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.