James 4:7-10

⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. ⁹ Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Over the last two weeks, we have learned about the instructions given to us in the letter of James about repentance found in four short verses in James 4:7-10. In this section James gives eleven commands, pleading with the recipients of the letter to turn from their worldly wisdom rooted in selfish ambition to receive mercy and grace. This worldly wisdom is at the root of virtually all sin, especially those mentioned by James in his letter. Blaming God for our sin (James 1:13-18), partiality (2:1-13), misuse of the tongue (3:1-12), and fighting (4:1-3) are all the result of being driven by selfish desires from pride in the human heart. That is the essence of worldliness and worldly wisdom. The call in James 4:7-10 is to turn from that by submitting to God instead of the devil, approaching God’s throne in prayer, turning from sin, and taking sin seriously. The final call to action that we have is found in verse 10 and it is our instruction for this week, trusting in the God’s grace.

What do we do if we find ourselves in sin? What about if we find ourselves guilty of selfish ambition, misuse of our tongues, partiality, pride, etc.? The answer is in the simple command “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord.” What does this mean? The verb “humble” comes from the Greek word tapeinoo which means “to lower.” Humbling ourselves is lowering ourselves. Now, this does not mean that we just adjust our physical posture to bow to the floor. Instead, it has to do with the attitude of our hearts. Pastor Kent Hughes writes, “None of us came to God unbowed. Many of us had the fear we couldn’t get low enough.” All sin is ultimately rooted in pride in the human heart. It essentially adopts the attitude that “I know better than God” or “I will do as I wish.” Humility, being the opposite of pride, is the essence of true holiness of character in the human heart. The “poor in spirit” are those who “inherit the kingdom of God” (Matthew 5:3). There is a great danger in the Christian faith and it exists even in very conservative churches. That danger is the danger that many people will be raised or led  to merely adopt the Christian faith. They adopt orthodox theology. They adopt correct practice of the faith. They adopt many good things. However, eternal life is far more than merely “adopting” certain correct aspects of belief and practice. Eternal life is about becoming a new creature in Christ and coming into a real, saving relationship with the eternal God (2 Corinthians 5:17; John 17:3). Many people have professed faith in Christ but they have never been humbled in the sight of the Lord. In Matthew 18:1-5, Jesus instructs His disciples about the attitude of those who are in His kingdom as He sets forth for them the example the simplistic humility of a child. Isaiah 66:2 says, “but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”

A person can know that man is spiritually bankrupt and has nothing to offer to God. They can know that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die to pay the price for sin. They can tell others about that truth. They can do all of that and still be lost because they have never submitted to it themselves. Matthew 7:21-23 tells us about a host of people who will come to Jesus one day and tell Him about all of the wonderful things that they have done in His name only to hear Him tell them “I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.”

There are even many Christians who presume upon the grace of God to live any way that they wish and believe themselves to be saved. I can know that God is merciful and gracious and abuse His grace. The puritan Thomas Watson once wrote, “Because of mercy men presume and think they may go on in sin, but should a king’s clemency make his subjects rebel? The psalmist says, there is mercy with God, that he may be feared (Ps. 130:4), but not that we may sin. Can men expect mercy by provoking justice? God will hardly show those mercy who sin because mercy abounds.”

The great evidence then of salvation and saving faith in the life of a person is humility. The humble person does not go on in sin, but submits to Christ’s rule and leading in their life. The beauty of that humble posture of the heart is that God promises to exalt us from there “in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). In Matthew 23:12 Jesus tells us, “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” Psalm 145:14 tells us, “The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.” John Bunyan spoke to the necessity of being broken and humble before God when he wrote, “Men, whatever they say with their lips, cannot conclude, if yet their hearts want breaking, that sin is a foolish thing.” The key to greatness and “success” in the Christian life is humility. It is being made low. Are you humble before the Lord? Can you truly say that your life is lived for His will or your own? Perhaps you recognize you need to bow to Christ in repentance for salvation. The answer for both camps is to Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up (James 4:10).