Whence [come] wars and whence fightings among you? [Is it] not thence, -- from your pleasures, which war in your members?
James asks where the quarrels among his readers come from. He does not blame their circumstances or their opponents. He points inside them. That raises two questions: what are these "passions," and is he speaking to believers, to unbelievers, or to both?
James traces the fighting to its source. It is not the people around us — it is what we want.
The Apostle has spoken of disorder and strife among the professing people of God. Now he asks where the wars and fightings among them come from. He traces the wars among the people of God to the lusts of the heart, which show themselves through the body. To gratify lust the flesh is prepared to kill and fight. In a literal sense this is true of the world and its wars. In a moral sense, if we are set on having our own way, the flesh shows no mercy. It belittles and overrides anyone who stands in the way of what we want.
Two different Greek words stand behind "quarrels" and "fights" (older translations say "wars and fightings"). One names the state of conflict, the other the blows exchanged — and blows can be words.
The words polemos and machē are translated "fight" or "fighting." Both occur in James 4:1… They roughly match the English words "war" (polemos) and actual fighting (machē, compare the Hebrew makkah, slaughter), though the war may be moral, and the fighting may be done by word of mouth.
The word behind "passions" means pleasures, and older translations use that word. These pleasures do not stay in the heart. They take over the parts of the body and use them.
Next he states the immediate cause. Do they not come from your pleasures, which fight inside your body? It was the gratification of fallen nature. The parts of the body play their part here, unchecked by God's will or the fear of Him. The throat is an open grave. The tongue is deceitful. The lips have poison underneath. The mouth is full of bitterness. The eyes are full of adultery. The hands are ready to rob. The heart leans to covetousness. The feet are quick to shed blood. How hopelessly evil, if grace had not given another nature through and according to the word of truth… And the new nature has its pleasures after its source, hating what God hates, and delighting in what pleases Him.
These cravings reach further than the body's appetites, and none of them keeps its promise.
Wars and fightings are the fruits of the old nature, the flesh… What produces fightings is the gratification of the lusts of the natural man, not the new nature, which is from above. This takes in all forms of lusts: not only those of the flesh, but the lust for power, the lust for prominence and leadership, and the lusts of the mind. "You desire and do not have." There is nothing that can satisfy the heart of man. Any lust will end in disappointment and remorse.
James is writing to people living among the twelve tribes — the Jewish nation. So the "you" reaches wider than the Christians among them.
Having commended the spirit of peace in the Christian's ways, James now asks where the wars and fightings "among you" come from. But here we must ask what "among you" means. It does not have to mean among Christians… they found themselves still in the midst of the twelve tribes, who are, I do not doubt, included in this "among you." And the Christians might find themselves implicated in these disputes, so James's appeal reaches them too. These fightings came from their pleasures. Their will was unbroken. Lust distracted their hearts. They wanted what they did not have. Conscience was silent, overpowered by lust.
The same desire works at every size. Wanting what belongs to someone else can split two people or set nations against each other.
Towards God he refuses to submit. Towards other people he envies their prosperity and covets what they own. He wants the best his neighbours have for himself, and if the chance comes he will use all his powers to seize their wealth, their land or their glory. He will not LOOK UP TO GOD to find the satisfaction that no earthly thing can give… This is one of the great causes of war and strife, whether between nations, people, or fellow believers.
James gives the remedy: ask. Fighting is what people do instead of asking God.
If our desires are right, there is no need to fight among ourselves to get them. We can ask God. Even so, we may not get an answer to our prayers, because we may ask with the wrong motive — to gratify some lust.
- Source: other people do not cause the quarrel. Cravings inside a person do, and they work out through the body.
- Scale: one root grows into settled war and into passing blows — and the blows may be words.
- Scope: the craving is not only for pleasure, but for power, prominence and leadership. None of it satisfies.
- Spread: left unchecked, the desire for what others have divides people, fellow believers and whole nations.
- Solution: ask God for what fighting cannot seize. But check the motive: a prayer driven by the craving gets no answer.
Ye lust and have not ye kill and are full of envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war; ye have not because ye ask not.
Behind every quarrel James finds a deeper cause: a desire inside a person that nothing satisfies and nothing stops. The verse traces a chain — wanting, killing, coveting, fighting — and ends with a quiet charge: they never asked God for anything.
James is not describing wars between nations. The trouble is among the people he writes to, and even the words for it come from a world that does not know God.
These violent workings sprang from self unjudged. When they are deliberate and ongoing, we call them "wars." When they are passing outbreaks, we call them "fightings" or "battles." But they describe violence not out in the world, but among the people he addresses. The humbling fact remains: the words we use for them come from the uncontrolled ways of men who did not know God.
The trouble is not a shortage of resources but the appetite itself, working through the body's own members without any restraint from the will or fear of God.
The members of the body in this case play their part, unchecked by the will or fear of God: the throat, an open grave; the tongue, deceitful; the lips, with poison underneath; the mouth, full of bitterness; the eyes, full of adultery; the hands, ready for robbery; the heart, prone to covetousness; the feet, swift to shed blood. How hopelessly evil, if grace had not given another nature through and according to the word of truth!
Wanting and not having is not a temporary shortfall. It is what happens to a heart chasing what cannot satisfy it — and that covers far more than bodily appetite.
The gratification of the lusts of the natural man produces fightings, and not the new nature, that which is from above. This includes all forms of lust — not only those of the flesh, but the lust for power, the lust for pre-eminence and leadership, the lusts of the mind. "You desire and do not have" — nothing can satisfy the heart of man. Any kind of lust ends in disappointment and remorse.
The same hunger has a picture in the animal world.
The wild beast knows nothing of restraint upon his passions. He tears and slaughters more than enough to satisfy his cravings, and yet is not satisfied, and slaughters again tomorrow. Man in his unconverted state is like this... This is indeed the way of the world, but let us see to it that we keep quite clear of this greedy, unsatisfied spirit.
The word "murder" shocks. But it names what envy does when it wants a rival out of the way — and the whole cycle turns out to be needless.
The flesh shows itself here in all its repulsive features. There is lust that is never fulfilled. There is the viciousness of virtual murder — putting another out of the way, because the heart is filled with envy. At the same time there is frustration, with murmuring and contention. Yet how foolish and unnecessary all of this is! "You do not have, because you do not ask." God will surely answer a quiet spirit of dependent faith that simply asks of Him.
That last clause lands hardest against God's own open invitation to ask.
There is no limit, except the limit that little faith may set. God does guard His giving, so that the gift is good — and that is not a limit. The Lord backs His exhortations twice over with the promise that "everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." What a door this opens for us! What possibility of blessing! How rich we may all be, if only we will be! And yet the apostle's words could apply in the fresh early days when they were written: "You do not have, because you do not ask."
This letter does not speak to believers only. That is why the language can be so severe.
James does have Christians in view, but not Christians only. As he says himself, he is writing to the people of Israel, and not only to those in Israel who believe... So there is a word here for those among them who were plainly not born of God, as well.
Yet none of that lets a believer off. What fills the heart shapes what we ask for.
No man could seek His glory and the gratification of his own lusts at the same time. If we are near to Him, we will know how rich His giving is, and we will ask. Our knowledge of Him will guide our asking, and we will not ask wrongly.
Kelly traces where this whole course ends.
There are desires that come to nothing. There is violence taken to an extreme, and envy or jealousy in full measure, yet still no satisfaction. There is contention that keeps growing worse. There is no asking, and no answer of peace.
- Source — Quarrels start with self unjudged, and even their names come from a world that does not know God.
- Starvation — Wanting covers power, position and the mind, not just the body. No form of it ever ends satisfied.
- Sabotage — Envy pushes a rival out of the way and still gains nothing. The whole cycle is foolish and unnecessary.
- Silence — The one thing never tried is asking. God's door stands open. The only limits are small faith and His care that the gift be good.
- Solution — Nearness to God reshapes what we want, so we ask — and ask rightly.
Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask evilly, that ye may consume [it] in your pleasures.
Behind this verse stand people torn by quarrels, wanting what they do not have and fighting to get it. James has just told them they do not ask; now he says their asking fails too, because of the motive behind it.
The wants that drive these quarrels also drive the praying. One writer traces them back to the old nature and refuses to limit them to the coarse appetites:
They come from the pleasures that fight inside you. Satisfying the lusts of the natural man produces fighting... this includes all forms of lust, not only those of the flesh. It includes the lust for power, the lust to be first and to lead, and the lusts of the mind... The natural man is religious too, and so he prays. But their prayers came from the old nature, the desires of the flesh; they did not receive because they asked wrongly... Even true believers often ask and do not receive, because they ask wrongly, out of selfish reasons, to feed their own pleasures.
It would be easy to hear a rebuke about method here: the wrong words, the wrong posture. One writer rejects that reading and points to James's own explanation:
"Wrongly": does that point to something in the manner? No, because "we do not know what to pray for as we ought." No special manner or posture is needed. No particular words, no gift or skill in speaking, nothing unnatural or learned... Prayer is simply the breathing of a child — natural, trusting, humble, submissive. No, the passage itself explains the word: "to spend it on your passions."
It is easy to think this verse only catches shameful requests. But the word behind "passions" is wider than that:
The word "pleasures," given in the margin of the older translation, is correct. It is not "lusts," but "pleasures" — and they need not be bad pleasures. What is in view is self-pleasing, the plain desire of the natural mind. God's glory and our own spiritual profit are not considered at all. And God's people (see the next verse) are living in friendship with the world, which is spiritual adultery.
So the problem is not the thing asked for. The test lies deeper, and that changes where we look when heaven stays silent:
How plainly this teaches us that God looks at the heart. He examines the motive behind the asking. This is very searching, and it explains a lot of unanswered prayer. We may ask for completely right things and receive nothing, because we ask from completely wrong motives.
Read this way, the closed door stops being a puzzle and becomes a protection:
But on the other hand, someone may ask and not receive. Why? Because what moves him is not faith but the desire of the flesh. If he got what he wants, God knows it would damage his own soul. Man is lustful enough already, without God encouraging these lusts by answering prayer of this kind.
There is a worse possibility. God may grant such a prayer, and the granting itself becomes the discipline:
So if the desire is a mere lust, or is to be spent on lust, the prayer goes unanswered (James 4:3), or the answer comes as chastisement — a Kibroth-hattaavah, a grave of lust. If the prayer is in the Spirit, and is the prayer of faith, the answer comes as asked.
The remedy is not tighter wording but a heart already full of something else. Two desires cannot fill the same heart:
It is when Christ and His glory control us that we will pray in His Name... We will not be guilty of such folly, if the glory of the Lord fills our souls. No man can seek His glory and the satisfying of his own lusts at the same time. If we are near to Him, we will know the wealth of His giving, and we will ask.
- Source. Failed prayer starts where the fighting starts: in the old nature. Its appetites include the hunger for power and place, not just bodily desire.
- Meaning. "Wrongly" is not about manner, words or posture. James defines it by the phrase that follows: spending the answer on yourself.
- Scope. The word is "pleasures," and they need not be evil ones. Plain self-pleasing, with God's glory left out of the account, is enough to spoil the prayer.
- Test. God weighs the motive, not the item. He turns down right prayers asked for wrong reasons.
- Outcome. A refusal is mercy; it spares the soul the damage of its own desire. The frightening answer is yes, given as chastisement — a grave of lust.
Adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore is minded to be [the] friend of the world is constituted enemy of God.
James turns from quarrels and unanswered prayers to the deeper problem. His readers want the world's friendship while claiming to belong to God, so two questions press on us: what is "the world" here, and why does liking it count as taking sides against God?
The word carries more than one sense, so the first job is to say which one James means.
The word world can be used in three senses. Strictly, it means the order or system that runs human affairs on the earth. The earth itself is called the world, because it is the platform the world-system operates on. And the people who live by this world-system are called the world too. So we can tell them apart: the world-space, the world-people, the world-system... Anyone who is a friend of that system is an enemy of God, because that system governs itself and is not subject to God.
That distinction keeps the verse from contradicting God's love for people:
We are speaking, of course, of the world-system. If we mean the people in the world, then we read, "God so loved the world." The world-system is the point here, and it is bitterly hostile to God.
This hostility is not just an idea. It broke into the open at one moment in history.
The world is in open rebellion against God. It has been so ever since man fell, but its terrible hostility only came fully to light when Christ appeared. That was when the world saw and hated both Him and His Father. That was when the split became permanent.
So there is no neutral ground left. One writer sets out the choice:
The world has shown by the cross what it really is. We must choose. Do we go on with the world that crucified Christ, or do we boast in the cross where that world nailed Him?
Many read the last clause as though God turns hostile. The wording says something different.
The language is very strong. Word for word it reads, "Whoever therefore wants to be the friend of the world is made an enemy of God." It does not say that God is his enemy. But the split is so complete on the world's side that friendship with it is only possible on the basis of hostility against God. Let us never forget that!
James picks the word with care. Older versions read "Adulteresses", and the word assumes a marriage bond already exists.
And believers may turn back to the world, like Demas, and love it for a time. James calls such people adulteresses. They leave the One they are pledged to in marriage — Christ Himself — and turn to another. The word must have reminded the Israelites of the Old Testament passages that picture Israel, unfaithful and turned away from God, as an adulteress playing the prostitute.
The word is this harsh because the bond it betrays is this close:
And let us also never forget this. As believers, God has brought us into such a close and intimate relationship with Himself that if we betray Him and enter a guilty alliance with the world, there is only one human sin it can be compared to: the terrible sin of adultery.
Verse 4 follows straight on from the cravings that cause the fighting in verses 1–3.
The lust of the flesh leads the Apostle to warn us against friendship with the world, which offers every chance to satisfy that lust... For anyone who professes faith in the Lord Jesus, becoming a friend of the world that has crucified the Son of God is spiritual adultery... Our attitude towards the world openly declares our attitude towards God.
The pull does not usually look like rebellion:
There are many spheres of interest, many circles of fellowship, many organizations that Satan may use to lure the children of God. Some of them may look fairly harmless on the surface, but they have no place for Christ, who is the centre of all God's interests.
- System, not people. James aims at the world-system that runs human affairs without God, not at the people God loves.
- Cross fixed it. The system's hostility came into the open when it saw, hated and crucified Christ. That fixed the split for good.
- Marriage, not rules. The charge of adultery only makes sense because believers belong to Christ. The word is harsh because the bond is close.
- Self-made enemy. The verse does not say God becomes your enemy. The world only offers friendship on terms that put you against Him.
- Lust is the door. The world draws you by feeding your cravings, often through circles that look harmless but leave no room for Christ. Your attitude to the world announces your attitude to God.
Think ye that the scripture speaks in vain? Does the Spirit which has taken his abode in us desire enviously?
Two witnesses stand against friendship with the world: God's written word, and God's Spirit in His people.
God's written word is set against such unholy dealings. The Spirit who dwells in us recoils from their spirit just as strongly. "Or do you think that the Scripture speaks in vain? Does the Spirit who has taken His dwelling in us desire enviously?" What did our Lord teach on the mountain or in His regular discourses, and in His answers to men? Separation from the world is commanded or assumed everywhere. And what could be more opposed to the envy that marks the world than the mind of the indwelling Spirit of God? So from within and from without alike, what God gives lends no support at all to friendship with the world.
Kelly weighs the word behind "yearns" and the phrase about dwelling in us. He also names the passage he thinks James points to.
I am not at all prepared to be dogmatic about its force, but it seems to me a harsh expression to suppose that the spirit described here means no more than man's spirit. I do not know how a man's spirit can properly be said to dwell in a man. One can understand "the spirit of a man that is in him," as the apostle Paul puts it when he describes the human spirit in 1 Corinthians 2 — but hardly the spirit that dwells in a man. And if it is not the spirit of man here, the only spirit anywhere else said to dwell in man (that is, in the believer) is the Spirit of God.
The Greek word behind "yearns" carries its own evidence, and it also suggests which passage of Scripture James has in mind.
Everywhere else the word means "longing" or "earnestly desiring," and always in a good sense. If that applies here, we would need to take the phrase as "against envy," which is beyond doubt legitimate. The description of the spirit confirms this for me: He is the one "who has taken up His dwelling in us." You could hardly say that of anything belonging to man in his present fallen state. It fits the Holy Spirit very well, who has made His home in us who believe. However you take the verse, the Scripture in view is, I think, Galatians 5:17.
If the Holy Spirit is meant, the second half of the verse cannot be a statement about envious desire.
How well the question comes just here: "Do you think that the Scripture speaks in vain?" How often it does seem in vain, even for God's own children! But — "the Spirit, then, who has taken His abode in us, does He desire enviously?" This certainly seems to be the force of the words here. So it must be a question, not a statement, as the common version makes it.
The question makes two appeals at once, and then it settles where the envy really comes from.
James appeals first here to what we think of Scripture: is it truly of vital importance, or is it empty words? And secondly he appeals to the blessed fact that the Spirit of God dwells in the believer. Can it be He, in us, who causes this envious desire? No — it is an evil force, completely opposed to Him, that we have allowed to work, if envy and strife result.
The older English version some of these writers used makes the line a statement about man's own spirit. Hole weighs both readings.
The force then seems to be: has not the Scripture warned you of these things, and does it not always mean what it says? Can you imagine for one moment that the Holy Spirit of God has anything to do with these unholy desires? Suppose we read it as in our Authorized Version. Then it means that all along the Scripture had testified that man's own spirit is the source of his envious lusts. The truth it leads us to is the same, whichever way we read it.
Whichever reading you take, the next words supply the remedy.
On the contrary — and here is the means of overcoming it — "God gives more grace, He resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble." This is the true secret of strength and victory. It is also the secret of peace of heart among the difficulties and oppositions of the world.
- Charge. Verse 4 calls friendship with the world enmity with God. God's written word and God's Spirit in us both stand against that friendship.
- Question. Read it as a question — does the Spirit who lives in us desire enviously? — and the answer is no.
- Spirit. The words about dwelling in us hardly fit fallen man, and everywhere else the verb for longing carries a good sense.
- Difference. Commentators differ on the rendering, but the lesson lands the same either way: envy has no source in God.
- Grace. The answer follows at once: He gives more grace, and He gives it to the humble.
But he gives more grace. Wherefore he says, God sets himself against [the] proud, but gives grace to [the] lowly.
James chapter four opens bluntly: quarrels, envy, and friendship with the world among people who belong to God. Then comes the turn. God does not walk away from such people; He gives more. This verse tells us who receives that supply, and who finds God standing against them.
One commentator reads the "but" as a contrast between how we act and how God acts:
As it seems to me, this connects with what follows: "But He gives more grace." That is, so far from lusting to envy, God is acting in goodness. Grace alone has given the nature of God. Grace alone strengthens the new nature by the gift of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. And more than this: "He gives more grace."
This giving is also the means of overcoming that envy:
On the contrary — and here we find the means of overcoming it — "God gives more grace, He resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble." This is the true secret of strength and victory. It is also the secret of peace of heart among the difficulties and troubles of the world.
One writer renders the word "more" as "greater grace," and ties the size of the supply to the size of the strain:
No doubt the difficulties and the dangers are great for the saint here below. "But He gives more grace"; and all need it… Here it is suited to the trial, and therefore appropriate to need. "But He gives greater grace." The harder the strain, the greater His outflow of goodness to help at the right time.
Every new case draws on a supply with no limit:
He alone can give the needed wisdom and grace in each case as it arises. And He will, blessed be His name, give abundantly to all who simply wait on Him. "He gives more grace." Precious word! There is absolutely no limit to it. It shines as a motto that never runs dry on our Father's treasury door. It assures us of the fullest supply "for the urgent need of every hour."
James backs his statement with a quotation from Proverbs, and the pride in view is a definite disposition, not a vague fault:
Pride. There are several words so translated in the Greek New Testament. The one used here (hyperephania) carries the sense of a spirit of self-exaltation in a man together with the belittling of others… This arrogance shows itself in boastful words and self-glorifying deeds, but its origin is within the heart… This particular form of haughtiness is offensive to God and open to His immediate judgment, for both James and Peter write that "God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).
Grace is refused to pride because pride refuses to admit any need:
In contrast to such envy and strife, the Spirit of God gives "more grace" to overcome it. But if we do not find this grace, it is because of the pride of our own hearts, as the quotation from Proverbs 3:34 indicates. Pride, of course, involves confidence in self, and God cannot encourage this. But the humble person recognises his pressing need of the grace of God, and God gladly answers it.
Where the ESV has "opposes," older translations read "resists." Notice who stands against the proud man:
The humble man may have Satan at his right hand to oppose him; but be sure the proud man will find God Himself there to resist him. We must either lay self aside or God will lay us aside… A proud student and a humble master will never agree. Christ is humble and lowly. So He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Pride ends in a fall, and that fall shows up soonest in God's own children:
The wise king of long ago had noted that "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16:18). But he does not tell us why it is so. Here we get the explanation. The proud get no grace from God but rather resistance. No wonder they go down. The fall is most obvious in proud believers, since God deals with His children promptly in the way of government.
Humility here is not a mood to work up, but the honest verdict of a person who sees clearly:
Humility suits man. It suits his smallness before God, as he feels the greatness of His grace, and all that man is in himself. The great glory the believer waits for also makes him humble, when he considers his unworthiness. He knows that he can understand nothing and do nothing in divine things without God.
- Contrast. Where we crave and envy, God gives — the verse sets His action against ours.
- Measure. The grace given is "greater grace," fitted to the trial. The harder the strain, the larger the supply — and there is no limit.
- Barrier. Pride is confidence in self, and it can receive nothing, because it admits no need.
- Consequence. The proud meet resistance from God Himself, and among believers the fall comes quickly under His government.
- Channel. The humble admit their need — and God answers that with grace.
Subject yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
The command to submit and the command to resist stand side by side. The order matters: one turns us toward God, the other turns us against His enemy. Commentators ask two questions. What makes submission possible? And why should the devil flee from people as weak as we are?
The word "therefore" ties this call back to grace. Writers note that the sense of His goodness, not sheer effort, is what loosens our grip on our own will.
Grace alone will lead to submission. When we sense the grace and goodness of God, we trust Him. Then the soul gladly gives up its own will and submits to Him. The Christian stops trying to be somebody in the world. Instead he accepts whatever circumstances God arranges.
Submission is described not as bare duty but as the natural result of trusting who God is:
Confidence in God leads the soul to submit itself to Him. It is both a duty and a necessity, but we do it gladly where we trust Him. It is the truth of our relationship with God, and the soul is happy. We do not need a will of our own. God loves us and has a will for us in everything, so we should commit ourselves to Him.
Submission is not one option beside resistance; it is what makes resistance possible. Reverse the sequence and the whole chain reverses with it.
If we are humble, we will find it easy to submit to God. And as we submit to God, we can resist the devil. All too often things work the other way round with us. We start by submitting to the devil. That breeds in us the pride that marks him, so we end up resisting God. Then God resists us, and a fall is certain, with the shame that follows it.
Writers point to pride as the exact place where we must meet the devil:
But we will not be humble unless we take the first step and submit to God. Our own will must be bowed before it will obey… Pride is the devil's chief weapon, and envy and strife come out of it. We must therefore resist his flattering of our own pride.
Resisting is not a contest of strength. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus stayed in obedience and answered with the word of God.
The armour should be put on before the battle, not just at the battle. When Satan came to Him with his tricks, the Lord had only to rest in obedience. There was no arguing and no confusion. Those are tricks. But when Satan comes out in the open, then resist him. "Be gone, Satan!" — and then he flees. We do not have to defeat one who is already defeated. We have to defeat his tricks by holding the word in obedience.
Writers add that our temptations follow the same lines, and the same answer exposes them:
As he did with our Lord, the devil may tempt us through natural needs, through religious advancement, or through possessions. But if we meet his temptations with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, we will see his tricks for what they are. He cannot stand against the grace of the Spirit who lives in us.
The promise is not that you will win the fight but that he will leave. Writers point to who he meets when he comes.
Once we see Satan for what he is, the new man resists him, and he has no strength. Jesus has overcome him for us. We learn here that if we resist him, he will flee. He finds that he has met the Spirit of Christ in us, and away he goes. The trouble is that we do not always resist him. We give in to what he offers, because the will of God is not everything to us. In many things we still like to please ourselves.
One writer takes this to the practical question of when to make a deal and when not to:
But there is an enemy always at work, and we are called to make no deal with him and no compromise, however convincing he looks… He may preach righteousness. He may stir up zeal. But he never truly lifts up the name of Christ… Let us never forget that to faith he is a beaten enemy.
His retreat is not the end of the story. It clears the ground for something better.
Resist the devil and he has to flee. That leaves the soul free to draw near to God, and to find that He is very near to us.
- Grace starts it. The sense of God's grace and goodness is what makes a person willing to hand over his own will.
- Submission arms it. You cannot resist the devil until your will is given over to God. Do it the other way round and you end in a fall.
- The word does it. Resistance is not argument or strength. It is obedience holding on to the word, as Jesus did in the wilderness.
- Christ finishes it. The devil flees because he meets an enemy who has already beaten him — not our power, but Christ's.
- Nearness crowns it. With the enemy gone, the soul is free to draw near to God and find Him near.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse [your] hands, sinners, and purify [your] hearts, ye double-minded.
James writes to people torn between two loyalties. He gives them a promise that is easy to miss because it is so simple: move toward God, and God moves toward you. Then the verse turns sharp. It names hands and hearts, and it calls the readers sinners and double-minded.
The promise assumes that God is not reluctant. One writer notes how little of our time we spend in God's company. He pushes that thought to its edge:
I am sure of this. The moment God sees that we truly want His company, He will not hold it back from us. And we can be certain of this, though I say it with deep reverence: God wants our company far more than we want His.
The verse does not stand alone. It follows submission to God and resistance of the devil, and the sequence is deliberate:
The order then is clear. First, humility. Then, submission to God, which involves resisting the devil. Third, drawing near to God. Of course no one can draw near to God except by gladly submitting to Him. As we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. This is the way of His government. If we sow the seed of seeking His face, we will reap a harvest of light and blessing. We will feel that He is near.
If believers are already brought near, why command them to draw near? One writer answers by separating what God has given us from what we want:
A place before Him, even a place in Christ, is one thing; the desire for what that place implies is another. So even to those who in one sense are already near, God says, "Draw near to God." And there is still a condition to meet before He can draw near to us. We are "no longer strangers and aliens." He looks for the affections of children in us, the affections of people who want to be close to Him. But this can only be ours in a way that suits His own nature.
The two commands are not a repetition. The first deals with what we do:
The Apostle says, "Cleanse your hands." If we want to draw near to God, we must judge every act that does not suit His holy presence. We must not put our hands to anything that makes us unclean.
The second reaches to what we want. The same writer shows why outward correctness is not enough. He points to the Pharisees, the strict religious teachers of Jesus' day, who were experts at washing hands:
It is not enough to cleanse the hands; we must also judge the evil of our hearts. The Pharisees could make a great show of washing their hands, but the Lord had to say, "this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me" (Mark 7:6). The heart is the seat of the Christian's affections. The heart must be cleared of every object that does not agree with God's will.
A divided heart is not just untidy. It changes what happens when we pray:
Why is it that our prayers are not answered? James gives us two reasons. One is double-mindedness — that is, the mind half on one thing and half on another. If my mind is half on the world and half on Christ, I may pray every day of my life and get no answer to my prayers.
Another writer describes God's side of that same silence: He is quick to help the weak, but
He closes His ears to all who are double in heart. He looks for a pure walk and a sincere heart in those who seek to draw near to Him. It cannot be otherwise. He keeps His distance from those whose hearts are not open in His presence. He sees everything, but for Him to listen, the heart must be sincere.
Commentators differ on the readers. Some take the words "sinners" and "double-minded" as a call to repentance for those not yet turned to the Lord. Others read the whole passage as written to believers who had slipped badly. One writer looks at the form of the Greek verbs, and it changes how the commands sound:
Still, all these verses call for faith, not for the slow work of human effort. That is true of cleansing the hands and purifying the hearts, just as it is true of the submission to God and the drawing near to Him that came before, and the sorrowing that follows. The verbs are all in a Greek tense that points to a single, finished action. So God calls for each of these to be done once for all, as a settled thing for the soul. Grace alone could do this. Otherwise man must labour in vain. God gives to faith what He demands.
- Move first. We draw near, and He draws near. And He wants our company more than we want His.
- Move in order. Humility, then submission, then resisting the devil, then drawing near. Each step clears the ground for the next.
- Move whole. Hands deal with acts unfit for His presence. Hearts deal with affections set on the wrong thing. Washed hands over a far-off heart is the Pharisees' mistake.
- A divided mind stalls everything. A mind half on the world and half on Christ leaves prayers unanswered. God listens to a sincere heart.
- Grace supplies the demand. These are not slow self-improvement projects. They are calls to faith, settled once for all. God gives to faith what He asks of it.
Be wretched, and mourn, and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning, and [your] joy to heaviness.
Between "draw near to God" and "humble yourselves," James stops and asks for tears. He tells people who were laughing to feel their real state — so who is he speaking to, and does this cancel Christian joy?
The verse follows a call aimed at "sinners" and the "double-minded," and one commentator argues that this widens the reach of the letter beyond believers only.
I press, then, that the word "sinners" here clearly shows to my mind that the Spirit of God in this letter takes in a larger range than most allow.
Read that way, the mourning of verse 9 is not a mood adjustment for the settled soul but a summons to turn.
Next James addresses again those who had not yet fully turned to the Lord. It is a call to repentance.
Commentators differ on how far the address reaches, and others apply the same words directly to believers. But all agree the demand is real sorrow, not a mental adjustment.
Still, where faith is, there is repentance also; and God will have evil felt and judged in those who are blessed by Him. So He calls for sorrow, mourning and weeping. As the Lord said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." ... To make repentance only a change of mind is a serious departure from the truth. That view ignores sin as God sees it, and ignores the sense of our ruin that God gives.
The first command uses a word family that runs through some of the bleakest verses in the New Testament — the "wretched" of Romans 7 and the "miseries" of James 5.
Some other verses where we find this same word as a noun, verb or adjective help us understand its meaning. "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Rom. 7:24). ... In James 5:1, "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you." ... I have come to the conclusion that the word wretched points to a judgment that is sure and coming soon.
So the sorrow James asks for is not invented feeling. It is agreement, now, with a verdict that is coming anyway.
The pleasures that men seek away from God must turn into affliction for them, and one day they surely will. Let the soul expect this. Instead of rejoicing in such a condition, "be wretched and mourn and weep." ... There is no other way for us but to anticipate the judgment of Him who judges not harshly, but according to truth.
The laughter under attack is described as a cover — noise used to keep a person from feeling what is really there.
Sin has made the world unhappy and miserable ... Nevertheless the heart will feel the love of God in the middle of it all; it will rejoice in eternal salvation, and in His goodness which has obtained it. It will also rejoice in the daily mercies of God. But this is not the foolish joy of the world. That joy tries to hide its emptiness, and to stifle the sense of its misery with laughter. When a person is alone, emptiness and often pain make themselves felt. In company they are forgotten in laughter. ... The world cannot be real with itself; yet sorrow and affliction are all too real. The Lord could weep but not laugh.
Christian gladness is not the casualty here. What dies is the pretence.
The Christian does indeed have his joys, which no one can take from him, and he can rejoice in the grace of God that works in the middle of the evil of the closing days. Nevertheless, the hollow laughter of the professing religious world and its false joys, by which it deludes itself and seeks some relief from its miseries, will lead the heart that is touched by grace to mourn and weep.
Verse 9 is not the last word. It leads on to being lifted up, and the whole call rests on faith, not on self-improvement.
All these verses call for faith, not for the slow process of human effort. That is true of cleansing hands and purifying hearts, just as much as of the earlier calls to submit to God and draw near to Him, or of the sorrow that follows. The verbs are all in the form called the aorist. So God calls for each of these to be done once for all, as a settled thing for the soul. Grace alone could bring this about. Otherwise man must labour in vain. God gives to faith what He demands.
For anyone who feels far from God, these verses show the way back.
The only road into the Divine presence open to us is the road of purification, inside as well as outside. It is the road of repentance, and of humbling ourselves before God again. Then it is that He will lift us up, and we shall be in the full enjoyment of the light of His face.
- Addressed. The call goes out to "sinners" and the "double-minded." One writer takes this as evidence that the letter reaches further than believers alone. Others apply the same words to believers themselves.
- Anticipated. The word behind "be wretched" belongs to the language of misery and coming judgment. To mourn now is to agree early with a verdict that will fall anyway.
- Exposed. The laughter God removes is the world's cover for emptiness. It stifles the sense of its own misery. The Lord Himself could weep, but never laugh.
- Retained. Real joy is untouched: joy in grace, in salvation, in daily mercies. Only the hollow version is turned to mourning.
- Lifted. These commands are "once for all" acts that grace alone produces. The road runs through repentance to the promise that He will lift you up.
Humble yourselves before [the] Lord, and he shall exalt you.
This verse closes a run of sharp commands in James 4. It raises two questions: what does real humbling look like, and who does the lifting?
One writer counts it as the last in a series of calls:
Seventh, the Apostle says, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you." We may well be humbled when we think of the condition of the professing people of God. But above all we are to be humbled because of what we find in our own hearts.
The call is for something settled, and then for a life kept in step with it:
A larger call follows, and one of deep practical importance: "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." Like the rest, this call is to have it done once for all. It is a finished act, not a mere process going on. But here, as in the other cases, the believer must ever after watch against anything inconsistent with what he has done.
The verse names the audience: this happens in God's sight.
Notice that the humbling of oneself is before the Lord, not before men. It is a real inward work which destroys self-esteem. When we realise the presence and the greatness of God, it gives Him His true place in the heart, and gives us ours also. Then all is real, and then alone we can act for God according to truth.
Because only God sees the heart, the work has to begin in private:
Other people may judge your humble words, humble looks, and humble ways. But God views the heart. So you must begin there in this, as in all matters. In your private devotion, let the light of God's word to stream into your soul and show you your true place in His presence.
This is the path Christ walked, and it fits what a person is before God:
Then he exhorts them to humble themselves in the sight of the Lord and He would lift them up. It is what Christ did (Phil. 2), and He has said, "Whoever humbles himself will be exalted." God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humility suits man. It suits his littleness before God, in view of the greatness of His grace and of all that man is in himself.
If we will not take the low place, God has another way of bringing us there — and it costs more:
There are two forms of it. The happiest of all is to be humble; the next best thing is to be humbled. It is better to be humble than to be humbled, but there is no comparison between being humbled and being lifted up. Humility is the effect of grace. Humiliation comes rather from God's righteous government, where we are not humble... Humility is the effect not so much of a moral process with ourselves, but of occupation with Him.
The order in which we live this out matters, and we often get it backwards:
If humility marks us, we shall have no difficulty in submitting to God. And as we submit to God, we shall be able to resist the devil. All too often things work the other way round with us. We start by submitting to the devil. That leads us to develop the pride that marks him, and so to resist God. As a result God resists us, a fall becomes inevitable, and humiliation follows. If only we were humble we should escape much humiliation.
The promise is real, but the timing belongs to God:
If man exalts himself, he will be humbled; when God exalts a man, there is no danger of this... If we would deliver ourselves, and get out of this path of trial, it must be by some by-path, and we shall lose blessing. We must remember that the promise adds this: God will exalt us at the proper time — not a minute after the time. When He has worked out the whole purpose of His love, then He will exalt us.
Lying low is not the same as blaming God for our defeat:
To lie face down before God is the only true attitude a believer can take in a season of shame and dishonour. To put on any other is only to add the sin of pride to what caused the defeat. "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you" (James 4:10). True humiliation before God is our only "door of hope" (Hosea 2:15) for blessing in a day of distress. But to lie there without judging ourselves, blaming God instead, is not humility.
- Command. The call is to a settled act, done once for all. Then watch against anything that contradicts it.
- Place. It happens in the sight of the Lord, not of people — inward work, not humble looks and humble words.
- Content. It is our littleness before God, and it is the road Christ Himself took.
- Alternative. Being humble is grace. Being humbled is God's government when we refuse. Humility spares us much humiliation.
- Promise. The lifting up is His to give and His to time: at the proper time, not a minute after.