Editor’s note: The purpose of this series is to walk our readers through James in order to help them understand what it teaches and how to apply it to our lives. This series is part of our larger commitment to help Christians learn to read, interpret, reflect, and apply the Bible to their own lives.
Dave opened our series by looking at James 1:1.
Dave wrote on James 1:2-12.
Dave wrote on James 1:12-18.
Dave wrote on James 1:19-26.
Dave looked at James 1:26-James 2:7.
Dave looked at James 2:8-13.
Dave looked at James 2:14-19.
Matt Adams looked at James 2:20-26.
Dave wrote on James 3:1-12.
Dave wrote on James 3:13-18
Dave wrote on James 4:1-6.
Today Dave writes on James 4:5-10.
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James 4:6, 10, “But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” … Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
Politicians do not seem to excel at humility or repentance. They vaunt themselves or their accomplishments in order to get elected, and they deny or cover up their misdeeds as much as possible. Some years ago, an American president was publicly accused of sexual misconduct with a young White House intern. In a news conference, he faced his accusers and emphatically declared, “I did not have sex with that woman.” A few weeks later, irrefutable physical evidence proved that he did have sexual relations with “that woman.” After he was caught, the president, full of emotion, expressed great sorrow and shame for his misdeeds.
A few years later, a prominent senator made a thinly veiled racist remark at a birthday party for an aged fellow senator. When his remark became a news story, he said it was an ill-advised but spontaneous remark, so no one should take it seriously. But, people observed, spontaneous remarks often reveal our deepest convictions. Besides, the senator had made similar remarks on many occasions, for years. Feeling the heat, the senator expressed sorrow that his comments had caused offense. Later, after “sorrow” failed to quiet the critics, he said his remarks were reprehensible. Neither the president nor the senator was very convincing, for each one’s repentance came long after he was caught, and seemed to be born of political expediency.
Politicians tend to express sorrow only when absolutely necessary. Since they necessarily calculate the effects of their public acts and utterances, they make an easy target. But are ordinary citizens any better at repentance? Do we excel at repentance, given that all people, not just politicians, want to hide their shameful deeds? Does the quality of our repentance even matter? It does to James.
Repentance in James
Repentance is the central theme in our passage, but to follow James’s message, we must locate it within his pattern of thought in James 3:13–4:4. The topic of repentance develops James’s teaching on the two ways of life. Wisdom from heaven leads to a beautiful life, marked by peace and righteousness. Wisdom from the earth is marked by envy and selfish ambition and leads to a life marked by coveting, fights, quarrels, and infidelity toward God.
James concludes his analysis of selfish ambition when he asks, “Do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?” (James 4:5). In the previous post, we said this verse deserved close scrutiny; now it merits a review. First, when James writes “Scripture says,” he is not quoting a Bible verse, but he is summarizing the entire biblical theology of fallen humanity. Second, therefore, James teaches that envy is a common human trait. This indictment applies first to unbelievers, but James believes his entire audience needs to hear it. Anyone can fall prey to envy, even though it contradicts God’s original design. When God fashioned the human race, he gave us strong spirits, an active intellect, and a passion for significance. We hunger to do great things and will fight through obstacles to achieve great goals.
But in our state of rebellion, our passions and drives become unruly. Envy and selfish pursuits misdirect our energies. God made our spirits strong, but sin makes them wayward. We pursue selfish ambitions and covet our neighbors’ goods.
We could restate James’s theme in question form: What do you think our desires are all about? What is the goal of human yearnings? Why did God give us our energies, our dreams? Did He intend that our spirits be controlled by selfish cravings? Not at all, for such desires are the way of folly.
God did not give us our energy and aspirations to see us pour them into selfish desires. He did not give us our willingness to fight for a cause so we would spend it defeating others. Further, His salvation restores our sense of direction. He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).
Unbelievers are especially prone to envy, since they cannot shed their orientation to self. But even believers are prone to intense envy, even though we are free from it in principle. We trust God to give us the exalted status of sons and daughters, so we need not strive for recognition. We know God provides whatever we need, and therefore envy is misplaced. Still, God’s people fall into envy and selfishness, too. Surely Scripture does not speak in vain when it says the human race is prone to pride and envy. Consider the testimony of biblical history:
Adam and Eve envied God’s knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3).
Cain envied the approval God gave to Abel (Gen. 4).
Jacob and Esau struggled to gain the blessing of their father (Gen. 27).
Joseph told his brothers they would one day bow to him, but they sold him into slavery, thinking it would therefore never come to pass (Gen. 37).
Saul envied the praise David gained after he defeated Goliath; the women of Israel sang, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands” (1 Sam. 18).
Absalom envied the throne of his father David and started a civil war to obtain it (2 Sam. 15).
The disciples coveted places of honor in Jesus’ kingdom. It was not enough to be with Jesus. James, John, and others longed to sit at his right and his left (Matt. 20).
Biblical history is largely a record of selfish striving. If envy marks the people of God, how much more is ordinary history a record of kings coveting the lands of other kings, of the captains of industry seeking greater wealth, of politicians and entertainers craving recognition. Inventers like the Wright brothers drained their energy fighting over credit for inventions. Even scientists vie for recognition that they discovered an animal, a star, or even a disease. Scripture rightly says human history is a tale of envy and strife.
Everyone is motivated by envy and ambition, and everyone should confess that to God. We should face our tendency to grasp what we can. If we humbly confess this, God will give us more grace (James 4:6). Our selfish passions lead us to fail the oft-mentioned tests of true faith. Our selfishness drives us to care for our needs and wants before we look to widows or orphans. We say foolish things to make an impression. Because we seek wealth or recognition, we find a way to fit in with society instead of avoiding its pollutions. Our failures show that sin resides within us. Therefore we humble ourselves before God. We should confess our sins, plead for mercy, and lay aside every demand for our due.
The Nature of Humility (James 4:6–10)
When God sees how we misuse the energy He grants us, He knows His grace is our onlly hope. His grace has a direction: “God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.” In one sense, even humility is God’s gift. No one rejects his pride unless the Lord enables him. The Lord opens eyes so men and women can see the futility of living for themselves. Grace teaches us to trust in God, to rest in Christ, rather than the self. So James commands us to humble ourselves before God.
James 4:6–10 begins and ends with a call to humility. To be precise, it starts with a warning that leads to a promise: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). It ends with a command that leads to a promise: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:10).
Thus the need for humility and the call to humility form bookends for our text. God gives grace to the humble, and we must humble ourselves before the Lord. The rest of the passage describes the life of humility. The structure has elements of Hebrew poetry; it can be profitably arranged in stanzas.
James 4:6–7
Warning:
God opposes the proud,
Promise:
but gives grace to the humble.
Conclusion:
Submit yourselves, then, to God.
James 4:10
Command:
Humble yourselves before the Lord
Promise:
and he will exalt you.
The intervening verses develop the demand for humility by exploring the two poles of divine promise and human responsibility. James 4:7 with its call to submit to God, explains James 4:6. Since God opposes the proud, we should submit to him as an act of humility. The submissive can expect to receive grace. The rest of the passage describes key elements of Christian humility and of submission to God. Notice, as James writes, that humility has nothing to do with a shy or retiring personality. Powerful and exuberant people can be humble. Look again at the structure of James 4:7–10, noting the parallel phrasing that marks Hebrew poetry:
Command 1
Resist the devil,
Positive command
Result 1
and he will flee from you.
Positive result
Command 2
Come near to God and
Antithetical command
Result 2
he will come near to you.
Antithetical result
Command
Wash your hands, you sinners, and
Direct address
Command
purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Direct address
Command
Grieve, mourn and wail.
Triple command
Specifying
Change your laughter to mourning
Command elaborated
Specifying
and [change] your joy to gloom.
Parallel elaboration
Command
Humble yourselves before the Lord,
Climax, with new structure
Result
and he will exalt you.
Climactic result
Each element of this “poem” deserves comment. First, James says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God” (James 4:7 esv). God’s diagnosis says we are prone to envy and selfishness. If it is indeed wrong to live for ourselves, where then should we direct our life energy? Toward the poor and the needy? Toward family and neighborhood? Toward the church? Yes, but before we dedicate ourselves to humanity, James says we should bend or submit ourselves to God.
Submit to God (James 4:7)
“Submit” sounds very passive in English, but the Greek concept is more active. The Greek word, hypotassō, is actually a compound term. The two elements mean “arrange” and “under.” To submit, in Scripture, is not to sit back and wait for God to issue orders. Submission certainly includes obedience to commands, but we also submit when we arrange our lives under God’s general direction.
A worker submits by obeying his supervisor’s directions, but he also submits when he extrapolates from his leader’s principles, taking on new tasks according to his principles. He need not wait for orders, because he understands the leader’s goals, vision, and ethic well enough to apply them to new situations. An athlete submits to her coach by coming into the season well conditioned, even if the coach did not specify a tight training schedule. A wife can exercise considerable authority in the home and yet be submissive to her husband if she manages their money, property, and time in the ways they have worked out together.
Obedience is certainly one element of submission. To submit is to recognize the lordship and authority of another. When someone submits, he typically does so to an authority: to God, king, governor, leader, officer, parent, or expert. We also submit to laws and rules. Submission means one person, who is lower in rank, age, position, or power, will yield to a person with greater rank, age, position, expertise, or power.
Submission requires subordinates to bend their will to the will of their superior, even if that superior issues a directive that seems unpleasant or unwise and insists upon it. This does not mean we must do whatever a superior says. If an authority commands something that is contrary to the will of God, we must disobey man in order to obey God. As the apostles said, when certain Jewish leaders forbade that they preach Christ, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). A good worker will not lie because the boss commands it, nor will a good wife follow her husband’s wicked orders. A good soldier will not execute innocent civilians, even if his commander says so. If, however, we merely doubt the wisdom of a superior, we may make suggestions and raise questions, but we must finally submit. The authority bears the responsibility to lead, and lead he must.
If we have a good relationship with someone for whom we work, we probably see things as he or she does. We gladly follow orders because they hardly feel like orders. That is a great blessing, but such agreement does not test our willingness to submit. The test of loyalty and submission to a superior comes only when his or her will crosses ours.
So it is with God. We obey whenever we do his will. We submit when we obey a command that seems hard or strange. Such submission signifies that we have humbled ourselves before the Lord.
Resist the Devil (James 4:7)
The next words, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7), begin to explain how we submit to God. A friend once told me James’s command did not square with his experience. He said: “Temptation gets ever more intense the longer I resist. When I resist, the devil’s influence and the temptation get worse and worse. Then if I give in, I feel relieved; as if he flees when I succumb, not when I resist.”
This report probably resonates with many of us. Suppose you have a secret, not a large or potentially damaging secret, just a very interesting fact that is meant to be private information. Imagine that you start to tell someone the secret, then suddenly remember you must not tell. Alas, your troubles have just begun, because your conversation partner recognizes what is happening and begins to plead, “Come on, tell me. I won’t tell another soul.” He is relentless; he swears himself to silence; he says you said enough to guess most of the rest anyway. The pressure builds and builds … until you divulge the story. If that is your experience, what is James saying?
James links submission to God with resistance of the devil. That is, to submit to God’s authority is to resist the devil’s authority. To submit to God is to order our lives under His authority. To resist the devil means we oppose, we fight back, we take a stand against the devil’s authority. To oppose Satan in this setting means to resist temptations especially to fight each other or covet (James 4:1–2). Curiously, Paul says one way to resist Satan is to flee from him, that is, to flee from his blandishment to sin.
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom. 13:14 esv).
“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body” (1 Cor. 6:18).
“Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry” (1 Cor. 10:14).
But you, man of God, flee from all this [the love of money], and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness” (1 Tim. 6:11).
“Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness” (2 Tim. 2:22).
So we resist the devil by fleeing from temptations to sin. And when we flee from sin, the devil flees from us. Perhaps we should think of Jesus’ temptation here. After Jesus faced down three temptations, Satan left him for a while, even though he would try again at a more opportune time (Luke 4:13).
When we resist Satan, we must seek another time. When we do not resist, we have given him more time. Suppose you are traveling on business. The day is done and you return to your motel room, where pornographic movies are available. The lustful eye and the malice of Satan are against you. Resistance may be difficult, but it is not futile. You may need a friend who promises to check in with you when (or after) you travel. But if you resist the temptation, Satan must try something else, later. He flees. If you succumb, Satan does not flee; he sits on the couch with you. And since sin has pathways, failure to resist on one occasion makes it harder to resist the next temptation and harder to submit to God, who commands us to flee immorality.
This suggests what the promise “and he will flee from you” might mean. Certainly, Satan does not always flee. His names are the devil or “deceiver,” and Satan or “adversary” (Rev. 20:2; Zech. 3). He will continue to wage war against God’s people.
Temptations fade slowly. Suppose a physician determines that a certain beloved spice (salt) or food (chocolate) is damaging his patient’s health. To eat chocolate would constitute self-abuse as surely as smoking is self-abuse for others. To eat chocolate would be sin. But the desire for chocolate or salt is strong. The patient may have to resist the temptation over and over until the desire for that taste slowly fades away. So the devil flees, but perhaps not at once.
Come Near to God (James 4:8)
When we hear “Come near to God,” we might think of public worship or private prayers. “Come near” is sometimes the language of worship (Lev. 21:3; Isa. 29:13; Heb. 7:19), but James has not been discussing worship. Therefore, “come near” could mean returning to God in covenant renewal after straying. For example, God speaks through Malachi, saying, “Return to me, and I will return to you” (Mal. 3:7; cf. Zech. 1:2–3). In Hosea 12:6, the prophet links “return to your God” with “come near to your God.” It is certainly true that we may “come near” to God after sinning (perhaps after succumbing to temptation). But “come near” and “draw near” means more than “repent.” We come near to God to worship Him, to serve Him, to meet Him, to seek help, and to gain assurance, as well as to repent. It is better, therefore, to conclude that James is offering a far-reaching promise, a promise that other gods do not make. When we draw near to God, he also draws near to us. As Moses asked, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” (Deut. 4:7).
Wash Your Hands, You Sinners (James 4:8)
If a sinner comes near to the holy God, he will naturally want to repent of his sins. James says, “Wash your hands” (James 4:8). The hands represent actions or deeds (Gen. 3:22; 4:11; Ex. 3:20; Deut. 2:7; Ps. 89:21). Next he says, “Purify your hearts” (James 4:8). The heart represents motives or intentions. James censures the “double-minded.” The double-minded lack integrity. They pursue two things at once—service of God and service of self. James has already warned about double-mindedness, saying that the double-minded man asks and gets nothing (James 1:8). He is unstable. But godly wisdom is pure; it has clarity of purpose. True believers are bent on one thing, to seek and to find the Lord. The psalmist says:
Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart.…
He will receive blessing from the Lord
and vindication from God his Savior.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God of Jacob. (Ps. 24:3–6)
Grieve, Mourn, and Wail (James4:9)
The desire for a pure heart leads logically to sorrow for sin. When sin is manifest, the righteous grieve. The Old Testament prophets said those who faced God’s judgment would grieve, mourn, and wail. More importantly, the prophets also invited the people to grieve, mourn, and wail before the judgment, as they returned to God (Joel 2:1, 12–14). Like Jesus, James says we can laugh now, at sin, and mourn later, over judgment. Or we can mourn now, over sin, and laugh later, at God’s grace (Luke 6:25). All too often, the world laughs about the wrong things. There is fleeting joy for those who indulge in sin and fleeting sorrow for those who break with it, but it is far better to mourn now for a season and rejoice forever.
Not all mourning has spiritual value, of course. Criminals express sorrow after they are caught in a crime. A politician is very contrite after he is caught misbehaving. Investors are remorseful after found guilty of insider trading. Thinking of Judas, perhaps, Paul said, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death” (2 Cor. 7:10). So a tardy contrition may be no contrition at all. The truly penitent man grieves and mourns his sin whether he is caught or not. That is the grief that leads to healing (Luke 22:62). That is the mourning Jesus blessed when he said, “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matt. 5:4).
Humble Yourselves before the Lord and He Will Lift You Up (James 4:10)
The prophets often declare that the Lord humbles the proud (1 Sam 2:7; Isa. 2:11–17; 26:5; Lam. 1:5; Ezek. 17:24; Hos. 14:9). Yet James does not say, “The Lord will humble you”; he says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord” (James 4:10). Therefore we do not wait for God or for circumstances to humble us. It is our duty to humble ourselves. James does not specify how we do this, but he does drop a hint in the phrase “before the Lord.”
If we remember that all we do is “before the Lord,” if his holiness is our standard, it is easier to humble ourselves. But if we compare ourselves to others, it is far easier to avoid humility. If a parent chides a child for a messy room, the child runs to the excuse, “You think my room is bad—you should see …,” whereupon the child names the messiest child he knows. Adults do the same thing when their flaws appear. We think, “I have a problem, but I’m not nearly so bad as so-and-so.” When we compare ourselves to others, we can always find someone who is worse. But if we compare ourselves to the Lord, who is the absolute standard, the excuse disappears and we are more likely to humble ourselves. When he stood before the Lord, even the prophet Isaiah, a godly man who served as God’s mouth, declared, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5 nasb). In a sense, he still compared himself to his countrymen, but not in a way that excused his sin. When God is the standard, humility comes easily.
If we humble ourselves, if we admit that we sin, and that we are sinful, and that we cannot reform ourselves, then, James promises, the Lord will lift us up. This is the gospel according to James. James does not mention the atonement of Christ, the cross of Christ, or the resurrection of Christ. He states the gospel his own way, a way deeply influenced by the teachings of Jesus. James says there is an antithesis, a choice between two ways of life: a way of selfish ambition and a way of purity and peace (James 3:13–18). We can be a friend of God or a friend of the world (James4:4). We can be proud or humble and repentant. Jesus says, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11; 18:14). James says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” When we grieve over our sins and turn to him in faith, He will extend His redeeming grace. When we come to God in repentance and humility, He will forgive us and lift us up.
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