Double-Minded Danger

Introduction

James 4:7–10 CSB

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, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Have any of you ever had to deal with mold in your home? Maybe you’re dealing with it right now. I’m so sorry. It isn’t fun. I’m not trying to trigger you.

Scientists, don’t come at me, but in general mold can most easily grow where there is oxygen, moisture, the right temperature, and something for the mold to grow on.

Mold is interesting because it doesn’t form overnight. It takes time. It’s not like the first time you drip water on the floor - BAM mold. It’s a result of an ongoing issue, a water leak, a bathroom that’s not vented properly, a humid basement.

Mold has that distinct smell - you know it when you smell that musty, earthy smell. And then perhaps you see it on the inside of your wall.

It’s probably tempting at that point to just spray it with some bleach, clean it off, paint it, and say, well glad that’s dealt with.

But we know that moisture comes from somewhere. And if you’ve got a leak in your wall, or a dark, damp corner of your house, that mold is just gonna come back. You haven’t dealt with the root cause. You can clean it up long enough to pretend that everything is okay for a time, but it’s still growing behind your wall, in your corners.

Left unchecked mold can make you sick and even start destroying your house. You can keep cleaning it up and painting over it, pretending there isn’t anything else going on, but what you have not dealt with is infecting you in ways that you may not even realize until it is too late.

James 4 is not a mold remediation passage, but it is a sin remediation passage.

This passage specifically speaks to the people who are going about their lives as if everything is fine, laughing, joyful, but the whole time there are things growing in the corners of their lives. Unchecked sin, behavioral patterns, doubts. Every once in a while they might scrub it down, paint it to make sure it looks fine, and then walk into church or a bible study. But there is something still growing behind the walls, and it isn’t going to stay behind the walls.

This is the double-minded danger.

We have to be clear, here. James is not talking about the struggles with sin that we all experience. We recognize that their are temptations and struggles with sin that we all deal with. But there is a difference between “normal” struggles with sin and a double-minded, and impure heart. Divided affections and loyalties.

Our will begins to be split. Some of the time, maybe most of the time, we would say we want to serve God and obey and glorify him…but there’s a growing amount of time where it seems like it might be easier to just not do that.

Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher who said:

Purity of heart is to will one thing.

James calls us to soberly assess our lives, our wills. What are our hearts drawn to? What are we loyal to? At the end of the day, what are we going to serve?

Throughout the book of James, we have been consistently challenged us to consider these questions to consider whether we have submitted to God, whether we are striving for our wills to be aligned with his, or if we have allowed little pockets of rebellion to fester and grow in the dark corners of our lives.

He begins this challenge by focusing on two words/ideas:

Exegesis

Part 1 - Submit & Resist

Submit

Therefore

What is it “there for”? - Have to go back for a moment

James has just used strong language to describe people who desire all kinds of worldly things, seeking their own pleasure above the interests of others and over their relationship with God - he calls them murderers, adulterers, hostile toward God.

But - James says, “he gives greater grace.”

In other words - there is hope. Even for adulterous, murderous people who can behave as hostile enemies of God.

But - that hope is only possible if there is humility to acknowledge the need for that hope.

James quotes Proverbs 3:34 “He mocks those who mock but gives grace to the humble.”

The truth is a superabundant supply of grace (6); the response is an obedient walk with God, itemized in verses 7-9.

Stott 151

In other words, grace upon grace is abundant and available, freely, for anyone. But as James has consistently reminded us, that grace demands a response. and that response is to…submit to God.

Submit

“Submit” here is an enlistment word

It carries with it the connotations of submitting yourself to a commander, acknowledging yourself as subordinate, and committing yourself totally to whatever your leader commands you to do. You have committed to a “side.” You’ve picked your army, your team. You are submitted to God, not anything else.

Submit is kind of a dirty word in our culture. We don’t like to submit to anything or anyone. It’s kind of baked into our cultural DNA that to submit is somehow inherently negative

If we view submission as this begrudging act where we feel as if we have no other choice - we have been forced into submission, we will never truly understand biblical submission and be tempted toward the kind of double-mindedness James talks about later.

Forced, unwilling submission is not the kind of submission that James is talking about, or how submission is framed elsewhere in Scripture.

Here’s how a kind of “forced submission” can look:

Have you ever prayed something like “God if this is wrong please make me stop.”

Submission to God is not partial.

This is total, willing submission. Every part of you, submitted to God for his service. This kind of submission is not just because you have to but because you want to. Thus, it is total and complete. This submission is talking about a reorientation of your heart away from doing your own thing, living for your own desires, embracing worldly values and pleasures, and instead turning (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit) to submit to God and be first and foremost concerned with what his will and desire is for you.

This positive command to submit is paired with a negative command - to resist.

Resist

Resist here has defensive connotations - the bare meaning of the word is to “withstand,” as a fortress would build up their defenses to withstand the onslaught of the enemy.

It’s not a word that indicates that we would go looking for temptation toward sin, but that we would be ready when it comes, and is confident that it will come.

So James is implying that yes, temptation to sin will come, and we should be prepared to resist it through our submission to God.

What does James say? That if we resist the devil’s temptations he will - FLEE - from us.

Have you ever heard the phrase - “the devil made me do it”?

There’s this idea when it comes to temptation we are just kind of…helpless. Like, at some point it just isn’t your fault anymore. How could you not just give in?

Scripture does not allow you to hold on to that excuse.

If you are a Christian, the devil has absolutely zero power over you. He cannot make you do anything. You have authority not because you are able to go toe to toe with the devil and win, but because you are “in Christ” and Jesus Christ has the authority over everything in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18 “Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.”). Jesus broke the devil’s back when he stepped out of the grave. He didn’t just defeat the devil, he shamed him (Colossians 2:15 “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.”).

So no, Christian, the devil did not make you do it.

You do not have to sin.

If you are in Christ, there is nothing and no one that forces you to sin outside of your own will. You can’t use that as an excuse anymore.

That is what freedom from sin means! It means we do not have to sin anymore! If you are not a Christian, you’ve got no choice, I mean not really. You can maybe build up some good willpower to be able to become a slightly better version of yourself but you are still dead in your sins. You are a slave to sin, but you don’t have to be. We’ll get to you later.

Christian, it is incredibly good news that you do not have to sin anymore, but it also removes the excuse you are somehow being forced to sin.

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.”

When you give into temptation, when you speak a harsh word, when you lash out in anger, when you allow yourself to be motivated by greed and selfishness, there is nothing forcing you to do any of those things. Nothing is causing you to sin.

And if you will submit to the control and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and say no to sin, you can have victory. The devil and his influence is persistent, and you’ll have to stay ready to resist, but you can have confidence that although the devil is powerful he does not have ultimate power and, you only sin if you say “yes” to sin.

At this point you may be thinking, oh perfect, all I have to do to stop sinning is say “no” to sin? Why did no one ever tell me that before? If only I had known!

These two commands might seem too simplistic - Submit to God and Resist the Devil. But James does not leave it at that.

Part 2 - Draw Near to God in Humility

Draw Near

It is interesting that at this point we are issued an invitation - to draw near to God.

It seems as if at this point James would give us a 10 step resistance plan, but he doesn’t. He says, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Submission means to draw near.

Resistance is empowered by drawing near.

All of this flows from “drawing near” to God.

So how do we do it?

Let’s synthesize some of this barrage.

Drawing near to God means that with the help of the Holy Spirit, we humbly assess our lives and acknowledge our sinful actions and our sinful heart postures. We consider where we have allowed sinful mindsets and motivations to take root in our lives, things that have no place in the life of a believer of Christ. We appropriately grieve our sin but have assurance that God is near to us, continuing his redemptive work in our lives and keeping no record of wrongs.

This process is for our good and God’s glory. It is not just important but it is necessary. But it may not be easy.

Double-Mindedness

One of the key phrases that James uses in this passage is “double-mindedness.” The Greek word that we translate “double-mindedness” is dipsuchos

Pretty much of all of your bibles, regardless of translation, will have translated that phrase the same way from the original Greek.

That’s because it is a word that is unique to James. It isn’t found anywhere else in the bible. James uses it twice, here and in 1:8.

dipsuchos is from two words “dis” = two and psyxe = “soul”

So a possible literal translation of dipsuchos is “two-souled.”

The image here is not of the normal struggle we have with sin, the normal temptations and the draw by our flesh toward sin.

This is talking about someone who has allowed two minds, or two souls, to grow in them.

Sin that you have allowed to grow like mold in the dark, damp corners of your life. You don’t shine a light on those corners, or take very seriously what is over there. But you keep feeding it, and it keeps growing.

When we talk about submission to God, it is total submission. God wants all of you, every little bit. Yet you may reserve little parts of your life that we don’t really want to give up, not completely.

In our passage last week, James called such people who pursue friendship with the world “adulterers” which feels kind of harsh, is probably more accurate than we want to admit.

You may be tempted to say, okay, it’s just this little part of my life that God might not be cool with, or this little habit I have that I know is ungodly, or this practice that isn’t really a big deal because no one knows about it and it isn’t really affecting me, right?

But when you divide your loyalties, when you try to serve God while still holding on to this sin or that sin, this is what you are doing to God.

I don’t want to let you off the hook, so let’s get specific.

You show up to church on Sunday, you may go to a bible study, perhaps even you read your bible faithfully and cultivate a prayer life…but…

You also go out on the weekends and behave in a way that is not glorifying to God

You are so committed to academic or career success that you’ll neglect your relationship with God if necessary

You follow social media accounts that glorify sin. You consume images and videos of people being objectified in a sexual way

You get angry at the drop of a hat at any perceived slight from someone around you. You’re unable to regulate your emotions.

You’ve allowed lust and pornography to take root in your life as a habit

You watch tv shows and movies that display and sometimes glorify ungodly behavior

You’re pushing physical boundaries with your boyfriend or girlfriend, but at least you feel guilty about it, usually

You listen to music with some of the filthiest lyrics you can imagine, at least until you switch to your worship playlist

You are spiritually unstable, doubting God constantly and unable to grow in maturity

If I didn’t mention your secret sin of choice, you’re not off the hook. I’m just not imaginative enough.

There are some things that you do not need to watch. There are some things you do not need to read. There are some things you do not need to listen to. There are some people that you should not allow to hold influence over your life.

Often when this gets brought up, a common retort is “what’s the big deal?” As in, it’s just a little vice that I have, maybe I’m not particularly proud of it but nobody’s perfect, right? It’s not affecting me at all!

Here’s the first issue.

Sin is a big enough deal that the Son of God became flesh to come down to earth and die to free you from it. So if you’re going to flirt with these “little” sins, just know that those are the sins that nailed Jesus to the cross.

And if that’s not enough for you for some reason, get this:

What you feed, grows.

The Mortification of Sin, John Owen, 1656. Sounds like a heavy metal album.

Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

John Owen, 1656

When you consider some of the worse sins you can imagine, it is very rare that those sins come out of nowhere. In other words, “big” sins start as the “little” sins we excuse. James has already said this earlier in chapter 4 - murder can come from unmet desires.

When you’re sitting in a moment of clarity wondering “how did I get here?” There is often a very clear path of how you got here, and the beginning of that path was a little sin, growing in a damp dark corner of your life.

This is why Jesus says in Matthew 5 that sins like adultery and murder can be committed in the heart without ever engaging in the physical act, because those sins are still sins even when they are only contained in the heart, and they rarely just stay in the heart. When those sins are flirted with, entertained, and fed, they grow.

No one who wants to be a parent expects to wind up as domineering, emotionally abusive, maybe even estranged from their kids.

No one who wants to get married expects to one day be unfaithful to their spouse.

But these little corners of our lives, these little damp, dark corners, we feed these sins and they grow. They grow and grow and unchecked, they may destroy our lives.

Not only can what we feed destroy our lives, but it change the way we see the world.

It’s like what we allow into our eyes and ears begin to build up and craft a lens that colors everything we see, a hearing aid that translates everything we hear, and a rubric that our mind and heart uses to interpret every experience.

We have spent so much time feeding ungodly, sinful things that we are not able to think clearly as a Christian, speak clearly as a Christian, hear clearly as a Christian, and ultimately behave as a Christian.

When we feed doubt, sin, worry, fear, we begin to think like the world thinks, value what they value, see people the way they see them.

Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

This is all the double-minded danger.

A soul split in half, claiming to serve God but entertaining sin as a house guest.

You need your hands cleansed. You need your heart purified.

Purity of heart is to will one thing.

Soren Kierkegaard

So what do we do? James says that the solution is rooted in…

Humility

We draw near to God, cleansing our hands and purifying our hearts, but we must draw near in humility.

Humility tells us:

We have sin.

We grieve over our sin.

We repent of our sin.

In order to cleanse our hands we have to admit they are dirty. In order to purify our hearts we need to admit they need purification.

That acknowledgement should lead us to grief.

The power of sin over us is broken - we can resist the devil - and although we are free how easy is it for us to turn right back to the very sin that used to enslave us.

“Prone to wander” the hymn says, and we know that to be true. God has held nothing back in his love for us - he has saved us, redeemed us, given us purpose for now and eternity, and yet we still turn back to the scraps that used to sustain us.

So stop laughing, says James. Laughter and joy of course is not sinful in and of themselves. After all, joy is a fruit of the Spirit. However, laughter is often a mark of a fool in the OT and Jewish literature - a cavalier attitude toward life and sin, doing whatever and just jumping from pleasure to pleasure, not caring who they hurt or what sin they might be entangled in.

Sometimes in our rush to “get past” our sin we forget to take it seriously.

What is your response to sin? To shrug and say, “Welp, we’ll get them next time…”

Cease this cavalier attitude toward sin, James says, and grieve it. You’re joyful and laughing while flirting with sin.

We know that shame is never a good motivator for a Christian. Anything that drives us away from God is not of God.

But there is a middle ground between just saying, “oh, well, I’m forgiven” in a cavalier sense, and spiraling into shame and hiding from God.

That middle ground is godly grief as described in…

2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.”

Purity of heart is to will one thing.

The purification process may not be easy, it may be painful. Like impurities being burned off from gold, it can happen in fire.

This healthy, godly grief over our sin can indicate that we are taking it seriously, that we are humbly drawing near to God, understanding our place before him. Maybe we need to spend some time lamenting, mourning, perhaps even weeping over our sin when it’s revealed to us. It won’t last forever, but it may last for a season.

But thank God he does not leave us there.

He gives more grace…

Application

All of this, cleansing your hands, purifying your hearts, mourning, weeping, is framed within an invitation. An invitation and a promise.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

God does not say - go ahead, clean out your corners, bleach your mold. I’ll be over here when you get yourself cleaned up and then we’ll see if I still love you.

Nothing is hidden from God. The things you can hide from everyone else he sees. The thoughts you are glad no one else knows he knows. And he loves you still. And he invites you to draw near. Draw near before you’re cleaned up and spotless. Draw near as you’re learning how to clean your hands and purify your hearts. Draw near as you are weeping over your sin.

Draw near, and he will draw near to you.

There is a very familiar story that Jesus tells that shows us this heart of the Father toward you.

Luke 15:11–24 CSB

He also said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’ So he distributed the assets to them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.” ’ So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.

In this story, what does the son do?

He demands his inheritance - basically saying that he doesn’t care if his father lives or dies.

He leaves, presumably intending to never come back.

He squanders everything that his father had given him until he is destitute.

He “comes to his senses” and realizes his fault.

He comes back (draws near) to his father, in humility, acknowledging his sin.

What does the father do?

“When he was still a long way off…” I love that. I don’t want to read too much into this parable, but it seems like maybe the father might be waiting and watching for his son to return? I have a son, and I know that if I was ever in this situation, there would not be a day that goes by that I would not look toward the road, wondering if today might be the day that my son finally comes home.

The moment he sees his son’s head come over the horizon, as soon as he realizes that his son is coming home, is drawing near, what does he do? He picks up his robes and runs to meet him.

This is not dignified, patriarchs didn’t “run” in this time and place. Yet the father does anyway.

And, this is before he even knows why his son is returning. His son has not said a thing yet!

Yet the father runs and throws his arms around his son’s neck and kisses him.

When the son confesses in humility, the father does not just forgive, he lavishes the son with everything that he can to show his love for him.

He “exalts” him.

Exalt means to elevate, to lift up.

As in, your head is down in sorrow over your sin, in brokenness over what you’ve done and God lifts you up gets you back on your feet and helps you learn to walk again.

Oh Christian, oh son or daughter of the King, whatever sin that has entangled you, whatever has been growing in the corners of your life, whatever worldly values you’ve embraced, or whatever sin you have been feeding a little at a time, whatever double-mind you’ve allowed to ensnare you, you are not too far gone.

The Spirit is calling you back to the Father. The Spirit is calling you to draw near. And you can know that God will draw near to you.

God has to be the one to lift you up. Don’t “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” or try to lift yourself. This is not willpower, this is a change of your thoughts and feelings as your mind and will are ministered to by God through His Word and Spirit. In other words, don’t jump to trying to take action to “fix” this problem without first acknowledging that your heart needs to be redirected.

But when you are convicted of double-mindedness, the Spirit will lead you to take some clear action steps, which may look something like this:

What is feeding sin and doubt in your life? Get rid of it.

Replace them with things that nourish your soul

Philippians 4:8 “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.”

The starting point for every Christian should be God’s Word - the Bible. Read it, meditate on it. It is God’s revelation to you. Spend time in it every day.

Prayer. Ask God for awareness and help, and for an increasing love for the things of God and an increasing hatred of sin.

Community.

If you are not a Christian, if you have never truly believed the gospel, the Holy Spirit of God is calling you as well. But, you have a very important step you must take, today. Simply acknowledging all the individual things you have done wrong isn’t enough.

If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

You must acknowledge that you are a sinner, separated from God, and that you are powerless to save yourself. There is not a good enough thing that you can do to earn God’s salvation. You are headed to an eternity separated from God.

But there is good news. God is not far from you.

Jesus came to earth to live the life that you could not live, die the death that you deserve, and then was raised to life, trampling sin and death under his feet. And if you believe in Jesus Christ and confess him as the Lord of your life, surrendering your whole life to him, you will be saved.

Whether you are a follower of Christ who has allowed sin to take root in your life, or if you are far from God, the call is the same.

Draw near. There is grace upon grace to be had.