A Few Thoughts on the Epistle of James—James 4:7-12

James 4:7-12 WEL Therefore, place yourselves under God’s authority. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse [your] hands, sinners, and purify [your] hearts, double minded. 9 Be in agony, moan, and wail. Let your laughter turn into sobbing and [your] joy into heartbreak. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. 11 Do not badmouth one another, brothers. He, who badmouths and condemns his brother, condemns the law, but if you condemn the law, you are not a doer, but its judge. 12 Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and destroy. So, who are you to condemn another?

God’s authority= Matthew 28:18 NIV Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Resist the devil=

• 1 Peter 5:7-9 NIV Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
• Some things the devil does to fight us
  • Doubt
    • Questions about the Christian faith
    • Questions about our faith
    • Questions about God’s love for us
    • Questions about the reliability of the Bible
    • Questions about what is truth
  • Memory
    • Remind us of our past
    • Remind us of our failures
  • Temptation
    • Temptation to sin in many fleshly or intellectual ways
    • Temptation to get angry at God for our failures or what think God should or should not be doing
  • Accuse
    • God of doing evil
    • God wanting to make us miserable
  • Lie
  • Through his servants
    • False teachers
    • False pastors
    • Abusers
• We need
  • God’s grace
  • Alertness, not passivity
  • Know God’s ways so well, that we will recognize the devil’s work: Hebrews 5:14 GW However, solid food is for mature people, whose minds are trained by practice to know the difference between good and evil.
  • A source of absolute truth. We have a source of 100% truth—the Bible in its plain, normal sense.
  • The Holy Spirit
  • Fellow believers
• Some verses
  • Ephesians 4:26-27 GW Be angry without sinning. Don't go to bed angry. Don't give the devil any opportunity to work.
  • Ephesians 6:11-15 GNB Put on all the armor that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil's evil tricks. 12 For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age. 13 So put on God's armor now! Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy's attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground. 14 So stand ready, with truth as a belt tight around your waist, with righteousness as your breastplate, 15 and as your shoes the readiness to announce the Good News of peace.
  • Romans 8:38-39 NLT And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  • The Lord Jesus suffered as well for a purpose. There is a purpose for us, too. Hebrews 2:10 GNB It was only right that God, who creates and preserves all things, should make Jesus perfect through suffering, in order to bring many children to share his glory. For Jesus is the one who leads them to salvation.
• You can research further here: Spiritual Warfare (from Manser’s Bible Themes)

Draw and cleanse=

• God provides the way, the strength, the will, etc., but we must DO His will.
• We need to ask for His help: Psalm 145:18 NLT The LORD is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.
• We must want purity (as God defines it) and put our effort to do so: Philippians 1:10 NLT For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ's return.

Be sorrowful, cry, and weep: Adam Clarke in his commentary writes on this: Be afflicted, and mourn - Without true and deep repentance ye cannot expect the mercy of God. Let your laughter be turned to mourning - It appears most evidently that many of those to whom St. James addressed this epistle had lived a very irregular and dissolute life. He had already spoken of their lust, and pleasures, and he had called them adulterers and adulteresses; and perhaps they were so in the grossest sense of the words. He speaks here of their laughter and their joy; and all the terms taken together show that a dissolute life is intended.

Disrespectful speech=

• God help us to use nice words and thoughts (rebuke can be spoken in a godly manner) and wise words: Proverbs 15:1 GNB A gentle answer quiets anger, but a harsh one stirs it up.
• We don’t want to abuse others with our speech: Job 19:1-2 GW Then Job replied to his friends, 2 "How long will you torment me and depress me with words?
• The type of speech in body language and words is important. Ephesians 4:29 AMPC Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it.
• What we say and how we say it are indicators of our heart: Matthew 12:34-35 GNB You snakes—how can you say good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good person brings good things out of a treasure of good things; a bad person brings bad things out of a treasure of bad things.
• Love and speech: 1 John 3:18 GNB My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.
• Everything we say must be true: Ephesians 4:25 GNB No more lying, then! Each of you must tell the truth to the other believer, because we are all members together in the body of Christ.

Judgment=

• Must be true
• Must be according to God’s standard: Matthew 7:1-2 GNB Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, 2 for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others.

Questions=

• Why does the devil want to destroy Christians?
• Name some ways the devil uses to destroy us?
• Why does James instruct fellow believers to be sorrowful, cry, and weep?
• What is important about what we say?
• We must test all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21), so how can we judge?