Humility Study: Part XVIII - Grace to the Proud

James 4:1-12

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. 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.

You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Humility leads to acceptance... being accepted by God. God lifts us up when we do his will, and being humble to his will is the first step. And being humble to God means being humble to his commands, which is love your God with everything you have and loving your neighbor as you would love yourself. Now, it is also written that you should deny yourself, but I don't think that tying that into the loving your neighbor as yourself means denying your neighbor. Quite the opposite, the good fortune that we wish to have for ourselves is what we are to supply for our neighbor. It means that instead of having the first slice of cake, you give it up to someone else. It also means that if I see a stranded person on the side of the road, and I should help them, since if I were stuck on the side of the road, I would want someone to stop and help me. But the conflict I have with the "stuck on the side of the road" situation, is that I normally have responsibilities that I need to attend to when I see that particular situation. And it begs the question, do I stop and help, as I would want someone to do for me, or do I let me "yes" be "yes" and fulfill the responsibility of being somewhere on time? I want to do good in two situations, but can only be good in one and thus cause neglect in another area. What I find myself doing more and more is simply pray for the situation of the person stuck on the road and fulfilling my obligation to be somewhere on time. Am I wrong for not stopping? Part of me says yes. Part of me says no. I don't think there really is a win-win situation in this scenario...