Verse 5
Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
Typically, when we think about the word jealous or jealousy it is viewed as a sin. In fact, Galatians 5:20 calls it a sin. Jealousy is a sin when we desire or lust for something that is not ours. But the Bible also describes God as a jealous God not because he desires for something that is not his. But he is jealous for what is His.
In Exodus 20:5 the Lord is speaking to Israel, His chosen people, about serving other gods and says, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”
The Lord is saying: You belong to me and me alone. Your devotion should be to me and me alone.
In the same way that a husband belongs to his wife and a wife belongs to her husband. They are to be faithful to each other. They are to be devoted to each other. If a husband was to give his heart to another woman, it would be appropriate that the wife should be jealous. It would be appropriate that she would say: Hey, you belong to me, we belong to each other.
As believers in Jesus Christ, we belong to God. And when we begin to fight with one another (as James is speaking to in verses James 4:1-4), we are revealing that we are seeking to satisfy our own desires, our own pleasures outside of God. This is the act of spiritual adultery.
What I appreciate about this passage here in chapter 4 is that James shows us how to come back into a right relationship with God as believers in Jesus Christ. This is not just a passage that is rebuking our behavior but also showing us how to be restored.
Verse 6a
Verse 6 begins with these wonderful words, “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
We can actually have behavior in which we can act like we are enemies of God by seeking our own will rather than God’s will. But God doesn’t discard or abandon us. God gives grace even to adulterous people.
Verse 6b-8
Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 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.
How do we resolve conflict within the church, how do we resolve conflict in our marriages or really any relationship? Humility before God. Verse 7 says “Submit yourselves therefore to God.”
He is not dealing right now with your issue with the other person that you are in conflict with. He is dealing with our own heart. He is dealing with our own internal battle. James is saying, “stop giving into your own flesh, your sin nature and submit yourself, submit your desires to God.
A prayer of humility can be: God, I want this but your will be done. God, I feel like I need this. But your will be done. God, I want to be about what your about and so please God, I don’t want this to be about me – a need for any kind of control, for any kind of power, my need to have some desire satisfied, my need to maintain my reputation. I want to submit to you and you alone.
And so when we sense the devil is tempting us to seek our own desire, James says in verse 7 to resist him don’t give into him. Resisting the devil isn’t about some one-on-one confrontation with the devil. But rather it is the devil seeing us surrendering ourselves to God.
Pastor Grant Richison writes, “Submission to God is an emptying of self-sufficiency. Humility offends the devil because it betrays his original sin – pride. The foundation of victory in the Christian life lies at submitting to the ultimate authority of God over our lives.”
How do we resist the devil? By submitting our desires and will to God. With that as our position before God, the devil flees recognizing he has no hold over us. But it is when we walk in our own selfish pride, that the devil knows he can have a foothold. When we seek our selfish desires, he knows he has an opportunity. When we are walking in pride, we are speaking His language, operating in his ways.
Verses 8b-10
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 yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
James tells us in verse 8 that restored intimacy and fellowship with God begins with a humble heart that draws near to God or pursues God.
Sometimes we are in earthly battles and the conflict isn’t because of some external factor in our life, it is simply because we have turned from God and we are simply seeking our own desires. And sometimes in those earthly battles, we wonder why we are not hearing from God, why does God seem distant.
It is not because God moved and stopped speaking, it is because we moved away.
But when we humble ourselves before Him, drawing nearing to him, that is when we experience that renewed intimacy with God, that renewed fellowship with God, we begin to hear new the voice of God.
The picture James is painting here in these last two verses of chapter 4 is the picture of a person or people confessing sin, turning from sin and asking forgiveness so that you can once again walk in the grace and mercy of God and be back in a right relationship with God where they are living their lives in accordance to the Spirit.