What is the meaning of "purify your hearts, you double-minded" in James 4:8?

(V. 8). Thirdly, we are exhorted, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.” The devil resisted has to flee, leaving the soul free to draw nigh to God and to find that He is very nigh to us. If, like the Lord in His perfect path, we set Him always before us, we shall find, even as He did, that He is at our right hand and, with His being near to us, we shall not be moved (Psalm 16:8). Drawing near to God is the expression of the active confidence in Him and dependence upon Him, of a heart moved by grace to find that His throne is a throne of grace.

Fourthly, the Apostle says, “Cleanse your hands.” If we are to draw nigh to God, we must judge every act unsuited to His holy presence, not putting our hands to anything that defiles.

Fifthly, the exhortation is, “Purify your hearts, ye double-minded.” It is not enough to cleanse the hands; we must also judge the evil of our hearts. The Pharisees could make much show of outward purification by washing the hands, but the Lord has to say, “Their heart is far from Me” (Mark 7:3, 6). The one who ascends the hill of the Lord and stands in His holy place must have “clean hands, and a pure heart” (Ps. 24:4). The heart is the seat of the Christian's affections. These need to be purged of every object not compatible with God's will.

(V. 9). Sixthly, the Apostle says, “Be afflicted and mourn.” If led by the grace of the Spirit of God, we shall feel the solemn condition of the professing people of God, and in their sorrowful condition we shall find no ground for rejoicing. The Christian has indeed his joys which no man can take from him, and he can rejoice in the grace of God that works in the midst 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.

(V. 10). Seventhly, the Apostle says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.” We may well be humbled as 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 humbling is to be in the presence of the Lord. It is an inward work by which the soul is made conscious of its own littleness in the presence of God's greatness. The natural tendency is to seek to exalt ourselves before one another; only grace will lead us to humble ourselves before the Lord. As we so do, in His own time He will lift us up. Attempting to lift ourselves up, we shall be humbled.

134 Verse 8. Let us "draw near to God, and he will draw near to us." In this is shewn the active dependence of the heart. Thanks be to God, we can draw near to Him! His throne is for us a throne of grace: we may come into His presence without fear, because of His love, and enter into the holiest by the precious blood of Christ. When near Him, we learn holiness, we discern His will, the eye sees clearly in this pure atmosphere; the heart is subject; the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. They walk with God, but as taught of God, and the whole body is full of light. Then He is with us, He draws near to us, He inspires us with confidence. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" says the apostle. It is not only that the strength of God is with us, but His presence produces liberty and confidence in our hearts, for we feel that we have the knowledge of His will, since He is with us. The sense of His presence gives joy, calmness, and courage, in presence of the enemy, and in the difficulties of the way we rest in Him. "Thou wilt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man; thou wilt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues." The presence of God, a true and real thing for the heart, keeps the conscience awake, and the heart filled with quiet confidence. Draw near unto Him.

But to do this, the hands must be cleansed, and the heart purified, that in nothing we may be double-minded. God is light, He will have purity and integrity in the inner man. Full of goodness and condescension, He is swift 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 Him. It cannot be otherwise; He holds Himself aloof from those whose hearts are not open in His presence; He sees everything, but for Him to hearken, the heart must be sincere.

James calls things by their right names. It is a great deliverance when we can practically call things by their true names, and see how the word of God would cut off everything that is unholy and contrary to His will in our path. How pungent, how faithful James is! He does not spare the rich or the mighty, no matter how exalted they may be. He speaks most plainly. If there is any question of the saint's honesty, he says, "Cleanse your hearts ye double-minded." He tells us that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let not that man think that he shall get anything of the Lord in prayer. 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. Oh! when I seek the Lord, let it be as it is beautifully put in the book of Chronicles, "They sought Him with all their heart and with all their desire." That kind of prayer will be answered.

215 Mary at the grave on that notable morning of the resurrection, and John in his epistle to the saints have the conscious closeness of the Lord's presence, that they do not even name Him, Christ of God, but it is He and He alone, as if there was nobody else to speak of. "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him." In John 17:19 how precious to find He sanctifies Himself for our sakes that we might be sanctified through the truth - set apart for God. What a wonderful thought! How our souls should pause and in solemn, silent meditation in His presence ask ourselves how much we each individually for ourselves understand and realize this wondrous fact. In James 4:8 it was needful to warn, for the spiritual condition of the saints had become so corrupted: "Purify your hearts, ye double minded." It is the moral power of purifying my soul in His presence for His glory; for God's standard of holiness is the state and measure in which Christ is, in all His perfect purity in glory. He never knew anything else but companionship with God, except when sin was imputed to Him on the cross which is not necessary to say. It was His voluntary act to bring guilty man's case in God's presence and settle it by laying down His own life's blood; but in the believer's walk, God sets forth a glorified Christ as His standard of purity and we - every believer - are to purify ourselves even as He is pure. A wonderful thought - a man on earth and a Man in glory, even Christ Jesus; to know ourselves united! And the proof of my knowing myself united with Him is effective of producing holiness.

He leads us now more into the sanctuary, to estimate things in the presence of God. Where God is, He must rule; and if we will be the arbiters of our own portion, we must, of necessity, be away from God. "Be subject, therefore, to God; resist the devil," — for he is always near if God be far away, — "and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you." A place before Him, even a place in Christ, is one thing; the desire for what that place implies is another. Thus, it can be said to those who in one sense are nigh, "Draw nigh to God;" and there is still this condition to be fulfilled in order that He may draw nigh to us. We are "no more strangers and foreigners." He expects from us the affections of children, of those that desire intimacy; but this can only be ours in a way conformable to His own nature. Thus, the word follows, "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded." The pleasures that men seek away from God need to be turned — as they will surely yet turn — into affliction for them. Let the soul anticipate this, and instead of rejoicing in such a condition, "be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let the laughter be turned to mourning, and the joy to heaviness." No way for us but to anticipate the judgment of Him who judges not harshly, but according to truth. Let us humble, in His presence, the pride of heart which would dictate to Him, and account our own wills better than His will for us. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He shall exalt you. If we exalt ourselves, He will surely abase us. He that humbleth himself shall as surely find exaltation, but it will be in His own manner.

But the thought in the next words seems an example of the peculiarity of an Epistle addressed to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion. "Sinners" and "double-minded" persons are appealed to as such. Such appeals are nowhere found in the Epistles addressed to the saints in the N.T. Here the scope is so wide as to include souls not yet converted, though we have also seen a great deal in the Epistle which supposes the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. But there is more here and to come in accordance with its being written to the ancient people of God as a whole, in whatever degree each believer may draw profit from all. The difficulty of the exhortation is thus accounted for, and the authority of the word maintained, without yielding to any strained interpretation. Nevertheless it is a call to faith in all these verses, and not to the slow process of human effort; for cleansing of hands and purifying of hearts, no less than for submission to God and drawing nigh to Him before, or for sorrowings that follow. The verbs are all in what is called the aorist, and therefore imply that God calls for each and all of these calls to be done once for all as a settled thing for the soul. This grace alone could effect. Man otherwise must labour in vain. God gives to faith what He demands.

Still where faith is, there is repentance also; and God will have evil felt and judged in those who are blessed of Him. Hence the summons, "Sorrow, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned unto mourning, and your joy unto heaviness." As the Lord said, "Blessed they that mourn; for they shall be comforted." The Epistle of James will no more allow the moral side to be forgotten than the apostle Paul in showing us the characteristics of genuine repentance. How could it be otherwise, if we stand in faith before God confessing our sins? To make repentance only a change of mind is a serious dereliction from the truth. Sin is ignored as it is in God's sight, and any divinely-given sense of our ruin.

But a larger call follows, and of deep practical moment, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." This too is a call to have it done once for all, like the rest — an accomplished act, and not a mere process going on. But as in the other cases, so in this, the believer is bound ever after to watch against every inconsistency with what is so done.

Immediately we think of drawing near to God the question of our moral fitness is raised. How can we draw near except as cleansed and purified. Hence, what we find in the latter part of verse 8 and in verses 9 and 10. James speaks very strongly as to the state of those to whom he wrote, accusing them of sin and double-mindedness and a good deal of indifference to their real condition, so that they were filled with laughter and jollification in spite of their sorry state. What they needed was to purify themselves not only externally — the "hands" — but internally — the "hearts," and also to repent, humbling themselves before God.

Are we sometimes conscious that our hearts are far from God? Do we sometimes feel as though it were impossible for us to draw near to Him? These verses then will explain matters for us and show us the way. The only road into the Divine presence that is available for us is that of purification, within as well as without, of repentance and of freshly humbling ourselves before God. Then it is that He will lift us up, and we shall be in the full enjoyment of the light of His countenance.

But we shall not have an attitude of humility if we do not take the first step of submitting to God: the will must first be brought into subjection before it will be subject. This positive step of submission is deeply important for every believer. And on the other hand, there is that which should accompany it, the resisting of the devil. For pride is the chief weapon in the devil's armory, and it is from this that envy and strife proceed. We must therefore resist his flattering of our own pride.

If this is so, the hindrance will be removed as regards our drawing near to God; and here is where the preciousness of spiritual joy and strength is found. For God Himself will draw near to us. But this also immediately calls for the cleansing of our hands, if they have been in any way engaged in sin; and the purifying of our hearts, if there has been duplicity rather than single-mindedness.

This does not mean He expects every believer to be sinless now, but He wants every believer in the place of purity. It does not say that He wants purity within us, but He does want purity, that is, the judgment of that which is of man in the flesh, there is to be no admixture of evil and good principles together. We are to "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Tim.2:22). A pure heart is not a sinless heart, rather it is a heart that is occupied with the holiness of the Christ of God. Is Christ the object of our own hearts? That is a real test for every gathering of the people of God, what is the reason we gather? Do we gather in practice to the Person of the Lord Jesus or is there something else as well? Do I gather because I like the particular company, is this the thought? The vital thing in any gathering is that Christ is the centre. Having a pure heart is having Christ as the only object of our hearts without any admixture. It is not 'Christ and something else', but 'Christ only, the centre'. That is true in the house of God. After all, the One who dwells there is the God of heaven and earth Himself, He is the One to whom our souls are brought.

Throughout the New Testament there is much said about purity of heart. It is looked for as the true condition of all Christians, though, alas, all are not "pure in heart." So much is said, and said truly, about the deceitfulness of the human heart in our discourses and papers, that the expression "pure in heart" is supposed, even by most Christians, to be a figure which is not intended to mean what it says, and thus it is passed over. But scripture means a great deal that is most definite by pureness of heart. The apostle in writing to his son Timothy, says, "Follow righteousness faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." This passage clearly teaches what we are to look for and expect in all who come to the Lord's table. Only such will suit Him who says, I am "he that is holy, he that is true." The apostle Peter in his address to the council (Acts 15) speaks of the Gentiles as "purifying their hearts by faith," and therefore as entitled to christian fellowship as the Jewish believers. And in his epistle he says, "seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." The apostle James in his exhortations uses a similar form of expression: "and purify your hearts, ye double minded." John, also, in speaking of the Lord's coming, says, "And every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he" — that is, Christ — "is pure." Here the Lord Jesus, is brought before us, not only as being in Himself essentially pure, but as the measure and standard of purity for us. "Every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure."