As I write Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is in it second month, with deaths mounting daily on both sides. Sadly non-military targets in Ukraine have been bombed mercilessly, including hospitals and homes. Someone described this as the most dangerous event in Europe since the second World War! A third world war is unthinkable and yet it may already have started. Why are people so prone to war mongering?
James 4:1-3 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ...
What causes wars; fights and quarrels between nations? Perhaps the same reasons that cause fights between people. This passage gives us some reasons why people fight:
1) Our desires that battle within us v 1. For example the desire to possess or control another, to the extent that you are prepared to even kill to achieve it. Nations have ambitions and goals just as people have, which can be healthy or destructive.
2) A covetous attitude v 2: desiring something which someone else has.
3) Instead of leaving it to God to decide, you take things into your own hands, seizing rather than allowing Him to give.
4) Even when we ask God, the motives are wrong – they are self-centred not for the good of others.
Did you know that God has been at war since the beginning of the world? His battle was and still is against any wrong-doing and the devil. When Adam and Eve sinned (Genesis 3), God immediately activated his plan to send His Son Jesus to defeat Satan who is also called Deceiver, Destroyer and Liar in the Bible. This led to the coming of Jesus Christ centuries later. He lived a sinless life, but was unjustly crucified on a Cross even though He was not guilty of any evil. Three days later God raised Jesus from the dead to prove that not even death could stop God’s plan of salvation.
Praise God that on Good Friday sin was defeated, because Jesus’ death brings forgiveness, and on Easter Sunday, death was defeated, because Jesus’ resurrection brings victory over death. Ultimately the devil will be destroyed “thrown into the lake of burning sulphur” together with the beast and the false prophet (Rev 20:10). Thank God for His relentless battle against the devil, evil and death! Thank God that Jesus finished the mission His Father sent Him to complete on the cross! Now He recruits us to join Him in His war against evil, injustice and the devil.
I Peter 1.3f: Praise to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you.”
May you receive the hope that God offers in Christ, and as well as the imperishable, eternal inheritance He desires to give you. Blessed Easter to all!
Ps Graham
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