Submit to God, you double-minded sinner
We may consider ourselves God-pleasing people, but James says, “I see pride, double-mindedness, and a desperate need for repentance.” Thankfully, God gives greater grace.
If you have your Bible and want to follow along, go with me to James chapter 3. James chapter 3.
By now, you can probably read through this letter and see the underlying problem that James is addressing, and it becomes even clearer in this passage. James is writing to Christians who are not singularly devoted to God. Now, he does assume they are Christians. You may remember from the first chapter that he says, “God gave us birth by the word of truth” (Jas 1:18). He calls them brothers throughout this letter. But he also confronts them with their lack of integrity. They are woefully double-minded.
Four divisions in early Christians
Now, some Bible commentators have observed that James sees pride as the underlying issue, and there’s a sense in which pride is always the underlying issue. But I believe it’s even more accurate to say that James is dealing with a variety of problems that result from split personalities, if you will. In fact, as I read this passage, I want you to notice four ways these early Christians were divided. And I don’t mean divided among themselves, though we did see that in chapter 2 when James dealt with the matter of showing favoritism. I mean they are divided within themselves. Their allegiance is torn between competing things. They have divided hearts.
So, let me give you those four ways they are divided, and you’ll likely see these divisions as I read the text.
First, they are divided between heavenly and earthly wisdom. They are divided between true wisdom that comes from above and false wisdom that does not come from above.
Second, they are divided between God and the world. They claim to have a friendship with God, but they are embracing the world as their friend. And James says this amounts to spiritual adultery.
Third, they are divided between themselves and their fellow Christians. And this is where we clearly see pride rear its ugly head.
Fourth and final, they are divided between themselves and God’s law. In other words, they want to determine for themselves what is right. They want to act as judges rather than obey God’s law and submit to him as judge.
I think you’ll see these divisions as I read. This is James chapter 3, starting with verse 13.
Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?
But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says:
God resists the proud
but gives grace to the humble.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, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Don’t criticize one another, brothers. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 3:13-4:12)
‘Lord, make me whole’
Whenever I study the Bible, I always have three questions in the back of my mind. Who wrote this? To whom are they writing? And why did they write this? But the answer to that last question, in particular, is not always obvious. And James is a good example of that.
I would love to be a fly on the wall and see what was happening among these early Jewish Christians. Now, we can say with reasonable certainty that they were suffering to some degree. I don’t know whether persecution against them was physically violent, but the world around them was hostile. “Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials” (Jas 1:2). Many of them are described as having humble circumstances (Jas 1:9). In chapter 2, James says, “Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court? Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?” (Jas 2:6, 7).
And yet, they were also experiencing internal strife. There seems to have been some confusion about why they were suffering and what to do about it. People in the churches were readily listening to the word of God but not obeying it. They were showing partiality, favoring the rich and neglecting the poor. People claimed to have faith but showed little evidence of it. Based on the start of chapter 3, you have men possibly fighting for prominent teaching positions. Everyone wants to talk, and no one wants to listen. And whatever they were saying was more destructive than helpful.
So, on the one hand, I’m curious as I read this letter. I would like to be a fly on the wall and see exactly what was going on in the churches. But on the other hand, I think, I can relate to everything James writes. I know what it’s like to show favoritism. I know what it’s like to have a destructive tongue. I know what it’s like to be proud and divisive. I know what it’s like to hear the word and not do it. I know what it’s like to have a divided heart.
In short, God didn’t inspire James to write in more specific details because we don’t need them. He doesn’t intend for us to peer into the daily affairs of people who lived 2,000 years ago and say, “Man, look at them. Look how many problems they had. Look at what they’re doing. That’s terrible.” No, the Lord intends for us to examine ourselves and say, “Man, look at me. I have a divided heart. I’m fractured. My allegiance is torn. I have competing devotions in my life. Lord, make me whole.”
But, of course, we’d prefer to look at others and examine their problems. That’s easier. That’s far more pleasant than examining ourselves, which is why the subject of pride is so central to James’s epistle.
God hates our pride
Listen to what David Gibson writes in his book Radically Whole:
What do you hate?
Broccoli. Being cold, or being hot. Working nights. Snow. Wind. Heights. Mushrooms. The last day of camp. The end of the holidays. Mushy peas. Tax returns. Choosing the wrong queue in the supermarket.
What do you hate?
Take it up a notch. Your car left damaged in the supermarket parking lot with no culprit in sight. Rising energy costs and property and school taxes. The meager value of your pension. Getting old. Still working at sixty-five.
What do you hate?
Sexual abuse. Child abuse. Racism. Abortion. Discrimination. Daily unfairness and gross injustice. Death. The good dying young from cancer and the wicked living long into old age.
Spread out across a spectrum, our hates range from bad to worse, and yet not one of them comes close to the thing that God hates most: pride.
We know that God detests sin and evil, but God’s hatred of pride is everywhere in the Bible. That hatred for pride is pure, it is holy, and it burns with white-hot intensity.
There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him. (Pr 6:16)
Number one on the list is “haughty eyes” (Pr 6:17).
What are haughty eyes? Well, they are proud or arrogant eyes. It’s a proud look. Literally, the phrase refers to eyes lifted up but not lifted toward heaven in the sense that someone is looking to God. Today, we might refer to someone with their nose in the air as a way to describe a proud or arrogant person.
But more to the point, God hates our pride. It is detestable to him (Pr 6:16). Stephen Charnock once said, “Pride is self contending with God for preeminence.”
Jonathan Edwards wrote:
Pride is a person having too high an opinion of himself. Pride is the first sin that ever entered into the universe, and the last sin that is rooted out. Pride is the worst sin. It is the most secret of all sins. There is no other matter in which the heart is more deceitful and unsearchable. Alas, how much pride the best have in their hearts! Pride is God’s most stubborn enemy! There is no sin so much like the devil as pride. It is a secret and subtle sin, and appears in a great many shapes which are undetected and unsuspected.
So, it isn’t terribly surprising to see pride lurking beneath the surface when we consider our double-mindedness. There’s no room for pride in the Shema. Loving the Lord with all of our hearts requires humility, as James expresses here. “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. … Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (Jas 4:6, 10). In a very real and practical sense, humility is the cure for a fractured heart.
Heavenly versus earthly wisdom
So, James presents us with four potential divisions. And he’s asking, “Which side do you land on? Is your wisdom from above or not? Are you a friend of God or a friend of the world?” We may try to be both, but ultimately, we will land on one side or the other. As Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other” (Mt 6:24).
For example, a man can’t say he loves his wife if he’s having an affair. He can’t claim loyalty to his wife. He may say it. He may act as though he loves his wife in some ways. But the evidence would prove not that he loves both his wife and his mistress but that he does not love his wife. And when it comes to a married man, that’s all that matters. Does he love his wife? And when it comes to God’s people in the church, all that matters is, do we love the Lord our God with all our hearts?
So, the first potential division within us is heavenly versus earthly wisdom. Notice the comparison James makes. Verse 17: “The wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense” (Jas 3:17). Verse 14: “But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (Jas 3:14, 15).
Now, it’s worth noting here that James defines credible wisdom in terms of actions. He says, “Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom” (Jas 3:13). This is similar to what he says about faith in chapter 2. “What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? … Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works” (Jas 2:14, 18).
Like faith, true wisdom bears fruit. Specifically—verse 18—it bears “the fruit of righteousness, sown in peace by those who cultivate peace” (Jas 3:18).
Now, think about what was evidently going on among these early Christians. There’s a divide between the rich and the poor. The poor are ignored and neglected. Men who believe themselves to be wise, perhaps wiser than others, are possibly competing with one another to be teachers. No one wants to listen to anyone else. There’s a degree of carnality among them. They say they love the Lord. They say they have faith. They say they love his word. But they’re not obeying his word. They’re not doing the good works Christians are called to do. Instead, they’re looking out for themselves. They’re self-absorbed. They’re proud. And as a result, there’s bitterness and envy.
And when you have a group of people who are proud and self-absorbed, only thinking about themselves, what is the most natural consequence of that as it pertains to the entire group? Well, inevitably, you’re left with a divided group. You’re left with disorder. The group becomes severely fractured.
In 1662, as Thomas Brooks and other ministers faced what became known as the Great Ejection in England, many of them preached farewell sermons. And when Thomas Brooks preached his message, he said, “Discord and division become no Christian. For wolves to worry the lambs is no wonder, but for one lamb to worry another, this is unnatural and monstrous.”
You see, those Puritan ministers weren’t forced out of the church by outside parties. They were forced out by people in the church who also considered themselves Christians. We expect this kind of treatment of God’s people from the outside world but not from within the church. Why? It’s because this kind of treatment grows out of so-called wisdom that James says is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic (Jas 3:15).
The Great Ejection is a good example of that. I’m sure those on the Anglican side of the divide felt they were doing God’s work. I’m sure they felt there was wisdom in excluding the Puritans. But as Spurgeon once said, “Satan greatly approves of our railing at each other, but God does not.”
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Mt 5:9).
Later in the same sermon, he said:
You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48)
“Be perfect. Be whole,” he says. How? By loving both your neighbors and your enemies. By loving people the way God loves them.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands. (Matthew 22:37-40)
David Gibson writes, “We show that our hearts are wholly committed to God by being the kind of people who, because of the gospel and through the gospel, try to do everything we can to live at peace with all.”
So, someone who has true wisdom—that is, wisdom from God—will not be motivated by selfish ambition. He or she will not be envious. He or she will not be a contentious person. True, godly, heavenly wisdom reveals itself through gentleness, mercy, and peacefulness.
God versus the world
Now, the second potential division within us is between God and the world. And it’s here we see James use some of the strongest language yet.
Here’s what Gibson says regarding the first part of chapter 4:
Division is present in almost every line. Believers are divided from each other in fights and quarrels. Believers are in turmoil in their inner beings with “passions … at war within” them (4:1). Sinful desires cannot be realized, which in turn leads to a further escalation of conflict (4:2). Here are people divided between having and asking either not asking God at all or asking him for the wrong things (4:2-3). And in it all, this behavior is in stark contrast to Abraham in chapter 2, who was called a friend of God precisely because his faith was alive and active, as shown in his faithful works (2:22-23). Here, however, believers are not friends with God but friends with the world even as they profess allegiance to God. Christians who live like this—saying one thing to God but embracing behaviors that belong to his enemies and do not resemble him—are adulterers.
As James digs down a bit deeper into the problem he’s seeing, yes, there is selfishness. Yes, there is disunity. Yes, there is pride. But the heart of the matter is this—verse 4:
You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely? (James 4:4, 5)
“Listen,” James says, “whatever you think you’re doing, you are, in reality, choosing the world over God.”
Notice the progression of verses 1 through 5. First, James says, “You’re in conflict with one another. What is the source of wars and fights among you?” (Jas 4:1).
Second, he says, “You’re in conflict with one another because you’re in conflict with yourselves. Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?” (Jas 4:1).
And third, he says, “Here’s what’s really happening. You’re in conflict with God. Your friendship, your close intimacy with the world is hostility toward God. You’re at war with God” (Jas 4:4).
Now, you likely remember what the apostle John says about friendship with the world.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions — is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever. (1 John 2:15-17)
You see, there’s a reason James borrows language from the Old Testament when he says, “You adulterous people!” (Jas 4:4). I mean, that paints a vivid picture, doesn’t it? “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1Jn 2:15). Again, can the man who cheats on his wife say he loves his wife? No, it’s absurd. You don’t love your wife. Your unfaithfulness shows you hate your wife. What other conclusion could we come to? And when we think about it in these terms, we’re made to realize what a heartbreaking situation this is.
When Judah in the Old Testament befriended the world and became unfaithful to God, God said through Ezekiel, “You adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!” (Eze 16:32). Now, when we hear statements like that, we, no doubt, detect righteous anger. But do we sense the heartbreak? Well, all we have to do is imagine how we’d feel if our own spouses were unfaithful to us. It would be devastating.
In Romans 5, Paul says, “God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Ro 5:8). We were unfaithful, utterly undeserving of God’s love, yet he chose to love us so deeply that he sacrificed his Son not only to save us but to reconcile us to himself—to bring us into covenantal intimacy with himself. And what do we find ourselves doing? Committing spiritual adultery with the world. It’s heartbreaking.
Now, to bolster his point, James says something in verse 5 that is a little confusing. The CSB words it this way: “The Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely” (Jas 4:5). The ESV words it a little differently. It reads, “The Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’.” So, there’s a certain amount of confusion over how best to translate this, but there’s also the matter of the actual quotation. This is not a quotation found anywhere in the Old Testament.
I believe what James is doing here is citing a general principle taught in the Old Testament, not a specific verse. And I believe the ESV has the better translation. “The Scripture says, ’He [that is, God] yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’” (Jas 4:5). That God is a jealous God is explicitly taught in the Old Testament.
Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God. (Exodus 20:4, 5)
You know, among some people, God is decried as vengeful. They say he’s a God of wrath and anger. But to them, I say, look closer. At least twice, he says, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live” (Eze 33:11). He wants nothing more than to shower his people with riches untold. He wants to give and give and give. He wants to bless us. And all that he asks is that we be faithful.
Psalm 84:11 says, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield. The LORD grants favor and honor; he does not withhold the good from those who live with integrity.” Just be faithful to the Lord. Just be singularly devoted to him as you would to your spouse. That’s it. That’s all he’s asking for.
And yet, even after we’ve shown our unfaithfulness—verse 6—God gives greater or more grace (Jas 4:6). As Paul says in Romans 5, “Where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more” (Ro 5:20).
So much for the always vengeful, angry God that some people imagine. But we’ll come back to this in just a moment.
Us versus fellow Christians
Let’s consider the third potential division within us, which is a division between ourselves and our fellow Christians. This is something we’ve seen woven throughout this letter, especially here in chapters 3 and 4.
But you’ll notice that James doesn’t merely address the superficial side of the conflict among them. He doesn’t merely talk about the fact that there is conflict among them. Instead, he gets to the heart of the matter which is the heart. In chapter 3, he says, “For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder” (Jas 3:16). Then, at the start of chapter 4, he says, “What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?” (Jas 4:1). Then, we see him provide a few somewhat hyperbolic examples of that. “You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain” (Jas 4:2). And so on.
You see, before the conflict becomes external—Christian against Christian—there is internal conflict—that is, conflict within the individual Christian. And the conflict is a division between selfishness and selflessness. While the Christian should be most concerned with his neighbor, his flesh, unsurprisingly, wants to prioritize himself. He exalts himself and debases everyone else.
And while James has already written about the dangers of the tongue, here in chapter 4, he adds—this is verse 11—“Don’t criticize one another, brothers. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law” (Jas 4:11). So, now, we have an even clearer picture of what was happening. I mean, this is a pretty ugly situation. Just imagine if James were writing this letter to our own church and said these things.
Now you can see why many commentators believe this epistle is really about our pride. There’s a lot of pride in the hearts of these people, and it’s spilling over into conflict among them and nasty words being said to one another or about one another.
But I love how James once again throws that seemingly insignificant word, brothers, right into the middle of this. Yes, pride is a real problem here, but James is also alluding to their double-mindedness. “Brothers,” he says, “you are brothers in Christ. You are those sinners whom God loves so much that he sent his Son to die for while you were still his enemies. What are you doing, criticizing and defaming one another? Is this what God intended when he saved you? Did he call you to hate one another—the very people he loves? Don’t you see the hypocrisy in what you’re doing? Don’t you see your double-mindedness, brothers?”
Yes, pride is a major issue here. It usually is. But James is also dealing with the absurdity of it all. As he said earlier, “My brothers, these things should not be this way” (Jas 3:10). We’ve seen this in every chapter. It’s as though James is asking, “Do you not see how you are contradicting yourselves? Do you not see how divided your hearts have become? In one breath, you vow allegiance to God and say you love his people. In the next breath, you’re disobeying God and speaking evil about his people. My brothers, these things should not be this way.”
Our will versus God’s law
Well, lastly, the fourth potential division within us is between us and God’s law.
Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:11, 12)
Again, Jesus said:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands. (Matthew 22:37-40)
So, if we fail to love another, we are failing to keep the law in a massive way. We’re breaking no less than six of the Ten Commandments. As James said previously, “If you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well” (Jas 2:8). If not, well, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of the law (Jas 4:11). You are asserting your will over and above God’s law, exalting yourself to the position of supreme judge. You are attempting to usurp God himself.
It’s no wonder James encourages humility here. Quoting Proverbs 3:34, he says, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” (Jas 4:6). Then, he says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (Jas 4:10). And in between those two calls to be humble, he writes:
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, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. (Jas 4:7-9)
If I may paraphrase, James says, “Humbly submit to God and to his wisdom and to his law (Jas 4:7). Stop listening to the devil who wants only to deceive you as he did Eve in the garden. Don’t believe the lie that says, “You will be like God” (Ge 3:5). Kill the pride that so easily rises up within you. Instead, draw near to God in humility and repentance (Jas 4:8). Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. You love the Lord but not with your whole heart. This is evident through how you speak, and how you are treating one another, and so on. Grieve over your sin. Don’t treat it as some light thing. Sin is something that should make us miserable (Jas 4:9). It’s something we should mourn and weep over.”
God gives greater grace
But here’s the good news. God gives greater grace (Jas 4:6). His grace is greater than all of our sins. God resists the proud, yes, but he also gives grace to the humble. “Therefore,” James says, “submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. … Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (Jas 4:7, 8, 10).
There’s a part of us that wants to think and behave like the Pharisee who went into the temple to pray. We want to think of ourselves as God-pleasing religious people. Look at me. I’m a Christian. I have faith. I’m wise. Look how righteous I am. But James says, “I am looking at you, but I’m not seeing a righteous person. I’m seeing religion that is useless (Jas 1:26). I’m seeing someone who has deceived himself. I’m seeing pride. I’m seeing a divided heart. I’m seeing double-mindedness. I’m seeing a desperate need for repentance.”
In addition to the Pharisee, Jesus said there was also a tax collector who went into the temple to pray. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” (Lk 18:13). And Jesus said, “I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 18:14).
You see, there is a way to mend our divided hearts. What did Paul say? “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Ro 7:24). And how did he answer himself? “Well, I guess I’m stuck with it. I may as well accept the fact that my heart is divided and always will be.” No, he said, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Ro 7:25).
We sometimes sing the hymn that goes:
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Yonder on Calvary’s mount out-poured
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.Sin and despair, like the sea-waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss;
Grace that is greater– yes, grace untold
Points to the Refuge, the mighty Cross.Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe!
All who are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive?Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!
The antidote to our double-mindedness is simply this: God’s grace. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you (Jas 4:8).