Isn't there One Wise Enough?

In Corinth, the members of the church were going to court with one another over trivial matters. By doing so they were bringing the name of Christ into disrepute and were driven by pride and greed. We as believers may not necessarily go to court against one another, but we certainly can go to war with one another. I've seen it enough, where members of a church can have differences that lead to major blow-ups and problems. But if we can stem it at the root a lot can be stopped. A good analysis can be found in James 4:1-4

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

The root of infighting and quarrels is covetousness, which is described here as "passions within". Covetousness is not the same as being envious. There is a distinction. Envy is when we covet what belongs to someone else. Coveting in general simply means a strong desire for anything that we think will make us happier. It is at its core idolatry, because we are trying to find happiness and satisfaction in something else rather than God (Cf. Eph.5:5) God is the ultimate source of our happiness, peace and joy.Whenever we try to satisfy our souls with something else rather than God we will always be left with a craving for more. We may satisfy our carnal appetite for a moment, but soon we will need more (cf. Eccl. 5:10.) But Jesus made a promise to us- that all those who come to him will find complete and everlasting satisfaction. In John 4 when Jesus met the woman at the well, he asked her for water and then began to witness to her. She was looking more at temporal satisfaction in life, and Jesus uses the water to illustrate the life giving satisfaction of the gift of eternal life:

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

When we find our satisfaction and contentment in Christ, we will not long and crave after the things of this life. Whether it be money,materiel possessions, health, relationships, a promotion, a title, respect, or the acceptance of others. But when we live to merely satisfy our "passions" it will inevitably lead to anger, bitterness and fighting, because someone is going to get in the way.

The moral of the story is that when we live to merely satisfy our passion, we are considered an adulterous people and friends of the world, making us enemies of God. We are provoke God to jealousy, because we are fining more enjoyment in something else other than him. And furthermore, we provoke him because we disrupt the unity of the church and sacrifice love on the alter of the idol of self. The solution is simple- 1 Peter 2:11- "to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul." and to "Flee from idols" 1 John 5:21. In the end this calls us to die to self. When we die to self, we find our happiness and satisfaction in the life giving waters of communion with God and we dwell in unity with our brethren promoting the unity of the church.