AM Bible Study Group; July 18, 2012
James 4:7-10
Theme: If we will humble ourselves before God, He will lift us up.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
As a good pastor, James desired to lead his believing friends into a full experience of the love of God. For that reason, in James 4:1-6, he sternly warned of how easily our love for God becomes contaminated when we seek to, at the same time, hold on to a love for the ungodly world system around us. He compares it with the wicked adultery of a wayward bride who behaves unfaithfully toward her groom.
But under the leading of the Holy Spirit of God, James didn’t simply raise up the problem. The Spirit also guided him to tell his readers what to do about it. In verses 7-10, James described the steps that God wants His worldly-wandering Christians to follow in order to enjoy a restored fellowship with Him. Whoever would be exalted by God must first be humbled before Him. Or you could put it in terms of the “law of gravity” in reverse: Whoever would go up with respect to God must first come down
Looking carefully at verses 7-10; we can see that this process of humbling involves . . .
I. SUBMISSION TO GOD (v. 7).
A. James writes, “Therefore submit to God.” The word James uses for “submit” is a military term that means “to subordinate oneself to” or “to align oneself under the authority of” someone else. It’s a word that describes the way a soldier would subordinate himself to a commanding officer.
B. At the root of our wordldiness is a kind of arrogant pride in us that moves us to say, “I’m not happy with the way God is meeting my needs. I think I can arrange a better deal than I’m getting from Him.” That’s why James makes the point that “God is opposed to the proud” (v. 6; quoting Proverbs 3:34). And so, the “pleasures that wage war in our members” (v. 1) move us to behave as James describes in verses 2-3. And what’s more, we do not become merely “independent” when we act in arrogant pride; but actually give ourselves over to slavery to the devil (1 Peter 5:9; Ephesians 4:27; 6:10-11; 1 Timothy 3:6-7).
C. The only solution to this arrogant pride is to willingly “submit” ourselves to God. James here tells us, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” The way to resist him is by submitting ourselves to God. This is where the wandering believer must begin in restoring his or her fellowship with the Lord.
II. DRAWING NEAR TO GOD (v. 8a).
A. In his book, Enjoying Intimacy with God, J. Oswald Sanders wrote, “Both Scripture and experience teach that it is we, not God, who determine the degree of intimacy with Him
that we enjoy. We are at this moment as close to God as we really choose to be.” Notice that Pastor James invites us, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” When one of His own draws near to become intimate with Him, the Lord Jesus is protective of that intimacy (see Luke 10:38-42.)
B. The order of events, as James lays them out, is very important. A wandering believer is invited to draw near to God—but not until he or she has first submitted to God. While in that proud and arrogant state of flirting with the things of the world, James says that they have made themselves “enemies” of God, and placed themselves in a state of “hostility” toward Him. We cannot approach our holy God in a state of arrogant defiance toward Him that is caused by our love-affair with the things of the world. We must first “submit” to Him—and only then may we draw near.
III. REPENTING OF SIN (v. 8b)
A. James goes in in verse 8 to say, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” And in saying this, he shows that repentance must occur in two spheres. It must occur in the sphere of our outward life. He calls us “sinners” and says we must “clean our hands”; that is, turn away from the sinful life-style practices and patterns that displease Him. Repentance in the sight of God involves turning to a pure moral life before Him. But it must not merely be outward. True repentance must also occur in the sphere of our inner man. He calls us “double-minded” or “two-souled”, and says that we must “purify our hearts”; that is, cease from loving something else more than Him (Matthew 6:22-24; James 1:8). And notice that James places the responsibility for this upon us. It is we who are to ‘clean our own hands’ and ‘purify our own hearts’ (1 John 3:2-3).
C. Again, the order of events is vital. The wandering Christian who has been convicted of spiritual unfaithfulness to God, and who would be restored in intimate fellowship with Him, must first lay down arms and draw near to God. But the closer they draw to the majestic holiness of God, the more plainly they will see their own sinfulness. And so, a part of the process is to repent both of outwardly sinful practices and inwardly divided affections. Such a wandering Christian must, once again, become God’s man or woman—body and soul.
IV. EXPERIENCING SORROW (v. 9).
A. James goes on to say, “Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” It’s true that the Bible does command us to “rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16); but its intention in saying that is that we be rejoicing a state of holy fellowship with Christ—rejoicing “in the Lord” (Philippians 4:4). Here, James calls his readers who have wandered from their fellowship with the Lord to feel the sorrow that proceeds His loving acceptance (Psalm 34:18; Luke 18:10-14).
B. This idea of experiencing sorrow for worldlinesss is antithetical to so much of what the world itself encourages. Often, every effort from the world is expended toward doing the exact opposite—to rid of the feelings of guilt and sorrow; and to do what ever is necessary—in the world’s estimation—to feel good and be happy again. The operating principle is that “sorrow” is harmful, negative and unproductive. But here, we find that we’re called upon by Pastor James not only to avoid circumventing these feelings, but to actually, deliberately ‘feel’ them. James actually urges us and exhorts us to “feel bad” about our sin!
C. These words remind us that the Holy Spirit is at work behind a genuine sense of guilt and sorrow. His ministry to the world, in part, is to convict it of sin (John 16:8); and with respect to the believer, He communicates His own grief over our sin at times (Ephesians 4:30). Not all sorrowing, therefore, is bad. Often, it is a necessary part of God’s will for our progress toward godliness (2 Corinthians 7:8-13; Psalm 51:15-17).
V. TRUSTING GOD FOR EXALTATION (v. 10).
A. All that has been said so far can fall under the broad category of ‘humbling ourselves in the presence of the Lord’ . In the previous verses, James had described what such ‘humbling’ looks like in practice. But he ends with a glorious promise that God would exalt the one who is truly humbled. “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” It isn’t God’s design for us to be forever miserable, mourning and weeping in sorrow and gloom. Rather, His intention in all this is to forever exalt us!
B. Note that God Himself is the one who must do the exalting, and not ourselves. Our ‘exaltation’ is something that is good and right, and that even God expresses that He wishes to bring about. But it must be exactly that: something that He brings about—and must be proceeded by a humbling of ourselves. The Savior Himself sets the example for us in this (Philippians 2:5-11).
* * * * * * * * * *
A wayward Christian friend—wandering from fellowship with God—once went to see a doctor. He asked that something be given to him that would relieve him of his depression. Depression, of course, can come from a variety of causes; and for certain of those causes, medication can help. But after listening to his story, the doctor refused to give the man anything. The doctor wisely told this friend, “Why should I give you something to relieve you of a feeling you ought to be experiencing?” The doctor’s refusal to give this friend a way around his bad feelings was used by God to turn his life around, and help restore him to fellowship with God.
In James’ words, we see that, to experience exaltation from God, we must (1) end our hostilities toward Him by submitting to Him; (2) commit ourselves to regaining the ground we lost by “drawing near” to Him; (3) repent of our sin—both ‘cleansing our hands’ in terms of our outward practice and ‘purifying our hearts’ in terms of our inward double-mindedness; and (4) allow ourselves to experience genuine sorrow for our sin.
We must not try to circumvent that sorrow. It’s God’s instrument in our lives. Rather, we must permit it to do its godly work in us—drawing us back to the One who loves us. And we have this promise: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”