas 3:13–18). IVP Academic.
Moo, D. J. (2021). The Letter of James (D. A. Carson, Ed.; Second Edition, pp. 214–217). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Nystrom, D. P. (1997). James (pp. 206–207). Zondervan Publishing House.