4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves 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 wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
What does it look like to humble yourself so as to receive the help of the Three-ly and One-ly God who gives grace to the humble? We need God’s help, and God is ready to help the humble in managing our passions, in living loyally toward him, in becoming the creature the Creator intended when he first said, “Let us make man in our image…”
Last week we said that humbling ourselves starts with submitting yourselves to God…arranging the entirety of your entire life toward God, holding nothing back, demanding nothing. Not, I’m going to date whoever I want but I’ll be sure to pray every night before I go to sleep. What we called our romantic life is under Christ!
We also discussed resisting the devil, which occurs when we don’t allow the devil to constrict our vision to this moment, this scene, the thing right in front of me… but rather we’ve trained ourselves in thinking expansively and seeing the big picture, where words like God, gospel, judgment, grace, salvation loom large.
The devil paralyzes us, makes us cower by – for instance – letting the looks on peoples’ faces control what we do and say. When you’re at lunch with colleagues and wonder if you should bow your head and pray before maw-ing the burger, the devil wants you to imagine the look of surprise, then faint scorn on your colleagues faces if you would pray. But how small-souled the devil has tricked you into being to care about looks on people’s faces! However, if previous to that before- lunch moment you’ve resisted the devil, have many times gone through the paces of thinking big, of imagining what is true: that there’s a God who has accomplished big things to get meals in front of you: he’s held the pillars of the earth firm and rode the clouds to bring food onto people’s plates – you’ll only be wondering at your colleagues’ apathy – don’t you see the majesty represented by your burger and fries!
Draw near to God was our final phrase from last week: the phrase stressing that all our endeavors should be paths toward encountering God and none be ways of avoiding him. Life is all about worship. Friday nights – toward God. Saturday mid-morning -toward God. Reading, texting family, conversing, cleaning the house, hosting, fessing up and saying sorry, getting dressed, shopping on Amazon – all informed by the Spirit of God in the Scripture, all done in the service of Christ the King, all as acts of worship, your entire body presented as a living sacrifice.
All that was from last week. I should repeat a couple bigger-picture addendums. First, the reminder that these – submit, resist, draw near – aren’t simply three good things but James’ unpacking of what it means to humble yourself in order to receive grace. He gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore.
The second reminder is that submit, resist, draw near aren’t things you decide to switch on in a moment. When, for reasons you don’t understand, a huge, hot curiosity and compulsion comes over you to look up things you shouldn’t on the web, that feverish, irrational moment is not the time to think: hmm… submit, resist, draw near. No in that moment those verbs will sound in your ears as brittle, irrelevant, toothless, boring. Rather, that moment of temptation is the time to run outside and throw yourself in the snowbank, text your homies to pray, shout up to heaven and ask for the Spirit and the angels and the elements and all that is under Christ to be sent to your aid.
But what has prepared you to act vigorously in that moment of temptation is long work during cool moments at submitting, resisting, drawing near. James is calling us to a process when we’re not being tempted – actually a lifelong process of repenting/ training in Christ.
Final reminder: this process isn’t solo – the Church aids each other. And this process isn’t undertaken randomly or following a few YouTube influencers but is by the light of God’s Word. God’s Word and the Church – saints living and saints already with Christ – are essential, which is another way of saying we walk by the Spirit of Christ.
Let’s keep going. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. You mightn’t have noticed that throughout this letter James addresses his readers tenderly. Dear brothers and sisters is typical. So, this you sinners hits hard. But then, we do need to be awakened to the fact that we should cleanse our hands. That is, stop doing the wrong things. Sounds simple, but it’s big. To manage your passions, live loyalty to God…stop doing what you shouldn’t.
Cleanse your hands is concrete. Get that stuff off your hands, get that stuff out of your life. Just because there’re words like ‘grace,’ ‘justification,’ etc doesn’t mean you can be sloppy about your sloth, be ok with thoughts of resentment and jealousy.
It is good to hear that crisp phrase: Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Sometimes, humbling ourselves is simply to stop doing the wrong things we’ve been doing or leaving undone with a high hand. We can get to the place where we’re too big to care about these “minor” offenses. It might not have come across as proud, but when we’ve become accustomed to, and not planning to stop getting a little intoxicated, some bouts of losing our temper, treating people coldly, telling white lies to our customers, overeating…that’s arrogant stuff.
Yes, I want you to see the pride that accompanies a lot of our mundane falling short and trespasses. Not focusing when others are talking. Opening the article entitled “Jason Aldean’s wife stuns in beach photos.” Wasting 15 minutes of every hour in half-consciously scanning through social media. Indulging our anxieties. Wasting time. Wasting more time. Wasting even more time. Sitting on our talents instead of investing them. A constant habit of procrastination.
In the back of our minds there’s a flicker of a sense that these things are against God’s will, but that doesn’t bother us because they’re small and done seemingly without effect.
Yes, we become ok with a lot of junk in our habits and minds. If we ever stop to consider how we’re falling short in these little ways, we tell ourselves it doesn’t matter. Why it doesn’t matter we never pause to explain to ourselves. Just a nebulous idea that “whatever OR that’s how things go OR we’re all human OR boys will be boys OR I’m not as bad as ______________.”
No. Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. That’s the target, the standard. To imagine that we’ve attained a position where we can be casual about transgressions, where we can be dismissive about stabs of conscience – that’s simply arrogant.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners.
Purify your hearts, you double-minded. What Pastor James chiefly waged war against in his congregation wasn’t atheism or progressivism but double-mindedness. You’ll recall that he made double-mindedness an issue in his first meditation: feel free to ask for wisdom while you’re undergoing trials and 100% God will give…just make sure that you’re not a double-minded asker. Don’t look for God’s help while planning to go back to pursuing your own dreams once you’re out of trouble.
Double-mindedness, evidenced by contradictions: the practice of blessing God while cursing those made in his image. Hearing and approving God’s word but not doing it. Claiming to be wise but life is muddied by ignorance of God and fearful people pleasing. Possessing a belief in God that doesn’t unfold into generosity and endurance and obedience. Treating people who are detrimental to your faith with more respect than you do other Christians. Sighing about how good things used to be.
Double-mindedness – the state of being torn between commitment to God and something else. Constantly wondering if God’s way is actually the best way. Or more subtly – sprinkling in some God stuff and calling that commitment to God.
Purify your hearts – you double-minded, it’s time to re-think things. It’s time to quit hesitating before God… a failure of commitment is a presentation of pride. You’re trying to maintain control. But here’s the thing: you’re not in charge, not in control. Jesus is Lord. He’s the Resurrected One.
So…quit operating off what is temporary or puffed up with fake news and start backing a winner. Start aligning your loyalties and your habits behind that which is permanent and real and strong…that which is of God. And then think yourself to continuing on that way. Jesus is risen from the dead. He is the future of whatever future humans will have. He is the Man God raised from the dead, and it’s His kind that God justifies and sets into His future plans. Everything that is not with Him is against Him and everything against Him will not endure. So, Church, purify your hearts and get off the fence and follow the Lord.
Again, hear this properly. This isn’t a come-to-Jesus moment; Pastor James is telling us that we need to regularly purify our hearts. We need to be convinced over and over and over about the Resurrection, that the way of Jesus is the deeply good way, that abiding with Him is worth the bother, that in fact, we belong to Christ as a bride belongs to a bridegroom, as a branch to the vine.
To the end of constantly purifying your heart of doublemindedness, let me encourage you to a lifetime of daily exposure to the psalms. I know no better antibody to doublemindedness than going through the psalms several times a year. The psalms are helpful in many ways, especially by conveying the message that God is victorious, even when sometimes victory lays just beyond discouragement and defeat. I also commend gathering with the church at least weekly on the Lord’s Day, where every week you’ll hear that God has raised Christ from the dead after he made full payment for humanity’s sins and you’ll confess that you’re in Christ. Finally, to purify your heart I commend Christian biography and church history where you’ll expand your affection for the saints in the land and they’ll become your delight. I’m on the side of the resisters, those who were pilgrims in this world.
And then, finally: Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Do you know what glibness is? “Fluent and talkative but insincere and shallow.” That gets to the heart of what James is attacking here. In developing a humility that receives help from God, James is warning the Church away from an atmosphere that is glib, flippant, attracted to triteness, full of little jokes and clever asides, cynical, sarcastic, noisy, clamorous, excitable. If there’s earnestness, it’s to be seen as not stuffy, not superior, not highbrow, not serious.
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion…
A frivolous bent, a regular slouch toward comedy and excitement and entertainment is good soil for the passions to become invasive, for the devil to exploit, for the mind to become less sharp.
A glib, quasi-funny, lightweight atmosphere might first appear authentic or unstuffy, but this is a superficial, stupid reading of the situation. Whatever else flourishes in that atmosphere, conviction of sin doesn’t. Cheap laughter, everybody always grinning and nodding approvingly at everyone else, fun front and center, seriousness banished because, well, that’d be too heavy – – – – – – you can’t fit the big picture in there. There’s no air for conviction of sin and thus there’s no place for a Savior from sin. “No man can give the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save.” – James Denny.
The Spirit says through Pastor James: Get serious. If you’d just lay off the jokes for a second you could see how far you’ve fallen short. You would be cut to the heart if you weren’t always trying to have fun. Here’s what to do: for a second stop trying for a laugh and ask for God to tell you the truth about the seriousness of your failure. Be in a frame of mind where you can weep over your crookedness now… so that you don’t have to weep over the scene where your crookedness is taking you. Do you understand? Your dishonesty will bring you to a miserable place. Be miserable now, before you arrive there, so you won’t arrive there.
Several things to say in the wake of this: recognize that we’re living in a society that is uncommonly flippant and often serious only about going after laughs. Even from my 30s to my 50s the whole idea of stand-up comedians has exploded. YouTube will offer reel after reel of something bend over laughing funny, something slightly humorous that gives you a little extra breath out your nose, something trying to be funny. The political and life commentators that young people look to are often those who combine a few ideas with a lot of irreverent humor, saucy take downs. Today, the joke is always just around the corner, waiting to show itself.
CSL: Demon: Among flippant people the Joke is always assumed to have been made. No one actually makes it; but every serious subject is discussed in a manner which implies that they have already found a ridiculous side to it. If prolonged, the habit of Flippancy builds up around a man the finest armour-plating against the Enemy that I know…
This slouching toward humor is not good for the things of the spirit. But neither is the artificial world that is forming around us. How can we mourn if 40% of our waking time is in front of a screen? How much spiritual reality can pierce through our online betting?
Next thing: though I try not to be overly confessional in sermons, this point hits home. I press the humor button too much, with the Church and at home. I hate the idea of stuffiness or taking oneself too seriously. But in avoiding these it’s easy to fall into the trap of frivolousness which steels one away from being scared by, broken about his sin.
Next thing: This is hard to get right and cannot be policed. These are balancing acts that I think the Spirit alone has to train people into. We don’t want any church ladies becoming scolds to the young people when they’re laughing in groups. No, a sober and reflective and quiet spirit is something we’ll arrive at without coercion.
And, of course, there is much room for laughter and fun. Perhaps a way to think about this is our resting spiritual face is serious, thoughtful, attentive, eyes waiting for God. But it’s good sometimes and regularly to be taken away from seriousness and dance, to make merry, feast, twirl, joke, wear costumes, play video games, embrace Friday nights! But not so as to continue the revelry indefinitely – hey, let’s do this every night – but in order to get back to sober-mindedness, the big picture. Look up the history of the Church and carnival.
Final point about this: this will need to be worked at, trained into. Church, think and then train yourself into an atmosphere where sin is serious, where seriousness isn’t looked down as elitism or stuffiness, where earnest conversation isn’t thought of as being fake or overly intellectual.
You better believe you need God’s help to manage your appetites, to live loyally toward him. So humble yourself. Humbling yourself isn’t, as CS Lewis said, a pretty woman pretending that she’s ugly or a clever man trying to make himself believe that he’s a fool. No, humbling yourself is a way of life, the practice of figuring out how and then putting on a set of attitudes: 100% surrender to God. Resisting the devil by drawing on the big picture. In everything you do drawing near to God. Cutting known bad practices out of your life. Working at wholeness and integrity instead of double-mindedness. Being fundamentally serious so as to be open to conviction of sin and repentance. No, not simply conviction…brokenness!
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We come to the table of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you’re a baptized follower of Christ who is accountable to the leadership of a local church you’re invited to join us at this table even if Somers Baptist Church isn’t your home. If these things aren’t true of you please refrain from the meal but use the time to pray.
These past sermons from James have stepped on our toes. And they’re dangerous sermons because it’s far too easy for sermons about living obediently to become so much moralizing. Which is why we need the Lord’s Supper, to remember that Christ has died for sinners, and that his death became a way for us to participate in him – this is my body, this is my blood is what he said. The bread and the wine – the body and the blood – go into our mouths and become a part of us. Christ in us. We in Christ. Union with Christ is our salvation. Our life. Our way forward. The framework for responding to James 4: 1-10.
Eat my flesh and drink my blood…. This is my body which is for you…. This is the blood of the new covenant…drink in remembrance of me. Come to this Table and remember Christ, meet Christ, see Christ – and here you’ll be grabbed by the logic of submitting to God and resisting the devil and drawing near to God and cleansing your hands and purifying your hearts and repenting from sin. Christ who humbled himself before the will of the Father is the One you’re joined to. Christ the One whom God exalted is your Partner, your King, your True Home. Join him here. Welcome to the Table of the Lord Jesus Christ.