Remember when James wrote in chapter 2, “For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery’ also said, ‘Do not commit murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law”? He was referring to two of the more recognized “sins of commission”, adultery and murder. The base word of “commission” is “commit”. The sins of commission are, therefore, “action” sins—sins you commit. Very often, the discussion of sin focuses on the sins of commission.

However, James refers to the “sins of omission” in verse 17. The base word of “omission” is “omit”, which means to leave something out, to neglect to do something, or to leave something undone. When I told my pre-algebra students to do numbers 1-20 for homework, but to omit #s 16 and 17, they reveled in that omission. They loved the word “omit”.

Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it…

If my students knew to do 1-20, omitting 16 and 17, but instead did 1-15, omitting not only 16 and 17, but #s 18, 19, and 20 as well, they did not get a pass. Their unauthorized omissions were counted against them. No excuses, no questions asked. You see, they knew to do those problems, but chose not to do them. I never said, “Oh, honey, you meant well; that’s OK.” Because it wasn’t.

James wrote very clearly: Anyone who knows the right thing to do and yet doesn’t do it…

…to him it is sin.

This greatly expands our view of the field of sin. How about that Scripture that keeps nagging at you, shining light on something you need to attend to or adjust? If you blow it off, you’ve sinned—the sin of omission. No excuses. No questions asked. Ever sense the leading of the Holy Spirit tugging at your heart to give a certain amount of money to a friend in trouble? Again, if you dodge it, you’ve sinned. No excuses. No questions asked. What if you’re in on a conversation among Christians and the topic of another believer comes up—and the expertly sharpened tongues come out? You know you need to step in to stop it, but you don’t. You’ve sinned. No excuses. No questions asked.

And you walk away each time a little less confident, a little more dejected, feeling weighed down by the load of your omission. Join the club of the redeemed who’ve blown it—we’re all members. It’s at times like this that we so desperately need to go before the Lord for mercy.

Simon Peter opened the door to denying the Lord by shrinking from declaring what he knew to be true about Him after Jesus’ arrest. He was snared by the sin of omission. You’ve heard the story. Here’s the tail-end of it:

But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:60-62, emphasis added).

That was the best thing that could have happened to Peter under the circumstances—to meet the gaze of Jesus. When you feel disappointed in yourself, deflated, and embarrassed about your omission, that’s when you’re catching the Lord’s eye. Through your sense of conviction, He’s helping you to acknowledge the omission and is leading you to repentance. This is what was going on in Peter when he went out and wept bitterly.

But God didn’t leave Peter in that bitterly remorseful state. After Jesus rose from the dead, an angel instructed the women at the tomb, “But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you’” (Mark 16:7, emphasis added). Peter’s omission had left him feeling disgraced and isolated, unworthy of the Lord he had denied. But here, the singling out of Peter was for honor, not shame. As for you, when you acknowledge your omissions to the Lord, He will lift you up from your place of defeat as well.

Be proactive. Practice yielding to those inward promptings of the Holy Spirit. Apply those Scriptures the Lord lays upon your heart. Do that right thing you know to do, and do it with all your heart. You will grow in wisdom and the fear of the Lord, and those sins of omission will become fewer and further between.

You will never regret omitting the omissions!

Dorothy

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock…Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. Matthew 7:24, 26

If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. John 13:17

Our generation is probably the most calendar- and clock-driven generation to ever exist on the planet—and things don’t look like they’re changing any time soon. Because of this, I wonder how James would write this portion of his letter if he were alive right now.

Whenever I leave the house I think about this section of James as I tell my cats when I’ll be back—not that they can tell time, mind you. “I’ll be home in two or three hours, by the grace of God,” I say to their whiskery stares, adding something like, “And you know how gracious He’s been; He’s not about to change now!” I say it this way because I believe that it is His will for me to return safely home; He’s been so good about protecting me in potentially disastrous situations in the past, and I actively trust Him to continue.

But James wasn’t writing about that. The key to understanding his thought process concerning these four verses is in verse sixteen: “But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.” He was not directing believers to avoid making advance plans; he was simply letting them know that he was being knocked over by the stench of the fleshly, boastful arrogance oozing from their conversations about those agendas.

Have you ever found yourself in a “testimony competition”? You know—the kind where one person shares what God did, and then another pipes up with a “Well, yeah; but get this!” and proceeds to outdo their neighbor’s story of blessing? It can go on and on without anyone realizing they just dismissed someone’s encounter with God as trivial. Something which on the surface appears to be a glorious conversation turns into vying for bragging rights—about God, of all things!! When that competitive nature kicks in, watch out! Wonderful testimonies can quickly deteriorate into a showy “flesh-fest”.

I’m not saying don’t share your testimonies—absolutely not! What I am saying is this: before you share, savor your neighbor’s blessing from God. The Lord came through for them. That’s worth valuing! And then check your heart. Are you hoping to top them? Then hold your thought. A well-timed testimony is like apples of gold in settings of silver (see Proverbs 25:11); on the other hand, a testimony shared to pump up your “spiritual resume” is the same as seeking your own glory—which really isn’t glory at all (see Proverbs 25:27).

This kind of testimony competition is similar to the situation to which James was referring; however, instead of boasting about past victories, these folks were bragging about their future.

James gave his readers an example of their arrogant boasting when he said, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’” He didn’t mean for them to stop traveling, to quit doing business, or to cease making a profit; nothing is wrong with those things. What James sought to expose was this: They were showing off. They were focusing on what big shots they were.

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.  Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

I do not believe for a second that James was instructing believers to be morbid about their life-expectancy, either. I do believe, however, that his aim was to jolt them out of their habitual boasting with the stark reality of the unpredictability of life. He intended to refocus their sights—off of their self-perceived awesomeness and on to finding out what God had to say about things. Instead of boasting, he was saying, ask the Lord what His will for you is.

But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

Whether it’s about your plans, your abilities, your status, or anything else you may use to one-up others, James pegged it all as arrogant boasting. All such boasting is evil.

Be very aware of your motives. Let the Holy Spirit shine a light on what’s rolling around on the inside of you when you start to get competitive while talking with others. Ask Him for help with your part of the conversation—what you should share, when you should share it, and with whom you should share it. He will surely train you in the fine art of listening to Him when conversing with others, and He will help you to stay on top of those unruly motives.

Dorothy

It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glory to search out one’s own glory. Proverbs 25:27

He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. John 7:18

The Lord God is the Judge. He is the Lawgiver, and all just laws find their origin in Him. Lawlessness, the refusal to submit to righteous laws, has been at work for centuries according to 2 Thessalonians 2:7. This rebellion seems to be swelling to a crescendo in our time; wherever you look, you’re likely to see its effects.

And because of the prohibition stated time and again in the Bible about judging your brother, all too often the church world feels like it’s been painted into a corner in regards to addressing cultural decay. Christians think they are not allowed to call sin what it is—SIN—for fear of judging someone.

Ezekiel 33:1-9 is clear. Believers, as watchmen, have a responsibility to warn concerning the approach of wickedness. The New Testament urges us to be ready to snatch folks out of the fire, having mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh (Jude 23). God’s standards apply to everybody. And His standards won’t budge, despite shifts in popular cultural thought.

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 declares, “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.” You see, evil is evil; when you are called to refrain from judging others, it’s the person you’re not to judge; you absolutely have the right to discern sinful behavior.

It’s what you do with your discernment that is the issue here.

If you observe your brother stealing, you have the right—and the responsibility—to see to it that the thief and his theft are justly confronted. When you see the decaying morality of the culture creeping into the church—even into your own circle—you have the right and the responsibility to address it.

However, to rail against a brother or a sister is not discernment; it’s judging. When you feel the need to let others know how off someone is; when you desire to bring down the good name of a ministry, a preacher, or an individual Christian; when you’d rather see someone suffer and be disgraced more than you long to see them restored, you have abandoned your place and are assuming the role of judge—a role reserved for God alone.

“Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). The way you respond to perceived sin or error in someone else’s life is huge to God. Due to the fact that you and I don’t know everything about everything, we must be very careful to watch over our hearts when we think someone else is off-base. Have you considered that your discernment might not be fully accurate? Have you reckoned with the fact that you weren’t created to discern every motive of another person’s heart? Have you faced the fact that whether your discernment is accurate or not, your name is not “Holy Ghost”?

What are you doing with your discernment? Each of us must give an account before God for how we handle the perceptions, discernments, hunches, and observations we pick up about others. Each of us, likewise, is accountable for how we guard our hearts and words when faced with someone else’s indiscretions or vulnerabilities.

It has been said that the person who bothers you the most needs you the most. James wrote, “For we all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2a). John wrote, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). Anytime you discern error or sin in someone, ask yourself this: How would I want to be treated if others perceived that I was in error or sin? Treat your brother and sister the same way you would want to be treated. If you refuse, remember this: There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?

May our discernment be true and our responses pleasing to the Lord.

Dorothy

But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. Romans 14:4, emphasis added

For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:13

Do not speak against one another, brethren. So much of the disruption among the believers to whom James wrote had to do with this: they were in the habit of speaking whatever they wanted against whomever they felt deserved it. They were so busy biting and devouring each other that they were clueless to the fact that they were on the verge of entirely consuming themselves (see Galatians 5:15). A regular gingham dog and calico cat!

But the truth about the cat and pup
Is this: they ate each other up!  (From “The Duel” by Eugene Field, 1894.)

It seems that the church world today could use a dose of this caution from James. On both small scales and large, it seems, various Christians are exposing other Christians as frauds, demonic, money-grubbers, manipulators, controlling, false—you name it, they’re alleging it.  Arguably, there is a time and place for exposure and correction, and the Bible is clear about how and why it is to be done. The go-to Scripture for me is Galatians 6:1—“Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.”

• How? In a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself so that you won’t be tempted as well.
• Why? For the sake of restoration.

The fact of the matter is this: we believers need each other—and all the more as the world around us grows darker and darker. Do you have an issue with a brother? Pray about it. Do you see sin in your sister? Pray for her. Go to them, certainly; but take Galatians 6:1 along for the ride. Let all that you do be done in love (I Corinthians 16:14).

He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. If you speak against your brother, you’re speaking against the law. If you judge your sister, you’re judging the law. But No! you may think. He is obnoxious! She’s a Jezebel and a hypocrite and completely off! Even when what you say about them is 100% accurate, the Word is clear. You are to pray. Go to them. If they don’t listen, you take two or three others along. If they still don’t listen, you take them before the church (see Matthew 18:15-17). Why? For accountability. For restoration. Not for the purpose of utterly destroying them. And if you don’t want to do any of that, then just keep quiet.

The Law says this: “You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:16). The Lord Jesus said, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged” (Matthew 7:1). Bible commentator Matthew Henry (1662-1714) wrote, “A detracting tongue therefore condemns the law of God, and the commandment of Christ, when it is defaming its neighbor. To break God’s commandments is in effect to speak evil of them, and to judge them, as if they [God’s commandments] were too strict, and laid too great a restraint upon us” (see http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Jam/Jam_004.cfm; brackets added). Henry further wrote, “…if men break the law, leave that to judge them; if they do not break it, let us not judge them” (ibid; emphasis added). He also wrote, “Those who are most ready to set up for judges of the law generally fail most in their obedience to it” (ibid, emphasis added).

…but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. Your part is to be a doer of the Word (see James 1:22). You are not called to be a judge of it. As you step into the role of judging your brother or sister, you are usurping the authority that God has reserved for Himself. Someone else tried that millenia ago—Lucifer (see Isaiah 14:13), and he’s still at it. He’s called the accuser of the brethren in Revelation 12:10. My guess is that’s not the kind of company you’d like to keep.

Jesus said, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned (Matthew 12:36-37).

May God help us all—especially me!—to guard our tongues.

Dorothy

He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles. Proverbs 21:23

Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips. Psalm 141:3

Strife, contention, bitterness, jealousy, and pride. We’ve all experienced it, and many of us have probably stirred up a bit of it, ourselves. For anyone caught in the tangled web of strife, James presented a prescription—not just to be nice again—but to utterly eradicate the poison of contention from your heart.

Where do you turn when you’re in the middle of strife? What can you do to get yourself free? James wrote, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8a). He then wrote, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (verse 10).

For the believers to whom James wrote, strife had erupted due to their jealousy toward one another. It escalated to what James described as waging war, fighting, and quarreling—all over pleasures and lusts. Whatever the cause of strife between Christians, it’s never pretty; it’s never edifying; it never glorifies God.

Are you in the middle of strife—whether of your own making or due to the contentious maneuverings of someone else? Either way, draw near to God. Resist the urge to find another disgruntled commiserator. This will only add fuel to the fire.

And then, humble yourself before God, whether you started the mess or not. If you were the aggressor, you must acknowledge it before Him—you’ve sinned, pure and simple. You must admit to the Lord your full contribution toward the chaos if you want to release it—after all, you can’t give away something you never owned: own it and then give it to Him. Make amends as He directs, and after that, don’t pick it back up.

If you were the recipient of a brother or sister’s jealousy or rage, draw near to God. Pour out your heart and your hurt before Him and receive His comfort and grace as He draws near—but refuse to take on the strife. You may think that you don’t need to humble yourself if you’re the victim, but that’s not what God’s Word says. Plead your offender’s case as a beloved brother or sister; recognize that they are a joint heir of Jesus just as much you are; and as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people. Refuse to return evil for evil, cursing for cursing; but if you catch yourself slipping into bitterness, confess it as sin—don’t nurse it or pamper it. Put it to death because it’s a deed of the flesh—even if this whole thing was not your fault.

This what humbling yourself before the Lord is all about. Wherever you are on the strife spectrum, God calls you to humble yourself.

The Greek word for “humble” means to make or bring low or to abase (see http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G5013&t=KJV). Bringing yourself low doesn’t mean you belittle yourself or think of yourself as worthless. Instead, it indicates that you don’t insist on your own way—you are willing to put your desires and plans aside to minister to someone else—or to obey the Lord.

You are called to maintain an attitude of humility before the Lord throughout your life. The humble man acknowledges God in all his ways; he’s not afraid to acknowledge his shortcomings or sin, either; and he’s well aware of his continual, daily need for the Lord. The humble man seeks to obey God in all his ways.

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

When you draw near to God, He will draw near to you. When you humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, He promises that He will exalt you, or lift you up. Do you have desires, hopes, and dreams for your life? According to James, humility is the way to exaltation—or to fulfillment of those dreams. As you draw near to God with a humble heart and seek Him, He will lift you up. He’ll fulfill the plans He has for you; your part is to trust Him and stay humble.

James’ people erred by contending with one another in their attempt to fulfill their desires. However, James wrote that the Lord would exalt the humble, not the most persuasive contender. In light of this, Psalm 75:4-7 is interesting: “I said to the boastful, ‘Do not boast; and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up the horn; do not lift up your horn on high, do not speak with insolent pride.’ For not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert comes exaltation; but God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another.”

If you’ve grown weary while facing delays in the fulfillment of your dreams, draw near to God. Resist the snare of getting jealous of others; refuse to enter into strife. Don’t let yourself fret over how long things are taking. The apostle Peter wrote a message similar to James’ when he urged, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Peter 5:6). Timing is involved with the course of your life; therefore, press on and continue to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. In due season, He will exalt you.

There is no better place to run than to the Lord when you recognize the festering of strife or of sin in your life. Instead of covering your tracks, make tracks to God! Humble yourself before Him, and He will lift you up.

Dorothy

James wrote in verse 7, “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” He was directing his readers to confront their sinful issues and repent. He followed that with verse 8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” In these short verses, James revealed an effective pattern by which they—or anyone else—could turn their lives around.

Submission to a ruler—then and now—is typically carried out at a distance as an individual learns about and conforms to the decrees and laws of the land. As believers stand their ground in resisting the devil, they demonstrate loyalty to their Ruler—God—and choose His ways over the ways of their flesh.

But this Sovereign is neither distant nor holds Himself aloof from His people. This Sovereign promised that if His people would draw near to Him, He would draw near to them as well.

Barricades of varying kinds surround those in leadership at most levels; drawing near to them is a difficult proposition for the majority of us. We understand it—leaders are, after all, people, and they have limitations. They are physically, mentally, and emotionally unable to sit down and converse with everyone who desires an audience with them.

Unfortunately, this understood distance between yourself and those in leadership can bleed into your perception of the Father. God is Sovereign above all other sovereigns; because of that, you might suppose if I can’t connect with them, I sure won’t be able to connect with Him!

But God is infinite. Not only are His resources and power limitless, but so is His tender loving concern for you. He is a Leader to whom you can draw near—He will never be too busy for you; He will never overlook you in the crowd; He will never glance impatiently at His watch when He sees you approaching. No, this God is a Leader who longs to be gracious to you and waits on high to have compassion on you (see Isaiah 30:18). This is the God who will never leave or forsake you (see Hebrews 13:5). This God—and His dear Son—will always be with you, even to the end of the age (see Matthew 28:20).

If all of this is true—that the loving God is ever-present—then why must you draw near Him? It’s all about relationship. When you fall in love, you hunger to be with that person. You think about little else; you love everything about them—their face, their ways, their name—all of it fascinates you. But over time, the feelings wear down and fascination turns to familiarity. And, if not guarded against, familiarity turns to indifference.

So it is in your relationship to God—He will never grow indifferent, but you might. And it’s that indifference that can reap such damaging, disastrous—even deadly—consequences.

Therefore, James wrote, Draw near to God. To draw near—or to come close—necessitates movement. When you draw near to God, you move from one place or mindset to another—Him. You stop one behavior and begin another. You leave one activity and start another. Quite simply, this is what is involved in drawing near to God.

But what will that look like? Your attention will shift; you will turn from your computer, your TV, or your paperwork and talk to God. You will stop—for a time—your housework, your yard work, or your familiar daily routine—and let His Word speak to your heart. You will sing to Him—even if you’re not much of a singer—because you know it ministers to Him.

And as you do, He will draw near to you. And oh, the secrets that He will tell and the wisdom that He will pour out! This is how you will be able to arrest those behaviors of which you’ve become ashamed; in that close place with Him He will make adjustments within you and lead you in new ways of doing things. The greater grace and the power to overcome will be discovered in that close place of intimacy; it is there that He will reveal His heart to you.

Yes, James was writing to Christians who had yielded to habitual strife and gross carnality, yet his prescription here—Draw near to God and He will draw near to you—was written for all believers. Wherever you are in your walk with God, He beckons you: Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you.

He waits.

Dorothy

Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you,
And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
How blessed are all those who long for Him.

Isaiah 30:18

What we have here is a sandwich. The two pieces of bread are sweet; the meat in the middle is bitter. Let me explain.

James 4:8 begins with the call to draw near to God and promises that if you do, He will draw near to you as well. Sweet. James 4:10 is a reminder to humble yourself before God with the promise that if you do, He will exalt you. Sweet again.

But the meat in this sandwich is bitter. I’ve been a member of three different churches and have listened to hundreds—probably thousands—of tapes, CDs, and messages online, and have been to innumerable meetings, campmeetings, and conferences in various places, but to my memory, I’ve never heard anyone preach on the words that James wrote after “He will draw near to you” and before “Humble yourselves”.

Since these verses seem to be the elephant in the room when it comes to James’ admonition, I’d like to start with them first. Tomorrow and Friday we’ll deal with the sweet verses surrounding them.

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.

I counted seven tough instructions in this portion—some shocking by today’s standards—and two instances of name-calling. I’m sure that the believers to whom James wrote weren’t overly fond of this section of his letter anymore than we are today, yet what he wrote needed to be said. He was alarmed by the strife, instability, and prideful carnality among them, and in obedience to God, he took on the task of correcting them. Here we go.

Seven tough instructions:

Cleanse your hands. Your hands were created by God as instruments of fellowship, love, healing, creativity, gainful work, healthy recreation, and godly service. With your lifted hands you worship Him. Your hands can pull someone out of a pit; your hands can carry a wounded brother; your hands can help push someone up to the next level. However, many of these believers seemed to be all about me. Their hands needed to be cleansed from the myriad of selfish, antagonistic, and carnal behaviors in which they had been involved.

Purify your hearts. James had written that the wisdom from above was first of all pure (see James 3:17 and http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=6136 ). These believers needed to purify their hearts if they wanted to draw from the wisdom of God. But how were they to do this? 1Peter 1:22 sheds some light on this: “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.” In order to purify your heart, you must put emphasis on obeying the truth of the Word of God. This empowers you to operate from sincerity and love. Strife and carnality, on the other hand, produce far different outcomes: First they create insincerity and a loveless environment; and second they reveal that you haven’t prioritized obeying the Word of truth. “...but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Be miserable and mourn and weep. These are “tough instructions” numbers three, four, and five. They are related, so they’re grouped together. Not a lot of messages are preached in the places I’ve worshipped about these instructions, but James saw fit to include them as part of the Rx needed to bring breakthrough to these believers. When taken together, misery, mourning, and weeping represent the heartfelt response of individuals who recognize the depth and dishonor of their disobedience when all the glossy veneer has been stripped away. James was not recommending putting on a show of remorse; no. He was leading these believers to look beneath their carefully-crafted façades to see the true state of their hearts. When the Light is allowed to shine in the darker places of the soul, sons and daughters of Light typically respond in this way: They are miserable, they mourn, and they weep. But when God’s Light comes in, it also brings with it cleansing and healing restoration. “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5b).

Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. The list of “tough instructions” concludes with these two—numbers six and seven. Again, I haven’t heard any preaching lately discouraging laughter or joy; however, James, as a wise minister, knew what was needed to bring health back to the believers to whom he was writing. Remember, this group had fallen into patterns of contention, gross pride, and carnality, perhaps masked by uproarious laughter and gaiety—possibly at the cruel expense of others. Proverbs 14:13 states “Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, and the end of joy may be grief.” James knew that laughter and merriment had to be set aside for a time to allow the bitter truth to sink in so that healing could start. The restoration of honor and virtue was more important than to continue in the “feel good” anesthesia of shallow mirth.

Two instances of name-calling:

You sinners. These believers were saints by virtue of their new birth; they were new creations in Christ. But they were living in gross error and were treating one another like dirt. They didn’t need to be coddled; they needed correction. They were in sin; hence James called them sinners.

You double-minded. James had written earlier in the letter that a double-minded man was unstable in all of his ways (see James 1:8 and http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=5620). Instability permeated this bunch, it appears. He wrote here, “Purify your hearts, you double-minded.” When those who are recreated by faith in Christ and made pure by His precious blood choose to live in a haze of carnality, contention, and conceit, they are double-minded. Their words about Jesus say one thing; their actions display quite another.

The good news is this: James told them that if they drew near to God, He would draw near to Him. He also wrote that if they humbled themselves before the Lord, He would exalt them. But first, as Ricky Ricardo would often say, “You got some ‘splainin’ to do, Lucy.”

Dorothy

The word “therefore” in this verse is a signal—it points back to what was previously expressed. Here’s what James had just written: “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (verse 6). “Therefore” you submit to God 1.) because He is opposed to the proud. That means that pride—i.e. arrogance, smugness, and self-importance—cannot coexist with submission to God.

You also “therefore” submit to God 2.) because He gives greater grace to the humble. What does it mean to be humble? You acknowledge God in all your ways; you acknowledge your shortcomings and sin to Him, and you acknowledge your ongoing need of Him. You draw near to Him, you walk with Him, and you wait for Him to lead you in decisions both great and small. The humble man operates with the recognition of his enormous need not only for God, but also his need to obey Him as well.

If you as a Christian consistently choose to overlook the Word or to ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit, figuring that you have the safety net of grace to fall back on when you mess up (and you will), then you really aren’t submitting to God.

Therefore, submit to God.

Find out what He says about X, Y, and Z in your life. Dare to let Him correct the various areas of your lifestyle, behaviors, and activities. Let Him meddle with your thinking. And as you do, you will be submitting to God and will open the door for His greater grace to transform your life.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Although Satan was stripped of his dominion over you through Jesus’ substitutionary work on the cross, he still prowls around as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (see 1 Peter 5:8). The devil already has a tight rein over the lives of those who are lost in their sin; to him, if he can succeed in keeping their minds blinded to their need for a Savior, they’re as good as devoured. Mission accomplished, so he thinks.

But with you and other believers it’s a different story. Because God ransomed you through the shed blood of Jesus from your captivity to the authority and control of darkness, whisking you to safety and relocating you to the kingdom of His beloved Son (see Colossians 1:13), the adversary prowls, seeking to devour. He is on a mission to eliminate—or at the very least, to suppress—your vital, genuine connection to the Lord and to render you ineffective as a servant of Christ or a light to those around you. He comes as a thief and a liar to steal, kill, and destroy (see John 10:10 and John 8:44).

James directed you to resist him—not to tremble in fear, not to compromise, not to quit. You are charged to withstand him in the authority of Jesus—and he has no choice but to flee.

But first things first—submit to God. Don’t attempt to resist the devil in one area of life while you refuse God’s correction in another. Submit to God first, and then as you resist the devil, your efforts will succeed and won’t be undermined by disobedience in other areas of your life. The Lord will pour out His greater grace, and you will stand resolutely, steeped in a power greater than your own. And that will force the devil to flee.

Here’s to submitted resistance!

Dorothy

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 1 Peter 5:8-9

Let’s review James 4:1-5:

• Christians can get into conflict and strife due to envying each other.
• We can become so caught up in what’s best for me that we start to view other believers as rivals.
• We can be petty, contentious, self-centered, and self-serving.
• We can prioritize our pleasures over our relationship with God.
• James called all of this friendship with the world, and whoever pursues any of these things makes himself an enemy of God—a spiritual adulteress.

This is quite a strong assessment by Jesus’ baby brother. Unfortunately, what James described in this portion of his letter is a universal temptation for all of us who are in Christ. That’s why we are warned about it in the Word of God.

Sometimes you may feel like you’ll never get certain areas of your flesh under control. At other times you may become so gripped by the outrage of strife, misperceptions, critical sniping, or back-stabbing that you want to explode or throw your hands up in disgust—who needs them anyway? You may wonder: Will things ever get any better? Is there any way out of this pit?

The way out? Grace. God’s grace is sufficient for you. He is with you in trouble; He is with you when strife rises up against you; He is with you when you are tormented by an avalanche of accusing thoughts. His grace will bear you throughout your life and will bring you safely to your eternal home. If you fall seven times, He won’t fail to lift you up, ever. If you sin against Him seventy times seven, He will forgive and then continue to do so. He loves you with an intense, everlasting love. Even if you are faithless, He will remain faithful to you. This is your comfort and your strength.

Within each of us exists a soul that must be saturated with the Word of God to overcome the temptations that abound; each of us also has a mind that must be renewed. As you pursue God in your life, if you find yourself falling repeatedly, then repeatedly get back up. Confess your sin to Him who is faithful and righteous to forgive you, and He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness (see 1 John 1:9). Keep pressing on; lean heavily upon Him and hold His Word close.

However, if you seek to justify your sin—whatever it may be—or to excuse yourself from needing to address it before God, you are teetering on the edge. God’s grace still exists for you, but out there on “I’ll Do it My Way Highway” or “Blame Others-ville”, you are in dangerous territory; God will have to deal with your heart before He can pour out His help. Maybe you believe that since Jesus died for all of your sins, past, present, and future—and He did—you get a free ticket to live as you want. It’s all covered, anyway; why should I get under condemnation? That’s so “before Christ”!

If this describes you, my friend, you are living in a lesser grace; you’re living in “by-the-skin-of-your-teeth” grace; you’re living in grieving-the-Holy-Spirit and arousing-the-jealousy-of-God grace. Yeah, there’s grace over there, all right—the kind of grace that enables you to pass through the fire into Heaven after everything you’ve stood for in life is consumed by the flames of judgment (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-15). However, you don’t want to monkey around in that lesser grace all too long (and believe me—I’ve visited there myself—more times than I care to admit). Theologians disagree as to the limits of God’s grace when it is willfully tested on an ongoing basis; nevertheless, you don’t want to be the one to find out the degree at which “I did it my way” pushes the envelope past the bounds of God’s longsuffering.

That said, I honestly believe God suffers long with us to enable us to deal with issues about which we have grown dull or calloused. He is, after all, full of grace. But He wants us to reflect His nature to the world around us, and if we consistently choose to ignore His conviction, His Word, and His reproof, then we won’t manifest Him to anyone, no matter what we say or think.

But He gives a greater grace.

Don’t miss out on the greater grace to settle for an inferior, “get-away-with-it” grace. The greater grace is powerful stuff, straight from God, poured out through the blood of Jesus, and dwelling within you by the Holy Spirit. The greater grace grants you the power to resist that sin; the greater grace enables you to bless those who curse you and to pray for those who despitefully use you (see Luke 6:28). The greater grace empowers you to live out 1 Peter 3:9 so that you don’t repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but instead, you repay evil with blessing. This is your calling in Christ. By this, Peter wrote, you will inherit a blessing.

Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Can you see it? God wants your entire heart. He longs for you to humbly admit your weaknesses, fear, sin, anger, and anxiety to Him as they arise. He’s already aware of them; He just wants to pour out that greater grace upon your life and circumstances—even those secret concerns—so that you can experience His radical help and deliverance. The proud man refuses to deal with his sin; he denies it, ignores it, or excuses it—and he stays stuck in his mess and misses out on all that God has for him. The humble man pours out his failures and concerns before God; he takes to heart the correction given; and he receives forgiveness, cleansing, and grace in world-overcoming, abundant supply.

Why live any longer in the shadows and back alleys of an inferior, “get-away-with-it” grace? Let the Lord lovingly lift you out of that lesser place to the fresh air and sunshine of His greater grace. It will be so worth it.

Dorothy

James was writing to born-again believers and correcting those who exhibited the following: [Taken from James 4:1-4.]

• Quarreling and conflicts within the church
• Lusting after one another’s possessions, position, power, and/or prestige
• Allowing antagonism to boil over to the point of murderous thoughts—perhaps even murder, itself
• Envying and fighting over jealous desires
• Not seeking God to fulfill wants and desires
• Asking God, but with wrong motives—in order to fulfill selfish desire as opposed to being better able to serve or glorify God
• Becoming like the world, demonstrating hostility to God—spiritual adultery

When you receive Jesus Christ as Lord, you become a new creation and the habitation of God through the Holy Spirit. As a believer, your new course is to pursue God, feed on His Word, worship with like-minded believers, and listen to and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit. By doing these things, you grow in Christ and build on the foundation of His Word—a trustworthy platform from which you can make divinely-informed decisions. However, He does not turn you into a robot or marionette. In other words, God does not excuse you from maintaining your end of your relationship with Him.

Once you are born again, you are born again. But you have the responsibility as a new creation to conduct your life—both inwardly and outwardly—according to the precepts of the New Testament. You are called to work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12b); you are admonished to present your body to God as a living sacrifice and to refuse to be conformed to the world (see Romans 12:1-2). You are further instructed to be transformed by the renewing of your mind and to receive the Word with humility which is able to save your soul (see Romans 12:2 and James 1:21).

The 1970 movie “Love Story” introduced a slogan into pop culture: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” I remember moviegoers being so moved by the sentiment of that message, yet even as a teenager, I didn’t buy it. If someone hurt me, I thought, I’d want them to apologize. As far as I saw it, not saying you were sorry meant that you were taking advantage of someone’s love, intent upon doing your own thing, with no regard for their feelings.

And so we have the uncompromised gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus voluntarily died so that you could be saved. In fact, you were saved by grace through faith. Your salvation is not the result of your works—it’s a gift from God (see Ephesians 2:8-9). However, you were not saved merely to acquire hell-insurance. Your salvation opened the door for you to have free access to God—the Maker of the universe—as your Father, both now and for eternity. Your salvation began the adventure of your life, founded on and maintained by close intimacy with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And since you aren’t a puppet or a programmable droid, everything you think, do, and say really does matter to the One with whom you are in relationship. And therefore, the slogan of the seventies, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” should never be your philosophy as a Christian.

Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

James made it very clear—you and I are accountable before God as new creatures for our choices, behaviors, attitudes, and words. The privilege to be a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit is not to be taken lightly—it is monumental and paradigm-shifting. As a Christian, you walk around this planet with the Spirit of the Living God on the inside of you. And yet, you have the freedom to ignore, neglect, or defy His leading. If that is the course you choose—supported, perhaps, by a misguided understanding of His grace—you might feel that it would be legalistic or unnecessary to confess selfish or compromising choices as sin and to ask for forgiveness. This dismissive attitude toward personal behavior arouses God’s jealousy. Simply stated, here’s why: You, who have entered covenant with Him, refuse to allow the God of grace to counsel, correct, and lead you—actively denying Him the Lordship that you originally gave Him.

God’s abiding grace poured out on you doesn’t render null and void the fact that you have the capacity to grieve the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:30 cautions all of us, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” It is very possible to grieve the Holy Spirit; therefore it makes sense that God jealously desires His Spirit not only to dwell in you, but also for Him to be honored through your words, actions, and attitudes.

You have the unparalleled opportunity to be indwelt by the Spirit of God. Don’t neglect Him or grieve Him. Nothing you crave—nothing this world has to offer—could ever come close to the joy, pleasure, and wonder of being a yielded vessel of the Spirit of God.

Dorothy

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20