James 4:6-10
Dear friends,
Repentance is good for the soul because it reminds us that our standing before God is based on Christ, not ourselves. This strangely does not give us a “free pass”, but instead calls us to live up to what we are, children of God. We need to constantly compare ourselves to Christ as in what would Jesus want me to do in my life as opposed to comparing ourselves to another fallible human being. This produces inside of us a sense of how great our sin is, complete lack of self righteousness, and an inner joy knowing Christ is my righteousness. We are living in a constant sense of humility. This humility causes us to have a quiet and teachable spirit, much in the truth of 2 Timothy 2:24-26.
We want to live in the wisdom from heaven characterized by purity, peace, and reason. Good fruit comes from this kind of life. In James 4:6-10 we learn that humility is the key to spiritual integrity. This is hard for our inherited sin nature from Adam to stomach so we live in inner conflict – the Spirit fights the flesh and the flesh the Spirit so we cannot do the things we want.
Examine this passage by looking at the commands clearly listed. The paradox of joy coming with mourning is seen in Matthew 5:3-4. Through humility we can see to cleanse ourselves so we can be pleasing to Christ.
Submission is easy if our master is good, wise, true, and kind. Part of resisting the devil is ranking ourselves under God so that we fit into His plans, not Him becoming a part of our plans. Look what happens eventually to those who submit to the plans of the devil, misery, shame, and death. Ephesians 6:10-18 supplies much insight into spiritual warfare. The enemy of our souls does not rest and he is tricky and shrewd with deep malice. He paints sin as beautiful, but it only ends in profound ugliness that destroys the human spirit and the image of God.
Read over Psalm 24:3-6 describing those who may ascend the hill of the Lord. We can only climb that hill with the grace of Christ giving us the strength as Paul recognizes in 2 Corinthians 12: 1-10.
I ask you to pray for me as I prepare to teach this passage that the Lord would give us all a quiet and humble spirit as we examine His infallible Word together.
Lee