JAMES 4:6-17 - NOTES
JAMES 4:7-8a. RESIST THE DEVIL--DRAW NEAR TO GOD
7 Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8a Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
"Be subject (Greek: hypotasso) therefore to God" (v. 7a). The Greek word hypotasso means "to place in order" or "to place in submission." The natural order of things calls for us to subject ourselves to God--to allow God to be the king of our lives--to live in compliance with God's will.
"But resist the devil (Greek: diabolos), and he will flee from you" (v. 7b). Here is the other side of the coin. We are to make ourselves subject to God, while fleeing the devil.
The Greek word diabolos (devil) is the equivalent of the Hebrew word satan. In the Old Testament, Satan is an accuser in the heavenly court. In the New Testament, the devil takes on the character of a tempter here on Earth (Matthew 4:1-11; 1 Thessalonians 3:5).
Peter warned, "The devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8)--an apt metaphor. Lions might roar, but they also stalk--quietly and with great stealth. In like manner, the devil pursues us relentlessly--skillfully assessing whether we might be most easily tempted by high things or low--whether we might be most easily persuaded to go an inch in the wrong direction--or a mile.
James promises that, if we resist the devil, the devil will flee from us. If we subject ourselves to God and resist the devil, God will grant us victory over the devil.
We shouldn't assume that the devil will never return to tempt us--but each time we resist the devil, we will grow a little stronger in our ability to resist. We can expect there to be a next time, but we can also expect that we will find our resistance a little more robust after successfully resisting this time.
"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you" (v. 8a). Once again, James shows us the other side of the coin. If we resist Satan, we can anticipate that he will flee from us--but if we draw near to God, we can be sure that God will draw near to us.
Drawing near to God involves traditional spiritual disciplines: Prayer, the reading of scripture, private and corporate worship, involvement in the life of the church, and helping those who are vulnerable. It also involves obedience (subjecting ourselves to God's will) and resisting the devil.
The promise is that, if we run toward God, we will find God running toward us. The parable of the prodigal son comes to mind. When the son returned home, pleading to be restored, not as a son but as a servant, the father "was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him" (Luke 15:20). That was the beginning of a great celebration for the son who was dead but was now alive again (Luke 15:24).
We too are guilty, but God remains the loving Father who is looking down the road, hoping to see us return. We can be sure that he will draw near to us when we seek to draw near to him.
James 4:6-10 - BIBLE.ORG - Cole
2. To resolve conflicts, humbly entreat God's grace (4:6).
The flow of thought between verses 5 and 6 is, "If God's demand of absolute fidelity seems impossible, know that with the demand He gives the grace to obey it." In fact, He gives "greater grace" than we need. But, we need to understand (here James cites Proverbs 3:34) that God does not give grace to the proud, self-reliant, self-righteous person. He opposes the proud. Rather, He gives grace to the humble, who admit that they are empty and ask God to fill them. As Psalm 107:9 puts it, "For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and the hungry soul He has filled with what is good."
1. To resolve conflicts, submit to God (4:7, 8, 10).
We can sum up three of James' commands under this one head: Submit to God unconditionally (4:7); draw near to God (4:8); and, humble yourself before God (4:10).
A. Submit to God unconditionally (4:7).
You can go to seminars on how to be more assertive, but I've yet to see a seminar on how to learn to submit! It's not a popular concept, but it is a biblical one. The word means "to put yourself in rank under" someone, implying a hierarchy of authority. It is used of the obligation to submit to government authorities (Rom. 13:1, 5; 1 Pet. 2:13); to elders in the church (1 Pet. 5:5); of mutual submission of husbands and wives to one another, and of wives to husbands, in marriage (Eph. 5:21, 22; 1 Pet. 3:1, 5); and of slaves to masters (1 Pet. 2:18).
Of course, God is the ultimate and only sovereign authority in the universe, and it should be obvious to everyone that it is most unwise to rebel against His authority. Since He is "opposed to the proud" (James 4:6), verse 7 infers, "Submit therefore to God." It is the only sensible thing to do!
But because of the fall, as Paul explains (Rom. 8:7), the mind set on the flesh "is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so." (Subject is the same Greek word as submit in James 4:7.) Unbelievers are unable to submit to God's law, because they are unwilling to do so. Using the same word in Romans 10:3, Paul asserts, "For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God." In pride, fallen man wants to set up his own righteousness as good enough, but it falls far short of God's absolute righteousness. So the essence of human rebellion against God is that we do not submit to His holy law or to His perfect righteousness. You cannot separate submitting to God from trusting Him for salvation.
While much more could be said, here are four ways that we tend to resist God and thus need to focus on submitting to Him:
(2). Submit unconditionally to God's way of salvation.
All of the world's religions, except for biblical Christianity, teach that salvation is a matter of human endeavor and goodness. The world's way is, "Work hard, be the best person you can be, and you'll go to heaven." Such teaching feeds human pride. It gives the good person reason to boast.
God's way of salvation is totally opposed to man's way. God's way allows no one to boast before Him. He declares that we all have sinned and deserve His judgment. Further, because of our sin and pride, we aren't willing to come to Him for salvation. All of our good works would never qualify us for heaven, because they cannot pay the debt of sin that we owe.
But what we could never do, God in His mercy did. He sent His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He satisfied God's justice by dying in the place of sinners. God offers His salvation as a free gift, received by faith alone, apart from any human works or goodness (see Eph. 2:1-9). To be saved, we must submit unconditionally to God's way of salvation.
(2). Submit unconditionally to God's person.
We all tend to submit to the part of God's person that we naturally like, but we either ignore or deliberately dodge the part of His person that we don't care for. Nobody has a problem with God's great love, but many have a problem with His hatred of all sin and His absolute justice that demands that all unrepentant sinners be punished for eternity in hell. But if God's Word reveals that sinners will be punished eternally in hell, and if Jesus Himself taught it (and, He did, Matt. 25:46), then we dare not fight it or reject it, even if it is not to our liking! We must submit to all of who God is as revealed in His Word.
(3). Submit unconditionally to God's Word.
Let's be honest: There are some difficult things in the Bible that, if we had the choice, we would cut out of it. In fact, Thomas Jefferson, who was not a believer, literally took scissors and cut out the parts of the Bible that he did not like! While none of us would be so brazen, in effect we often do just as Jefferson did. We don't literally cut out the difficult parts, but we just ignore them or don't work at understanding and submitting to those parts!
I know Christians who don't like the doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty in choosing some, but not all, for salvation. So they just skip passages like Romans 9, which God inspired Paul to write for our spiritual edification. Of course, they must also skip many other texts, since the doctrine of God's sovereign election is all through the Bible. Or, they explain it away by saying that God foreknew who would choose Him, so He chose them. They never pause to reflect that such a view turns the Bible on its head and makes sinful men sovereign, rather than God!
I once talked with a Jehovah's Witness woman who came to my door. I found out that she formerly had been a Lutheran. When I asked her why she left the Lutheran faith, she said that she couldn't understand the trinity. But the issue with the trinity is not whether you understand it, but rather, is it clearly taught in Scripture? If it is, you must submit to it.
In Spurgeon's day, there were many liberal critics attacking the truthfulness and authority of the Bible. He saw that behind such attacks was the hostility of the unregenerate mind. He said, "The only real argument against the Bible is an unholy life. When a man argues against the Word of God, follow him home and see if you can discover the reason of his enmity to the Word of the Lord. It lies in some form of sin" (in Iain Murray, Spurgeon and Hyper-Calvinism [Banner of Truth], p. 8).
(4). Submit unconditionally to God's providential dealings with you.
God does many things in our lives that are not especially pleasant or to our liking. There are many such trials that we will never in this life fully understand God's reason for them. It may be the untimely death of a loved one. It could be unfair treatment at work or at school. Perhaps you had abusive parents or were the object of racial discrimination. You may suffer from some terrible disease or deformity. In the context of James 4, it may be a difficult person in your life who is always trying to stir up conflict. The potential list is endless, but you can't read the daily news without realizing that life is terribly unfair, from the human point of view.
Yet the Bible is clear that nothing happens to us apart from God's providential permission or care. If Satan attacks the godly Job, killing all of his children and taking away his possessions and health, it is only because God permitted Satan to do it. God has all of our days pre-numbered (Ps. 139:16) and He even has all the hairs on our heads numbered (Matt. 10:30). If He allows James to be beheaded, but Peter to escape, that's God's prerogative (Acts 12). If Peter later dies a martyr's death, but John lives to a ripe old age, that's God's business (John 21:21-23).
You can fight against God for the difficult things that happen, or you can humble yourself under His mighty hand, casting all your anxiety upon Him (1 Pet. 5:6-7). "Submit therefore to God" in His way of salvation, in His person, in His Word, and in His providential dealings with you. There's a second aspect of submission:
B. Draw near to God (4:8).
James gives a command and a promise: "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." Before I comment on what this means, let me clarify what it does not mean. It does not mean that God is waiting for sinners to make the first move toward Him, and then He will respond. Not only does that run counter to all of Scripture, it also runs counter to this verse, which is God commanding us to draw near to Him!
Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (John 6:44). In case we missed it, He repeated, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father" (John 6:65). God always makes the first move toward us. If He did not, we all would perish in our sins (see also, John 8:34, 43-44; Rom. 3:10-12). So if you have drawn near to God for salvation, it was because God chose you and drew you to Himself. As Jesus said, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me" (John 6:37).
But these words in James are written primarily to believers. It is easy even for believers to drift away from the Lord. James' point is, "Guess who moved?" It wasn't God! If you're engaging in continuing quarrels and conflicts, you are not close to God. You've drifted. He is calling you to draw near to Him, with the promise that He is ready and waiting to draw near to you. The thought of not enjoying sweet fellowship with our loving Lord should move you to clear up whatever stands between you and Him.
You cannot be close to God at the same time that you're angry or bitter toward someone else. That's why immediately after teaching how serious the sin of anger is, Jesus said (Matt. 5:23-24), "Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering." You can't draw near to God until you first clear up, as much as it is in your power, any relational difficulties. If you think that you're close to God, but you're angry and bitter, you're deceiving yourself! Submit to God; draw near to God.
C. Humble yourself before God (4:10).
Pride is at the heart of all disobedience to God and of almost all relational conflicts. If God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6), then you want to make sure you're not making yourself God's opponent! The theme of God humbling the proud, but exalting the humble, runs throughout Scripture (1 Sam. 2:4-8; Job 42:6, 10-17; Ps. 34:18; 51:17; Prov. 3:34; 29:25; Isa. 57:15; 66:2; Ezek. 17:24; Matt. 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14; 1 Pet. 5:6). In the context of dealing with relational conflicts, the apostle Paul tells us to imitate the Lord Jesus, the supreme example of one who humbled Himself and was exalted by God (Phil. 2:8-9).
The key to developing biblical humility is in the phrase, "in the presence of the Lord" (James 4:10). Only those with hardened hearts could be proud in the presence of the Lord! The holy angels in His presence cover their faces (Isa. 6:2). When Isaiah had his vision of the Lord, he was undone-personally shattered-and immediately aware of his own sinfulness (Isa. 6:5). When God portrayed the wonders of creation before Job, he had no further arguments against God. Instead, he said (Job 42:6), "I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes." When the apostle John, who formerly had rested his head on Jesus' chest, saw Him in His glory on the Isle of Patmos, he fell at His feet as a dead man (Rev. 1:17).
This is one reason Calvin's Institutes are so spiritually rich-he is always lifting up God's majesty and showing how man's only proper place before Him is to lie prostrate in awe. The Puritan Thomas Manton paraphrases Calvin's opening line from The Institutes: "The soul becomes humble by the true knowledge of God and ourselves" (Exposition of the Epistle of James [Sovereign Grace Book Club], p. 348; I updated his English). He continues (ibid.), "The stars vanish when the sun arises; and our poor candle is slighted into a disappearance, when the glory of God arises in our thoughts.... And we see our vileness in God's majesty.... Get as large and comprehensive thoughts of him as you can; see his glory, if you would know your own baseness." The first step in resolving relational conflicts is to submit to God, which includes drawing near to Him and humbling yourself before Him.
2. To resolve conflicts, resist the devil (4:7).
The liberal German scholar, Rudolph Bultmann, wrote, "It is impossible to use electric light and the wireless, and to avail ourselves of modern medical and surgical discoveries, and at the same time believe in the New Testament world of demons and spirits" (in Kerygma and Myth, pp. 4-5, cited by John Stott, The Cross of Christ [IVP], p. 231). Take your pick: either Bultmann is right, or Jesus and the New Testament writers are right!
While often Satan does not need to involve himself or his demonic forces in our conflicts (our flesh incites them without any extra help!), there are times when demons are directly involved in disrupting our relationships. While it would be out of line to see a demon behind every quarrel, it is also out of line and naïve to think that demons are never involved.
One author has gained a lot of popularity writing several books outlining numerous steps to overcome Satan's power in your life (Neil Anderson, The Bondage Breaker [Harvest House], Victory Over the Darkness [Regal Books]). The Bible is a bit more simple-one step: "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." We get our word antihistamine from the Greek word translated resist. It means to stand against or oppose. Paul uses it with reference to spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6:13, "Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm."
The Greek word for devil is diabolos, which means, literally, to throw against. It is the word for slanderer. It translates the Hebrew word for Satan, which means "adversary." The devil is an evil fallen angel who stands against God and His people, always ready to accuse or slander them (Zech. 3:1, 2; Rev. 12:10). While we are no match for him in our own strength, in the name of the Lord and protected by the armor He provides, we may simply stand against Satan and he will flee. To resolve conflicts, first submit to God. Then, stop and pray in Jesus' name against the prince of darkness.
3. To resolve conflicts, repent of all sin (4:8, 9).
James sounds like an Old Testament prophet as he proclaims, "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." He is talking about thorough, heartfelt repentance.
Those whom James confronted had laughter and at least superficial joy. If you had seen them, they would have seemed quite happy. But, as we saw last week, they had become friends with the world. At the heart of worldliness is finding joy and pleasure in things other than God, or while disregarding and disobeying God.
There are people in evangelical churches who are outwardly happy in their positions of power in the church; happy with their abundant material possessions, and happy with their self-centered lifestyles. Yet at the same time, they hate others in the church, ignore the needy, and never give sacrificially to the Lord's work. It is to these types that James shouts, "Be miserable and mourn and weep!"
James' words show that there is an emotional element to genuine repentance. It is not just a glib, "I'm sorry that I offended you." Or, "I'm sorry that you're upset" (implying, "it's your fault!"). When you are truly repentant, you accept full responsibility for your sin. You don't excuse it as a shortcoming or oversight. You mourn over how you have offended God, disgraced His name, and hurt your brother or sister in Christ (2 Cor. 2:1-7; 7:7-11).
Psalm 34:18 promises, "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." In Psalm 51:17, where David laments his sin with Bathsheba, he writes, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." John Bunyan wrote a beautiful short book on that verse, The Acceptable Sacrifice [Banner of Truth], in which he explains how to know if your heart is broken before God, and how to keep it tender. (I have put a few quotes from it in today's bulletin and on the church web site under "Helpful Resources.")
The mourning of biblical repentance is not opposed to the biblical joy that we are commanded to have at all times (Phil. 4:4; 1 Thess. 5:16). In fact, true joy comes only through true repentance, because it is then that we experience God's forgiveness and mercy. The woman who wet Jesus' feet with her tears knew the joy of sins forgiven. The proud Pharisee, who did not see his own need for forgiveness, had neither her tears nor her joy (Luke 7:36-50).
Conclusion
Kent Hughes (James: Faith that Works [Crossway Books], p. 189) tells of an old preacher who was told that in one of his services a certain woman had gotten "joy in the Lord" (conversion). His penetrating question was, "Did she ever get any sorrow?" He knew that to truly experience the joy of sins forgiven, you first have to feel the grief of the sins. He knew Jesus' words, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4).
Don't sit passively and wait for resolution in a conflict to happen spontaneously. James gives ten active commands in machine-gun fashion in these four verses: Submit to God! Resist the devil! Draw near to God! Cleanse your hands! Purify your heart! Be miserable! Mourn! Weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom! Humble yourself! God's way to resolve conflicts is to submit to Him, resist the devil, and repent of all sin.
Application Questions
A. The humble character of a living faith.
2. (James 4:4-5) A rebuke of compromise and covetousness among Christians.
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"?
a. Adulterers and adulteresses: This is a rebuke presented in Old Testament vocabulary. God spoke this way in the Old Testament when His people were attracted to some form of idolatry (Jeremiah 3:8-9, Ezekiel 6:9, Ezekiel 16:32, Ezekiel 23:37, and Hosea 3:1). As James saw it here, their covetousness was idolatry (Colossians 3:5) and friendship with the world.
i. Better ancient Greek manuscripts only say you adulteresses. "He uses the feminine form deliberately, for one turn of special contempt and scorn in the ancient world was to call a community or group by some feminine equivalent." (Moffatt)
ii. The addition of adulterers was probably from an early scribe who thought James meant literal sexual adultery and didn't want to exclude men from the rebuke. But James used the phrase you adulteresses to give a specific spiritual picture. According to this picture, God is the "husband" and we are His "wife" (as in Old Testament passages such as Isaiah 54:5, Jeremiah 3:20, and Exodus 34:15-16).
iii. "The Jews, because of their covenant with God, are represented as being espoused to him; and hence, their idolatry, and their iniquity in general, are represented under the notion of adultery." (Clarke)
iv. "You have your hearts full of harlotry . . . this vile strumpet the world, that lays forth her two breasts of profit and pleasure, and ensnareth many; for the which she must be burnt, as a whore, by the fire of the last day." (Trapp)
b. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? James recognizes that we cannot both be friends of this world system in rebellion against God, and friends of God at the same time (Matthew 6:24). Even the desire to be a friend (wants to be a friend) of the world makes that one an enemy of God.
i. "Such friendship with the world means that one is on a footing of hostility towards God, for it defies His will and despises His purpose; disguise it as one may, it is an implicit challenge to God." (Moffatt)
ii. The strong statements James made here remind us that all was not beautiful in the early church. They had plenty of carnality and worldliness to deal with. While the New Testament church is a clear pattern for us, we should not over-romanticize the spiritual character of early Christians.
c. The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously: The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit has a jealous yearning for our friendship with God. The Spirit will convict the Christian who lives in compromise.
i. This phrase is a little hard to accurately translate. Is it God jealously yearning for the devotion of our spirit which He put within us, or is it the Spirit within us jealously yearning for the full devotion of our heart? Either way, the sense is much the same.
ii. "He went so far as to speak of them as adulterers and adulteresses; and then adopting a gentler, pleading tone, he says, 'You are grieving the Holy Spirit who has come to dwell within you, who yearns with a jealous envy to possess your entire nature for Himself.'" (Meyer)
iii. James agrees with the many passages in the Old Testament that tell us God is a jealous God (Deuteronomy 32:16 and 32:21; Exodus 20:5 and 34:14; Zechariah 8:2). "The idea is that God loves men with such a passion that he cannot bear any other love within the hearts of men." (Barclay)
iv. Think of the inner pain and torture inside the person who is betrayed by an unfaithful spouse; who must reckon with the truth, I am faithful to them, but they are not faithful to me. This is what the Spirit of God feels regarding our world-loving hearts.
d. The Scripture says: One cannot find this exact quote ("The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously") in any specific Old Testament verse. James seemed to present an idea that is alluded to in several passages without quoting any specific passage.
i. "More probably is the view that James was not citing a particular passage but summarizing the truth expressed in several Old Testament passages." (Hiebert)
ii. Or it may be that James 4:5 speaks in two independent sentences, and that the words of Scripture quoted refer to what was said in James 4:4.
3. (James 4:6-10) The solutions for strife: in humility, get right with God.
But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." Therefore submit 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. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
a. But He gives more grace: The same Holy Spirit convicting us of our compromise will also grant us the grace to serve God as we should. This wonderful statement - but He gives more grace - stands in strong contrast to the previous words.
i. "Note that contrast; note it always. Observe how weak we are, how strong he is; how proud we are, how condescending he is; how erring we are, and how infallible he is; how changing we are, and how immutable he is; how provoking we are, and how forgiving he is. Observe how in us there is only ill, and how in him there is only good. Yet our ill but draws his goodness forth, and still he blesseth. Oh! What a rich contrast!" (Spurgeon)
ii. "Sin seeks to enter, grace shuts the door; sin tries to get the mastery, but grace, which is stronger than sin, resists, and will not permit it. Sin gets us down at times, and puts its foot on our neck; grace comes to the rescue . . . Sin comes up like Noah's flood, but grace rides over the tops of the mountains like the ark." (Spurgeon)
iii. "Do you suffer from spiritual poverty? It is your own fault, for he giveth more grace. If you have not got it, it is not because it is not to be had, but because you have not gone for it." (Spurgeon)
b. God resists the proud: At the same time, James reminds us that this grace only comes to the humble. Grace and pride are eternal enemies. Pride demands that God bless me in light of my merits, whether real or imagined. But grace will not deal with me on the basis of anything in me - good or bad - but only on the basis of who God is.
i.James used a powerful word in the phrase, resists the proud: "Sets himself in battle array against him." (Clarke) "God resisteth the proud, 'setteth himself in battle-array against such,' above all other sorts of sinner, as invaders of his territories, and foragers or plunderers of his chief treasures." (Trapp)
c. But gives grace to the humble: It isn't as if our humility earns the grace of God. Humility merely puts us in a position to receive the gift He freely gives.
d. Therefore submit to God: In light of the grace offered to the humble, there is only one thing to do: submit to God. This means to order yourself under God, to surrender to Him as a conquering King, and start receiving the benefits of His reign.
i. It is a wonder that the world does not submit to God. "I have heard much of the rights of man: but it were well also to consider the rights of God, which are the first, highest, surest, and most solemn rights in the universe, and lie at the base of all other rights. . . . Alas, great God, how art thou a stranger even in the world which thou hast thyself made! Thy creatures, who could not see if thou hadst not given them eyes, look everywhere except to thee. Creatures who could not think if thou hadst not given them minds, think of all things except thee; and beings who could not live if thou didst not keep them in being, forget thee utterly, or if they remember thine existence, and see thy power, are foolhardy enough to become thy foes!" (Spurgeon)
ii. "If he were a tyrant it might be courageous to resist, but since he is a Father it is ungrateful to rebel." (Spurgeon) Instead, Spurgeon (in another sermon) suggested reasons why we should submit to God:
iii. "I desire to whisper one little truth in your ear, and I pray that it may startle you: You are submitting even now. You say, 'Not I; am lord of myself.' I know you think so, but all the while you are submitting to the devil. The verse before us hints at this. 'Submit yourselves unto God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.' If you do not submit to God you never will resist the devil, and you will remain constantly under his tyrannical power. Which shall be your master, God or devil, for one of these must? No man is without a master." (Spurgeon)
e. Resist the devil and he will flee from you: To solve the problems of carnality and the strife it causes, we must also resist the devil. This means to stand against devil's deceptions and his efforts to intimidate. As we resist the devil, we are promised that he will flee from you.
i. Significantly, James does not recommend that demons should be cast out of believers by a third party. Instead, James simply challenges individual Christians to deal with Satan as a conquered foe who can and must be personally resisted. "He who, in the terrible name of Jesus, opposes even the devil himself is sure to have speedy and glorious conquest. He flees from that name, and from his conquering blood." (Clarke)
ii. Resist comes from two Greek words: stand and against. James tells us to stand against the devil. Satan can be set running by the resistance of the lowliest believer who comes in the authority of what Jesus did on the cross.
iii. "Resist, by faith, and the rest of the spiritual armour, Ephesians 6:13, 14, etc. Or, resist i.e. comply not with his motions and temptations." (Poole)
iv. "And he will flee from you; as to that particular assault in which you resist him; and though he return again, and tempt you again, yet you still resisting, he will still be overcome; ye are never conquered so long as you do not consent." (Poole)
v. A famous ancient Christian writer named Hermas wrote, "The devil can wrestle against the Christian, but he cannot pin him." (Cited in Barclay)
f. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you: The call to draw near to God is both an invitation and a promise. It is no good to submit to God's authority and to resist the devil's attack and then fail to draw near to God. We have it as a promise: God will draw near to us as we draw near to Him.
i. "When a soul sets out to seek God, God sets out to meet that soul; so that while we are drawing near to him, he is drawing near to us." (Clarke)
ii. What does it mean to draw near to God? Spurgeon considered a few ways:
iii. In one way, this text illustrates the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. In the old covenant, God told Moses to not come any closer to the burning bush and take off his shoes. Under the new covenant, God says to the sinner: "Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you." Now the ground between God and the sinner has been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, and we can come close to God on the basis of that blood.
iv. This also shows what God wants to do for the sinner. It doesn't say, "Draw near to God and He will save you" or "Draw near to God and He will forgive you," though both of those are true. But what God really wants is to be near man; to have a close relationship and fellowship with the individual.
v. From the rest of the chapter we see the results of drawing near to God:
g. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! As we draw near to God, we will be convicted of our sin. So we lament and mourn and weep as appropriate under the conviction of sin, and we are compelled to find cleansing at the cross.
i. "The word used for sinner is hamartolos, which means the hardened sinner, the man whose sin is obvious and notorious." (Barclay)
ii. In using terms like lament and mourn and weep, "James speaks in terms of the Hebrew prophets' language about the anguish of repentance." (Moffatt)
h. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up: As we come as sinners before the holy God (not as self righteous religionists, as Jesus explained in Luke 18:10-14), we appropriately humble ourselves before Him. Then He will lift us up, because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, and grace - the unmerited favor of God - always lifts us up.
i. In this passage James has powerfully described both the duty and the blessing of repentance.
4. (James 4:11-12) The solutions for strife: get right with other people.
Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
a. Do not speak evil of one another: Humbling ourselves and getting right with God must result in our getting right with other people. When we are right with other people, it will show in the way we talk about them. So we must not speak evil of one another and not judge our brother.
i. Speak evil translates the ancient Greek word katalalia. "Katalalia is the sin of those who meet in corners and gather in little groups and pass on confidential information which destroy the good name of those who are not there to defend themselves." (Barclay)
ii. This sin is wrong for two reasons. First, it breaks the royal law that we should love one another. Second, it takes a right of judgment that only God has.
b. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law: When we judge our brother, we put ourselves in the same place as the law, in effect judging the law. This is something that we have no authority to do, because there is one Lawgiver - so who are you to judge another?
i. "However high and orthodox our view of God's law might be, a failure actually to do it says to the world that we do not in fact put much store by it." (Moo)
c. Who are you to judge another? This is an extension of the same humility that James writes about in this chapter. When we have proper humility before God, it just isn't within us to arrogantly judge our brother.
i. "This is not to rule out civil courts and judges. Instead, it is to root out the harsh, unkind, critical spirit that continually finds fault with others." (Burdick)
ii. "Who art thou; what a sorry creature, a man, a worm, that thou shouldest lift up thyself into God's place, and make thyself a judge of one not subject to thee!" (Poole)
B. A humble dependence on God.
1. (James 4:13-16) A caution against an attitude of independence from God.
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
a. You who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit": James rebuked the kind of heart that lives and makes its plans apart from a constant awareness of the hand of God, and with an underestimation of our own limitations (you do not know what will happen tomorrow).
i. "This was the custom of those ancient times; they traded from city to city, carrying their goods on the backs of camels. The Jews traded thus to Tyre, Sidon, Caesarea, Crete, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, Rome, &c. And it is to this kind of itinerant mercantile life that St. James alludes." (Clarke)
ii. This attitude that James challenged goes far beyond making wise plans for the future. "Not, let us go, but, we will go, in the indicative mood; noting the peremptoriness of their purposes, and their presuming upon future times and things, which were not in their power." (Poole)
iii. "Notice, that these people, while they thought everything was at their disposal, used everything for worldly objects. What did they say? Did they determine with each other 'We will to-day or to-morrow do such and such a thing for the glory of God, and for the extension of his kingdom'? Oh, no, there was not a word about God in it, from beginning to end!" (Spurgeon)
iv. "There are two great certainties about things that shall come to pass - one is that God knows, and the other is that we do not know." (Spurgeon)
b. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away: James asked us to consider the fragility of human life, and the fact that we live and move only at the permission of God. James does not discourage us from planning and doing, only from planning and doing apart from reliance on God.
i. The idea that our life was a vapor or shadow was a frequent figure of speech in the Old Testament (Psalm 102:11; Job 8:9; 1 Chronicles 29:15).
ii. We also remember the story Jesus told about the rich man who made his great plans for the future, and foolishly lost it all when his soul was required of him (Luke 12:16-21). "They might easily observe that many things fall out betwixt the cup and the lip, betwixt the chin and the chalice." (Trapp)
iii. "There are a thousand gates to death; and, though some seem to be narrow wickets, many souls have passed through them. Men have been choked by a grape stone, killed by a tile falling from the roof of a house, poisoned by a drop, carried off by a whiff of foul air. I know not what there is that is too little to slay the greatest king. It is a marvel that man lives at all." (Spurgeon)
iv. Knowing that life is short, we must be diligent and energetic about the common duties of everyday life. "It is sinful to neglect the common duties of life, under the idea that we shall do something more by-and-by. You do not obey your parents, young man, and yet you are going to be a minister, are you? A pretty minister will you make! As an apprentice you are very dilatory and neglectful, and your master would be glad to see the back of you; he wishes that he could burn your indentures; and yet you have an idea you are going to be a missionary, I believe? A pretty missionary you would be!" (Spurgeon)
c. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." It is nothing but sheer arrogance that makes us think that we can live and move and have our being independent of God. This boastful arrogance is the essence of sin: a proud independence, the root of all sin, as was the case with Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12-15) and Adam (Genesis 3:5-7).
i. Paul knew and lived this principle: I will return again to you, God willing (Acts 18:21). But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills (1 Corinthians 4:19). I hope to stay a while with you, if the Lord permits (1 Corinthians 16:7).
ii. "All such boasting, when life is so precarious, is worse than absurd, it is wicked, a positive sin, a specimen of the ungodly haughtiness (James 4:6) of which men should repent." (Moffatt)
iii. You boast in your arrogance: "The word is alazoneia. Alazoneia was originally the characteristic of the wandering quack. He offered cures which were no cures and boasted to things that he was not able to do." (Moffatt)
2. (James 4:17) A challenge to live according to what we know in the Lord.
Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
a. To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin: James knows that it is far easier to think about and talk about humility and dependence on God than it is to live it. Yet he makes the mind of God plain: as we know these things, we are accountable to do them.
i. Here James returned to his consistent theme through his letter: the idea that genuine faith is proved by action. "However high and orthodox our view of God's law might be, a failure actually to do it says to the world that we do not in fact put much store by it." (Moo)
ii. Yet we also see that the uncertainty of life, to which James referred to in the previous passage, should not create fear that makes one passive or inactive. The uncertainty of life should make us ready to recognize what is good and then do it. "This uncertainty of life is not a cause either for fear or inaction. It is always a reason for realizing our complete dependence on God." (Moffatt)
b. To him it is sin: Jesus told a story with much the same point in Luke 12:41-48. The story was about servants and how they obeyed the master in the master's absence. Jesus concluded the story with this application: For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more (Luke 12:48). Greater light gives greater responsibility.
