As True Today As It Was Then
Since I do not have a tax exempt status- I’m just a person with a social security number- I guess I can say something about war without fear of the government thinking I’m talking only about them. Or rather, that James is:

James 4:1-3- Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

This is one of those times where the old King James Version really gets to the heart of the matter even if the language is a little old:

James 4:1-3: From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

I remember the first time I ever read that passage (in the KJV, of course) that it just jumped off the page at me. No matter how you discuss it, no matter which side you are on, the underlying issues of war haven't changed one bit since the days when James wrote it. Yes, I know that sometimes the war comes from having to respond to the above reasons (like when the US entered World War II) but that doesn't change the underlying reasons.

And it starts in all of us. The same things that cause people to go to war against other nations, groups, or people, are the things that cause each of us to do things that bring us into conflict with our true selves- the Spirit of God within us in whose image we were made.

No, I am not so idealistic to think that we can get rid of war anytime this side of the 2nd Coming, whatever that may mean to any of us. Wars and rumors of wars are the lot of humanity unfortunately. But perhaps we can continue to lessen their impact or frequency or their devastation on the innocent and uninvolved. If we can work on these lusts and desires and desire to consume, if we can make each of our lives a little less war-like, who knows. If we can help just one person or one group from having to fight against itself or others, we may even discover that we can be called blessed as peacemakers.