The Slavery of Death: Part 8, "You desire but do not have, so you kill."

Yesterday's lectionary reading provides a nice overview of some of the moral dynamics I'd like to begin describing in this series. In prior posts I've discussed how sin is the predictable outworking of the self-preservation instinct that governs much of human behavior in the post-Eden ecosystem. This passage from James is a nice description of what I'm talking about:

James 3.13-4.10

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.



But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.



What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.



You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:



“God opposes the proud

but shows favor to the humble.”



Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Note how two "wisdoms" are contrasted early in the passage. One wisdom is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. This is the wisdom of the Darwinian ecosystem we find ourselves in. Envy and ambition create rivalrous desires that produce violence: slander, fighting, quarreling and, eventually, killing.



And keeping with our Christus Victor theme, resisting these Darwinian impulses--envy, ambition, covetousness, quarreling, fighting, killing--is resisting the devil.



Those familiar with Rene Girard's mimetic theory should see all this very clearly. For those unfamiliar, the idea is simple enough: As social creatures humans imitate each other. Consequently, we tend to desire the same things. And when the things we desire are scarce we become rivals and are drawn into conflict. All this is very clearly on display in the passage above from James. Envy and ambition create slander, quarrels, fighting and killing. The entire Girardian mechanism is stated plainly in the text:

You desire but do not have, so you kill.

That, at root, is the Satanic dynamic, the "wisdom" of this world:

Desire. Want. Violence.

For any interested in hearing Girard talk about desire this clip is pretty good:







In contrast to all this we have a wisdom that is from heaven. The characteristics of this wisdom are the exact opposite of those we find dominating the Darwinian ecosystem. Rather than rivalry and ambition there is peace-making and humility. Rather than slander and jealousy there is sincerity and mercy.



Summarizing, behind the demonic wisdom of the world there exists disordered desire that, when faced with want and deprivation, produces violence (from envy to murder). The connection with our earlier posts is the contention that our desires are disordered because of our "slavery to the fear of death." As John Romanides has observed:

Through the power of death and the devil, sin that reigns in men gives rise to fear and anxiety and to the general instinct of self-preservation or survival. Thus, Satan manipulates man's fear and his desire for self-satisfaction, raising up sin in him...Because of death, man must first attend to the necessities of life in order to stay alive. In this struggle, self-interests are unavoidable...Resting in the hands of the devil,the power of the fear of death is the root from which self-aggrandizement, egotism, hatred, envy, and other similar passions spring up.