10 Draw Near to God (James 4:7-17)

Speaker 1: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta. This is the tenth lesson in the series on the book of James. Join us now as Krissan looks into God's Word found in James 4, verses 7 through 17. Krisan Marotta: I'm going to start with a joke today. An American businessman was visiting South Korea, and he was at a luncheon for potential business partners, and he told this rather long and amusing anecdote. And then the translator repeated the story to the group in just a few words. And the audience laughed very enthusiastically and applauded. And later, as the translator was driving the American back to the airport, the American said, You know, it was really wonderful how you, the way the audience appreciated my joke. And it's just amazing how you were able to shorten it in Korean. And the interpret replied, Not at all. I merely said, man with big checkbook has told funny stories. So just like the My Joke, James is going to boil down his letter to the essence today. We're starting the final section of the book. And the way I outline it, James 4.7 marks the beginning of the end. And as he concludes the letter, he's going to get to the bottom line. And the bottom line is repent. And he's going to tell us that in very strong, unequivocal language. So let me just set the stage again. I'll do this every week. In chapter 1, he said, consider it joy when you encounter trials, because trials test your faith. And that process of testing brings us to maturity and gives us a kind of wisdom and makes us into the people God wants us to be. And then in chapter two, he begins saying, if we really have saving faith and we genuinely embrace the gospel, it's going to change us. It will change the way we live, the way we think, what we value, and who we are. And he gave us specific examples of the kinds of changes a growing and maturing faith will make. Then in chapter three, he began focusing on strife in the community. And that middle section begins and ends with warning about speech, and he contrasts the attitudes which come from a wisdom gained from faith with the attitudes and actions of the world. So he warned that much of the strife that he sees in the churches is the result of jealousy and ambition, the kinds of attitudes which embracing the gospel should change. And he contrasted the results of leaders with those kind of worldly sinful attitudes, and those results were strife, chaos, and quarrels, with the results of leaders who have found the wisdom gained from faith, or the wisdom from above, as he calls it, which was peace and unity. And so 4-7, I think, begins his conclusion. He's going to start wrapping up the letter, and he's basically going to give a call to repent. So having just confronted them with this stark choice of you can be friends with God or you can be friends with the world, he's going to go on and answer what I think of as the so what question. What's the bottom line? What am I supposed to do in response? So let's look at fours seven through ten. Submit yourselves, therefore, 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. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Remember the immediate context. He's just issued some of the strongest language of the book. He called them spiritual adulterers, and he warned them that they're facing this black and white, no-middle ground choice. So they can be friends with God, they can be friends with the world, they can't have both, they can't play both sides of the table. So they can embrace the gospel as true and fully embrace all its implications, or they continue pursuing things of the world. And that raises the question: well, is there any hope left? What do I do if I'm reading this letter from James and I recognize myself and what he said? And I say, oh, all those attitudes he's been describing, that describes me. What do I do if I see myself in his language and say, yes, I'm one of those spiritual adulterers? Is there hope left? Especially if I've made a claim to faith and I consider myself a believer. But now I've read this letter, I hear what James has to say, and I think, well, maybe my claim to faith didn't mean anything. I don't see the kinds of changes he's talking about. What should I do? And he's going to answer that with submit therefore to God, resist the devil, draw near to God, basically repent. Stop playing both sides of the table. Humble yourself before the Lord, confess, and repent. So he's just said God provides grace to those who humble themselves. And I think his main point in this section is you may have been living like a backstabbing, arrogant fool. You may have recognized yourself as one of these people pursuing jealousy and ambition. Even so, God will be gracious to you if you repent. So the let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom, I think is pointing out you've been happy with yourself. You've been laughing and boasting about things you ought to have been ashamed of. So you've been glorying in these worldly attitudes, boasting in all these things that are resulting in strife and discord and backstabbing, and those are the very things you ought to be ashamed of. You ought to be mourning about, but you've been laughing at them. So he's saying, basically, repent. And repentance is an about face. It's a 180-degree turn. The things I used to think were great, I used to think were right, and I used to boast in. Now I do I no longer boast in them. I recognize them for what they are. I want to turn away from those to what God thinks is great and right and best. And I think that's the idea behind 4-9. Wake up, do this 180. Weep about the things you used to laugh about, mourn about the things you used to find joy in. Draw near to God. He's basically saying, you've got to wake up and realize there's no justification for your actions. You've done wrong, you've acted selfishly, you're a sinner under God's wrath, you need the grace of God based on the cross of Christ, and you should start crying about all those things you've been boasting about and weep over those things that you formerly thought were great and no problem. So Jesus died so that we might be reconciled to God, but only those folks who want that reconciliation, who humble themselves before Him and ask for it, are going to find it. I think that's what He's getting at. The double-minded again is stop living like you saying you believe the gospel, but living like it's not true. Stop saying you believe one thing and acting another way. The resist the devil and he will flee from you. I don't think that's a promise that we will never ever sin again. I don't think that's the claim he's making. Remember, the whole context is repentance. So his readers have been deceived. They've been listening to the lies of the devils. They've been wrong, but they think they're right. And he's saying, turn around, turn away from Satan's lies and turn toward God, and God will restore you and teach you. So if you hear what I've been saying through this letter, you realize you're wrapped around Satan's little finger, all you have to do is turn around. Cry out to God to rescue you, and he will do it. Remember, he's just called these people spiritual adulterers, and he's saying, even so, you can repent, you can turn back, God will take you back. And that sounds very simple, but if you think about it, it's a really profound claim. And I think the key idea through this whole section we're going to look at today is the humble yourself before the Lord and He will exalt you. And humility is going to come up in each of the paragraphs, and I think is the underlying issue in each of the little sections, the paragraphs he's talking about. So if I put myself up on high, I will be brought low on the end. If I put myself low, if I humble myself before God, if I admit that I'm wrong, that God is justified to condemn me and ask for mercy because of the blood of Christ, then I will be raised up. God will forgive me. So I can be a fool, and I can admit that I'm a fool, and God will solve that problem and take me back. So I can even be a spiritual adulterer and God will take me back. So we have this very stern language, this kind of strong black and white language, and yet at the same time he's talking about this incredible hope. So the sternness comes across in the, you know, you can be a friend of God or you can be a friend of the world, you're a spiritual adulterer, and yet at the same time he's saying God will accept you and restore you. Just admit you're wrong and God will make it right. There's nothing we've done that cannot be forgiven. All you have to do is ask. So you don't have mercy and grace because you have not asked. So I think basically he's saying you've been listening to the lies of Satan, and yet God will take you back. You've been the unfaithful spouse, and yet your heavenly husband will take you back without reproach. Just believe. So he's going to continue, I think, this call to repent by giving us examples of the kinds of changes we should see if we embrace the gospel. And I think that's what's going on in 4, 11, and 12. So presumably these people have made some kind of claim to faith in the past, and that raises the question well, how do I know it's going to work? I mean, maybe I thought I repented before, maybe I thought I'd accepted Christ, but I now recognize myself as one of these spiritual adulterers James has been describing. How do I know? What am I looking for? And I think he's going to give us examples of the kind of change repentance produces. And he's going to go back to his two major application points. Remember, throughout this letter, he's been continually coming back to the question of wealth and the question of how we speak. So wealth and the tongue have come up over and over again. And he's going to hit the tongue or how we speak today, and he's going to look at wealth in the next section that we're going to look at next week. So let's look at 4, 11, and 12. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There's only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? So let's talk about that phrase, do not speak evil against one another. Some translations have do not slander one another. And we tend to think of slander as something that is not true. So I'm saying something bad about someone, and what I'm saying is not true. But I don't think that's truth value is not the issue here. James's point is you're talking each other down. You're saying bad things about each other. It may in fact be true, but it's it is speaking against in the idea of judging and condemning. And notice that's what it's paired with in the verse. So the issue is not lying, not making untrue claims about someone else. The issue is condemning them, judging them, and then going about and talking about it. So from my lofty perch, I decide, well, you're in the wrong, I condemn you, and then I spread the word in the church. So I could judge you on the inside and decide what you're doing is wrong and keep my mouth shut, but that's not the issue. Here, I have acted on that conclusion. I have married my conclusion with action, and I'm spreading the word against the flock. So I'm trying you in the court of public opinion. I think that's what he's talking about, the one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother. And then he goes on, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. I think this phrase refers back to Leviticus 19. I argued this earlier. It could be he's referring to the law in general, the golden rule or the law of love. But the themes of Leviticus 19 are so similar to what he's talking about. I actually think he's having that passage in mind. And for time's sake, I was going to take you there and explain why I think that, but we got a late start, so I'm going to skip that. But if you want to, look at Leviticus 19, particularly verses 15 through 18, and you'll see the same themes that James is talking about in Leviticus. And the idea there, he talks about, he uses a this beautiful Hebrew word that has the idea of being a peddler, that you're peddling your wares. And in this case, what you're peddling is stories about someone else, and he warns against that. So when he speaks about you're speaking against the law, I actually think he has that section in mind. But I'll let you look at that on your own. And when he talks about uh judging the law, there's this great hypocrisy in slander, because when I talk other people down, I'm implying I'm not like that. You know, I'm slandering this person over there, and I and you and I can talk about it and agree that what she's doing is not okay. And implied is I'd never do that. I'm not that kind of person. I'm a champion of what's right while this other person is messing up. And you've all seen this. You know, you talk to people and we say, oh, you know, I hate to say this, but you know, I noticed that so-and-so is really messing up, and we got to pray for her, you know, because I believe in the law and what's right. So I have to tell you all about it, you know. And that's the kind of thing James is getting at. When you're speaking against someone and someone else, you're not in fact upholding the law, you're breaking it because the law says love your neighbor as yourself. Don't talk about them like that. You're speaking against the law because the law says don't engage in that kind of speech. And you're also, there's this hypocrisy, as if you're acting as if, well, I'm the doer of the law, but in fact, I'm breaking it. I'm not loving my neighbor as myself, because in reality, I am no better than my sister. I'm no more important than my brother. There is no law by which I can judge them that I am not also condemned by. So true goodness calls me to treat them as I would be treated. And the gospel tells me I am exactly like my neighbor, I am exactly like my sister. So when I'm speaking against them, there's this hypocrisy of like somehow I'm not also condemned. And I'm in fact breaking the law, because I'm presenting myself as if I'm a doer of the law as opposed to someone else who's breaking it, and the law says otherwise. And I think that's the idea that he's getting at. The law calls me to recognize I'm no better than my brother or sister. The gospel tells me to treat that person the way I would want to be treated. There's only one, this is verse 12, there's only one lawgiver and judge. He who is able to save and to destroy, but who are you to judge your mate, your neighbor? Again, I think humility is the underlying issue here, because to condemn someone else or to judge someone else is to put myself in a place I don't belong. So to judge another is to say, you know, hey, you and me, God, we know how messed up that person is. Like I'm standing on God's side of the line as opposed to the judge's side of the line. I'm acting as if I'm standing on God's side of the line, you know, saying, ooh, we know how bad my neighbor is, but God is the only judge. His judgment falls equally on me and the person I'm judging. I'm not on God's side of the line. I'm part of the condemned. And the gospel tells me that, that I'm on the same side of the line as my neighbor. I'm standing condemned before a holy God. So that's the idea. Who are you to judge your neighbor? You're equally condemned. Both of you are going to be saved by the blood of Christ and nothing else. So to slander another is to deny my own need for mercy and live as if the gospel's not true. Now, there's a qualification I want to make that we should, I think we should make every time we talk about these commandments and this idea of not judging. And it's in the Leviticus passage, but uh you'll have to trust me on that. But particularly Leviticus 19, 17, you shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur sin because of him. That reason frankly has the idea of surely reprove. So we are told not to judge, but we are also told to call sin. So if I see my neighbor steal my other neighbor's goat, I don't look away and pretend it's okay. Or if I see my sister lusting after someone else's husband, I don't sit back and congratulate myself for not judging her. Because there's an appropriate response to sin. The gospel tells me to name sin a sin, to call a spade a spade. And we are often called to speak the truth in love or to reprove someone. But notice the emphasis there is on restoration. When I am going to speak the truth in love, I'm seeking to restore that person, not condemn them. So I reason frankly, but I don't condemn. I reprove, but I don't seek harm. I speak lovingly with trying not to be judgmental or condescending or accusatory, and my goal is repentance and restoration, not judgment and condemnation or vengeance. So I'm not to pretend that sin is good or without consequence. I ought to go to my friend who's in the wrong. But when I go to her, I treat her as I would want to be treated in the same situation. And I should humbly remember who I am. I am a fellow sinner in need of salvation, and approach her from that position, not the position of a lofty judge. And I think that's the difference. So the emphasis is on restoration, not harm, not vengeance, not condemnation. So when we're told not to judge, it's in that condemning sense, but we are never told to overlook evil. Now that can be a great trial, I think. When someone's in the wrong, I it is very hard to figure out how should you act, how should you respond to them, what should you say, when should you say it? How should you say it? Because it's not always easy to figure out, am I on the right side of the line here and with the right attitudes? So I don't, in those situations, it's always helpful to back up and say, Am I acting in love? If the tables were turned, would I want someone to treat me this way? Now, if I'm a thief, of course I may say, well, I wouldn't want to get caught, but that's not what's best. Where again we're seeking what's best. So the commandments against not judging your neighbor are to have that humble place of placing yourself side by side as a fellow sinner in need of grace, as opposed to a judge who said, Boy, you've really messed up, and let me tell you all about it. So not condemning, but seeking repentance, not uh condemnation. We better go on. Let's look at 13 through 17. Come now, you who say today and tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him is his sin. Okay, context, I think, is key in understanding this, as always, but particularly in James. I don't think this is basically an admonition to let, you know, let's put if the Lord wills on every statement you make. That's not really what he's getting at. Again, I think he has a deeper point, and it's related to humility. Notice this section is post is paired with the idea of boasting in your arrogance and knowing the right thing to do and not doing it. So the issue is my claim to power and control. I see myself as important, I see myself as powerful, I've decided I'm gonna go out in business and succeed, you know, watch me carry it out, my plan's gonna happen. And that sounds like it could be a good thing. Having the confidence to say, God's gifted me here, he's given me these skills, he's given me this education or these abilities, I'm gonna go put it to use. That sounds like a good thing. And I don't I don't think he's saying it's wrong to be confident in your abilities, it's the boasting attitude that crosses the line. So I'm not just confidently using the skills or the gifts God's given me. I'm taking it one step further and saying, I'm the master of my faith. And that's an arrogance that crosses the line. Because believers ought to know that God is in charge. To proudly claim that I have the future mapped out according to my plan is to not to deny a fundamental truth of the gospel that God is in charge and He has a plan for my life. So I can't go to church on Sunday and then live the rest of the week as if I have, you know, I'm in charge and I'll just check in with God as a courtesy now and then. And that's the attitude he's writing against, that attitude that discounts God, that says, I will accomplish whatever I set out to, I will pursue my goals, my plans, and live as if God has nothing to say about it. That's the boasting, the arrogance, I think, that crosses the line. Now I can confidently assess my gifts and my skills and my calling, but I don't live as if God has no place in that. And like he's not in the picture. So I don't treat him, you know, like the big blue genie in the sky who will give me whatever I want as long as I include the magic words in Jesus' name. That's the Attitude he's writing against. I have to acknowledge he's my creator, he's my father, he may have other plans, I may step out in business and go bankrupt because that's the best thing for me. That's the lesson I need to learn. Notice his he concludes this whole section in 417. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Now that sounds a little bit like the classic distinction of sins of omission and sins of commission, but I don't think that's what he's got in mind. So a sin of commission is when I do something I ought not to do. I commit an act which I should not have committed, it was wrong. A sin of omission is when I failed to do the right thing. So I ought to have done something that I left undone. And theologians make these kind of distinctions between sins of omission and sins of commission. And that is an interpretive possibility for 417. He could be saying, it's not enough to stay away from the bad things, you must actively pursue the right things, and that's plausible. The problem for me is how does that fit in this context of what he's just been saying about as the Lord wills and not judging your neighbor? And some of the commentators I looked at were like, hey, this is James, you know, there's no coherence. He just moves from, you know, one theme to another, willy-nilly. So that, as you know, is not the approach I take, especially since this verse begins with a so or a therefore. It sounds like this is his conclusion. He's summing this up. So, what what might it mean if it's not sins of omission and commission? I'm gonna give you two possibilities. I like the second one better. But I'll give you two. So just one possibility is imagine I plan to do something. I have my plan. Say I'm gonna move to San Francisco and become an art critic. But God makes it clear that I need to stay in Virginia and take up farming. And suppose I refuse to stay because I've already made my plans to move, and I don't really care what God has to take, has to say in it, I'm gonna do what I want to do. So that understanding of 417 would be that James is saying that kind of thing is sin. If I if I find, if I have a plan and God makes it clear my plan is wrong, and I refuse to pay attention to it, that is sin. And that's plausible. That makes that makes sense. But to me, it doesn't quite fit the picture because all the examples I saw of people taking it that way were giving two valid options. You know, should I go or should I say? Well, both might have been valid choices. I think he has a more fundamental point that is concerned with attitude, and particularly my attitude toward power and control. So we saw this same concern in his warnings to teachers who wanted to be teachers for reasons of power and control, and he was concerned with their underlying attitude. And I think that's what he's saying here. If in my boasting I am claiming that I have the power to set my destiny and plan my life apart from God, I have crossed a line, and that is sin. So all through this letter he's been speaking to the contrast between knowing what is true and living like it's not true, and knowing what the gospel claims and making choices that deny that claim. So we saw this, and it's not enough to be hearers of the law, you must also do it. It's not enough to claim to believe the gospel, you must live as if you believe it. It's not enough to say you have faith, you must actively live as if you have faith, and I think that's what's going on here. The one who knows the right thing, who knows what is true and lives like it's not true, that's sin. Don't take that lightly. That is a big deal. For a believer, it's not a trivial matter to claim that I have control of my life apart from God, because the gospel tells us otherwise. To know that God is in control and act as if I am in control is a sinful thing. And it's again this contrast between living out what I say I believe and not doing that. And all of us have that tendency. We all, you know, live as a we want to live as if I'm the center of the universe and I just check in with God now and then. And James is saying, you can't live like that anymore. You know there's a more important storyteller. And it you'll see, I think both issues, both what we saw in the judging and this one, at issue, I'm playing God. I'm putting myself in a place I ought not to put. I'm elevating myself to God's side of the line. So in the first paragraph, I was acting as judge when God is the only true judge. In the second one, I'm acting as if I am master of my fate when God is the master of my fate. And both of those are issues of humility. I have put myself in a place I ought not to be. I ought to humbly lower myself, not condemn my neighbor as if I'm the one who decides right and wrong, and likewise not arrogantly proclaim I have these great plans, but instead look for what God's will is. What are God's plans? So I don't think his admonition is, you know, add the magic words that the Lord wills a little more often to your sentences, so much as you need to live as if God is in control. Where is your heart? What side of the line are you on? Are you elevating yourself to the position of judge and master of your fate, or are you trusting God? So both those issues confront us with real questions, and they sound very big and theological, but I think they have real day-to-day, moment-by-moment implications. So this sounds like you know some kind of academic philosophical question we debate on Sundays, but it's the question I confront daily. Is God God? Is He the lawgiver? Is He the source of mercy? Is He the determiner of what's right and wrong? Is He the just and holy judge who will condemn sin? Is He the author and creator of the universe who will number my days? How I answer that question determines the choices I'm gonna make. They sound big and lofty, but in fact they're the issues of I have to confront when I have to figure out how am I gonna treat my neighbor? How am I gonna love my kids? How am I gonna work with my boss or treat my professors? How do I spend my time and my money? And every choice that comes back to an issue of do I believe God's in control or do I believe I'm in control? So how I answer those basic questions determines my values, my attitudes, the things I will pursue. So will I be chaste before marriage? Will I be faithful after marriage? Those are issues of do I trust what God has had to say or not? Will I step on others to climb on the career ladder? Will I cheat on a test to get a better grade? Those are issues of who is God? Does he have a plan for my life? Or do I have a plan? Will I push my kids to academic success above others? Will I slander my neighbor to make myself look better? All those are issues of humility before God. Will I seek money and fame and career success at the expense of everything else? Or will I do something that the world will think is stupid and looks foolish and may bring ridicule because God says it's the right thing to do. When the rubber meets the road, those are all issues of who is in control, who is really God, and who do I trust? And that's what I think James is getting at in this section. So he's saying, to sum up this whole section, if you've read this letter and you recognize yourself and you say, wait, all these red flag issues you've been talking about, speech and wealth and attitudes, oh dear, I'm in trouble. What should I do? Repent. It's that simple. Make it about face. Submit your humble broken heart to God and draw near to Him. And as He said in the last section, you don't have mercy because you have not asked. It is really that simple. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you are a God that takes us back. And no matter how many times we fail and fumble and act selfishly or thoughtlessly or give in to sin, that you are a God who rescues us from that. Thank you that you paid the ultimate price for us, sending your son to die in our place, and have begun this lifelong process of making us more and more wise people, leaving behind our foolishness, turning more to you and drawing near to you. And I just pray that you would take these words and make them true in each person's heart, not just academic knowledge, but the way we live and think and the uh what we value and what we uh seek after. In Jesus' name. Amen. Speaker 1: We're glad you've been with us at Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta. We hope you've been encouraged and challenged to depend on the Lord. Please let us know if you have questions about this study. We are on the internet at wednesdayintheword.com where you will find this and other Bible studies.