4:6 "But He gives a greater grace.
Therefore it says, 'God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace
to the humble'".
"But he gives a greater grace"-"Whatever
God demands of us, he provides the means by which we can produce
it. Whatever demands of purity and holiness and whatever pressures
the world may place upon us, James declares that God will give
us enough grace for each moment" (Draper p. 122). This task
of resisting temptation and opposing the influences of the world
is far from a hopeless assignment. More than enough grace is
available to every Christian to match the attractions and allurements
of the world. Neither has God left us at the mercy of the devil.
Points To Note:
"Therefore it says"-Quotation
from Proverbs 3:34
"God is opposed to the proud"-"Opposed"-a
military term, which means to range in battle against, to set
oneself against, to resist (1 Peter 5:5). "God is against
those who conceitedly show themselves above others. God accepts
the challenge and arrays himself in battle against them"
(Woods p. 222).
Point To Note:
This statement does bring up the question as to why God is so
opposed to people who are arrogant: Barclay notes, "What
then is this destructive pride?
This pride shuts itself off
from God for three reasons. (1) It does not know its own need.
It so admires itself that it recognizes no need to be supplied.
It walks in proud self-sufficiency. (2) It cherishes its own
independence. It will be beholden to no man; it will not even
be beholden to God. It will admit dependence on nothing and on
no one, human or divine. (3) It does not recognize its own sin.
It is occupied with thinking of its own goodness, and it never
realizes that it has any sin from which it needs to be saved"
(p. 124)
"but gives grace"-that
is the grace just mentioned, this greater grace!
"to the humble"-This
verse admits that a lack of humility can be a problem among some
Christians. Pride can even keep professed Christians from receiving
the grace of God.
Points To Note:
4:7 "Submit therefore to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you".
"Submit therefore"-In
view of the grace available to the humble child of God, submission
to God makes all the sense in the world. "Submit"-another
military term which means to rank oneself under, to obey, to subject
oneself. The aorist tense denotes a sense of urgency and a call
to do it and do it now. This submission involves our whole being
including our minds and thoughts (Romans 8:7). "Submit
involves
more than 'obey', although it obviously includes obedience. It
indicates the surrender of the will to the leadership of another'
(Kent p. 149). In the context, submission to God involves the
acknowledgment that the world doesn't have the answers, the world
can't provide for our true needs and the world is wrong.
"Resist the devil"-"Resist"-"to
set oneself against, to withstand, oppose" (Thayer p. 45)
(1 Peter 5:9; Ephesians 6:13). Note that the devil is a real
being who can be resisted. But we can't resist the devil on
our own (Romans 3:23). The verse suggests the devil can be resisted
only when we completely place ourselves under God's authority.
A half-hearted devotion to God won't stand up under the devil's
attacks. "Most of us flirt with temptation and
court evil, then wonder why we have problems" (Draper
p. 125). This demands a decision, a willingness to commit ourselves
completely to God, a willingness to put all our eggs in one basket,
to depend entirely upon God for our well-being. Resisting the
devil and submitting to God demands that we get off the fence
(1 Kings 18:21).
Points To Note:
1. "The Christian is not here instructed to go out and attack
the devil by looking for new ways to lure him into combat. It
is assumed, rather, that the devil will do the attacking"
(Kent p. 149) (1 Peter 5:8 "prowls about like a roaring
lion, seeking someone to devour"). 2. The reason that
we yield to temptation is not the devil, but rather our own failure
to trust God. The devil doesn't put the desire to do evil in
our hearts (James 1:13), rather he only throws out the lure, and
when we allow ourselves to become selfish, when we allow ourselves
to mistrust and question God, then such lures start to look appealing.
"and he will flee from you"-The
devil isn't all-powerful and neither can he simply overwhelm us.
We cannot say, "The devil made me do it". "Man
must resist (stand against) Satan, or be taken captive by him.
There can be no armistice, no terms of amnesty offered
..It
is important to observe that we resist Satan only by a total rejection
of his efforts. One who yields, even in the slightest degree,
takes a step that may eventually lead to complete surrender"
(Woods pp. 224-225). While the devil "flees" he also
comes back from time to time (Luke 4:13). The word "flee"
also suggests that the devil simply doesn't have the stomach for
the Christian who is completely depending upon God.
4:8 "Draw near to God and He will
draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify
your hearts, you double-minded."
"Draw near to God"-"come
near, approach" (Thayer p. 164). Be impressed that one can
be a professed Christian and yet be far from God. James isn't
admonishing non-Christians, but rather Christians to draw near
to God. One can be a Christian and yet not be close to God.
We have already been told how to draw near to God, that is by
humbling ourselves, and placing our selves completely under His
authority. Some people try to draw near to God by attending
more often, reading the bible more often, etc
., but they
do all these important things without giving God their heart.
Increased study and prayer will be to no avail if we continue
to trust in ourselves.
"He will draw near to you"-Fellowship
and intimacy with God are conditional. God wants to draw near
to us! God wants a close relationship with us! "We couldn't
possibly want to be close to God as much as he wants to be close
to us. We couldn't possibly want to love God as much as he loves
us" (Draper p. 125). What a thought! Knowing that when
we draw near to God, God is drawing near to us, and God wants
and earnestly desires our love and dedication. God can be approached
by imperfect people, and God draws near to sinners who willing
to humble themselves.
"Cleanse your hands"-a
figurative expression which means to cleanse yourselves (Isaiah
1:15; Psalm 24:4; 1 Timothy 2:8). "Hands is an appropriate
metaphor for outward activity, just as hearts in the next clause
refers
to inward thoughts and attitudes" (Kent p. 150).
"you sinners"-The Christian
who is a friend of the world is a sinner. Such a friendship can
and does affect our relationship with God. Note, James has a
tremendous amount of love for these brethren, but there at times
when love must speak plainly. "It is noteworthy that the
more common 'brethren' by which James usually addressed his readers,
gives way to this sharp term of reproach in this instance. This
was doubtless done to impress them with the seriousness of the
situation, and to shock them into action to remedy it" (Woods
p. 230).
"purify your hearts"-Without
the purification of the heart, cleaning up the outward actions
is vain. But how many of us when we repent, simply cleanse the
hands? How many of us think that simply stopping the outward
sin is an adequate level of repentance? And notice that we have
the obligation to clean up our own hearts, for in the end, I'm
the only one who can really change my attitudes and motives (2
Corinthians 7:1; Romans 12:1). Look at the hope found in this
verse! The heart can be purified, the mind can be changed,
and attitudes can shift! A bad attitude, a selfish disposition
isn't set in stone---we can change if we want to. "Christianity
is not just a way of putting on an act or a front; it is a matter
of the heart" (Draper p. 126). True conversion, real change,
is a real possibility.
"you double-minded"-"divided
in interest" (Thayer p. 153). The person who can't seem
to make up their mind. Someone wavering between two opinions.
"A man who cleanses the outside and leaves the inside impure
is a double-minded man" (Draper p. 126). The person who
tries to get the best-for self out of the world and the best-for
self out of Christianity at the same time. The friend of the
world can be simply a person who has compromised, someone wavering
between God and the world. The person who loves God, but not
completely, they have some trust in God, but not fully, they don't
like some things in the world, but they don't abhor every evil
in the world. They see the value of Christianity, but they still
want to flirt with sin.
4:9 "Be miserable and mourn and
weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy
to gloom."
"Be miserable"-Notice
the word 'be'. This must be a voluntary mourning. True repentance,
in the end can't be forced. "Miserable"-"be wretched"
(Arndt p. 803); "mental wretchedness brought about by the
realization of their sinful condition" (Roberts p. 168)
"and mourn"-to mourn
over their own selfishness and unfaithfulness (Matthew 5:4; 1
Corinthians 5:2; 2 Corinthians 12:21).
"and weep"-Such repentance
must be more than just mental or theoretical. "It describes
the sense of wretchedness and misery that sinning should produce
in the lives of those who have been redeemed
.It is obvious
that James is calling for genuine repentance, not some casual
apology or mild expression of regret" (Kent pp. 150-151).
How many of us have truly grieved over our sins? (Matthew
26:75 "he went out, and wept bitterly"; "Luke 7:38).
Why is it that we can grieve over the loss of a job, promotion,
lost love and so many other things, but we can't grieve over our
own selfishness?
"let your laughter be turned into
mourning, and your joy into gloom"
Points To Note:
4:10 "Humble yourselves in the
presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you."
"Humble yourselves"-Once
again, we must cooperate with the will of God. We make the final
decision whether or not we will be humbled. "The use of
the aorist tense shows that he means a definite act, a decisive
and full self-surrender" (Roberts p. 170). This humbling
of self involves resisting the devil, drawing near to God, forsaking
sinful deeds and thoughts, acknowledging the evil of our ways
with serious reflection and appropriate grief. But how many people
will say, "I know I am being selfish, I know that I am a
sinner, I know that I am without excuse", but at the same
time refuse to give up what is wrong? In the context we truly
haven't humbled ourselves in the presence of God until we have
abandoned our favorite sinful practices and attitudes.
"in the presence of the Lord"-Which
should remind us that confessing our misdeeds to others doesn't
make up for confessing them to God. True repentance involves
more than just crying on another person's shoulder. Until we
have admitted our sin to God, we still aren't where we need to
be.
"and He will exalt you"-"to
raise to dignity, honor, and happiness" (Thayer p. 647).
Jesus used this same expression on various occasions (Matthew
23:12). "that He may exalt you in due time " (1 Peter
5:6). This exaltation doesn't mean that God will bring material
wealth to all the faithful. "When a man gets elected to
a political office, a few years pass, later he is defeated. He
is elevated, then cast down. A man is a hero and then he is forgotten.
But God elevates to eternal rewards" (Draper p. 128).
"The immediate attractions of the world must not be allowed
to blind us to the prospect of God's far-greater compensation"
(Kent p. 152). (Romans 8:18)
The next two sections (4:11-12) and (4:13-17) are related to what
has been previously said. What is commonly known as worldliness
or being a friend of the world includes much more than what we
typically place in that category. Kent notes, "In the next
section (4:11-17), James continues to set forth instances, some
of them seemingly innocent on the surface, that are nevertheless
just as worldly and therefore harmful as the more popularly
identified taboos. He talks about a critical spirit, which reflects
itself in continually criticizing one's fellows. He writes about
the making of plans that may appear to be reasonable and prudent
but are actually worldly if God is ignored and unaided human wisdom
is all that is employed" (p. 156).
4:11 "Do not speak against one
another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother, or judges
his brother, speaks against the law, and judges the law; but if
you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge
of it."
"Do not speak against one another"-"Do
not malign one another" (Ber). "The command in Greek
means 'stop speaking evil, or slandering.' The habit was already
there" (Roberts p. 170). Barclay notes, "The word
that James uses for to speak harshly
.Usually this verb means
to speak evil of someone else in that person's absence, to criticize,
to insult, to slander someone when he is not there to defend himself"
(p. 130). "We are all especially prone to make excuses
for those whom we appreciate and love; to excuse, justify and
forgive them for their weaknesses; and to criticize, condemn and
flay those whom we dislike" (Woods p. 237).
Points To Note:
"or judges his brother"-Once
again, the judging which is forbidden is judging which is hypocritical
(Matthew 7:1ff), proceeds from sinful attitudes, judging which
loves to find fault, which tries to impute the worst possible
motives to others, or which attempts to place the worst possible
interpretation on their words and actions. Remember, love always
attempts to assume the best, to believe the best, unless there
is clear evidence to the contrary (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
"speaks against the law, and judges
the law"-For the Christian, the law would be the perfect
law of liberty (1:25), and specifically, the law being violated
is the royal law to love your neighbor as yourself (2:8). The
mindset which thrives on finding fault among brethren, is in essence
condemning and declaring as worthless the Divine law which commands
us to love our brethren as Jesus loved us (John 13:34). "Such
a practice is, in effect, to say that the law of love is a bad
one, or at best defective; and may, therefore, be disregarded"
(Woods p. 239).
"and judges the law"-In
reality, every time we sin and set aside the will of God, we are
in effect saying that God's law isn't fit to be obeyed, that it
lacks sense and wisdom. "When someone knows what God's
Word commands and violates it anyway, he is saying in effect:
'I have made a decision that this is not a good law, and therefore
I will set it aside'" (Kent p. 158).
"but if you judge the law, you
are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it"-"you
are not a practicer but a critic of the law" (Wms); "thou
art setting thyself up to be its censor, instead of obeying it"
(Knox). "Such action, says James, means that one has taken
himself out of the class of doers and has constituted himself
a judge. The person with a critical spirit acts as if he can
choose what parts of God's law he will obey and what aspects he
may set aside. His performance gives the impression that he is
not under God's law but over it" (Kent p. 158). It is very
easy to justify our sins, especially when someone else is doing
wrong. It is so easy to believe that the false practice or doctrine
being advocated by another brother justifies or excuses or is
more dangerous and sinful than my abusive or slanderous speech.
When we deal with people in error, God doesn't give us the right
to verbally abuse, gossip about, lie about, lose our temper with
or misrepresent them.
There is another thought here: You cannot place yourself over
the Bible as a critic or judge and place yourself under its teachings
at the same time. The person, even if they claim to be a religious
person, cannot maintain a submission to the Word of God, at the
same time of claiming that various parts of verses are not inspired.
4:12 "There is only one Lawgiver
and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who
are you who judge your neighbor?"
"There is only one Lawgiver and
Judge"-Far more is at stake than just respect for
a law. Disrespect for the law, is disrespect towards God. "James
goes on to remind us
that, since God is the source of all
law, what is ultimately at stake in a 'permissive society' is
respect for the authority of God himself" (Adamson p. 177).
Points To Note:
These verses contain so many lessons: 1. It isn't our job to
"judge" the value of God's laws, rather it is simply
our job to comply with them. Those who set themselves up as
judges over the authenticity of the Bible or those who attempt
to judge what is genuine and what is not in the biblical text
need to read again the above verses. God condemns the person
who breaks His laws, but God also condemns those who presume to
make laws for Him. 2. This verse should also remind all believers
that God didn't give us the right to be in the "creed"
making business. 3. While civil legislators have the right
to enact new laws (Romans 13:1ff), they do not have the right
to pass laws which interfere with the rights, privileges and obligations
of children of God, and neither do they have the right to enacts
laws which legalize or reward sinful behavior.
"the One who is able to save and
to destroy"
Points To Note:
"but who are you who judge your
neighbor?"
Points To Note:
1. Again, we are talking about a judgment that doesn't come from
pure motives. 2. We need to be very careful when we rebuke
a brother or sister (2 Tim. 4:2). We are not all-knowing, we
cannot see into their heart, we must be careful that we don't
jump to conclusions, and presume the worst. Let us make sure
that our information is correct, let us assume the best, unless
clear evidence says otherwise, let also give the person a chance
to explain themselves and time to change. 2. In addition, let
us also remember that we have been guilty ourselves in the past
and graciously forgiven, so remember to be humble. 3. The wisdom
from above will rebuke sin and make judgments which Christians
have been called upon to make (1 Thess. 5:14; 3:6-14). But at
the same time this wisdom is very careful in not overstepping
its bounds. Roberts notes, "Too often we suspect that people
will do things or are guilty of them, and we say why they have
done them, when we actually do not know and probably because we
simply do not like them" (p. 173). When we starting becoming
suspicious of every member, when we start enjoying and relishing
the opportunity to rebuke someone, when we go out of our way to
look for sins, and when we start suspecting everyone's motive
for what they do and say, then we are operating by the wisdom
that is from below.