James 4:8-10

FROM WHERE WE ARE TO WHERE WE SHOULD BE

Text 4:8b-10

James 4:8 b.

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners: and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded.

James 4:9.

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

James 4:10.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall exalt you.

Questions

318.

Cleanse your hands obviously means something other than washing the hands with soap. To what kind of sins does the expression refer?

319.

Who are the sinners referred to in James 4:8?

320.

Does purify your heart refer to the same thing as cleanse your hands?

321.

Of what in the book of James does the expression double minded remind you?

322.

What does it mean to be afflicted?

323.

Why be afflicted?

324.

Is there any difference between mourning and weeping?

325.

Should one coming to Jesus in repentance always weep? When do you think some action other than weeping would be permissible?

326.

Laughter over what is referred to in James 4:9?

327.

Abraham laughed and was not reprimanded, Sarah laughed and was reprimanded.

328.

When might it be proper to laugh over something God has said?

329.

Is James discouraging a Christian from laughing and having joy?

330.

What is to be heavy in James 4:9? (It isn-'t joy. joy is gone; but where was joy just before it left?)

331.

Is the humility of James 4:10 a character trait that James wishes the saint to develop, or is it a humble deed of some type he wants performed? If a deed, what sort of deed would be a humble deed?

332.

Is not all that we do in the sight of the Lord? Then why this particular admonition to so humble ourselves?

333.

Does the Lord promise to exalt everyone who is humiliated?

334.

What kind of exaltation should one expect of the Lord?

335.

Note who is the author of this humiliation and of this exaltation.

Paraphrases

A. James 4:8 b.

Purify those ungodly hands, you sinning Christians, and set your heart right as well as your life; you have the mind to love the world as well as Christ.

9.

Realize your wretchedness and weep; let the glad sound of your worldly pleasures be turned into mourning and your joy in spiritual adultery be turned to a downcast state of shame.

10.

Bow to the will of God and He will lift you out of your downcast state.

B.*James 4:8 b.

Wash your hands, O sinners, and fill your hearts with God alone to make them pure and true to Him.

9.

Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done. Let there be sorrow and sincere grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter and gloom instead of joy.

10.

Then when you feel your worthlessness before the Lord, He will lift you up, encourage and help you.

Summary

Repent of your adultery with the world, both in your heart and your life, and you can be renewed in your relationship to Christ as His bride.

Comment

How the spiritual adulterer should feel, what his state is in relation to God, what has alienated him from God and what, in general, can draw him back to God has been discussed. Now James gets to the point of what to do about the condition. How can the Christian who has been a friend (or has been flirting) with the world get from where he is to where he should be? He has been instructed to draw nigh to God, but how does he go about this?

Repentance is the answer. Sinful deeds, sinful hearts, and double minds must be changed. James might have said, repent and purify yourselves, and worship the Lord. His expression is much more colorful: Cleanse your hands ye sinners.
Perhaps because man does so many things with hands, the hands have been, in literature of all times, symbolic of work and deeds. This is also true of the scripture.

The Jews had a custom of lifting their hands heavenward when they prayed. Paul, in saying that a man's prayer should be coupled with holy deeds, said I desire therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands. (1 Timothy 2:8). Pilate washed his hands before the people, thus trying publicly to disclaim responsibility for the terrible deed of crucifying the Righteous One. Today we still use the expression, My hands are clean, meaning I didn-'t do it!

So James says, cleanse your hands. Evil deeds themselves must be put aside. The action by which the Christian shows friendship with the world must be changed. Sorrow is not enough; for it must be a Godly sorrow that leads to repentance of the deed. Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7:1).

Note that James is preaching repentance to the Christian. Here he calls the Christians (among you, James 4:1) sinners. When the Christian sins and continues to sin, he is facing death itself, James closes with that warning in James 5:19-20.

In addition to changing the deed, James says the heart must also be made right. Just as one can make himself an enemy of God by wishing to be a friend of the world (Note comments on James 4:4) so also a man can make himself a friend of God by having his heart freed from contamination. Physical adultery can exist in the heart. Should a Christian continue loving and wishing for the sensuous satisfactions of this earth contrary to the Spirit of Christ then he is continuing in spiritual adultery, even if he no longer does the deeds which he longs to do.

This spiritual adultery of the heart is usually a part-time occupation. So the doubleminded is also admonished to cease embracing both God and the pleasures of sin. This doublemindedness is the same as that described in James 1:8. There it ruined the prayer life; here it makes the heart impure.

The condition of this adulterous Christian is really serious! He should honestly look at his state and see how wretched it really is. The be afflicted means to be in distress, or be wretched. A wealthy man who was on the verge of losing all his money on a poor financial venture would be in a wretched state. He would have a hard time sleeping and food would not digest in his stomach because of his unhappiness, his uncertainness. But what is this Christian about to lose? The pearl with out price has almost slipped from his grasp. He is about to lose the costliest gift ever given to any man: his soul's salvation. This should make him quake in his danger and fill him with misery.
Verse ten summarizes the solution. Our humility and subjection is to be toward the Lord and not toward the devil nor this world. This humiliation is an act of surrender, or resigning one's own will to the will of God.
In this, Christianity is different from all other teachings, for the road to mastery is a road of service. Success comes through recognition of failure. Righteousness comes only after one has recognized his true sinful state. Exaltation is given by God to those who humble themselves before Him. This is the reversal of all human judgment and wisdom. Has not man learned that he who toots his own horn the loudest shall be heard? Is not the road to success paved with the failure of others? So logic, as well as human nature, tells us that if we would succeed quickly we must do all we can to bring failure to others: our competitors!
Man is ever a miserable failure at exalting himself. The man who brags the loudest and seems most successful in exalting his own virtues ends up in isolation; being detested by his fellow men. And, even if he is right in his estimation of his own superior ability and decision, his accomplishments are resented and his decisions are unpopular.
On the other hand, humiliation before the Lord and loving service to fellow mankind brings exaltation for God and sincere appreciation from mankind, (or at least a portion of mankind.) This kind of subjection and service is not for the purpose of getting a seat at the head of the table, or on the right or left hand of Jesus in heaven. This subjection and service is accomplished because it is the heart's desire, and real joy comes from this action. There would be pleasure in the subjection without the exaltation; and there would be a drive for loving service without the reward of appreciation. But how much sweeter these rewards make service! Great is the wisdom of God that by regeneration He would make His nature a pleasure for the Christian, and then give added rewards beside. God wants nothing but that which is good for us; and truly He will give happiness to us in as great an amount as our subjection to will allow.