James 4:5

NIV: Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?

The Message: And do you suppose God doesn't care? The proverb has it that "he's a fiercely jealous lover." And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you'll find.

When I read this, my first thought was "huh?" I mean, is this verse really telling us that God caused a spirit of envy to live within each one of us? And where does it say this in the bible? So I did what any self respecting internet user would do, and googled it.

Apparently, there is confusion over this verse (no, really?!) but one site I saw gave this explanation:

The Bible often uses the word, spirit, to indicate the inner part of man that receives the life of God and is enabled by God's Spirit. We are taught by the Spirit through our spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11-14) and the Spirit of God bears witness to our spirit (Romans 8:16). However, the word can be used in other ways as well; as this passage shows. The "spirit" of James 4:5 is a spirit that lusts. It is therefore our earthly life and not our heavenly one. It is the "spirit of the world" (1 Corinthians 2:12) and not the life from above.

To lust means to wrongly desire something for the sake of self-gratification. James 4:1-5 uses some form of the word, lust, four times. Fightings come from "your lusts that war in your members" (James 4:1). To "lust" is to "desire to have" (James 4:2). When you pray, you ask for things "that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:3). And, finally, the natural human spirit "lusteth to envy" (James 4:5). This passage strongly deals with this sinful motivation.

We are then told that this natural lust leads "to envy." Envy is defined as a feeling of displeasure and ill will because someone else has advantages that you do not possess. Envy is connected to the wisdom of this world at the end of the previous chapter. You are not to glory if you have "bitter envying and strife in your hearts" (James 3:14). The wisdom that leads to such envy is worldly and "where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work" (James 3:16). James 4:4 warns of the danger of making "friendship of the world." If we love the world, we will eventually envy those who have the things of this world.

The teaching is clear. If I follow the wisdom of this world and allow the natural lusts in my human heart to control me, I will be filled with envy toward those I see as having what I desire to have. Envy then expresses itself in strife (James 3:14, 16) and further leads to "confusion and every evil work" (James 3:16).

Pasted from http://www.learnthebible.org/what-scripture-is-james-45-referring-to.html

So when we obey our natural instincts, when we become jealous, angry, proud and so on. then we are filled with all those other emotions and desires that lead us down the wrong path, into sin and away from God. When we follow the Holy Spirit within us, when we choose to do right instead of wrong, then we are following God's way, obeying His will. When we set our standards by the standards of the world, where everyone has a "right" to be happy, where you cannot say something is wrong because of fear of giving offence to others, where you cannot refuse to do something that is against your religious faith if you want to keep your job, when we follow what everyone else is dong rather than what we know is right, then we are no different from anyone else. We are letting the things of this world, letting the prince of this world, govern what we say, what we do, how we act and behave.

God has given each one of us the freedom to choose. We can choose to follow Him, to receive His Son as our Lord and Saviour, to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, help us, or we can choose to go our own way, to do what we want, when we want, to live according to our own wants and desires without regard or consideration for anyone else. It’s a case of following the sinful nature we were all born with , or following the Holy Spirit who lives within each believer.

I also think these verses in Galatians help explain this too:

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.

But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. (Galatians 5:16-21, The Message)

We need to live by the Spirit, not the spirit, if that makes sense. It is a choice we have to make each and every day, as there are always things around us to tempt us. The devil is always on the look out for those who are not paying attention, not watching where they are going or what they are doing, ever ready to draw them down the sweet, slippery path of sin. So following God has got to be a conscious choice, and one we need to make everyday.

Do you choose to follow God, to be led by His Spirit, or do you choose (even if it is by default because you have not consciously made any decision) to follow the urgings of your spirit, to follow the world, and the prince of this world? Because if you haven't made a choice for God, then you are choosing to follow satan.