James Chapter 4 — Commentary and Notes on Verse 8

    ComeneartoGodandhewillcomeneartoyou.Washyourhands,yousinners,andpurifyyour hearts, you double-minded.

    James returns to the main thing in question—the success of humbly addressing God, showing we shall not lack divine help if we will just make way for it. God never lets us down until we first let ourselves down. We withdraw our hearts from God, and so it is no wonder if we do not feel the effects of his grace. All the world may judge whether God or sinners bear the blame for our wants and miseries. If “a man’s own folly ruins his life,” there is no reason why we should “rage against the LORD” (Proverbs 19:3).

    Come near to God. You may look upon these words as spoken to sinners or to converts.

    (1)      If they are spoken to sinners, or people who have not been called, then the sense is, “Come near to God, seek him by faith and repentance, and he will come near to you”—that is, with his grace and blessing. In that case, note that everyone by nature needs to come near to God. Coming near implies we have left; “even from birth the wicked go astray” (Psalm 58:3). As soon as we were able to go, we went astray. In Adam we lost three things—the image of God, the favor of God, and fellowship with God. All sins divide between God and the soul; “your iniquities have separated you from your God” (Isaiah 59:2). Sin makes us shy of his presence; guilt cannot endure the thought of the Judge, and it makes God offended with us. How can his holy nature delight in an impure creature?

    And as sin in general does this, so there are some special sins that separate between God and the soul, such as pride (see Psalm 138:6). God stands at a distance and will have no communion with a proud spirit. So creature-confidence and self-satisfaction keep us from God; we stand at a distance, as if we had enough merit of our own: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5). The closest union is brought about by faith, which makes the soul stay in him; and the greatest separation is when we go to other sources of confidence, for then we are simply leaving God. So then, consider your natural condition—aliens from God. So that you may resent it all the more, consider the cause and effects of this natural condition:

    a.      Its cause. The heart is set on sin and therefore estranged from God: “alienated from God” and “enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior” (Colossians 1:21)—that is, because the mind is set on sin. With such a distance between us and God, we do not delight in him. “Leave us alone!” Why? “We have no desire to know your ways” (Job 21:14). We do not love holiness, and therefore we do not love God. What madness this is, to part with God for sin!

    b.      Its effects. If you depart from God as a friend, you cannot escape him as an enemy. How beautifully Augustine puts it: “You that cannot endure the presence of God, or a thought of him, where will you go from him?” Or this: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there” (Psalm 139:7-8). Where will you go? “Am I only a God nearby, … and not a God far away?” (Jeremiah 23:23). God is here, there, and everywhere; you will find him wherever you go. Surely, then, it is better to draw near to him as a friend than to run from him as an enemy.

    Note also that a great duty of the fallen creature is to come near to God. I do not mean to deal with this duty at length but will just look at three things:

    First, how God and the creature may be said to be near one another, or to come near. Gods’ special presence is in heaven, and we are on earth; and his general presence is with all the creatures, and so “he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). But James’s statement is to be understood spiritually: we come near to him not by our physical feet, but by the soul. God’s children are with him in their thoughts, in the affections and dispositions of their souls. Their heart and their treasure is there (see Matthew 6:20-21). Their desires are there; the world is only a large prison. But more especially it means their communion with God in duties in which their souls and prayers “come up” to him (Acts 10:4); and he is said to come down to meet them (Isaiah 64:5). This also indicates the continual relationship between God and them in all their ways. John’s first letter was written so that his readers might have fellowship with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3).

    Second, how is this brought about, since we cannot endure the thought of God? The question is necessary. This was heaven’s great purpose, to find a way of bringing us back into fellowship with our Maker. God has discovered a new and living way through Christ, which is why he is said to be “the way … to the Father” (John 14:6). And the main purpose of his incarnation and death was to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). To bring strangers and enemies together is a mighty work. But how does Christ effect it?

    a.      Partly by doing something for us—satisfying God’s justice and bearing our sins in his body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24); otherwise guilt would have been able to have no dealings with wrath. Now Christ is a screen put between us; the divine glory would swallow us up, but Christ’s flesh is a veil that takes off its edge and brightness (Hebrews 10:19-20).

    b.      Partly by doing something in us. Christ’s work in bringing a soul to God has not ended with the cross; he gives us the graces of his Holy Spirit, which make us fit for communion with God. The principal ones are these:

    Faith, which is nothing other than coming to God by Christ for grace, mercy, and salvation (Hebrews 10:22). Unbelief means going away from God (Hebrews 3:12; Zephaniah 3:2).

    Then love, the grace of union. It makes us go out to God in desire; it keeps us there by delight. The one is the soul’s thirst; the other is its satisfaction. Love runs out with the feet of desire and rests in the arms of delight.

    Then holiness. God will show himself holy “among those who approach him” (Leviticus 10:3). Holy hearts are the fittest to deal with a holy God; otherwise, we would not endure God, nor he us.

    Then fear, by which the soul walks with God and is near him. Where our thoughts are is where we are spiritually. It is said of the wicked that “in all his thoughts there is no room for God” (Psalm 10:4); but the godly always keep God in view: “I saw the Lord always before me” (Acts 2:25). Fear keeps them in his company.

    Then humility. Because of our distance and guilt we cannot come to God unless we come humbly and on our knees: “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker” (Psalm 95:6). That is the most appropriate posture when we approach God; God will live with the lowly in spirit (Isaiah 57:15).

    All these graces, exercised in our behavior with other people or in our religious duties (where we address God more directly), make the soul to be near him.

    Thirdly, what special acts does the soul perform when it comes near to God? The answer may be given you from what we said before. There must be an act of faith in our needs; by faith we must see in God what we feel we need. Fear must be acted in all our ways, keeping us in God’s eye; loose and careless people are far from God (Genesis 17:1). Then love and humility must be acted in religious duties. Coming near chiefly implies humbly and fervently addressing God—when you come to God naked, like coming to a rich man who will clothe you—when you come to God hungry, like coming to a generous man who will feed you—when you come to God sick, like coming to a physician who will cure you—when you come as servants of the Lord, as disciples to your master, as the blind to the light, as cold to the fire, etc. The best way for the creatures to approach is to begin and end in hope, when there is a rare mixture of humility and confidence; and there must be love in every act of devotion, for God must be sought as well as served.

    So then, let us remember all this. Sin is departing from God; grace is returning. Come near to him, aim for the support of his presence; Christ is the way, but you must resolve upon it: I must and I will. “Your face, LORD , I will seek” (Psalm 27:8); there must be a concern to bring the soul to this resolve. Note what it says in Jeremiah 30:21, “‘I will bring him near and he will come close to me, for who is he who will devote himself to be close to me?’ declares the LORD.” But will you devote yourselves? A practical commandment arises from conviction of the necessity and excellence of the duty; as David says, “It is good to be near God” (Psalm 73:28).

    Objection. There is one doubtful point in the text that must be cleared up before we go any further, arising from the use of the phrase comeneartoGod, as if it were in our own power. The old Pelagians misused this passage, and the Rhemists in their notes say that free will and human endeavor are necessary in coming to God and that man is a cause of making himself clean, though God’s grace is the principal cause. Usually two things have been based on this passage: first, that the beginning of conversion is in man’s power; and second, that this beginning merits or increases God’s grace; for, they say, God will not come near to us unless we first come near to him and therefore, before special grace, the beginning of conversion must be in man, and upon this beginning God will come in.

    Solution. First, this passage and similar ones show not what man wantsto do but what he ought to do. We left God before he left us; we should be the first to return, as we were the first to leave. The wronged party may in justice wait for us to submit. Yet such is the Lord’s kindness that he loves us first (1 John 4:19).

    Second, commandments are not measures of our strength; it is not valid to argue from what ought to be done that it can or will be done. These things are expressed in this way for another purpose: to show God’s right, to convince the creature of weakness, to show us our duty, to show us that we should do our utmost, and to convince us of the things we have failed to do.

    Third, these precepts are not useless; they convey grace to those who are chosen. God fulfills what he commands, for, by means of the Spirit working with them, they are stirred up and made to comeneartoGod. To other people the precepts are convincing, showing us our obstinacy; we will not come to God and lie at the foot of his sovereignty, saying, “O Lord, you have said, ‘Restore me, and I will return’” (Jeremiah 31:18). People pretend they cannot come, but the truth is they willnot come hungry to the table, thirsty to the fountain; they will not lie at God’s feet for grace. So these precepts convince reprobates and leave them without excuse. I shall conclude with Bernard’s wonderful saying: “We cannot seek God until we have found him; he wants to be sought in order that he may be found, and found in order that he may be sought: it is grace that must bring us to grace.” The stray sheep cannot be brought home unless it is on Christ’s shoulders.

    (2)      The other interpretation of these words is that they apply to Christians already converted and called; and in this case the sense is: “Come nearer to God every day in a holy communion, and you will have more grace from him.”

    In this case, note that gracious hearts should always be renewing their access to God through Christ—coming to Christ “like living stones” (1 Peter 2:5), always coming to him in everything we do and in every need. This maintains and increases grace and makes our life wonderful and strong. Coming near to God is not something we must do for an hour, it is not something appropriate merely when we are converted, but it is the work of our whole lives.

    And he will come near to you. That is, he will make us find that he is near to us by his favor and blessing. We have a similar promise in Zechariah 1:3, “‘Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you.’” It is the same in Malachi 3:7.

    The way to have God turn to us in mercy is to turn to him in duty. This is the standing law of heaven, and God will not vary from it; it is the best way for God’s glory and for the creatures’ good. Mercies are most delightful and good to us when we are prepared for them by duty. Do not, then, separate mercy from duty. Expectations in God’s way cannot be disappointed. Ephraim wanted blessings but could not endure the yoke of obedience. We are apt to lie upon the bed of ease and complacently look to see what God will do, but will not stir ourselves to do what we should do.

    God will be near those who are careful to hold communion with him. “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth” (Psalm 145:18). Near to bless, to comfort, to give life, to guide, to support them. Let this encourage us to come to God—indeed, to run to him. The father ran to meet the returning prodigal (Luke 15:20). God will be first with loving-kindness: “You will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I” (Isaiah 58:9). God says, in effect, “What have you to say to me? What do you want from me? Here am I to satisfy all your desires.” Elsewhere it says, “Before they call I will answer” (Isaiah 65:24). When we apply ourselves to seeking God, he is near to counsel, to give life, to defend—ready with blessing before our imperfect desires can be formed into requests.

    Wash your hands, you sinners. From the connection of this precept with the previous one, note that unclean people can have nothing to do with God. You must be holy before you can come near to him; conformity to his will is the ground of communion: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God” (Joshua 24:19). God cannot endure our presence if we are not holy; he “does not … strengthen the hands of evildoers” (Job 8:20). And we cannot endure his presence: “The sinners in Zion are terrified” (Isaiah 33:14). So then, if you want to be free with God, come with a holy heart; there is special purgation required before worship. The Israelites were to wash themselves when they heard the law (Exodus 19). And David says, “I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, O LORD” (Psalm 26:6). He is referring to the solemn washing that God had appointed for those who came to the altar (Exodus 40). Again, if you want to be delightfully at ease with God in your ways, walk holily; the Spirit of God loves to live cleanly (see Psalm 24:3-4). Generally it was the custom of the eastern countries to wash before worship. Even the heathen gods would be served in white, the emblem of purity.

    Washyourhands. This indicates good works—just as pureness of heart implies faith and holy affections. This is what it often means in Scripture, for example in Job 17:9—“The righteous who hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger.” Therefore, washing the hands was a sign of innocence, just as Pilate washed his hands in connection with Christ. The apostle Paul tells us to “lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing” (1 Timothy 2:8). Similarly, God tells the Israelites, “Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean” (Isaiah 1:15-16). When we come empty to the fountain of goodness, we must not do it with impure hands. In all these passages “hands” mean the whole body and all the external organs of the soul, because they are principally used for accomplishing many sins such as bribes, lusts, and fights.

    The Lord has required not only holy hearts but holy hands. The goodness of your hearts must appear in the integrity of your behavior. When people’s actions are no good, they pretend their hearts are good. The heart must be pure and the way undefiled, so that we may neither incur blame from within nor shame from without; and once sin is committed, the hand must be cleansed as well as the heart. It is in vain to pretend repentance and washing the heart when the hand is full of bribes or ill-gotten goods and no restitution is made.

    You sinners. In this first clause he is speaking to people who were openly sinful, tainted with the guilt of outward and manifest sins. “God does not listen to sinners” (John 9:31)—that is, to people living corrupt lives. Thus Mary Magdalene is called “a woman who had lived a sinful life” (Luke 7:37)—that is, openly profane; see also Luke 15:2. Now the chief thing open sinners must do is to cleanse their hands, or reform their live, so that by such acts they may avoid the foolish idea that the heart may be good while the life is scandalous.

    Purifyyourhearts. James says this partly because in this clause he is dealing with hypocrites, whose life is plausible enough, but their main care should be about their hearts, and partly because everything comes from the heart.

    If you want to have a holy life, you must get a clean heart. True conversion begins there; spiritual life, as well as natural life, is in the heart first. “Abstain from sinful desires … live … good lives” (1 Peter 2:11-12). First mortify the sinful desires, then the deeds of the body of sin. If you want to cure the disease, purge away the sick matter; otherwise sin may return and put salt in the spring: “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts” (Isaiah 55:7). Notice that it is not only his “way,” or course of life, but his “thoughts,” the frame of his heart; the heart is the womb of thoughts, and thoughts are the first things that come from corruption (see Matthew 15:19). What God looks for and loves is “truth in the inner parts” (Psalm 51:6). Do not be concerned only for honor before people, but for your hearts before God; and let conscience be dearer to you than reputation. Many people are aware of failings in their behavior because they expose them to shame; we should be as aware of things that are not right in the heart. Sinful desires must not be digested without regret and remorse any more than acts of sin.

    Youdouble-minded. The word means “of two hearts” or “of two souls.” A hypocrite has “a heart and a heart,” which is odious to God; they dither between God and Baal and deny the religion that they profess. Their thoughts are divided, and their affections are always hovering in a doubtful suspense between God and the world. See the notes on 1:8.