James Week 16 James 4:7-10 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Introduction Throughout the first four chapters of James, we have been provided with a wealth of biblical knowledge. At this point in the book James has shared about what it means to trust the Lord through trials. He has also explained how works and faith intertwine and argued that our behavior is either driven by a love for God or our own internal desires to name a few. This week as we focus on James 4:7-10 as he begins to argue that it s high time we make a decision about our faith and choose the master we will serve. If last week s message didn t nudge you to live for God rather than the world, this week, James works to further convince you that a life for God is the only logical option. Decision Time As you should well know by now James is rather sharp about the way he presents his ideas. He does not dance around subject matter; rather he efficiently makes points disregarding his audience s feelings. Sticking with his style in James 4:7 he makes another bold statement, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The use of the word therefore here solicits his readers to consider the points he made throughout his letter. Humoring James, turn for a moment back to the ideal s presented in James 1:5-8: 5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Recall here that early in his letter James instructed his readers to ask God for heavenly wisdom. He even asks them to ask for this wisdom out of their faith so that they may be granted understanding. Now that you re looking back upon this passage does his statement make more sense than it did several weeks ago? Can you see his concise intro on the ideals he would teach throughout his letter? In this passage he talked about trusting God for wisdom, asking Him in Faith to provide, and the Lord generously giving to those who are of him while dismissing the requests of those who are of the world. Couple these words from chapter 1 with his statement in chapter 4 verse 7 and you should get a better understanding of the word therefore. It simply does not make sense to James (nor should it for anyone else) to choose the selfishness of the world over the ways of the Lord. So looking at verse 7 again: Submit yourselves therefore [consider my points which are true] to God. Resist the devil [the ruler of this world], and he will flee from you. [emphasis added see also 1 John 4:4] Download more small group studies online at parkcommunitychurch.org/smallgroupstudies 1
God Does the Work Recall last week in James 4:4 when James shared 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. To be blunt James was saying that people are either of God or of Satan and that there is no middle ground. The Bible is replete with teaching on this point (John 8:39-47, Revelation 3:16, or Matthew 10:32-39) and we ve shared several times throughout the study Romans 3:10-23. Most notably from the Romans passage verses 10: No one is righteous, no not one and 23: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Although we ve all fallen short of the glory of God there is hope. But only for those who will call on the Lord and acknowledge His ways over Satan s ways. At verse 8 James writes: 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you, how beautiful are those words? Here we are all reminded of a very important truth; that grace was freely given to all who proclaim Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. 1 Corinthians 6:20 reads For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. That price here of course is the death of Jesus Christ on a cross to break the punishment of sin. James understands this and reminds us that there is nothing we can or could have done to earn this free gift. All we can do is choose to accept God s offering to us or deny it and live for the world. In essence James is saying have faith that Christ died for you and turn from sin! Only after acknowledging this will anyone ever be able to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. Otherwise, as noted above, we are destined to remain enemies of God and our works are but filthy rags to Him. [Isaiah 64:6] Humility and Tears of Joy In the next two verses James writes 9Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. What s the reason he would write this? Isn t accepting Christ and receiving God s grace supposed to be a joyous moment? Well, Yes and No. James intent with verses 9 and 10 is to share with people how destructive their sin actually is. The reason in verse 9 that we are called to be wretched, mourn, and weep that we are to let our laughter be turned to mourning and joy to gloom. is that once we acknowledge we need to live a life for God, only then can we see how awful we really are. At that point we are able to grasp the darkness that is within the world more completely as God graciously shows us areas of sin in our lives that need to be changed. Remember what James shared in chapter 4 verse 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. These behaviors are of the world and are not the ways of the Lord. The reason they crop up is the result of people not operating or trusting in the ways of the Lord. Partaking in actions of this nature or living a life apart from God is despicable to James. Accordingly he shares that we should weep and mourn for both ourselves and the world when we participate in unholy behaviors. Fortunately for us however God s grace is sufficient! At verse 10 James calls us to be humble before the Lord, but for what reason? The reason we are to be humble stems from the fact that apart from God and the Holy Spirit we are full of proud; even though it is sometimes masked. By definition to be humble is to show meekness and behave without arrogance or pride. This is a fitting use of words as our ways are inferior to Gods ways as evidenced in the preceding paragraph. We therefore should always be eager to Download more small group studies online at parkcommunitychurch.org/smallgroupstudies 2
remember that a life lived for God is a result of his free gift of grace and not our own actions. (Ephesians 2:8-10). In summation James wants us to remember that we d be foolish not to live a life worthy of our calling as human beings. (Ephesians 4:1) He then reminds us that God s ways will exalt us before God and the world as the fruits of His spirit become increasingly evident in our lives. (Galatians 5:22-23). For Starters 1. What is your most embarrassing (but funny) moment? 2. How did last weeks study impact your word choice this week? 3. Through this study of James, what have you learned about the tongue and it s impact on those around you? How have you applied it? DIGGINGDEEPER What temptations are you facing where you need to resist the devil? How important is community to resisting the devil? Who can hold you accountable in this area? Verse 8 gives us the challenge to draw near to God. How do you need to rearrange your schedule to draw near to God? 4. How would your close friends rate you on the stubborn/flexible scale? Stubborn Flexible 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5. What impacted you from the commentary notes above? Digging into the text 6. Read James 4:7-10 twice. In the text, underline the statements that are direct commands. Write them below: Download more small group studies online at parkcommunitychurch.org/smallgroupstudies 3
7. Read verses 7-10 and notice the action and outcome statements. For example, Resist the devil(action) and he will flee from you (outcome). Circle them in the text. Write them below. Action Outcome 8. For many Christians, submitting to God, resisting the devil, and drawing near to God sounds more aspiration than practical. What are practical ways to consistently: a. Submit to God b. Resist the devil c.draw near to God 9. What keeps you from consistently submitting to God, resisting the devil, or drawing near to God? Download more small group studies online at parkcommunitychurch.org/smallgroupstudies 4
10. What does it mean in verse 8 to be double minded? Why does James use that term? 11. Verse 9 talks about laughter turned to mourning and references how lightly we can take sin. What are ways we laugh at sin rather than take it seriously? As a small group community what should your response be to sin in your own life and sin in others? 12. As a Christian community are there sins that tend to bring more laughter than grief? How do you treat sin laughter? grief? 13. Our study ends with verse 10, humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. a. Define humility b. What value does our culture place on humility? c. Who is a good role model of humility for you? d. Who or what do you look to toward to be exalted? e. What are practical ways you can humble yourself before the Lord? Download more small group studies online at parkcommunitychurch.org/smallgroupstudies 5
14. What is the one truth from this passage that you would like to put into practice? How can you put it into practice this week? How can your small group encourage you in this process?. As you close in prayer, pray the specific prayer of application from James 4:7-10. Scripture Memory: James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 2010 Park Community Church. All Rights Reserved. 1001 N Crosby St, Chicago, IL 60610 parkcommunitychurch.org Download more small group studies online at parkcommunitychurch.org/smallgroupstudies 6