James 4:8–17 Explained: Humble Yourself Before God (Session 14)

In this episode of Reasoning Through the Bible, James 4:8–17 is examined verse by verse, highlighting the call to spiritual purity, humility, repentance, and submission to the will of God. This study explains what it means to cleanse the hands, purify the heart, mourn over sin, humble oneself before the Lord, avoid speaking against fellow believers, and recognize that life is only a vapor. James continues his direct and practical teaching by confronting pride, hypocrisy, careless judgment, and self-directed planning.

This Bible study is especially helpful for listeners searching for teaching on humility before God, repentance, purify your heart, do not judge others, your life is a vapor, and if the Lord wills. James offers both correction and wisdom for everyday Christian living, calling believers to walk in holiness, grace, and dependence on God.

Transcript

Glenn 0:09

Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible, where we do, verse by verse, bible study through the Word of God. Today we're in the book of James, chapter four. James is very practical, very direct, and we're in a section of James that's especially clear and especially, he gives a series of short commands, steve, we learned in the last couple of sessions. These are so practical, so beneficial to us in our churches.

Steve 0:41

Yeah, and then it's something as we get down to these practical things. It's kind of taking us a little while to work through them, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

Glenn 0:49

It's a good thing. Actually, where we had left off last time, we're in James, chapter four, verse eight, and verse eight says this With that, we see here in this verse eight, he tells us in the middle of the verse to cleanse your hands, your sinners, or some of the translations say purify. The original Greek word here also has a meaning of be chast, to be pure and holy, in a sense of like a husband and wife not committing sexual adultery, chastity. So that's a very clear contrast with what he said a couple of verses earlier where he called them adulterers. They were committing spiritual adultery, of putting other things in place of God, other things more important than God. The contrast here, the literary contrast, is so clear and profound Don't be a spiritual adulterer, but instead be pure, be holy, be chast, purify your hearts. God is always concerned with holiness and purity.

Steve 2:02

Shouldn't we want that? Shouldn't we want to be as clean, spiritually clean, as we can be whenever we come to God? Now, this isn't a mean that we can do certain things in order to earn our righteousness. This, again, is just practical advice that James has given to the people. Clean yourself, clean your spiritually clean yourself whenever you go to approach God. Don't go to him willy nilly. We can do that and we do do that. We should do that when we're in time of need, but there are times, whenever we have a general approach to God, that we should spiritually prepare ourselves in order to go to God, ask for that forgiveness, because, while he can grant it and give us the grace, we should do it in a respectful way. I think that's what James is getting at here.

Glenn 2:55

That's an excellent point, steve. To reinforce that, yes, the Bible tells us that Christians are adopted children of God. In Hebrews it tells us that we have the right and the authority to go directly into God's throne room. We have and should view God as someone that we can approach regularly and daily, but we also should remember that when we go into the throne room of God, we're in his throne room. We're not out on the back steps taking the walk with willy nilly, with just any old buddy. We are in the throne room of God. We are in front of the creator of the universe. We are in front of the most holy, pure being that has ever existed.

The Influence of Christians on Nonbelievers

Glenn 3:35

We should have that sense of awe when we pray. We should have a sense that I need to be prepared to go in and speak with him and don't take it with. Okay, I'm going to drag him. I'm going to drag in my filthiness into his throne room. No, no, I need to cleanse myself, as he says here. Now, here's a question, steve James is very practical. Let's ask a very practical question what influence do Christians have on people around us? When we're living right, when we have cleansed our hands and purified our heart, what does that do to our daily witness to nonbelievers, compared to when we don't cleanse our hearts and don't wash our hands? If I'm a hypocrite and I'm dragging my sin around and I go try to witness to somebody, how is my witness compared to I'm living a holy life?

Steve 4:27

James and all of these verses here in four where he really lowers the boom and the hammer on the people that he's writing to with all of these practical things. If you remember, back in verse one he says you have quarrels in your church because of you. The problem is you, it's what you have inside of you. He's giving them advice on how to take care of these things within the church, within the church body, the synagogues where they meet. We're taking that application out into our churches and congregations where we meet no-transcript. How much more would that be multiplied now when you take it out into a world of non-believers? Hold your tongue While we should hold our tongue with our fellow believers, we should, even more so, hold our tongue and be slow to speak with non-believers. Why? Because we're representing Christ magnified even more, and that will make a great and tremendous impact with non-believers. If you're there and you're making peace, as James says at the end of chapter 3, then what type of a witness would that? I think it's just a tremendous, tremendous witness to the non-believers.

Glenn 5:41

Non-Christians can spot a phony. They can spot a phony If we drag around sin in our lives, they'll notice. In fact they'll look for it. Right living earns us respect with the people around us. Clean living earns us respect with the people around us. I had one of my professors in seminary tell me that a pure heart and a trained mind makes you a powerful witness for God. That's what we should strive for, is a pure heart and a trained mind, because that's the person that can do very powerful work for God.

Glenn 6:17

Now one little side note here, steve. It says purify your heart. A heart in the Bible does the meaning of the word. Heart does not have this meaning. That is kind of popular today. That is the center of our emotions. We separate our emotions from our mind in the sense that, well, you've got your heart, you've got your mind. Well, the scriptures doesn't do that. In the scripture, a heart is like the heart of a tree. The heart of a tree is the center of the tree. It's all the way through the tree. That's the sense that the Bible has for hearts. When it says purify your heart, what it means is to purify yourself down to your core, all the way through all of you. It says purify your heart. It says don't do just the outside, do it all the way through. And therefore, purify your heart includes purifying your mind means all of you, your emotions, your mind, your actions, all of you. That's what he's talking about. God is in. It's a command. Christians need to learn to think biblically, to think purely, not worldly or carnally. That's part of this command.

Glenn 7:22

Look at verse nine. Why is this verse here? Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Why would he have a command like that?

Glenn 7:37

Well, people that are broken over their sin are people that would mourn and weep. If you're not broken over your sin and you're ignoring your sin, then you're not going to do this. What he's telling them is congregation, realize that your heart's not pure, realize that your hands are dirty, realize that you are spiritual adulteresses all these things that he's been telling them. If any Christian that truly realizes and compares him or herself to a pure and holy God and then holds up myself next to it, is going to start weeping simply because I know how impure I am. That's what he's saying. He's saying come to terms with how you're really living and hold up your life against God's standard, then it's time to sit down and mourn and weep, because that's when we get pure and that's when we get right with God and we'll actually confess our sins.

Glenn 8:37

What happens in the Old Testament and really all through the Bible, steve, when people come to God that are broken and confess their sins, versus the person that denies their sin? I remember King Saul in the Old Testament. He got confronted with his sin and denied it and hid it. What happened to him? Compared to his, the next king, which is King David, was confronted with his sin and began to weep. When he says here, begin to weep, he's talking about to be broken before God. What happens to every person in the Bible that genuinely confesses their sins before God? What does God do.

Steve 9:17

That's when we see his mercy and grace, and God has been consistent on that. That's what he wants. See, when people say, I wonder what the will of God is for my life, this is it, I mean it's recognizing that we owe everything to him and that he's the creator of the universe and that we should worship him. That's what he wants is for us to be contrite and for us to not be prideful and think that we've done all of this on our own. The last word there in verse 8, is double-minded. What does James mean by double-minded? One foot in the world, one foot with God? You can't have both. If you have one foot in the world, the world is an enemy of God. Therefore, you can't be double-minded. You need to be single-minded on your approach and focus to God. But the answer to your question is we see God's grace and mercy whenever people come to him and ask for it in a sincere way.

Glenn 10:16

Look again at these verses. He says here, in verses 8 and 9, he's saying and again, this is God speaking through James to these Christians, calling them double-minded, calling them in need of purification, saying that they were sinners in need of correction. Is it possible, steve, for Christians true Christians, not lost people, but Christians to have some sin in their life? Or is it true that as soon as I sin, it's evidence that I never was a Christian in the first place?

Steve 10:46

No, we're also told that we are going to have sin, continue to have sin in our life. Again, think of sin. That Greek word sin means to miss the mark. It means that we're not being what God wants us to be. We need to think of it that way. Is that we're going to have those things? Why? Because we still are attached to this world. But that doesn't mean that because we're attached to this world and we fall short of the mark from time to time, that we don't have God's grace and mercy and we have that forgiveness that has been given to us. We went through and Colossians it gives us all these things that we have in Christ. If we're in Christ, we have that salvation. But yet we've still got to navigate and go through this world.

Steve 11:33

Paul called himself the chief of all sinners, paul of all people. Yes, it's definitely possible and it will happen. But it's what you do with it? Do you let it continue and grow, like that leaven that gets into the dough, the yeast that gets into the dough and grows, or do you confess it, as we're told over in 1 John, to confess our sins continually so that God will then continually forgive our sins? Take care of it, don't let it grow and keep it under control that way through God, not through ourselves, but through God.

Glenn 12:11

We should, at the same time, be focused on holiness and purity and getting the worldliness out of ourselves and in our churches, but at the same time be a little bit compassionate towards those around us that are still struggling with sin and maybe possibly be a little bit less judgmental at times. Moving on in James, verse 10 says umble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you. Now, as I read that, notice the verb tenses. What is the command that I'm supposed to do and what is the action that God will take?

Steve 12:47

The command that we're supposed to do is humble ourselves. That's a word picture of laying as low and flat to the ground as you can, with your hands outstretched in front of you, worshiping God in the presence of the Lord. Do that, that's what we're to do, and then through that he'll exalt us, he'll lift us up.

Glenn 13:07

There's another passage over in 1 Peter 5, 6, and 7 that says almost this exact same thing Umble yourselves before the mighty hand of God and he will lift you up. I think here, steve, that my part is to merely humble myself at his feet and he will lift us up. What happens to people that do just the opposite, that lift themselves up? It's sort of the pride of life. God, I'm here now. I know you've been waiting on me, but look how good I am. I know you've been waiting to get some stuff done. Now I'm here, I'll help you out. God will give you a hand. I mean, who are the people? What happens to those kind of people that lift themselves up?

Steve 13:42

Usually, at some point in time, they come into a place where they can't handle it on their own, because they've been doing it on their own. They can't sustain that. Then, at certain circumstances come into their life which forces them to be humbled before God. So be very cautious whenever we walk through life. We need to always acknowledge who God is and we should humble ourselves to him.

Glenn 14:07

Jesus said the last will be first and the first will be last. Now one more thing on this passage before we move on to the next one. Verse nine deals with getting rid of sin, and verse 10 deals with God exalting us. So what's the order here? Get rid of the sin, and then we're able to humble ourselves before God, and then he'll exalt us. That's the sequence. Can we really humble ourselves if we still have sin in our life? If I'm still holding on to sin, saying God, I know better than you, so I'm going to keep my sin. Thank you very much. No, he's not going to exalt us. Get rid of the sin, humble myself and say Lord, I failed again. Please forgive me and do with me as you will. Then he'll exalt us. That's the sequence. Get your heart and your mind clear, then God can exalt us. Now moving on, steve, if you could read start verse 11 and go through verse 17.

Steve 14:57

Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one law giver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you? Who judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is a sin.

Judging vs. Helping Others

Glenn 15:51

This section is so practical and so clear it really doesn't need any explaining. All we can really do here is just repeat what he just said. It's so clear and so plain and so practical for us. Did have one question, though. Here, Steve, Look at verse 11. If we look at 11, it tells us don't speak evil or slander. It then says he who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. The question is why? Why would this verse say that if we judge a brother, we're putting ourselves above the law? Why would it tell us that, oh, if I'm judging a brother, then I'm making myself above the law? Why would it say that?

Steve 16:35

What was it that Jesus said? You need to look at the log that's in your eye before you take the spec out of your brother's eye. We need to acknowledge he just got through talking about. We need to humble ourselves before God. We need to purify ourselves. We have enough of our own issues to take care of and enough of sin in our own life than to go around and start looking at other people. If you're looking for other people's sin in their life without looking at yourself first, you're putting yourself above that law. I believe that that's at least the gist of what James is talking about here.

Glenn 17:11

I would agree. I would agree. What he's saying here, I think, is if I go around looking in other people's lives and judging them on the sin that's in their life, then I've taken something that's really between them and God and I'm making myself the arbiter of that. I'm basically saying I'm the one here, that's the Supreme Court, that's judging on whether or not you violated the law or not. Well, who's the Supreme Court? It's really God. God needs to be the one that's the arbiter of this other person's sin. If I go around and judge other people, what I'm really saying is that I am the infallible interpreter of the law and now I can take the place of God and I'm deciding whether or not you have violated the law or not. He's saying take care of your own house first. You got an issue with sin. Look in the mirror first and deal with that. Let God deal with these other people.

Glenn 18:05

Now there's another passage in this same book and I want to deal with that because it helps us understand this verse here in 411. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law, judges the law, and he speaks in that negatively. Don't do that. But if we then look at the last two verses in the book, chapter 5, verses 19 and 20, they say this my brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Glenn 18:43

He had just said in chapter 4, don't judge your brother because that puts you above the law. But here, the next chapter, he's saying if you look at your brother and he's sinning and you turn him back, then that's a good thing. It would seem to me that the only way to look at a brother and go to him and say my brother, you're sinning, you need to change, is to judge him. What's the balance here? Chapter 4, don't judge a brother because that's bad. On chapter 5, say you have to turn him from his sin. That's good.

Steve 19:16

Well, it depends, like I said before, if it's something that this brother is involving you along with it or trying to get you involved with it, you're making a judgment, but you're not making a judgment, meaning that you're not out looking for something that he's doing wrong. He's trying to involve you in what you're doing wrong. That would be one way. I think that'd probably be the primary way. I think that this is talking about hey, you have a brother in Christ and he is in this sinful situation. If you see it, you need to bring him back. But I believe it's in such a way that it's where you're in a close relationship with them, you're trying to restore them. You're trying to restore them. You're not out there trying to take them down and prove yourself that you're better than them or be prideful about it. It's something where you're doing in a loving way.

Glenn 20:10

I think that's exactly what it says, because if we look again at 411, he who speaks against a brother or judges a brother speaks against the law and judges the law. What he's talking about. There is somebody who has condemned this person because of my interpretation of their actions and therefore I'm speaking against them. I have concluded something about them and I'm speaking against them. He's saying that's bad and it is bad. In chapter 5, the passage we read was focused on turning them from their sin. The idea is there. I go to them in love and say my friend, my brother, I have concern for you. There's an area here that needs to be corrected and we talked about it one-on-one. Maybe there were some things that I didn't understand about what's going on in his life. At least I'd have more empathy for this person. It's still between him and God. I'm not judging them and condemning them, but what I am doing is trying to help them and turn them. That's the distinction. Is my motivation to try to condemn this person I speak against them publicly or is it I go to them privately and try to turn them from their sin?

Glenn 21:17

Back to chapter 4. Here, verses 13 through 15 have this little story again very easy to understand. He says okay, you're going to go to this other city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. He says you fool, because you don't know what's going to happen. What you ought to say is if the Lord wills, I could do this. Let's talk about that. Steve is planning bad. That was what they're saying. Hey, we can plan. We've got this business plan. We can go over this other city, work there for a year, make much money. Is that bad, or what's he?

Steve 21:50

saying here no, the planning is not bad, but the motivation behind it? This again goes into all the things that James has been talking about helping the poor. Show me your faith. How do you show the faith If you have a poor person and you don't do anything about it? What good is that faith for that poor person here?

Steve 22:09

Bringing it down into this part, he's saying look, you're making all these plans to go out there and enrich yourself, make a profit. He says there in verse 13. But yet you're not really in control of your life. You think that you're in control of your life, but you don't really know what tomorrow's going to bring. Here, I think, the focus is on engaging in business to make a profit.

Steve 22:30

Now, there's nothing wrong with making a profit, but if it's the focus of your life and that's where you're putting yourself into, that's another worldly thing, where we're focusing on the riches that we have here versus the eternal riches that we might have, that we're going to have gain for eternal life. I think James is just being practical here. You're saying we're going to make these plans to go all through these cities, make and turn a profit and gain all this wealth here, but yet you're really not going to take it and use it for the right purposes. Look, you don't even know what tomorrow's going to bring. Here you are. You're focusing too much on a worldly thing, which is running your businesses and building a profit.

Glenn 23:17

Exactly that's what he's saying Again. Look at works 13. Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Notice what's not there, which is what would the Lord have us do? Would the Lord have us go there or stay here? They didn't pray and ask God's guidance at all. Nothing wrong with staying at business Business is how we all feed our families but businesses won't stay in business if they don't make a profit. Nothing wrong with any of that. What's wrong is they didn't ask for God's guidance and they're more focused on the business than they are on God's will. That's the point he's trying to make.

Steve 23:56

He makes that point there in 15. He says instead, you ought to be asking of the Lord what is it that you want us to do? The comparison is you, on your own initiative, are going out and doing these things and building your life in a worldly way. Your life here is just a vapor. That word picture is if you go out on a cold morning and you breathe your breath out, you have the vapor that's there and then it disappears. That's the word picture here. Our life here on this earth is a vapor compared to eternity. He's juxtaposing somebody that's going out building their own business on their own initiative to bring about their own desires. Versus in 15, he's saying what you ought to be doing is going to the Lord and asking him God, what is it that you want me to do?

Glenn 24:45

He says here, life is but a vapor. What he's not saying is that life is meaningless. What he's saying is this just short and it's gone. To wrap this up, steve, I've got one last question for you. How much of what we do in this life do we carry with us after we're gone?

Steve 25:02

Zero. Well, how much do we do? What we do is the treasure depends. If it's treasure here on earth, zero. If it's treasure that we've laid up in heaven, then it's therefore an eternity.

Glenn 25:14

Exactly that's what the message of James is. Is that while you're here, you're just here and it's gone. When you look back over your life, it's times a funny thing. It's just here and it's gone. But what he's saying is use the time wisely. You only have this brief moment here. Do godly things, don't just do selfish things. Do godly things, because that's what you're going to take with you into eternity.

Steve 25:38

is godly things James talks about in chapter five. He starts getting into what happens to these earthly things. They rest, they go away, versus something that's in heaven that doesn't rest.

Glenn 25:50

And we'll be reasoning through chapter five next time as we continue to go through our study, as always.

Steve 25:57

thank you so much for watching and listening. May god bless you.