James 4:4-10 Bible Notes for Private Study
Opening Prayer
Ephesians 1:16-18
16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having
the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the
riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.
Lord, may you give me a spirit of understanding and of revelation that we know you. May you enlighten the eyes
of my heart and know the hope you have called me to, as I read James 4 today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Intro
This passage leads us into confession of sin and repentance. James
sternly rebukes his readers who have befriended the sinful world and
X1 Value
Personal and Spiritual Development
failed to submit to God. Let this passage challenge you and also lead
We believe in a commitment to personal
and spiritual development. God gives us
the Holy Spirit to transform us and we
are called to participate in that
The Passage
4
transformation. The spiritual growth of
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the
world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of followers of Christ is fundamental to the
future of the “church” locally and
the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to
throughout the nations. We look to
no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit
6
that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore
nurture all Church members and to
it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
“develop and deploy” those God has
7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee
called to leadership.
you to repentance.
from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse
your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let
your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will
exalt you.
Commentary
4
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever
wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
James has called his readers “brothers” many times in this letter, but this time he calls them “you adulterous
people”, grabbing our attention. So often in scripture Christians are referred to as “Saints” and this is right and
good, for Christ has bought us for a price and adopted us and saved us. By our very identity, we were once
sinners, but now we have been made saints. However, on the odd occasion (and this is one of those occasions)
the writers of the New Testament refer to Christians as sinners, in this case “adulterous people”, to confront them
and show them that they still commit sin and do wrong things.
This is a strong rebuke from James and hearkens back to many Old Testament texts where many prophets
compared God’s relationship with Israel to a marriage. God is described as the faithful husband, whereas Israel
is unfaithful, worshipping foreign gods and therefore compared to an adulterous wife. In this case, the Christians
James writes to are adulterous because they are choosing friendship with the world and therefore enmity with
God over truly following God. As discussed in verses 1-3, they are doing this by letting their passions and desires
rule them, fighting and quarrelling, even murdering people for the things they want.
Question: Why does James call his readers “you adulterous people” when other New Testament passages call
Christians “Saints”?
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”?
5
This is one of the hardest verses in the New Testament to translate and there are a myriad of different renderings
of it. However, there are two dominant lines of argument.
1. James is writing about God’s jealousy for his people – “God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has
made to dwell in us” (NRSV)
2. James is writing about the human tendency to be envious – “the spirit he causes to live in us envies
intensely” (NIV 1986)
It is unclear from the Greek whether the spirit is the object of the sentence (as in option 2) or God is. The most
natural reading is that God is the subject of the sentence, but that is problematic because the word translated as
envy or jealousy is phthonos which always has a negative connotation in the rest of biblical Greek. James has
already used this word a few times in his letter to refer to human negative envy, rather than God’s good and right
jealousy.
Proponents of option 2 argue that use of the word phthonos is overwhelming evidence, whereas proponents of
option 1 say the grammatical structure points overwhelmingly to option 1.
There are two reasons why most translations now favour option 1. The first is that phthonos has been used in a
positive sense to describe the jealousy of Greek gods, so it’s possible that James has been influenced by that to
use it positively here. Secondly, the context. As James speaks of adulterous humans, it makes sense to also
reference the good and right jealousy God feels for his people, just like a husband jealously desires his wife’s
love. This, I think, captures the essence of James’ point. God desires our love and friendship and so hates it
when we befriend worldly things before him.
Question: In what ways are you friends with the world and therefore enemies of God?
Faith Works - Action: Repent of the ways in which you have let your passions rule you by becoming friends of
the world and turn back to God
6
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Memory Verse
But he gives more grace.
Therefore it says, “God
opposes the proud, but gives
grace to the humble.
“3 6
Verses 6-10 are designed to lead us as Christians into humble confession of sin
and repentance. And these verses begin with a wonderful statement about the
grace of God – “he gives more grace”. Because of his love, God is jealous that
we love and cherish him. Because of his love, he pours our grace even when we
fail to put him first as we should.
But God’s grace also demands a response – humility. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” is
also quoted in 1 Peter 5:5 and how we show humility is outlined in verses 7-10.
7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
In order to show the humility that God loves, we must first submit to God. We must declare his lordship in our
lives and obey his commands. This contrasted with submitting to the devil and obeying his rule. Instead we must
resist the devil in order to submit to God. The Greek for “resist” means stand against, indicating that resisting the
devil is an ongoing battle requiring great strength (which is given to us by the Holy Spirit). Ephesians 6 and the
passage on the armour of God probably best outlines how we can resist the devil, requiring a mixture of prayer,
scripture memorising and covering ourselves with the truth of what Jesus has won for us. The promise in this
verse is encouraging – when we do resist, Satan will flee.
Faith Works - Action: Read through Ephesians 6 and pray through the armour listed, metaphorically clothing
yourselves in the items mentioned.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you
double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to
gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
8
While Satan flees, God will draw near to you as you draw near to him. We often use the phrase “draw near to
God” as an invitation into sung worship. This isn’t a wrong application, but here as elsewhere in scripture (Hos
12:6 for example), the words refer to drawing near to God by repenting of sin and living according to the
commands of God. Once again James uses negative titles to address the Christians he is writing to. He calls
them “you sinners” and “you double minded”. Clearly James sees his readers as saved Christians (that’s why he
calls them brothers), but also in need of a serious wake up call to repentance for the way they’re living their lives.
They need to repent of actions, by cleansing their hands and their thoughts by purifying their hearts.
True repentance should be marked by heartfelt grief at the sin, we have displayed. That’s why Jesus says
“blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”. This is not a command to be perennially miserable,
but a call to repentance. In light of sin, mourn before God, confess what you have done wrong, humble yourself
before God. Don’t laugh about sin, rather weep before God and he will exalt you. Elsewhere in the Bible we are
told that when we weep and mourn over sin, we are comforted and restored to true lasting Christian joy, far
stronger and more powerful than the fleeting laughter that some enjoy.
Question: Does your Christian faith include times of mournful repentance and humility before God? When was
the last time your sin caused you to cry?
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, I come before you as a sinful person. Someone who has let worldly passions lead me into
conflict with fellow brothers and sisters. Someone who has submitted and not resisted the devil in many
circumstances. Forgive me, Father. Forgive my wrong deeds and my wrong thoughts. Cleanse my hands and
purify my heart. Lord, I love you. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Give me strength to resist the devil
and the courage to submit to your lordship, that I might obey all your commands and live as Christ did.
Lord, I pray for renewed resistance against the schemes of Satan. May we fight against evil in it’s many forms in
Watford and across the world. I pray particularly against human trafficking. Lord, may you end human slavery.
May you protect young woman & girls from evil men. May you raise up a passion in me and in your church
across the world to stand against Satan in this.
Thank you that you jealously love me and thank you for your grace. Give me more grace. In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
Other Reading
Ephesians 6, Hosea 1-3