“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.” – James 4:1-2

NOT A FEW of us have heard it said, “the cause of all war is religion”, in fact, such a belief is becoming all the more apparent, but to propagate such a mindset is as incorrect as saying that money is the root of all evil. Money is not bad in and of itself, and it’s sometimes amusing to see certain people tossing paper money to one side after saying they can “smell the filth on it.”After all, we can expect such material to sometimes give off a bad odour through being circulated millions of times; the problem is are the beholders of money; the filth is not so much on the money but within hearts that possess it. The love of it, we know, is what corrupts, but to state that religion is the cause of all wars is just as untrue if we pay careful attention to what the above biblical text states concerning from where wars really arise.

My wife and I were discussing this theme only yesterday, and rightly so as she stated that “Greed is the cause of them”, which certainly plays a massive part in causing wars; we only have to see how banking corporations can’t profitably survive without them, and that the majority – if not all – of wars over the last one-hundred years have certainly been motivated by such greed.

Religion itself is not the cause, although it certainly has been used as a vehicle just as more or less anything else can be. Acknowledged that some religions are mere political and barbaric ideologies, no matter how much some may insinuate or dispute otherwise. Sadly it is true that some people and movements have brought repudiation to Christianity; there are some who disguise themselves as converted while their hearts remain unregenerate. A soundly converted believer will display the fruits of the Spirit: “…love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…” (Galatians 5:22-23) which are the very antidotes to war, and putting it quite simply is to “love your neighbour as you love yourself.”

Granted that wars are mainly grasped on a colossal level between states or countries, but to purely confine wars to nations opposed to each other is to fail in perceiving where wars first arise. War entails strife between two or more people, they can be small or magnified to huge geographical proportions. The roots of war arise from the passions within us as James gives us the very key to understanding from where wars arise: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.” The possibility of war is in all of us – no matter how big or small. Some may not be quick to react to insult, but at the right time and the given circumstances, have we not all reacted out of a lack of self-control to where we have admitted and regretted for doing so? We only have to observe work relationships among our colleagues; the gossip and lies that transpire and the vindictiveness that pervades our work environment. No religion there is there? Absolutely none whatsoever. Obviously, this isn’t confined to the workplace; we see it in family disputes, particularly over the will of a loved one passing away; we witness it among certain individuals within neighbourhoods; close friends falling out that can escalate to unimaginable levels, etc. These are the seeds of war and they are grieving to God as much as a full-blown world-war; it is we that wrongly place a gauge in measuring sin.

We do not know our own hearts as innocent or as pure as we may feel them to be. As Oswald Chambers said, “A crises reveals character more than any other time.” Harmfully touch – whether emotionally or physically – a ‘quiet’, ‘peaceful’, and ‘loving’ non-religious person what is precious to them and it’s a completely different scenario; one whose natural disposition is generally calm and gentle but under extreme and peculiar scenarios can reveal the governing disposition of sin that lies dormant in the heart. It’s in ALL of us outside of Christ.

How many of us – who do not know Christ in a redeeming way – contemplate we are at war with God? Each day we breathe, and each moment a heartbeat passes so many times a minute is lived in absolute rebellion to God; there is no interest in God, there is no consideration for Him. We want autonomy, to live a self-governed life no matter how displeasing to God but satisfying to us. Stating that religion is the cause of all wars is a justification to avoiding God altogether; it is making oneself look right in one’s own eyes, and to insinuate that we may not be as bad as the cruel dictators, or the criminal perpetrators that induce war. Remove all religion and war would still continue as sure as the sun is set to rise each morning.

We were made to worship God in the way that acknowledges His glory. We all worship something; we either idolise a false god or the True Living One. War within and outwardly will not cease until we are reconciled unto God and have peace with Him, and we certainly cannot truly love our neighbour from an unselfish motive until we are first in saving union with Christ. Dare I say we cannot even love ourselves aright until we first love God; we are mere slaves to the destructive lusts within unless God changes the heart.