James 4:4-10 – “Exalted”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴Adulteresses! Do you not know the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world has become an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you suppose that the Scripture says emptily the spirit dwelling in us lusts toward envy? ⁶But He gives more grace, therefore it says, “God opposes proud ones but gives grace to humble ones.” ⁷Therefore, submit yourselves to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse [your] hands, sinners, and purify [your] hearts, double-minded. ⁹Be miserable and be sad and cry tears. Let the laughter of yours be turned into sadness and the joy into dejection. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up.

In the last part of verse 8 and into verse 9, James says “Cleanse [your] hands, sinners, and purify [your] hearts, double-minded. Be miserable and be sad and cry tears. Let the laughter of yours be turned into sadness and the joy into dejection.” This is one of the passages in James I have always thought in the back of my mind to be surprisingly negative. Most other writers, it seems, relegate these verses to all those “evil sinners” out there who “need to repent,” so I guess for them it’s all fine; but I believe the Lord is speaking to me (to us) pretty much any time He says anything, so one way or another He is speaking to me. Compare this to I John 3:1, “Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us …” The two thoughts seemingly couldn’t be more opposite.

The basic reason for the difference is in us, of course. The ugly truth is we are in fact depraved sinners and our only hope is a gracious God who covers us with the blood of Jesus and loves us anyway.

But I suspect therein is James’ purpose for writing these words and seeming so negative. As I have alluded earlier, I think James is writing to us as people who have become “religiously comfortable.” We have been at this a long time and definitely live “better” than most people. We go to church regularly. We don’t do a lot of the “bad” things other people do. We do a lot of “right” things. So we’re “okay.” Or so we think.

This side of Heaven, are we ever “okay?” The old hymn said, “This robe of flesh I’ll drop and rise, to gain the everlasting prize …” Paul said, “In me, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing” (Rom 7:18). The fact is, no matter how much I “grow” or “make progress” or “do better” I still am and always will be a depraved sinner and still capable of any sin in the book. As James has informed us, our mouths are still set on fire by hell and our natural wisdom is not just bad, it’s demonic! Us! Christians! People who’ve known the Lord for years!

I would suggest that when we get “religiously comfortable,” thinking down deep in our hearts, “I’m not doing so badly,” is exactly when we need to hear James’ admonition: “Cleanse [your] hands, sinners, and purify [your] hearts, double-minded. Be miserable and be sad and cry tears. Let the laughter of yours be turned into sadness and the joy into dejection.”

I am not “okay.” I never have been and never will be in this life. The day the Lord saved me I stood in complete and desperate need of His grace that He should even look on me and not throw me into hell. But no matter how much I “progress” or “grow,” does that ever change? I need to be constantly brought back to the throne of grace – the place where I remember God loves me because of Jesus, not because I’m “performing” well. His love never was based on my “performance” and it never will be. The relationship always has and always will be that I am in desperate need and He is a saving God.

When I forget that, I’ve lost the very essence of our relationship.

The world and our demonic wisdom says, “Be afflicted and mourn and weep? No way! I’m not going to be one of those morose old puritans. If I start thinking like that, I’ll soon be on Prozac!!!” But what does James say? “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.” Peter says it, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.” What we’re talking about is humbling ourselves in the sight of God, and under the mighty hand of God. This isn’t “sit in the corner and sulk” business. This is about bowing in the presence of the eternal God and reminding ourselves of what His amazing grace willingly overlooks – the reality of who we are and where we stand. And what is the promise as we humbly allow ourselves to fall into the realities of who we are? “And He will lift you up.” “… that He may exalt you in due time.”

Here is one of the wonders of grace, the wonder of what Jesus’ blood has done for us – we cannot fall too far that His grace doesn’t catch us in arms of love and lift us to His warm embrace. We cannot peer too deeply into the abyss of our sinfulness, of our (many) failures and regrets and ever find a corner too black for grace. If we really believe in grace, if we really believe in the Cross, then we should have no fear to do as James bids us. In fact, one of the real reasons why we hesitate to do this is the very fact it requires us to step down. Once again, we are shot through with the devil’s sin and are loathe to be anything but “high and exalted.”

As Jesus said many times, “He who exalts himself (the devil and us when we act like him) shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself (Jesus – Phil 2:6-11—and us when we act like Him) shall be exalted.”

God give us all a fresh vision of grace. May we often remember we are not “okay” – but it’s okay – because of Jesus and His wonderful grace.

James’ words cut us to the quick, but if they shake us out of our spiritual lethargy and leave us marveling in the arms of grace, then I believe he accomplishes His goal.