James Chapter Four, To Be Humbled

 

James 4:8b 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.

The idea of this portion of verse 8 is that God wants us to have the filth of handling the world washed away from us. The use of the words “hands” here suggests that the saints have held or used something that has made them filthy. Like a child at play covered in dirt, the parent scolds them for entering the house so filthy and tells them to go clean up. It conveys a different spirit than what Jesus taught His disciples in the upper room. There He girt Himself with a towel and washed His disciples’ feet. When a confused Peter confronted Jesus about this, the Lord answered, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean,” John 13:10. When the traveling Jew was received as a guest, the owner of the house would provide water for them to wash their feet as was custom. They would wash to remove the filth of their travels. As we travel through this sin-stained world we are to cleanse one another’s feet. If we are to serve as the Lord commands, it must be one foot at a time, and we will be treading through a world adrift in the moral corruption and spiritual barrenness that sin’s curse wrought upon it. Service and fellowship toward other saints is refreshing; it enlivens their spirits and our own. “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend,” Proverbs 27:17.

Here, however, the believers in question are to wash a more delicate instrument: their hands. One’s feet are strong. God composed them to conduct us on our way and bear the burden of our weight. The foot becomes dirty not by choice, but is made so as our convictions compel us forward. The hands, however, lay hold of what pleases our senses. The hands become dirty not due to necessity but through deliberation. We choose to lay hold of what we know is not clean, but we want it regardless. The urge, or the temptation to seize that which we know is wrong begins in the heart. That is why James also commands us to purify our hearts, for the hand reaches for what the heart desires. When Jesus reached out His hand to touch the leper it was not His hand that was made unclean; instead the leper was cleansed because He was doing His Father’s will, Mark 1:40-42. When, through our carnality, our heart compels us to grab forbidden fruit, we have made ourselves unclean. “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God,” Romans 8:8.

Chapter one discussed the double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. In the first instance the believer that asks for wisdom but lacks faith does not receive what he prayed for. Why? His doubt bred a sterile faithlessness, preventing him from receiving what he desired. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him,” Hebrews 11:6. The kind of faith the Bible speaks of is not simply “I believe God exists.” That is a starting point, but as we have learned, even the demons acknowledge this and it avails them nothing, James 2:19. No, Biblical faith goes beyond mere creedal acceptance of God’s existence. It is a trusting confidence in His character, not a tacit acknowledgment of His reality. When the apostles declared their faith in Christ, they were not informing their readers that they believed as a unified front that Jesus was real. Many of them knew Him prior to his death and resurrection, and learned at His feet before His ascension. “But hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?” Romans 8:24. No, Biblical faith is not blind faith. God invites us to a rational, logical faith that is (or should be) open to discussion, scrutiny and debate. We must share Paul’s confidence when he wrote, “nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day,” 2 Timothy 1:12.

So much can be said about this single verse, but I’m not going to try expounding Timothy right now. Our take away, however, is Paul’s personal confidence in the Savior. He trusts God in a way that any of us would trust our dearest friend or a loving parent whose heart is only and always for us. I use a human analogy, because Paul’s trust goes well beyond anything humanly possible. His lively, intimate faith is laid bare for all to examine. The double-minded, when he considers God, always views Him through the lens of doubt. Because God does not give us what we want we begin to doubt. Because God does not lay low every obstacle before us, distrust creeps in. But the trials that overtake us are meant to produce in us a character that is more Christ-like. God never forsakes us. He asked us to walk with Him through the trials of life, not fly us over them like a modern day superhero, Psalm 23:4.

Verse 9 addresses a wrong perspective on the part of the erring saints. God doesn’t want us in perpetual anguish. Rather, the worldly that are at odds with Him need to reassess what is genuinely important. If we as Christians are to “rejoice with those who rejoice,” Romans 12:15, then we know that the laughter and joy in these believers originates from something we should not derive such emotions from. Mourning and gloom sobers you, so to speak. James wants these Christians to experience godly sorrow, “for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted,” 2 Corinthians 7:11.

If I might paraphrase verse 10, I think it might also make sense as, “empty yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will fill you up,” We read: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind (a good definition for “humble”) let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others,” Philippians 2:3, 4. When Christians are called by God for a specific purpose, we often find the phrase “filled with the Spirit” accompanying that call, see Acts 2:4, 4:8, 4:31, 9:17, 13:9, etc. But as we read in James 4:5, God the Holy Spirit isn’t interested in competing with our divided loyalties. He yearns jealously, that we might live righteously. Yet not with a righteousness we can produce through our effort. It is God’s work in us, Philippians 2:13; see also John 1:13. We lose nothing to forfeit what is injurious to us and disparaging to our Lord’s name, to gain the high privilege of being cleansed so we might be used as a vessel for honor in the Lord’s house, 2 Timothy 2:19-21.