Getting Started: Did you ever get involved in a fight at school when you were young? What caused it?
Digging In: Read James 4:1-12
- vs. 1- What do you think are the main reasons people have conflict?
- vs. 2- According to James, what is the reason for conflicts?
- vs. 2- What is the relationship between desiring, coveting, and not asking?
- vs. 3- What are some wrong motives that inhibit receiving what we ask for?
- What would be examples from your own life where you have asked God for things that were from wrong motives?
- vs. 4- How does “friendship with the world” contribute to our quarrels and fights? How does this contribute to having wrong motives?
- vs. 4- Does friendship with the world really an enemy of God? Is it really that severe?
- vs. 6-10- How would humility lesson the amount of conflict we have with others?
- vs. 11-12- How do these verses connect back to vs. 1? How does slander and being judgmental connect with interpersonal conflict?
- What relationship to do you have that needs to have less conflict? What can you do to bring peace?