College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
James 4:4-8
DEDICATION TO GOD ALONE IS THE ONLY ANSWER
Text 4:4-8a
Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world, maketh himself an enemy of God.
Or think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the Spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying?
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore the Scripture saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.
Be subject therefore unto God: but resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Draw nigh unto God and he will draw night unto you.
Queries
293.
Do you think the term adulteresses refers to people who commit the physical sin of adultery, or is this used in a figurative sense?
294.
Assuming that the term adulteresses refers to spiritual adultery, are there any other cases in the Scripture where the term is used to your knowledge to refer to spiritual adultery of those who are married to God?
295.
Why do you think adulteresses is used in the feminine case here?
296.
Why do you think the King James translators wanted to add the masculine adulterers to the phrase? (It is not in the original Greek).
297. Try in this verse to identify the adulteress, the person the adulteress in married to, and the person with whom the adultery is committed. (They are all referred to in James 4:4!)
298.
What does the term enmity suggest to you?
299.
Do you think the adultery described in James 4:4 is a very common thing?
300.
The World refers to what? (Don-'t just say world, but name what it probably refers to. rocks and trees; money; people; a certain kind of people, or what?)
301.
Is friendliness with the unsaved forbidden in James 4:4? What can friendship of the world mean?
302.
When does the Spirit take up His dwelling within us? (9 James 4:5)
303.
For what, do you think, the Spirit in us longs?
304.
Do you think envy, or jealousy, is too strong a word to refer to the Spirit?
305.
Can envy be a good thing? If so, under what circumstances?
306.
Who gives the grace, God the Father or the Holy Spirit? Does it really make any difference. Why so or why not?
307.
He gives more grace. more than what?
308.
How is the proud in James 4:6 related to James 4:4?
309.
The term the Scripture in James 4:6 is not in the original. The subject is not stated. Can you think of anything else that might possibly be the subject other than the Scripture?
310.
Humility suggests that something is to be surrendered, given up. What?
311.
Who are the humble of James 4:6?
312.
Grace is an unmerited favor. What is the favor bestowed in James 4:6?
313.
In James 4:7, therefore refers back to what?
314.
Note how being subject and resisting are opposite actions.
315.
The action of the devil when he is resisted is clearly stated. But what is the action of God. (James 4:7) when a person is subject to Him?
316.
Love begets love, and obviously drawing nigh begets drawing nigh in James 4:8. What might be implied if we resist God?
317.
Why do you think we wish to classify James 4:8 a with James 4:7 in this section?
Paraphrases
A. James 4:4.
You who break the marriage vows to God by embracing the world, don-'t you know better than this? Your affection for the pleasures of this life have made you so hostile to God you have made yourself to become His enemy.
5.
Or perhaps you simply think the Word of God does not mean what it says! The Spirit that lives inside us longs for our affection even to the point of jealous envy.
6.
But the Spirit gives us a greater measure of undeserved blessing in order that we might yet accomplish His will. To this end it says, God arranges Himself against the proud but gives unmerited favor to the humble.
7.
Therefore set yourself under God's authority and align yourself against Satan, and he will run away from you.
8.
Come close to God and He will come close to you.
B.*James 4:4.
You are like an unfaithful wife who loves her husband's enemies. Don-'t you realize that making friends with God's enemiesthe evil pleasures of this worldmakes God your enemy? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy the evil pleasure of the unsaved world, you cannot also be a friend of God.
5.
Or what do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the Holy Spirit, Whom God has placed within us, watches over us with tender jealousy?
6.
But He gives us strength to stand against all such evil longings. As the Scriptures say, God gives strength to the humble but sets Himself against the proud and haughty.
7.
So give yourselves humbly to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8.
And when you draw close to God, God will draw close to you.
Summary
Your adultery with the world leaves God's Spirit yearning for you, so submit yourselves to God, your husband, and resist the devil.
Comment
Universally, adultery is a particularly obnoxious sin. Because of the devil's deception and because of sensuous pleasures involved, the obnoxiousness is not always apparent to the participants at the moment of involvement. But to those sinned against, the very thought is repellant. A man's most prized possession is his wife, and a wife's most precious possession is her husband. Adultery is the sin that contaminates the preciousness of that possession. A jealousy is provoked, but not as much as jealousy of what is, but a jealousy of what was. A singleness of devotion and a giving of one's self to only the mate is one of the prized rights of marriage. He or she who has lost this single devotion of the mate and has shared their mate's body with another has been deeply hurt over a terrible loss. And that which was lost cannot be returned in its former singleness and purity. The knowledge of the inability to return to the purity of the former state is part of the irreparable loss.
It is God who has given man this most precious of all human relations. marriage. From the very beginning of man, He ordained that a particularly godlike kind of person would be a one-woman man and a one-man woman, and Till death do us part is engrained into the entire framework of marriage from the beginning. So emphatically is the sin described in the New Testament that Paul has stated by the Spirit of God Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men. shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
It is recognized that he or she who commits this sin may repent and return to a wholesome relationship with God even as they may repent of any sin. It is the continued practice of any sin that makes a proper relationship with God impossible. And this is just the point of spiritual adultery!
As terrible as physical adultery is, there is an adultery more terrible yet! This is spiritual adultery. Of course, he who continues in physical adultery is also committing spiritual adultery. And what is this spiritual adultery?
Every Christian is a member of the body of Christ. When we obeyed the Lord in full surrender through baptism, He added us to His body, the church. This church body is also called the bride of Christ, for whom Christ will one day come and receive unto Himself. After a discussion of the relationship of husband and wife, in which the Spirit speaks of a pure love, being holy and without blemish, He says, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great: but 1 speak in regard of Christ and the church. So we, the members that make up the bride of Christ, are presented to Him a glorious church, not having spot or blemish. (See Ephesians 5:22-33).
To embrace the world, with its sensuous pleasures and carnal appetites being put ahead of devotion to Christ, is spiritual adultery. To love anything or anyone ahead of God is spiritual adultery. The prophet Hosea's unblushing faithfulness and continued love for a harlot wife is so vividly described that it appears repulsive (and was obviously intended to so appear), and even shocks one's moral sense. And through the prophet's situation, the lesson from Jehovah went forth to Israel, who had for generations been committing spiritual adultery. The love of Jehovah for his bride is magnificent beyond understanding, and the indifferent adultery of Israel is worthy of all abhorrence. If the message through Hosea could not shock Israel to repent of her spiritual adultery, surely nothing could.
And so it is the Holy Spirit speaks through the same message. The ones who are married to God have embraced the world as their first love, and have thus committed adultery. In this friendship with the world they have made themselves an enemy of God an a friend of His enemy. The Holy Spirit that dwells within the Christian yearns and longs for that saint's devotion as the bride of Christ.
Loving the world more than loving Christ is a sin so common with Christians that it would seem few know the terrible adultery involved. Yet James says, Ye adulteresses, don-'t you know better than this? The very nature of sin is to so deceive the sinner that he soon is unable to tell right from wrong. The longer the sin is embraced, the denser is the veil drawn over the eyes of understanding.
For this reason there is a desperate earnestness in admonishing the saint to give up sin and wrong-doing. This is evident in the Spirit's endeavor to warn the Christian before he embraces sin too long to again see and recognize the truth. Twenty-one of the Twenty-seven New Testament books are addressed to Christians and filled with pleas to shun the embrace of the world and to cling steadfastly to Christ Jesus.
The saint, too, should feel the same desperate circumstances when a brother becomes engaged in spiritual adultery. To love the pleasures of this life James calls friendship of the world. This perpetual adultery breaks the heart of God and soon passes the point of toleration of the Christian involved. The Christian who refuses to repent soon finds his love for ungodly things of this life has changed himself into an enemy of God. He actually has a hostility toward God that keeps growing to the point of hatred. This is the meaning of enmity with God. Thus one who once loved God can, through continued sin, become a God-hater and an enemy of God.
This continued spiritual adultery is not a sin that is done accidentally, but a life that is lived deliberately and continually. Willful choice is clearly implied by the usage of the word would. Whosoever would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God. The point is, whosoever would wish to be; or would desire and intend to be.
It might even be implied from this section that the desire to be a friend of the world could be in the heart without doing the deeds of sin; and still the person could become an enemy of God because of the adultery in his heart. Thus, a person who names the name of Christ, yet spends his hours and his heart's devotion in longing and lusting for the sensuousness and rottenness of this life could develop a hearty hostility toward God that would lead him to be God's enemy. This inner hatred for God might not be evident to the saints of the church, until one day it breaks forth in an act of such hatred toward godliness and such embracing of worldliness that the entire brotherhood is shocked by the sudden fall.
It might appear that overnight the person has changed from a devoted saint to a devoted sinner. He's not in his right mind, he must be insane, would be typical remarks. In shocked disbelief, the saints who observe such a one might tremble at the possibility of a sudden fall that appears to completely transform the character in an instant. The warnings of the Spirit, however, indicate that the fall is not sudden, but began with a desire in the heart that was fed and nurtured to the point of making oneself an enemy of God.
Or think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain? There is a problem in this portion. What Scripture is speaking in vain? A single passage? A quote that follows? If this is so, then that which follows should be a Scriptural quote: The Spirit which he made to dwell in us doth long unto envying. The difficulty is that the particular sentence is used nowhere else in the Bible! Such versions as the Revised Standard that use this sentence as a direct quote are unable to refer the reader to the passage quoted!
The more acceptable reading would be to understand that all the Scripture is speaking in vain. It is foreign to the tone and teaching of all revelation that a man could be a friend of God's enemy and a friend of God at the same time. This lesson is evident in every account of sinful man from the beginning. From Cain and Abel through all the Patriarchs; from the beginning to the end of the children of Israel; within the Lord's own apostles, the lesson is clear: a man cannot serve both God and the devil. He must hate the one or despise the other. If he is not for the Lord, he is against Him.
The last portion of verse five is more difficult yet. Whether or not it is a quote, it is still difficult to determine exactly what is said. Some of the difficulties in this portion bring up these considerations: Is it a question, or a statement? Who does the yearning? If it is God, or the Holy Spirit that longs, does He, or does He not, long unto envy?
The Revised Standard seems to indicate that God longs jealously over man's spirit which He made to dwell in man. The American Standard seems to indicate that the spirit of man which God made to dwell in man longs to the point of envy. (If so, he longs for and is envious of what?) The King James, like the American Standard, makes the sentence a direct quote. The Revised Standard does not make the sentence a direct quote, but makes it a question. (If the reader is not confused yet, let him look up a few more translations for himself!)
The clearer and most compatible rendering (to this writer) would be to say, Or do you think that the Scripture (as a whole) speaks to no profit? The (Holy) Spirit which God made to dwell in us longs (for us) to (the point of) envy.
The preference for the above exposition rests upon the phrase which He made to dwell in us. The gift of the Spirit is promised to those who are baptized into Christ (Acts 2:38). The Christian's body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit which he has from God and which dwells in him. (1 Corinthians 6:19). The saint has the down payment of the Holy Spirit in his heart. (2 Corinthians 1:22). Since this is one of the major teachings of the New Testament, it seems most natural to understand that it is the Holy Spirit that God made to dwell in us, and He longs for our alienated affections even to the point of envy.
This longing and yearning of the Spirit (or God, if you prefer) for the adulterous saint's affection is heart-breaking. In this longing we hear Jesus weeping over adulterous Jerusalem; and if we look closely, we will see His fresh tears to-day as countless members of His bride break His heart afresh. Oh, if we could only realize His love and understand His mercy. How we need to hear the groanings by which the Spirit makes intercession for us. The grace upon grace by which we live should break our hearts. Because He first loved us, we can now love Him with His kind of love. And we can love Him to the point of full surrenderto the point of keeping His commandments.
But He (whoever was doing the longing in the previous verse) giveth more grace. This giving of grace comes from the Holy Spirit of verse five (or the Father), but certainly not from man's spirit. This reinforces the argument that it is not man's spirit in verse five that is longing. It is man that needs this grace because his adultery has caused the Spirit's longing. It is a greater grace (marginal reading) that this man needs, as if shown by his sin.
But what is this grace that is given? Grace is usually thought of as an unmerited favor of forgiveness. Justification and forgiveness are truly the greatest graces of all, but certainly not the only graces. Every good gift is from God, and is an unmerited favor. Having done all, I have earned nothing of His gifts. This grace is more likely the attributes necessary to be an overcomer. When a man returns back home to the Spirit that yearns for him, and yields himself in full surrender, then the Spirit favors that man with strength and help in living the surrendered life. He would never have the strength otherwise.
Because of this (it) saith, probably refers to the Scripture; but here, unlike verse five, is a definite quote from Proverbs 3:34, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. If it is the Scripture that does the saying, then the subject immediately follows the verb. (The Greek verb is actually impersonal, with no subject: it says).
James-' use of the Proverbs-' quotation showing God (Jehovah) to be the author of grace is a direct implication of the deity of the Holy Spirit. This is true if the Holy Spirit is the author of the grace in 6a and the longing in James 4:5. This is what should be expected when the unity of the Spirit and the Father are considered along with many scriptural implications concerning the deity of the Spirit.
The meaning of the proverbs-' quotation is that the proud man centers his life in himself and the gratification of his senses. He makes himself an enemy of God, so God resists him, or arranges Himself against him.
On the other side, the humble man is one who denies himself, and he is more likely to take up the cross and follow Christ. God gives him grace that he might do just this. It is this humble man that responds to the yearning of the Spirit, so the grace is given to him that his response might be complete.
There is a very interesting relationship between the subjection and the resisting in James 4:6 b and 7. God sets Himself against those who set themselves against His authority. Pride and stubbornness make a man arrange himself against the authority of God; and like similar poles on a magnet, our repulsive action toward either God or the devil will likewise draw repulsion in return. Thus, when man is proud in resisting God, then God resists the proud; when man resists the devil, then the devil flees from man.
The opposite action is also clearly pictured: when man gives himself in subjection to God (is humble), then God gives grace. When man gives himself in subjection to the devil, then he is in turn devoured by the devil as by a roaring lion. James 4:8 clearly pictures the mutual attraction between God and man: Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.
James makes it quite clear that God has allowed man to be master of his own destiny. Man's choice of heaven or hell rests on man's choice of God or the devil. The amazing thing about the entire system of grace is that God allows man to choose heaven and God's love even though man has earned the devil's destiny. The grace of God gives man the opportunity. The will and choice of man is the key. Man must choose to be with God, so God forces no man into heaven.
God's active participation in the redemption of man is clearly set forth many places in the Scripture. God calls, God loves, God gives grace, God saves. Although God's sacrifice and God's call are universal, the application of that salvation offered is limited by man's own choice. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve is the plea double emphasized in the New Testament. This is the emphasis of James. James, however, is making very clear the principle that the choice of man is not manifest in a passive, non-participating faith. A wishful thought and a vague yearning for God in the man who continually surrenders his life and action to the devil does not constitute a choice for God. We draw nigh with our active life, and we cleanse our hands with a repentant and pure life.
Spiritual Adultery