James 4:7-17

James 4:7-17

James 4:7- Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you

· Submitting to God comes through humility, then trust and finally faith. Submitting requires that we yield to Him, knowing that His ways our higher than ours and acknowledging that we are very much incomplete without His wisdom and guidance.

· In resisting the devil, we must provide an environment, both internal and external that makes the enemy uncomfortable, even miserable, so that he doesn’t want to be around us and makes him feel like he’s wasting his time with us.

This comes through reading and knowing God’s word, prayer without ceasing and worship. However, these are only the fuel for our spiritual engine. Even the highest quality octane fuel will not make a poorly tuned spiritual engine run correctly. Tuning requires removing old and worn parts and cleaning others. I believe this is our responsibility, the work of resisting. We cannot resist unless we have an engine that is running smoothly, even the best fuel will not allow us to resist the devil if our spiritual engine is out of tune. God has given us all the tools, but it’s up to us to use them and sometimes, if not most of the time, resistance is just plain old elbow grease. We need to get in there and throw out old and worn parts and do a thorough cleaning. I believe this is the labor that James is referring to in James 2:22, “Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?” To have a perfectly running engine we must put in the labor of maintenance in our inner man or we don’t stand a chance at resisting our sinful nature, let alone the devil. We must take control of our patience, our moodiness and attitudes, our sinful behaviors and even our thoughts and motives. Yes, we absolutely need God’s help, but we can’t expect Him to do the things He expects us to do. We must put in the work as well, remember this is a restoration project that God began and He’s faithful to complete it (Phil. 1:6), but we can’t continually hinder His work by not putting in the effort. God is not an enabler; He’ll put us in situations that makes us feel uncomfortable or even worse, like we’re literally being tortured and put to death. In fact, this is exactly what’s happening our old sinful nature is being put to death. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live,” Romans 8:13.

This struggle over sin and the desire of putting it to death is a sure sign that your salvation is real. This life as a new creation is not an easy one for sure, in fact it’s very painful at times. Replacing old parts and cleaning our inner man doesn’t feel great at the time, but it’s the only way our spiritual engine will perform at peak performance.

We must replace the old and broken parts and put in new ones so that we can become renewed and a new person created for good works:

Ephesians 4:22-24

“That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new manwhich was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

1 Corinthians 5:7

“Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened.”

James 4:8-10 – “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep!Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

Job 17:9

Yet the righteous will hold to his way, and he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.

Isaiah 1:16

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil.”

· V.8,9 - What does it mean to draw near to God? This is so typical of James to make a statement and then answer it in the proceeding text. In verses 9 and 10 James clearly tells us that the primary requirement for drawing near to God is in having a pure heart. Does this mean we have to be perfect before God draws closer to us? In a sense, yes, but remember we’re made positionally perfect before God once we believed and received Jesus as savior. Through this atonement we now have access to God and our salvation is sealed! But, to draw near to His thrown room we must have a clean heart. You see, salvation gets us in the door, but having a clean heart draws us closer to His thrown. The cleaner our hearts the closer we’ll draw near to God and He to us. What I believe James is referring too is that if we desire to have a deep relationship with the Father, we must cast off all sin in our lives, we must mourn and weep over our sins, just as He does. We must realize that our known sin keeps us from a more meaningful relationship with Him, yes, we may be saved, but sin will keep us from becoming a mature fully functioning adult in Christ. Isn’t this our goal? It certainly is His.

James chooses to use some extreme language here to strongly emphasize the harm of sin in a believer’s life. Remember who James is speaking to, it was the Jerusalem body of Christ that were becoming conflicted, he refers to them as double-minded or in other words they were becoming halfhearted believers. They were no different than we are today, they were struggling with similar sins and their faith was waning. It happens to all of us; the difference is that some are over comers and persevere through the hardships and press into God and others do not.

Don’t be the seed that falls on stony places:

Matthew 13:20, 21

“But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.”

· V.10 – Again, humility is the key in drawing closer to God. It seems that every truth in God’s word is opposite of what the world and our flesh tell us.

o If we humble ourselves, we are lifted up.

o If we die to ourselves, we will fully live in Him.

o If we mourn, we are blessed (made happy) and will be comforted.

o If we submit to God we are set free, etc.

None of this makes any sense to the unregenerated man, nor did it us until we became His. We must resist sin unto death or we’ll never realize the strength we have in Him, nor will we ever experience consistent fruits of the spirit. Until we get our feelings under control we will fluctuate from lukewarm to cold believers and will never truly be fully hot. There will be times that it takes just pure will power to overcome and resist our sinfulness, and it may last for some time. It could be weeks or longer of just going through the motions, not feeling Him in anyway, reading the Word and it seems to make no sense or praying and it seems as if we’re talking to ourselves. Testing may come through external circumstances that challenges us that seem relentless and never ending. These are the proving grounds of our faith when we are given the choice of preserving or withdrawing, the choice is ours, but I also believe God is there even when we can’t feel Him helping us in ways we can’t understand fighting battles in the heavenlies for us. Don’t feel like your struggles are unique for they are common to all that call on the name of Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:13

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Galatians 6:9

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

2 Corinthians 4:16, 17

“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

Philippians 4:13

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

James 4:13-17 – “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”; 14 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. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

· V.13-16 - How often do we as believers still leave God out of our plans? We boast about our plans, of what we’ll do or where we’ll go and completely leave God out of our decision making. We may include Him in big things, but think that God doesn’t need to be bothered with small things, but even small things should be considered just as important as bigger plans. It’s an attituded of humility and gratefulness, it’s an awareness of our mortality and finite abilities in the presence of an omniscient and omnipotent God. James states that leaving God out of our plans is arrogance and I couldn’t agree more. In my own life I’ve come to realize, especially as I’ve grown older both in age and spiritually, that things don’t usually work out as planned and that many, if not most things, are out of my control. Control is very much an illusion based in pride and arrogance. Just recently, with being sick and now with allergies, I’ve had a revived awareness of how things out of your control can suddenly be thrust on you that delay your plans and force you to do things you don’t want to do. This is just a small example, but even the small things can delay our plans or totally cancel them.

As we grow older spiritually, we should be growing in wisdom and this include asking God for guidance in everything that we do and not take it for granted that we’ll have our abilities or health or even our lives tomorrow. With wisdom comes knowing that life is fleeting and that it can throw us curve balls at times leaving us swinging at the air which reminds me of this verse in 1 Corinthians 9:26, “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air.” So, what is our aim? Jesus is our aim and focus; we must put Him first in all things and acknowledge Him before we make our plans and if we boast it must be in Him. When we humbly submit to Him, as we’ve learned, He will lift us up and when life throws us a curve ball, we’ll be able to hit the ball every time and especially in our sufferings, this is where the genuineness of our faith is proven, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,” 1 Peter 1:6, 7.

· V.17 – “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

This verse condemns each of us for each of us are guilty of sins of omission (unwilful) and most of commission (willful). Here’s a quote from an article on v.17 on thecrosstalk.com website:

“James emphasizes that true faith is demonstrated through deeds and that mere intellectual assent to doctrines is insufficient.”

Here on v.17 James is reiterating what he wrote in James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” and again in James 2:26, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

Jesus also confirms this truth when He said in Luke 12:47, 48:

“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. 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.”

It’s easy to live our lives either in ignorance of God’s word or maybe we’ve gotten into a habit of glossing over the hard parts of God’s truth hoping, just maybe, that He’ll grade on a curve? But when it comes down to it, we’ll all give an account on what we know to be true, whether it’s a little or a lot, God is a just God and will judge accordingly.

James is a very challenging book for sure, it forces us, if we allow it, to take a good look at ourselves. So, do we make the grade or do we find ourselves wanting? There comes a time in each true believer’s spiritual lives where they must let go of the wheel, so to speak, and let God take control of their lives. Ultimately, we must realize that control is just an illusion and that excluding God, not only in our decision making, but every other aspect of our lives is senseless.

True meaning, true discovery of life’s deeper meaning comes through humble submission to Him that made us, who crafted us from mere dust, the one who knows our hearts and intentions. Do we truly believe we can hide from Him? Just like our parents in the garden when they chose to disobey Him, little has changed since. When we choose to go our own way, we choose to disobey and we usually find ourselves in deep water or simply we just don’t feel satisfied with our lives. Disobedience to the things we know to be true leaves us empty, directionless and we find ourselves wanting. But what is it that we want? A true believer wants a deeper relationship with their Creator, but most of us never leave the bonds of immaturity, forever being stuck as a babe in Christ always needing, just like Bob, “I want, I need!” Always being hearers of the Word, but seldom doers. Wake up oh sleeper!

Paul said in Romans 13:11-14:

“This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So, remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. 13 Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.”