The Enemies of Peace

"Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity [or, hostility] with God?” (James 4:1–4a)

If God Himself is the entrance of peace, what are the enemies of peace? James answers straight: the wars out there start with the war inside. Conflict among us springs from lusts, desires, and cravings within us. We want what we cannot have, so we fight, claw, and scheme. And James says it gets worse: we become so cozy with the world’s way of thinking that we find ourselves at odds with God. Friendship with the world puts us in enmity (hostility) with Him. That’s a sobering picture—stiff-arming God while wondering why peace seems so far away.

At the center of all this unrest is sin. Isaiah 48:22 is blunt: “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.” Sin disrupts the soul. Sin unsettles the mind. Sin starves the heart of God’s shalom.

Isaiah 59:1–2 tells us plainly that it is our iniquities and sins that create separation between us and God. If peace is the tranquility that flows from being rightly aligned with God and neighbor, sin is the wedge that splits that alignment. On one side is holy God; on the other is sinful man; and we find ourselves staring across a chasm we cannot bridge.

No wonder our relationships fray. We’re at war with others, we’re at war within ourselves, and—most crucially—we’re at war with God. That’s why peacemaking starts with repentance and humility. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6). Do you really want God as your opponent? Or do you want the grace that comes when you submit to God?

The good news is, the bridge we could not build, God built. There is “one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). He took holy God by the hand and sinful man by the hand and, through His cross, brought us together.

The ultimate Peacemaker—Jesus—didn’t retaliate when we rebelled; He reconciled us by His blood. And the love that compelled Him has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). As sin is confessed and forsaken, as pride yields to humility, peace is restored vertically with God. That restoration empowers reconciliation horizontally between people.

Let’s examine our hearts today. Is there a hidden war within us—an unyielded desire, a stubborn pride, an affection for the world’s way, that’s breaking the bridge? Bring it to the Lord. He doesn’t shame repentant sons and daughters; He restores them. And restored hearts become bridge-building hands.

Reflection Question: What desire, attitude, or sin is disrupting peace in you today—and how will you humble yourself before God so He can restore what sin has broken?

Lord, search me. Expose the wars within me that are spilling into my relationships. I repent of pride, of friendship with the world, of any sin that grieves Your heart. Thank You, Jesus, for being my Mediator. Restore Your peace in me and, through me, restore peace with others. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

Adapted from "Becoming a Bridge-Builder": https://www.joshfranklin.org/media/5dw2p8w/7-become-a-bridge-builder