Is grace always unmerited favor? Not when God gives grace to the humble who merit it in humbleness.
When Christians Change From Adulterous Enemies of God to Faithful Friends of God
James 4:4-10
Please turn to James 4:4-10. As you are turning there, I would like us to think about how repulsive the ideas of fidelity and sexual relationships are treated according to lust, selfishness, and sin in the fallen world. The sinful disease of marital unfaithfulness goes back to the civilization that existed before the flood. Then in the repopulation of the earth, the sinful trait can be seen infecting the various civilizations. Infidelity was even found among God's Old Covenant people, Israel. According to the Law, marital unfaithfulness, which is adultery, is demonstrated as so repulsive to God that it was punishable by death. God's design was that a man would leave his mother and father--join to his wife, and the two would become one flesh. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that when someone joins to a prostitute, they become one flesh in an unholy union. We know it is sin, and we know it is the result of a lost world. When we consider what Demosthenes of ancient Athens, proclaimed to a gathering of his people,
"Mistresses we keep for the sake of pleasure, concubines for the daily care of our persons, but wives to bear us legitimate children and to be faithful guardians of our households." (Apollodorus Against Neaera, Speech 59:122, Demosthenes)
we recognize how sinful and defiled the marital relationship becomes when humans rebel against God and seek after their own distorted pleasures. We see it in the relationship that God had with ancient Israel, where Israel as a nation committed spiritual adultery against their loving God. We know how horrible it was, and is. We see it in our own contemporary culture, where people commit adultery in secret in much the same manner that they commit adultery in the open of Demosthenes' day. Or, they just never get married, and so in their lack of commitment, they justify moving from one sexual partner to another. Sometimes those partners are people who are married, and so they are not just in bondage to their own fornicating sin, but they are also adulterers. They attack marriage at the front of the battle line. They are the shipwrecks of sin that have sunken into the depths of the sea of promiscuity and so called sexual liberation, so called freedom, and cultural right to choice. Adultery is wrong. It is sin, and we all know it. But I want us all to think about how horrible, hurting, and hellish adultery is. It is a rejection of the marital covenant. It is an attack upon God's institution. It is a sin against God, and against the spouse. It is devastating, and it has lasting social, moral, emotional, and spiritual consequences. Now keep that thought in your minds, because when we think about it the way it really is, we think, I would never commit adultery against my spouse. If we are not married, we think, when I get married, I will never commit adultery. Or, all of us who have parents; think about how awful it would be for our own parents to commit adultery on one another. How unthinkable it is to be so unfaithful to one's spouse that you would give yourself to another, and you would take another for yourself. It is the serious thought about the seriousness of an extramarital affair. Solemnly think about this, because Christians do this everyday, and they do this against God. Adultery. This is what James is addressing this morning in our passage, and it is something that any of us are fully capable of doing when we do not heed the word of God by His Spirit. Please read it along with me now,
"4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: 'He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us'? 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, 'GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.' 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you."
Let us prayerfully prepare our hearts to learn from this verse to verse sermon this morning:
When Christians Change From Adulterous Enemies of God to Faithful Friends of God
[prayer]
James has been urging the saints to be doers of the word and not just merely hearers who delude themselves. Belief backed by believers behavior is the great thrust. Even in our desires and prayers, there is a believers behavior, and we must do it just as diligently as any duty we have in life. It is the doing side of our Christianity. Coming into the flow of our passage, James is making it clear to us that the source of conflicts and quarrels among us Christians is the doing side of sin. It all has to do with pride, selfishness, and wanting to satisfy our own pleasures. Lust and envy lead to homicides in the world. Similarly, in the body of Christ, lust and envy lead to murder in the sense of wounded fellowship, of separating from others, of division, of pain, and of chaos. It's a kind of contempt for other Christians that victimizes them, hurts the church, and slanders God's glory. Even in going to God in prayer, there is this kind of lustful self pleasure seeking that can occur, and so in self consumed selfishness, prayers are delivered up to God to get what is lusted after so that it will be spent on personal pleasures. James is warning the Israelite Christians to run from these things--things that we are so familiar with. We also need to run from these things, and so we open our hearts to listen to God through James, where in the same flow of thought, James says,
"4 You adulteresses,
[and he asks a question that we should already know the answer to]
do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." James 4:4
James is writing to Israelite Christians. They would instantly recognize what we need to recognize. James is talking about spiritual adultery. Concerning their own people (Israel), many of that age had completely apostatized from Yahweh and His Messiah. They were adulterers who completely rejected God, Jesus and the way of salvation. These Israelite Christians knew that God (through the prophets, Isaiah, Ezekial, and Hosea) referred to ancient Israel as adulterers. Some of these early Christians had forefathers who had turned from God to adultery with the world. So, these Israelite Christians were very familiar with this language. In the same sense, we are God's New Covenant people, and we find the church referred to as the bride of Christ on many occasions. Paul said in 2 Corinthians of his ministry to the church at Corinth,
"2 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. 3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:2-3
James' point is similar. James is writing to people saved in the New Covenant. But in their salvation, they are not being faithful to God in their intimate friendship with Him. Their fidelity with God and the things of God in Holy union with Him has been compromised by lust for worldliness. They are sleeping around with that which is God's enemy, and so they are adulteresses. We may sit here and say,
How can that be? Don't they know that fellowship with the world is enmity toward God?
But we need to be very, very careful when casting a judgmental gaze, or a stone, upon the woman caught in adultery. Certainly, in our pride, we can easily refuse to recognize the same pattern in many of our own lives. Are we forgetting how easy it is to think of something that is ugly and sinful, and which is something to be avoided at all costs, as something that seems, (in sin) to be beautiful and worthy of satisfying our longings? Are we forgetting that the reason why any of us sin is because in some way, to some degree, it satisfies a certain pleasure? This is what James has been talking about. He is talking about Christians who have made what is low, detestable, and unworthy, into something that is more important than their truly beautiful and soul fulfilling spouse, which is God. God deserves our favor, but our favor has been given to that harlot called, the world. And we all know who she is. The world is the realm that comprises all that is opposed to God in the curse of the sin of the fall. Think about this--The world's religion is anything that is not being an effectual doer of the word. Whether materialism, or hedonism, or atheism, or Islamism, or Hinduism, or agnosticism, or secular humanism--it is all the religious belief system of the world culture of the domain of darkness, which is the umbrella religion of all beliefs outside of Christ. The Dutch Reformed theologian, Henry Van Til said it well:
"Culture is religion externalized."
To be an immoral sexual partner with the world, where you cheat on your God, is to sleep with a culture whose religion is externalized, and you become one flesh with it. It is where you have given favor to the various rituals of the world like a moth drawn into a searing fire because the light seems so pretty, so fascinating, and so bright, that to fly into it must be a good thing to do. But, it is spiritual adultery, and we must not be found guilty of it, and if we are, we must make every effort to escape the snare of our own wandering unfaithfulness. But, we must be honest with ourselves. We must be honest, and we must be humble. And the way we get truly honest with ourselves in humility is by comparing our lives with Scripture. What do the Scriptures tell us? They tell us that to be an adulterer who sleeps with the world, is actually to be in hostility toward God. This is not philosophy. This is the Scriptural reality of the situation. The reason why this is real hostility that real Christians can have toward their true partner for life, and why it is real enmity toward God, who purchased those same people with the blood of Christ, is because friends of the world are not passive victims of the world. No, they are active purposeful participants with that which is lost, base, and opposed to God; and so the favor that God deserves has been transferred to that which deserves to be shunned. False Christian counselors who are tainted by the world's cultural religion will externalize the culture's lies by telling you that you are a victim of the world, and so that is why you want to sin with it. They opine;
It is not your fault. You are a victim, and so it is the world's fault.
In the meantime, another worldly counselor will tell you that what you are doing is not really all that bad. They will tell you that there really is no reason to become a fanatic. A lot of people think that the world culture is not all that bad. In fact they will try to convince you to try to be as much like the world culture that you can, so that you can be something that they call a balanced Christian. And yet in this failing philosophy of foolishness that is natural, earthly, demonic, when you sin because of your adulterous affair with the world, they will come back and say that you are a victim. Odd then that being a victim is apparently a pseudonym for being a balanced Christian. But, God doesn't say you are victimized by your extramarital bed partner that you heaped your favor upon. God says that such activity is hostility against Him. Let's just call it what it is; it's sin. Sin is when a Christian becomes a willing participant in the unfaithful adulterous affair that they desire to have with the culture of the lost. I ask, is it not true hostility, to be a friend of the world, when doing so is to purposely make yourself into the very thing that you should be ministering to? It is to make one's self into something that God is opposed to. To be a bed partner with the world is to seek to think, and act like something that you were saved from. It is so obvious when we are honest with God's word, but yet, this problem is rampant within the church. Notice that James says that this adulterer is something that one "wishes to be," and this enemy of God is something that one "makes himself" into. Notice that there is no excuse given for this kind of behavior. There is only indictment. These are things that we are wholly accountable for doing as our own personal ambitions. James is clear: If you wish to be a friend of the world, then you, you, you make yourself an enemy of God. It is that simple. We can not tame down the language of this. This passage stands there like an unshakable officer of the Lord, and it convicts the hearts of God's true children. The Spirit speaks to us. We know that we should be ministering to the enemies of God. We know that we should be battling their influence, but we are not going to do it; much less recognize it if we are sleeping with the enemy.
God has three revealed mandates for the lost enemy, (which is the world), and sinful Christians who are friends of the world, and He wants to use you and me to accomplish two of them--which means He wants to use us as His ministers:
/1/
First, God has revealed His mandate to be about changing people in the world through evangelism in His effectual call through His Holy Spirit by the Gospel. But here is the problem--when a Christian is fornicating with the world in spiritual adultery, evangelism is the last thing on their mind, and worse, evangelism becomes watered down in light of their actions. It is a sad hard fact, but worldliness breeds watered down evangelism.
/2/
Secondly, God opposes the world and all of its darkened mind foolishness. Conversely, the world is opposed to God. So, God has called us to be warriors that oppose the world along with Him. He wants us to separate from it, and to correct it. We correct it by teaching against it, living against it, and exposing it for the lie that it is. Paul calls it the futility of the Gentile mind in Ephesians and He says it is darkened in its understanding. But, we are not going to oppose this world that God is opposed to when we are friends with it-- sleeping with it. But there is that third revealed mandate that God has for His enemy, and God is the One Who does it.
/3/
Thirdly, God will Judge the world in final judgment as damned forever in complete separation from Him as enemies of war that are lost and so they perish in their doom. So, what carnal, sin soaked Christians find so tempting and delightful, God is going to completely destroy.
In the meantime, God wants us to be thinking like he thinks concerning the three ways He views the world and what He wants to do with it. Once we look upon the world as something we can sneak off with and sleep with, then our whole ministry focus collapses before our very eyes, but oftentimes we are blind to what is going on. Way too many ministers have fallen into this trap, where they go from being opposed to the world in ministry, to becoming friends of the world in desperate need of ministry. We think of one such man that live back in the age of James. His name was Demas. How many of you have heard of Demas? We don't know much about Demas, but we do know that he was a minister of God. He was a man who helped out Paul in ministry. Clearly, it seems, Demas understood very well the three important ways that God views the world. When we first read of Demas, we read that he wanted Paul to send his greetings to the church of Colossae. Evidently Demas had such importance to Paul that Paul wrote,
"14 Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings, and also Demas." Colossians 4:14
Demas was a fellow worker with Paul--a fellow soldier. He is of note. A hello from Demas in the apostle's epistle, is a worthy gesture. It is worthy enough to become Holy Scripture for eternity. Paul writes to his friend Philemon, and we see basically the same thing,
"23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, 24 as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers.:" Philemon 1:24
Demas is called a fellow worker in the cause of Christ. What could happen to such a man who has earned this kind of fame among the churches? What could happen to such a man who has earned some level of fame among God's word?--Martyrdom? Imprisonment? Maybe such a man could go on after Paul had established the various churches. Maybe Demas could continue on to be an elder in the church. Maybe he could carry on the ministry of Paul after Paul is imprisoned, and martyred. Demas was schooled in evangelism, preaching, teaching, and church planting. What could happen to such a man? But, the bigger question is, what did happen to such a man? We read of the last mention of Demas in the last letter Paul wrote before his head was chopped off in execution, and he walked on over to the other side to be with Christ forever. As I read I want us to notice that Paul writes about what James is writing about,
"10 Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me" 2 Timothy 4:10
Folks, this describes the danger of adultery with the world, where you love, lust, and lay with the world. God recorded this about Demas in His word for us to spotlight, contemplate, and consider so that we would learn from his life. Demas is the inspired analogy of the actual principle personified. And so this leads us to be thinking that not only did Demas desert Paul the apostle because he loved this present world, but also that God looked upon what Demas did in jealousy. Yes, God is a gracious God, but God is also a jealous God--fully desiring those whom he purchased on the cross in His election. God is not happy when His bride is committing adultery. James knows this and so He makes a reference to the Scripture, saying,
"5 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 4:5
This is one of those beautiful instances in the Bible where one of God's ministers that He used to write the Bible, is referring to an essential message of the Old Testament that His audience would be familiar with. The reason why I say that James is mentioning an essential message of the Old Testament, is because an exact quote in this passage can not be found in any one verse, but it can be deduced as something that is true of God, as can be seen from many passages in the Old Testament. It is the essence and compilation of such passages as Exodus 20:5 where we find that God is a jealous God. Not only is God jealous, but He says that His name is Jealous in Exodus 34:14. But there is something else of fascinating importance that we need to be aware of as we glean James' point for living in fidelity. What I mean is that according to scholars, this has been one of the most difficult passages to translate in James, and stands among those that are the most difficult in the New Testament. There are four primary ways to interpret the Greek construction here:
(1)
One interpretation given this verse is that the spirit of people which God caused to dwell within his children is part of them, and so it is that spirit that is there in us that is the thing that longs to envy, or longs jealously over other things that are not of God. With this particular interpretation, it is thought that what James is doing is saying that our spirit that God has made to dwell within us is what seeks to sin, and it is our spirit that seeks to fellowship with the world in enmity against God, and so our spirit needs to be careful and seek not to do this kind of thing.
(2)
A second interpretation that scholars give this verse is that God jealously desires His Holy Spirit which He has made sure dwells in His children, and when we do not manifest the fruits of the Spirit as the manifestation of the Spirit in the Spirit filled life, for example, by shunning love for the world, and remaining faithful in single mindedness toward our God, then we are depriving God of the obedience that He wants where He gets more of Himself reflected out of us than He does of our carnal double minded sin. In other words, according to this interpretation, for God to desire the Holy Spirit in us that he made to dwell there, is for Him to desire Christ likeness from his children in their thoughts and actions. This leads us to quickly be familiarized with a third view.
(3)
A third interpretation that scholars give for this verse is that the Holy Spirit Himself, that dwells in God's children, as the third person of the Triune, yet One God, jealously longs over those within whom He dwells. In much the same sense as the second view I just mentioned, the Holy Spirit, as God, jealously longs over us in our salvation as His possession, but what He is longing for in our salvation, is that we lead the godly lives in faithfulness rather than worldliness that He is convicting us to do. This leads us to the fourth view to be familiarized with.
(4)
A fourth interpretation that scholars give for this verse is that God jealously desires our own spirit which is an aspect of us that He has made to dwell within us. When we do not manifest single minded faithfulness to Him, shunning love for the world, then this spirit is depriving God of the obedience that He wants.
I, and most scholars, prefer the last three renderings based upon various grammatical, contextual and semantic considerations, whereby the overarching principle that connects all three, regardless of which one is the most accurate understanding of what James meant in the Greek, is that God jealously desires us to be faithful to Him and not adulteresses who seek after our own selfish sinful pleasures. Simply put folks; Like any loving spouse, God wants you and me to favor Him. He wants our adoration, our commitment, our submission as His helpmates that He has created and has designed to be in Holy chaste matrimony with Him. This is the over arching point--God is a jealous God and wants single minded faithfulness from us. It is as the poet, Emily Dickinson, of three hundred years ago said so well,
God is indeed a jealous God
He cannot bear to see
That we had rather not with Him
But with each other play
--Emily Dickinson
Essentially what James is saying is,
Look, you are acting like adulteresses, and if you don't like this indictment, then consider the Tanakh passages that have to do with God's jealous longing for His Old Covenant Israelites. The same things go for you.
James is being forceful about the seriousness of their actions, when he asks, Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose? They can only answer,
No, of course not James, the Scriptures tell us that God is jealous, so I see your point--friendship with the world is adultery and it is enmity toward God demonstrated in the scriptural jealousy He has over His people.
And so James quotes Proverbs 3:34, where he says,
"6 But He gives a greater grace [carin in the Greek]. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE [carin in the Greek] TO THE HUMBLE." James 4:6
In other words, God may be jealous of you who are in spiritual adultery, but you are His people, and so as such He also gives greater favor to you in your humbleness. Now this is important, so please listen very carefully to what I am about to say because when you ask the typical Christian what the definition of grace is, which is usually the English word translated from charis in the Greek, this is the standard answer you will get:
Grace is unmerited favor.
meaning,
Grace is undeserved or unearned favor.
How many of us have heard that definition of grace? How many of us have used that definition of grace? I use this definition all the time. The reason why I use this definition is because it is a legitimate definition of charis, which is translated as grace. For example this is what Paul means in Romans when he says,
"... there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious [charis, as chariton] election. But if it is by grace, [charis] it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace [charis] is no longer grace [charis]." Romans 11:6
In the context of what Paul is saying concerning eternal spiritual salvation, we recognize that unmerited favor is what is in view--don't we? This grace is not based upon works, or actions that earn merit. This grace is not based upon humbling yourself, which is a work, or action that earns merit. This grace is unmerited, undeserved, unearned, favor. But, the Greek preposition carin (which is simply just a form of charis, spelled cariv, as the accusative case) of our passage which is rightly translated as "grace" in the NASB is not necessarily defined as having the word "unmerited," or "undeserved," or "unearned" before it. In James 4:6, the Greek preposition is accurately translated as simply favor. At this point, I think that some of us might be thinking,
I'm having a hard time following what you are saying.
Okay, then stay with me as I explain it a bit more; Charis in Romans 11 is translated as grace which is unmerited, undeserved favor. Its usage in our James 4:6 passage, simply means favor. The reason why this is important to us to understand is because some favor is deserved; it is earned, and it is merited. But on the other hand, there is some favor that is not. This particular type of favor in James 4:6 is earned, and it's earned by humbleness, which is made understood in the context. Let me briefly share a few examples of where the Greek used to show grace, as favor, is bestowed upon certain people because they merit getting the favor:
"52 And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor [cariti] with God and men." Luke 2:52
Jesus had cariti-favor (charis) with men because Jesus was worthy of it. He merited this increasing favor among men. We also read in Acts 2,
"44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor [carin] with all the people." Acts 2:44-47
The favor that the new Israelite converts to Christ had with all the people was favor of merit. And we read,
"19 For this finds favor [carin], if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor [carin] with God." 1 Peter 2:19-20
Patiently enduring unjust suffering because of doing right things is the action that deserves favor with God. The Greek is translated as favor in each of these, and each passage shows that the favor is merited, earned, and deserved. This is the meaning of this Greek word of our text under study. So, what this means is that what James is saying is best rendered for sake of clarity,
"6 But He gives a greater favor [carin]. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES FAVOR [carin] TO THE HUMBLE." James 4:6
And what is really very interesting is that Peter in the 1 Peter epistle that I just quoted, says the same thing as James, like this,
"5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES FAVOR [carin] TO THE HUMBLE. 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time," 1 Peter 5:5-6
Both James and Peter are referencing Proverbs 3:34 from the Greek translation of the Old Testament (The Septuagint, ie. the LXX) which, when read in its context, indicates merited favor from God, where he exalts us when we humble ourselves. What we need to do is keep this in mind, as we consider the fact that for any of us to purposely commit adultery on our God is our fault. We are the ones responsible for applying our own favor somewhere else other than Him. Humbling ourselves by getting out of bed with the enemy, (which, think about it)--really just means getting off the throne of our own lives--brings a greater favor from our Divine Spouse that we have been wronging. God is opposed to proud people. He always has been. He is opposed to people whose hearts scoff in their sin, but He gives greater favor to the humble who realize their selfish wandering and repent of it in real sorrow for what they have done. Of course, there is a way that we do this, so James goes on to describe what it means to be humble before God in such a state. It is the only way to get out of this immoral relationship with the world;
"7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."
The door of pride and the hallway of selfishness is the path of the devil's influence. The devil is the prince of the lost world. It is his domain of darkness. He is the pimp of the world--constantly selling it as something worthy of our affections. There is a kind of attractiveness that is there that entices. This is why it is so easy to sin. The devil has painted His deception and he has adorned it to look so satisfying to us while all of it is opposed to God. James' point is that whenever we submit to the trappings of the world, then what we are really doing is submitting to the lies of the serpent who describes the fruit as being good for our personal well being. What this means is that instead of submitting to the Sovereign of the Universe, we are really submitting to the serpent of the curse. Amazingly, just like Adam and Eve, who in the deceit of lust for the world, whenever we want to be the kings of our own little kingdoms, we might think we are sitting on our own thrones, but in reality, we are kneeling at the foot of the devil, where we have taken what has been crushed beneath the feet of Christ, and we have revived it as a dictating idol for us get what we want to spend on our own pleasures. James says a little earlier that this kind of foolishness is the world's wisdom. It is earthly, natural, demonic, so here is the irony of what sin really is for a true child of God--It is where a Christian foolishly favors the wicked court jester over the noble King, and so in the destructive life of sin, the Christian has submitted to the deficient, deceitful, devil as master for the moment. The only way out of this mess is to recognize that we don't really sit on the throne. It is not our place, and further we don't want to be deceived to think that we can be there. God is the one who sits on the throne, so here is what the great King is telling us to do--resist the devil and he will quickly run away. It's called repentance, and where repentance is, the court jester screams and flees. And our forgiving King is always there ready to receive us because He is always faithful. Paul's says of the character of God in Romans 3,
"Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means!" Romans 3:4
In 2 Timothy he says,
"if we are faithless, He remains faithful--for He cannot deny himself." 2 Timothy 2:13
So when we repent from our adultery with the world, and we resist the devil who has influenced the world, and we return to God who is the ruler of the world, we have gone from being far from His chamber in our soiled thoughts and actions, to drawing near to Him. We all know that this is the right relationship of a bride and groom, and of a wife with her husband in one flesh. Undivided, they should be near to one another, always drawing near to one another in faithfulness. In the Spirit, the same is for all of those who have become one spirit with our Lord.
"But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him." 1 Corinthians 6:17
In grace, God expresses His favor to us, and so when we draw near to Him, we always recognize that He draws near to us. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. He is there for you with open loving arms. Yet, we are the ones, by our own choices to satisfy our lustful pleasures, who have drawn away. We are the ones, by our own choices, in obedience to the urging of the Spirit, who draw back nearer to our Lord, and in doing so, He has been drawn near to us. Again, it is up to us to repent. It is up to God to convict us by His Holy Spirit, of which we have become one with Him in our Holy matrimony. It is up to God to give us the word of truth. Now it is up to us to be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude ourselves. Being doers of the word, means living in purity. So James goes on and tells us what to do,
"Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom."
Being saved in the grace of Christ, and finding favor from God in humble contriteness, is not something to take lightly. In sin, we are forgiven, but we must always be mindful that we are forgiven because of the bloody sacrifice in our stead. He is God's Son. To take this grace for granted is not humbleness. We are saved by grace, but as James is telling us, when we are in adultery with the world, we are filthy. Like a murderer who has blood on his hands, we are sinners who have sin on our hands. So, James says cleanse your hands you sinners. That means to wake up to the seriousness of your sin before your Holy God. James is talking to Christians. For us, the state of adulterous fascination with the world is so bad that God calls sinning Christians what they are--you sinners. I can not tell you how many times I have heard well meaning preachers say that we are not sinners--we are saints. But, this is only a partially true statement because James identifies the sinning Christian with raw accuracy as a sinner. James also speaks of a Christian sinner in 5:20. The full statement that is more accurate to make is that:
We are not sinners who are lost, but we are saved sinners when we are sinning.
So, here is the great upward call to us today: Any of us who are saved sinners, need to cleanse our hands quickly in single mindedness, and purify our hearts. This is what living by the word means. A purified heart in this context is when you take the world out of your heart and replace it with the word in your heart. Let's call it God-focused. Singlemindedness is to be enthusiastically happy about your one soul-mate, which is Christ. It is to recognize that any other adulteress's affair with the world is a curse upon yourself that is an insidious distraction from the only real focus that matters. All of this is done with an attitude of real sober understanding of how you have been treating your God. You see, throwing down the grace card has become so oddly strange in our age, that we have taken out the seriousness of what it means to be an adulterer in a relationship. Folks, what this means, is that in a very real way, we have shamed our husband, we have caused sorrow, we have favored a whore over Him, and God has told us that He is Jealous. The question is, do you believe the Scriptures? Then the point is, you need to act like it. Be miserable about it. Mourn about it. Weep, cry, and feel very sad. In other words, be truly sensitive to the gravity of what sin really is. Finally James says,
"10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you."
This reward of exaltation is the same result we find in 1 Peter 5:5-6. Humbleness, brings favor, which is exaltation. All the Israelite Christians of that age were exalted by God above their fellow countrymen who had rejected the Messiah. But James, at this point, is still talking about the Christian coming to repentance from adultery with the world. Conversely, if you don't repent, then you are not getting this favor, and so once again, James is simply repeating a statement that he makes all throughout this epistle in about a hundred different ways, which is that when you love your God with all your heart and you love your neighbor as Christ loves you, then you will be blessed in what you do. What is amazing is that every lie, and every pleasure, and every temptation that we run after in adultery with the cursed world around us, has to do with wanting to exalt ourselves. We have bought the lie of the serpent just like our great great grandparents did when they thought they would be exalted to the point of being like God. It is amazing, then that what our selfishness and pride lusts after so much in sin, God, our loving, faithful, covenant companion and Head is waiting to give to us as the great gift giving provider. We think that we will sin and we will be exalted because our pleasures will be satisfied. God says when we humble ourselves before Him, He will exalt us. My urging to all of us is to think soberly concerning these words of James. Be recognizing what friendship with the world actually is. It is hostility against God. It is spiritual adultery. If after analyzing your life in accordance with God's word in sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and you find that you are sleeping with the enemy, then be quick to humble yourself before God, and draw near to Him in repentance from the futility of the Gentile mind. Folks, He will draw near to you. He will restore you, and He will exalt you according to His promise.
