The Ten Commands in James
| Ten commands in James 4:7-10. Receiving saving grace Continuing in the book of James from the previous article the word of God guides the believer into grace, experiencing forgiveness and developing a deeper relationship with God. For the Christian to experience an ever growing, ever increasing relationship with God we must humble ourselves in confession and repentance before the Lord. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. (James 4:7-10) Submit to God Submission is completely surrendering your will for God's will in your life, eventually leading to a life of obedience. To truly submit one must not only confess the sin problems in their life but also deal with them. Sin can not be hidden but must be exposed; confessed in total truth and honesty. Resist Do not resist Gods will for your life, but resist the devil. Although Satan is very powerful, he can be resisted as demonstrated by this promise in Gods word. We resist the devil in the same manner as Jesus did, by the truth of Gods word, by "the sword of the Spirit" and Satan will flee from you. Christians must also be alert. In 1Peter 5:8 Peter describes how we must be sober and vigilant. To fully grasp the command to resist one must understand that this is a daily, ongoing process. Resist is also a verb, its Greek form anthistemi means to oppose or set against. To resist requires an effort on our part. God can not do the resisting for you but He will meet you in the middle with enough grace. We also resist the devil by rejecting his lies for what they are, LIES! They may be disguised appearing attractive and offering all the pleasures and riches of the world but in truth we must acknowledge them as the lies they are. We must also pray for sufficient strength to resist temptations. In addition to quoting scripture in a session of proclaimed vocal resistance, I like to add the truth of Satan's future. He is a liar, the father of lies, a murderer, and the epitome of evil cast out of heaven doomed to spend an eternity in hell. Satan's desire is for you to fail, he delights in our failures when we stumble but he can not seem to tolerate scorn and mocking. Although evil, demonic forces may not leave willingly, but rather arguing, lying and bluffing, we have God's promise they will flee and eventually they will. Draw near to God We draw near to God through prayer, praise, worship and glorifying His name. Praising and worshiping the Lord breaks the strongholds of demonic forces present in a believers life. Praise to our God is a paralyzing blow to Satan. I have attended churches were the congregation does not feel free to lift hands or cry while praising God. Freedom to praise and worship is imperative for spiritual growth. Don't worry or be embarrassed what others might think. Close your eyes, worship and praise freely and you will experience a much deeper relationship with your God, friend and redeemer. Continual praise results in constant victory. Your praise to God should be integrated into your daily prayer life. "Draw near to God" is the assurance God will accept the fallen sinner back, especially if you take into consideration the condition of the fallen sinners James was addressing. Even though their hearts were on worldly desires they were still His people. The greatest desire of the Christian should be to seek an intimate relationship with God. There is more to salvation than submitting to God, surrendering your will and resisting the devil. The redeemed in Christ long for intimate communion with God. Along with this command we receive another promise. God will draw near to all who earnestly seek Him. Usually this is a process. As a relationship with God grows over time an ever growing conscience awareness of His presence becomes more evident. The believer will know the presence of God on new levels. Cleanse your hands To wash or cleanse your hands is a command concerning the cleansing of one's conduct and external behavior. To cleans one's self from the defilement and stain of active sin in their life. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. James expounds beyond the cleansing of sinful behavior to include a purifying of thoughts as well. A Christian's motivations should be pure with the ultimate goal being a holy life through an intimate relationship with God. The believer's motives should not be of self seeking pleasures indulging in the desires of the flesh and the world. To understand the term "double-minded," look back to James 4:4. To be a friend of the world is to be an enemy of God. You can not walk with one foot in the world and one foot in the spirit. You can not love God and the pleasures of the world. You can not serve two masters (Matt 6:24). Lament, mourn, weep The grouping together of these imperatives is a call to sincere repentance. To lament is to be in a condition of misery. To mourn is to be in a visible state of inner grief. The manifestation of inner grief and mourning leads to weeping. A true believer that falls into sin will be in a state of unrelenting torment and cry out to God. God will not turn away those broken in heart and spirit. (Ps 51:17) Humble yourselves Humble, from the Greek word tapeinoo, means to make low. Those with enough awareness of being in the presence of an infinite, holy God will humble themselves. The readers of James had redirected their love from God to the pleasures of the world, sinning against God. Repenting from this sin is a form of humbling one's self. The command to become humble is followed by the promise that God will lift you up. God gives grace to the humble and God's grace is available to all believers struggling, fallen or broken. Simply stated, grace is the redeeming state of restoration from sin and reconciliation to God. |
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