“Quarreling Spirit”
Scripture Reference: James 4:1-10/Matthew 12:45-47
Preacher: Pastor Mark Bartsch
Kobe Union Church
16 February 2025
In boxing, the referee will tell the two boxers to touch gloves and come out fighting. That is great in a boxing ring, but so many of us bring a fighting or quarreling spirit into the church. It is like we bring the patterns of the world into the house of God instead of our faith into the world.
That is not to say that we do not have differences of opinion with each other. Disagreeing with each other is not quarrelsome. We know that iron sharpens iron (Prov. 27). We are not called to swallow our tongues but to submit our tongues and words to the Lord. Quarrels happen when people get entrenched in their arguments and start thinking about winning instead of getting to a resolution.
Well, there are quarrels in the church. Let’s define the difference between quarrels and differences of opinion. When you voted to extend my contract in February, there was discussion and there were differences of opinion—specifically on the church needing a full-time pastor and my only being able to be at KUC quarter-time. So, people named their concerns. One person came to me directly, which was refreshingly healthy. “Mark, I did not vote for you because I think we need a full-time pastor that is why I did not vote for you.” I thanked that person for telling me. Being willing to share or disagree with another believer is an important aspect of being in a mature relationship. Don’t talk AT people; talk TO people. Again, don’t talk AT people; talk TO people!
Quarreling is when the discussion moves from the idea or topic to personal attacks. Oh boy, I have seen some nasty stuff that would have fit well in a bar fight (not a Christian bar, mind you). I’ve heard people’s faith and character attacked. People in the early church knew how to quarrel, and James is hoping to help them unlearn these patterns of the world. We do not know the exact fights that were happening that James mentions, but there is an obvious break in tone from the end of James 3 to the start of James 4. And James is coming out of his corner with his gloves up to confront (not the people) but this behavior.
He asks a question—a good question: “What causes fights and quarrels among you?” Well? What does cause people to fight and quarrel? James is looking under the rock and asking for the root of the issue. He is not talking about a specific fight or disagreement. There were those as well in the bible, like when Peter and Paul had a disagreement over dietary rules (Gal. 2) or when Paul and Barnabas split over John Mark (Acts 15). Here, James is not talking about one specific issue or fight as much as destructive patterns of behavior. He is not addressing the presenting issue but the root cause or causes.
When people come to me for marital counseling, they often come with presenting issues like money, frequency of intimacy, or, in one case, a woman upset about her husband leaving the toilet seat up. One thing God always challenges me on when I do counseling is to look for the root cause, not the presenting issue. Otherwise, they will be in my office in a month with a different presenting issue.
James comes in hot and says it is because of an internal battle with our fallen nature that the believers are in trouble—and he is right. He is going right back to Genesis and original sin. He goes on to say you want something and do not get it, so you fight. You acting like a two-year-old babies throwing tantrums, and because people are too tired to deal with your garbage, they give you what you want—but in turn, they reject you. And you feel that rejection, so you fight harder and harder. You think your arguments are about being right, but the root is a heart condition—an unwillingness to submit first to God and an unwillingness to trust in your brothers and sisters. And when I say submit, I am not talking about submitting to the pastor or other people; I am talking about an unwillingness to submit to the Spirit of God. There is a battle going on, and you do not want to come to a peace accord with yourself, with God, with your brother—or do you want to keep fighting. Too many of us want to keep fighting.
There is a story. One evening, a young warrior came to an older, wiser warrior seeking guidance. He said to the wise warrior, “I feel as if there is a battle within me. Two forces are warring inside me—one is good, full of love, kindness, and wisdom. The other is bad, full of anger, envy, greed, and resentment. They fight for control over me. Which one will win?” The elder warrior nodded solemnly and replied, “The one you feed.”
What are you feeding? Are you feeding the carnal man (woman), or are you feeding your better self—the person that God wants you to be?
James says that because of this, we are willing to "kill." Maybe not literally, as we have no record of killing in the early church, but we are willing to murder a person’s relationships, destroy their reputation, or ruin their joy in coming to church to worship the Lord—all because we covet. Maybe not an ox or house, but we covet their place in the world.
We know that Exodus 20:17 states, "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
When you do not get what you covet, you turn on your brother or sister. It is a “tale as old as time”—a tale as old as Cain and Abel, with Cain bashing his brother’s skull in and the ground crying out to the Lord because Cain would not submit to worshiping him as God asked him to.
You may say it’s not that bad. No one is killing anyone here. I hope not—or we’d need to call the police. In my pastor peer group in Toledo, one pastor shared about his church, where a meeting over communion broke out into a fistfight between members. The police were called, and one officer had to arrest his own mother. Funny—if it’s not your church. It happened ten years earlier to my pastor friend, but when he told us, he cried.
James tells us why believers quarrel: they put themselves at the center of their lives, not Christ. Their god is not the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but “Me, Myself, and I.” And because their god is “Me, Myself, and I,” there is no room for self-reflection on their will and ways. Everyone who does not bow to their false god is treated as an infidel—stomped, canceled, or ignored.
Spiritual Warfare
"Submit yourselves 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." (4:7-10)
We often quote, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” No, he won’t. No, he will not—unless you first submit yourself to God. Resisting the devil without submitting to God will do nothing but make the evil you are trying to fight angry at you. The devil will laugh at you. I have seen people try, with some success for a day, week, couple of months, and then it all falls apart. Forgive me, but that is what happens. And the person is always far worse off than before.
Jesus tells us a story of spiritual warfare in Matthew 12:45-47. He speaks of a poor soul who tries, by his own human will, to drive a demon out of his life. The demon leaves for a time but then decides to return to his home. When he finds it cleaned out—actually, cleaned up for him to move back in—he invites seven of his nastier friends to join him. Jesus tells us that while the man's first impulse was good—he wanted to remove the demon—without filling himself with the Holy Spirit, he left himself wide open for more attacks. And in the end, his condition became far worse than when he began.
Spiritual warfare begins with submitting yourself to God. If you do not, you will be fighting a two-front war. Not only will you be battling the demon, but you will also be battling yourself. Submission means yielding to the will or authority of another. Many people submit to the wrong things, but believers are called to yield to God and God alone! James gives us the promise that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. This means having a deeper, richer, and more meaningful relationship with Him. However, that requires personal responsibility. It is not the preacher’s job to do it for you. It is your job! If I try to do it for you, I will only enable you, and you will never grow—while I, or whoever you depend on for your spiritual work, will just get worn out.
Submit. Yield. Draw close to the Lord, and you will experience a deeper, more meaningful relationship with Him.
I know that submission is difficult in our modern world. People often ask me what I learned in seminary. Well, I learned to submit—to go where God led me. It was hard. The bridle didn’t fit (or so I thought), and I fought against it, believing it was people who held the reins. But it was God leading me all along. And when I finally submitted to Him, I became freer than I had ever been before. Jesus says the same thing to Peter: "Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." (John 21:18)
Part of submitting is repentance. When Jonah came to the city of Nineveh and preached that God was going to destroy it in three days, the people repented. They put on sackcloth and poured ashes over their heads as a physical sign of their remorse. They were saying, “God, I want my outward actions to reflect my internal spiritual reality”. This was not a performance art—it was a real battle taking place in the spiritual realm and even though Jonah was not really happy about the outcome God was.
I am not a big spiritual warfare guy. Stephanie is more adept at it than I am. To be honest, I don’t like doing it. It feels a lot like taking out the trash—not trash that is nicely tied in a bag but messy all over trash. But if we don’t take out the trash, our house will stink. Too many people in our world (even here) have become accustomed to the smell of trash. Take it out. Here is how I pray when I engage in spiritual warfare:
I begin with personal repentance. I always bring my wife or another strong believer. We confess our sins to one another and anoint each other with the sign of the cross—drawing near to the Lord. I also pray prayers of protection over myself and those with me.
I ask the Lord what spirit we are dealing with (lust, envy, jealousy, etc.).
With the full consent of the person, I pray over them, beginning with the Lord’s Prayer. Then, with confidence, I command the evil spirit to the foot of the cross in Jesus’ name and for Jesus to deal with.
I pray for an infilling of God’s love, joy, peace, and the opposite of the spirit that was cast out—all in Jesus’ name. I then anoint the person to recommit their life to Christ.
I help the person identify practical, real-world triggers that the demonic spirit might use to reattach itself. After casting out a spirit, I always serve communion to the person. This process usually takes less than an hour and is just the beginning of their healing. There is no shouting, no theatrics—just calling on the mighty name of Jesus.
I help the person find an accountability partner. Sometimes, I may need to pray over them more than once, but if it becomes excessive, it is a sign that the person may be willingly welcoming the demon back. Sadly, this does happen, but God has given each of us free will. My hope is that they—and all of us—will choose life, not death; hope, not fear; love, not hate.
So, that is James 4—one of the more challenging passages to preach, according to a survey of preachers. I hope you know that the perfect love of our Lord casts out all fears—and all the other garbage as well.
Spiritual warfare is not just about resisting external forces but about fully submitting ourselves to God and filling our hearts with His presence. Without His strength, we leave ourselves open to attack. But when we draw near to Him, He draws near to us, giving us the power to overcome. So draw near to the Lord. Draw near to the Lord.
Distinguishing Disagreements from Quarrels: How can we differentiate between healthy disagreements and destructive quarrels within the church community? What practical steps can we take to ensure our discussions remain constructive?
Root Causes of Quarrels: James 4:1 asks, "What causes fights and quarrels among you?" In what ways do personal desires and internal conflicts contribute to disputes among believers? How can we address these root causes?
Impact of a Quarreling Spirit: What are the potential consequences of bringing a quarreling spirit into the church? How might this affect individual relationships and the overall unity of the congregation?
Submitting to God in Spiritual Warfare: James 4:7 emphasizes the importance of submitting to God before resisting the devil. How does genuine submission to God equip us for spiritual battles, and why is it essential for overcoming internal and external conflicts?
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