15 Drawing Near to God

(James 4:7–10)

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. (4:7–10)

These four verses contain ten commands, all given in the form of Greek aorist imperative verbs. Together they form one of the clearest calls to salvation in all of Scripture. Unfortunately, many commentators have assumed that this passage refers to Christians and is a call for them to turn away from worldliness back to faithfulness to God. Consequently, this great invitation is often missed.

James’s purpose throughout the epistle is for professed Christians to test their faith to find out whether it is genuine or false. He wants no one to be deceived. Like his Lord, he wants to expose the tares among the wheat (see Matt. 13:24–30). His basic objective is stated in the final verses of James: “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (5:19–20). To save a person’s soul from death is to bring him to salvation in Jesus Christ.

Beginning in 3:13, James warns against the worldly wisdom of unbelievers, which “is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic” (v. 15). It produces “jealousy and selfish ambition, … disorder and every evil thing” (v. 16) and gives evidence that the one possessing it is “an enemy of God” (4:4). He here offers those unbelievers an invitation to saving faith. This text, like the epistle as a whole, includes admonitions to believers to put away any remaining vestiges of their former worldly living that continue to mar their spiritual lives. But the primary emphasis is clearly on those who claim to be saved but are not. The interpretive key identifying the recipients of James’s rebuke as unbelievers is the term sinners—a term used only to describe non-Christians (see the discussion of v. 8 below; cf. 5:20).

God’s Word is clear that He sovereignly chose men for salvation “in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world … [and] predestined [them] to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Eph. 1:4–5) and that “those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). However, it is just as clear that the Lord commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30) and is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9), and that He graciously “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). Consequently, throughout His Word, God gives repeated calls for sinful men to repent and to turn to Him and be saved.

Through Moses, the Lord declared,

I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them. (Deut. 30:19–20)

Through Isaiah, He implored,” Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa. 55:6–7).

Jesus promised,” Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28–29), and that,” If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (16:24–25).

Jesus commanded His apostles to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15), and that “repentance for forgiveness of sins [should] be proclaimed in His name to all the nations” (Luke 24:47).

Paul and Silas assured the Philippian jailer,” Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31). In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul wrote,” If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” (Rom. 10:9–10). Near the closing of His Word, the Lord makes a final appeal to the unsaved, saying,” The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost” (Rev. 22:17).

The “greater grace” James has just mentioned (4:6) is God’s justifying, sanctifying, glorifying grace of salvation, that divine, sovereign, loving favor that He freely bestows on undeserving sinners who trust in His Son, Jesus Christ, as Savior and Lord. His redeeming grace is greater than the power of sin, greater than the power of the flesh and the world, greater than the power of Satan. No matter how sinful a person may be, no matter how much he may love and follow the world, no matter how enslaved to the lusts and passions for the things of the world he may be, God’s grace has more than sufficient power to save, redeem, purify, and sanctify.

J. A. Motyer writes,

What comfort there is in this verse! It tells us that God is tirelessly on our side. He never falters in respect of our needs, he always has more grace at hand for us. He is never less than sufficient, he always has more and yet more to give. Whatever we may forfeit when we put self first, we cannot forfeit our salvation, for there is always more grace. No matter what we do to him, he is never beaten. We may play false to the grace of election, contradict the grace of reconciliation, overlook the grace of indwelling—but he gives more grace. Even if we were to turn to him and say,” What I have received so far is much less than enough,” he would reply,” Well, you may have more” His resources are never at an end, his patience is never exhausted, his initiative never stops, his generosity knows no limit: he gives more grace. (The Message of James [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1985], 150; emphasis in original)

The ten imperatives that James gives here are not in soteriological order. That is, salvation does not come by following these steps in this sequence. God’s gracious salvation is a great mystery and cannot be reduced to a formula. James simply lists elements of what God requires of men in response to His sovereign, gracious call. The Lord’s divine provision demands a human response.

James, then, demands of unbelievers, in response to the divine call, submission, resistance, fellowship, cleansing, purification, misery, sorrow, tears, seriousness, and humility.

SUBMISSION

Submit therefore to God. (4:7a)

The first of the ten commands is from hupotassō (submit), which was primarily a military term meaning literally” to rank under.” The passive form indicates the submission is to be voluntary.

The verb is used frequently in the New Testament. Luke uses it of Jesus’ submission to His parents when He was a boy (Luke 2:51). Paul uses it to indicate a Christian’s responsibility to human government (Rom. 13:1), of a wife’s responsibility to her husband (Eph. 5:21–24), and a slave’s to his master (Titus 2:9; cf. 1 Pet. 2:18).

No one can be saved without submitting himself to God, willingly coming under His sovereign authority as Lord, to follow His will no matter what. Submitting to God is obeying His Word about Christ and the fullness of the “gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1), as well as submitting to Jesus as Lord and God (Rom. 10:9–10). Jesus said,” He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it” (Matt. 10:39), and “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). Contrary to what is taught in some evangelical circles today, there simply is no such thing as trusting Christ as Savior without at the same moment submitting to Him as Lord. Whereas the believer was once under the lordship of Satan, through saving faith he eagerly places himself under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Whereas he was once the enemy of God and the slave of sin, he is now the loyal subject of his Lord and Master.

RESISTANCE

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (4:7b)

Virtually by definition, to submit to God, your new Lord, is to resist the devil, your old lord. Resist translates anthisētmi, which means literally “to stand against,” “to oppose.” There is no middle ground, no neutrality. As James has just made clear,” friendship with the world [Satan’s domain] is hostility toward God. Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (4:4; cf. 1 John 2:15–17). To stand with the Lord is to stand against everything sinful and worldly that formerly was appealing, corrupting, and enslaving. As Paul reminded believers in Ephesus,

You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Eph. 2:1–3; cf. Heb. 2:14–15)

Diabolos (devil) means slanderer, or accuser, one of the most common titles of Satan in Scripture. Anyone who does not belong to Christ is a child of the devil (John 8:44), and “the one who practices sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The one who belongs to Christ is of Him and is a child of God. Salvation brings a change of masters, a change of allegiance, and a change of family. The believer’s life is turned from serving the devil to serving God, and from being a slave of sin and of Satan to being a slave of righteousness and of God (Rom. 6:16–22).

Just as the devil left Jesus after the temptations in the wilderness (Matt. 4:11), he will also flee from all those who resist him. Here is a pledge that the devil can be defeated, as powerful as he is. Even those held in his power (1 John 5:19) can be triumphant. The Lord Jesus defeated him at His temptation and at the Cross (John 12:31–33) and left him vulnerable. He cannot hold a sinner against that sinner’s will. He can’t even lead a believer into sin without the consent of that believer’s will. When confronted and resisted with the truth of the gospel, he flees, releasing his hold as that repentant sinner who believes is delivered from darkness to light. After salvation he comes again and again through the world system’s working on the flesh, but can be defeated repeatedly by the believer who has the “sword of the Spirit” and the rest of the armor (Eph. 6:10–17).

FELLOWSHIP

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. (4:8a)

The third command is to draw near in intimate fellowship and communion with the living, eternal, almighty God. Salvation involves submitting to God as Lord and Savior, but also brings the desire for a true relationship with Him. Seeking salvation is seeking God (cf. Ps. 42:1; Matt. 7:7–11).

One of the primary functions of Old Testament priests was to “come near to the Lord [and] consecrate themselves” (Ex. 19:22; cf. Lev. 10:3; Ezek. 43:9; 44:13). Our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who brings us to God, prayed to His Father,” This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3), and later affirmed and defined those who believe in Him, praying that they “may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also maybe in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (v. 21). Above all else, the apostle Paul sought to “know Him [Christ] and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10).

“Drawing near to God” was in the Old Testament a general expression for the one who sincerely approached God in penitence and humility. Through Isaiah, the Lord said of those who came near Him hypocritically and superficially,” This people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote” (Isa. 29:13). But the psalmist declared,” As for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works” (Ps. 73:28).

David assures us that “the Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth” (Ps. 145:18). He counseled his own son Solomon,” Know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him” (1 Chron. 28: 9; cf. 2 Chron. 15:1–2; Zech. 1:3). Through Jeremiah, the Lord promised,” You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13).

Because they are prompted by God’s own Spirit and accepted by the Lord Jesus (John 6:44, 65), those who seek to know, worship, and commune with God will be satisfied. As noted above, that was the Father’s will long before it was theirs (Rom. 8:29: Eph. 1:4–5). When they come to him like the prodigal son—in humility, penitence, and broken-ness over their sin—the heavenly Father says to them, in effect, what that earthly father said to his son: “Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found” (Luke 15:22–24).

Jesus told the Samaritan woman from Sychar,” An hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23–24; cf. Phil. 3:3). The writer of Hebrews admonishes believers,” Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. … Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 4:16; 10:22).

In his message to the pagan philosophers on Mars Hill, Paul said,

While I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription,” TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.” Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist. (Acts 17:23–28)

The redeemed heart longs for communion with God (Pss. 27:8; 63:1–2; 84:2; 143:6; Matt. 22:37).

CLEANSING

Cleanse your hands, you sinners; (4:8b)

The fourth command in this invitation to salvation is Cleanse your hands, you sinners. The origin of this idea was in the Jewish ceremonial prescription for priests before they came before the Lord to offer sacrifices in the tabernacle or temple. God commanded Moses,

You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base of bronze, for washing; and you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it. Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it; when they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, that they may not die; or when they approach the altar to minister, by offering up in smoke a fire sacrifice to the Lord. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they may not die; and it shall be a perpetual statute for them, for Aaron and his descendants throughout their generations. (Ex. 30:18–21; cf. Lev. 16:4)

The same figure was used by Isaiah to represent unrepented sin in those who presumed to worship God. Through that prophet the Lord warned His people: “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil” (Isa. 1:15–16; cf. 59:2). David rejoiced thankfully that “the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me” (Ps. 18:20).

Paul also used the condition of the hands to represent the external behavior of the life, saying,” I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension” (1 Tim. 2:8). “Holy hands” represent a spiritually and morally pure life, apart from which God cannot be approached. It is sin that separates depraved man from the holy God. Therefore,” No one who abides in Him sins,” John declares; “[and] no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him” (1 John 3:6). But although we can resist sin, temptation, and the devil, it is not in any person’s power—even the power of a believer—to cleanse himself spiritually. That is why our gracious Lord promises that,” If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The command to cleanse your hands is therefore a command to submit (see James 4:7a) to God’s divine catharsis.

The fact that this command is specifically addressed to sinners is further evidence that James is speaking to unbelievers, calling them to repentance and a saving relationship with God. Throughout the New Testament, hamartōlos (sinners) is used only of unbelievers (see the texts listed below). Interpreters who insist that this overall passage (4:7–10) is addressed to believers must therefore hold that the use of the plural of hamartōlos in verse 8 is the only exception. But to make such a claim, especially for such a significant and commonly used word, is not justifiable without compelling evidence in the context. Such compelling evidence simply does not exist here.

From their ancient Scriptures, the Jews to whom James was writing would have understood that sinners referred to unbelievers. The perverted, ungodly “men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord” (Gen. 13:13). The book of Psalms begins with these words: “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” (1:1). Verse 5 of that psalm makes even clearer that “sinners” refers to the unsaved: “The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.” David spoke of teaching transgressors the ways of God in order that “sinners will be converted to You” (Ps. 51:13). Isaiah declares that “transgressors and sinners will be crushed together, and those who forsake the Lord shall come to an end” (Isa. 1:28) and that “the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation; and He will exterminate its sinners from it” (Isa. 13:9; cf. Amos 9:10).

Also in New Testament times, as clearly reflected in the gospels, hamartōlos was used of those who were hardened in sin, unrepentant, and blatantly immoral. Jesus admonished His hearers: “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:13). On another occasion He said,” I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32; cf. Matt. 9:13; Mark 2:17). Before she was saved, Luke calls Mary of Bethany “a sinner” (Luke 7:37; cf. John 12:3). As he stood contritely in the temple,” the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’” (Luke 18:13). Paul reminds believers that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8) and that,” As through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous” (5:19). In his first letter to Timothy, the apostle ranks sinners with the “lawless and rebellious, … the ungodly and … the unholy and profane” (1 Tim. 1:9). A few verses later he even more explicitly identifies sinners with the unsaved, saying,” It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (v. 15).

It therefore seems beyond doubt that, like the Old Testament and the rest of the New, James intended sinners to mean unbelievers, the unsaved.

PURIFICATION

and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (4:8c)

In this Hebraic parallelism, purify your hearts corresponds to “cleanse your hands” and you double-minded corresponds to “you sinners,” the second phrases adding a more specific dimension. Like David, James associates the outward sins of the hands with the inner sins of the heart. “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?” David asks. “And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully” (Ps. 24:3–4; cf. 51:10). The unbeliever not only is to turn from outward sin but, even more important, from the inner sin of the heart from which all outward sin springs. “Out of the heart,” Jesus said,” come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders” (Matt. 15:19).

“Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem,” Jeremiah proclaimed,” that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts lodge within you?” (Jer. 4:14). “Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed,” Ezekiel implores his fellow Israelites,” and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!” (Ezek. 18:31). When that happens, the Lord promises,

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. (36:25–27)

The eighteenth-century evangelist George Whitefield said,” Every man by his own natural will hates God. But when he is turned to the Lord by evangelical repentance, then his will is changed; then his conscience, now hardened and benumbed, shall be quickened and weakened; then his hard heart shall be melted, and his unruly affections shall be crucified. Thus, by that repentance, the whole soul will be changed, he will have new inclinations, new desires, and new habits.”

Dipsuchos (double-minded) literally means “double-souled,” and is used only by James in the New Testament (see also 1:8). This is the person who lacks integrity, who claims one thing and lives another. This is the hypocrite in the assembly of believers who is commonly confronted in James. Here is further proof that James is speaking of and to unbelievers. The Lord Himself made clear that “no one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other” (Matt. 6:24) and that “he who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters” (12:30). A double-minded person therefore could not possibly be a Christian.

Isaiah was calling on the double-minded sinner to purify his heart when he implored: “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa. 55:6–7).

MISERY

Be miserable (4:9a)

The next three commands are a series of single verbs, without modifiers. The first is talaipōreō (be miserable), which is used only here in the New Testament, although noun and adjective forms are used elsewhere (see Rom. 3:16; 7:24; James 5:1; Rev. 3:17). It carries the idea of being broken and feeling wretched because of one’s circumstances—in this case, that of being sinful, lost, and separated from God. It is exactly the feeling expressed by the tax collector spoken of by Jesus who “was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’” (Luke 18:13).

Charles Spurgeon wrote,” There is a vital connection between soul-distress and sound doctrine. Sovereign grace is dear to those who have groaned deeply because they see what grievous sinners they are.”

The misery James is speaking of here has nothing to do with being sad about bad circumstances in life and wanting God to help you have better ones. Nor does it relate to religious asceticism, or extreme self-denial and sacrifice that is supposed to make a person humble and more worthy in God’s sight. Paul clearly rejects that sort of self-imposed misery, warning that

the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. (1 Tim. 4:1–3)

As the apostle explains to believers in Colossae,” These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence” (Col. 2:23). This misery has to do with the brokenness over one’s sin and violation of God’s holy law and the fear of judgment.

SORROW

and mourn (4:9b)

Along with becoming miserable, the contrite sinner is to mourn over his sin. The idea is that of deep grief and remorse, a complete despair that laments over sin the way someone mourns the death of a family member or close friend. It is one of the requirements prescribed by the Lord Himself during His incarnation: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4). Along with misery and weeping, it defines the emotion of repentance (cf. 2 Cor. 7:9–11).

Francis Fuller wisely observed:

To repent is to accuse and condemn ourselves; to charge upon ourselves the desert of hell; to take part with God against ourselves, and to justify him in all that he does against us; to be ashamed and confounded for our sins; to have them ever in our eyes, and at all times upon our hearts, that we may be in daily sorrow for them; to part with our right hands and eyes, that is, with those pleasurable sins which have been as dear to us as our lives, so as never to have to do with them more, and to hate them, so as to destroy them as things which by nature we are wholly disinclined to. For we naturally love and think well of ourselves, hide our deformities, lessen and excuse our faults, indulge ourselves in the things that please us, are mad upon our lusts, and follow them, though to our own destruction. (Cited in Spiros Zodhiates, The Behavior of Belief [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973], 2:286)

TEARS

and weep; (4:9c)

To weep is the outward manifestation of the previously mentioned misery and sorrow. That is what the prophet Isaiah called on unfaithful Israel to do, reminding them,” Therefore in that day the Lord God of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing, to shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth” (Isa. 22:12). It is what Peter did after realizing that, just as his Lord predicted, he had denied Him. “Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, ‘Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times. ‘And he began to weep” (Mark 14:72). It is the weeping produced by godly “sorrow that is according to the will of God [and] produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation” (2 Cor. 7:10).

In an insightful poem, H. Caunter wrote,

There is a tear that spots the cheek,
And speaks more than the tongue can speak,
In words without a name,
That tells of many a pang within,
Of many a foul and deadly sin—
It is the tear of shame.

(Cited in Zodhiates, The Behavior of Belief, 2:287)

SERIOUSNESS

let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. (4:9d)

The ninth command, like the fourth and fifth (4:8b-c), is in the form of a Hebraic couplet, expressing the same basic truth in two different but parallel forms. James is not condemning legitimate laughter or joy but rather the flippant, trivial, worldly, self-centered, sensual kinds that unbelievers revel in, despite, and often because of, their sinful pleasures. It corresponds to Jesus’ warning: “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25), and is the opposite of a beatitude given a few verses earlier that is recorded only in Luke: “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” (v. 21). In both verses Jesus used a verb form of the noun that in the present text is rendered laughter.

Confessing the sins of his people, Jeremiah lamented,” The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned into mourning. The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!” (Lam. 5:15–16). James is calling unbelievers to lament and grieve over “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2:16) that had characterized their former lives and marked them as enemies of God (James 4:4).

HUMILITY

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. (4:10)

As has been noted several times previously in this commentary volume, humility is actually the starting point and summary of salvation as far as the human response is concerned. The first Beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit [the humble], for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3). Earlier in this passage, James has declared that “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (4:6).

Tapeinoō (humble yourselves) means literally to make low. Here it means to make oneself low, not in the self-put-downs that many people use in order to induce others to build them up, but in a genuine realization of complete unworthiness and lostness because of sin. As the penitent sinner submits to God and draws closer to Him, like Isaiah he cries out,” Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5). The more an unbeliever sees God as He really is, glorious and holy, the more clearly he sees himself as he really is, sinful and depraved. Even Peter was overwhelmed and terrified when He saw Jesus miraculously fill their nets with fish, crying out,” Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8). Later the disciples became even more fearful of Jesus for stilling the storm than they had been of the storm itself,” saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?’” (8:25).

God has always honored those who are spiritually humble. The Lord testified to Solomon: “[If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14). The psalmist praised the Lord, saying,” You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear” (Ps. 10:17). Through Isaiah God promised,” I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isa. 57:15).

Jesus made clear that “whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Matt. 23:12). Again, the prodigal is the perfect example of contrite humility. When he came to his senses in the far country, he said to himself,” I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men’” (Luke 15:18–19). When he returned home and expressed that sincere contrition,” the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found’” (Luke 15:22–24).

That is a picture of the way in which God gives His “greater grace” (James 4:6) to those who come into the presence of the Lord in repentance and humility. He will exalt them lavishly.

It is of that gracious exaltation that Paul speaks in his letter to the church at Ephesus.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. (Eph. 1:3–7)

More even than that, our loving heavenly Father has “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (2:6).