#41 – Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:5-6)
· Some people jump to the wrong conclusion when they read these verses, as quoted here or in other versions, with the idea of God being a jealous God. That’s because we normally think of envy or jealously in the worst possible way, which so often is the case. But there is a righteous and lovely kind of jealousy that God has for us that truly is in our best interest. He’s determined to do all He can to not let us be somehow swept away from our right relationship with Him into a destructive relationship with the evil one.
· God is jealous for us in the way that a mature and loving spouse is jealous for their mate to be in a good, faithful, and invulnerable state of love with them and not someone else.
· It’s obvious to me that the “spirit” mentioned here is the Holy Spirit given to a person when they obey the gospel. (See Acts 2:38 and numerous other passages about the Holy Spirit’s presence in the life of a Christian.) That Spirit is a part of the Godhead of whom we are admonished in Scripture not to grieve or quench.
· God’s preventative or cure is (we should not be surprised) grace! Whereas we tend to think of Paul being the champion of grace since we writes about it so much, it’s worthy to note its use here in these verses.
NOTEWORTHY: I’ve decided to devote a whole devotional to the quotation “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” I’m convinced this is one of the most important but often largely unknown or misunderstood phrases in the Bible. I’m looking forward to sharing thoughts with you about it.
PS – Please consider inviting your friends who are on Facebook to register for and receive “Keith Hodges devotionals & studies.”
#42 – But he gives us more grace. This is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6)
All Scripture is important. I believe every Christian should set for themselves goals about reading first a book of the New Testament (a gospel or one of the letters); then the entire New Testament; then the Psalms and Proverbs; and eventually (though quite a challenge) the entire Bible. And then continue reading them as long as you possibly can. But in my own little way of assessing Scripture, I think a special category has to be those passages first given in the Old Testament that are then cited elsewhere in the Old Testament and again in the New Testament … and if quoted more often, they have to be even more special. The principle of “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” is given in passages from the Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah, and stated again at 1 Peter 5:5.
· God’s grace is one of the very most important truths stressed throughout the Bible.
· But that grace is bestowed upon the humble; those willing to acknowledge God as greater than themselves, and not being arrogant towards their fellow human beings.
· Who then wants to be opposed by God? (Being opposed by other people is hard enough, but to have the God who created and will judge all opposed to you is at a whole other level.) For any who know of those passages that speak of the wrath of God on the ungodly, it takes incredible disregard and/or disrespect for God to ignore or scoff at that reality. And the eventual outcome of such an attitude and actions is almost unthinkable.
NOTEWORTHY: Did you notice that James’ readers, who have already received God’s grace of salvation through Jesus, are now told they are receiving “more grace?” It’s fairly simple: it was only because of God’s grace, not any of us meriting it, that salvation was made possible in the first place. But since we continue to live imperfectly even after our conversion, it is necessary for us to have more (continuing) grace. Let’s pray we can always be humble enough to realize this and be thankful for it.
#43 – Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:7-10)
To submit to God, or anybody or anything else, one has to be humble. Such humility would have to include these things.
1. Humble before God, your maker; seeking and finding His will for your life.
2. Humble before your fellow human beings; no one needs to be arrogant towards others, no matter how disadvantaged or misguided they might be. In the final analysis every single person is a sinner who can only be saved by God’s grace, responding to it faith. (See Eph. 2:8)
3. Be humble within yourself, not assuming that anything you accomplish at any given time was done somehow without God’s blessings. The sure way to fall (everything from flat on your face to away from God) always has its origins not in humility, but pride.
The promises about the devil fleeing and God coming near are some of the most precious in the Bible. But they are both qualitative and quantitative. They are never a once-and-done deal. Jesus withstood the devil’s temptations in the wilderness, but they would continue (see Lk. 4:13). Coming near to God involves continuing learning of the Word, prayer, and application. Learning to say “No!” to the evil one and “Yes!” to God is a growth process that becomes more set and sure with continuing practice.
NOTEWORTHY: With Covid a lot of us started washing our hands more than ever before. But that or any other dreaded disease pales in comparison to the ravages of sin. Living clean lives with pure hearts is the remedy God provides to outgrow the double-mindedness (already mentioned at 1:7) which tends to be so prevalent among humankind. While Christianity promises many blessings and joys, the path there first calls for the strident efforts of repentance (change). The grieving, mourning, and some degree of exasperation for our guilt from sin are essential steps towards a full life in Christ.
#44 – Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you speak against the law, you are not keeping it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbor?
James and most of his readers were in the unique position of having lived under the Law of Moses (fulfilled and completed by Christ's death on the cross 20+ years earlier) and the newly established law of Christ, with one of its main components being "Love your neighbor as yourself." (see James 2:8; Leviticus 19:18). By either understanding slandering a brother was a violation, and put one in a precarious position with God.
· "Slander" is generally defined as making a false statement that's damaging to a person's reputation. Such sinful action is strictly forbidden throughout the Bible.
· In addition, there's an additional problem with slander, in that choosing to practice it puts one also in the position of being another person's judge.
· Both of these actions, singularly or together, are grievous sins: the first in lying, and the second usurping the exclusive right and authority of the Lord to pass judgment on one's spiritual destination.
· Such actions usually occur when ones are angry, and particularly if they are operating on the so-called wisdom of the world, and not the wisdom from heaven. (See James 3:13-18)
· All Biblical depictions of the final judgment—that which will determine if people spend eternity with God or far removed from God—clearly portray the Lord as the exclusive judge.
NOTEWORTHY: James' probing question about "who are you to judge your neighbor" reminds us of the humility we’re to have before God and towards our brothers and sisters in Christ, or any any other persons—a constant theme throughout this book.