James Chapter 4 — Commentary and Notes on Verse 10

    Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

    The apostle goes on inculcating and pressing the same duty upon them; and lest they should rest content with externals, he uses a word that particularly implies the internal acts of the soul.

    Note from the context that it is not the outward expressions that God looks for in mourning, but the humble heart. God, who is a spirit, does not count bodily actions so much. Tears and wailing and beating the body may all be counterfeit, or else done without a principle of grace; and there may often be inward humiliation though an unemotional person does not yield tears. Godly sorrow does not always vent itself through the eyes. Roman Catholics place much importance on tears and afflicting the body. The spirit-work is the more difficult. Duties require much spirit, and soul-acts are too strong for weak people. I allude to Christ’s expression concerning spiritual fasting in Matthew 9:15-16. Old worldly hearts cannot endure the rigor of such spiritual duties.

    So then, in your first duties see that you not only mourn and weep but humble your souls. When you confess sins, it is not words and tears that God looks for, but a deep shame of the evil of your nature, your iniquities of life, and your defects in obedience. When you pray, look not so much at the outward heat and strength—agitated spirits and earnestness of speech; but see that the soul reaches for God by holy ardor and desires. In confessing public sins, it is not the exact enumeration but zeal for God’s glory, compassion for others’ good, and holy desires of promoting righteousness that the Lord looks for. Ashes and sackcloth are nothing to the work of the soul: “Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?” (Isaiah 58:5).

    BeforetheLord. There is a similar passage in 1 Peter 5:6; but there it is, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand.” That expression implies a motive or consideration to enforce the duty, but James’s words imply the sincerity of it.

    Note 1. Duties are truly done when they are done as in God’s sight. Fear and reverence of God make the heart more sincere (see 1:27 and 1 Peter 3:21). “I obey your precepts and your statutes, for all my ways are known to you” (Psalm 119:168); that was David’s motive. So then, in all duties of worship remember that you are before God; there is a broad and pure eye of glory fixed on you. You are dealing with God, who tells people his thoughts and who discerns your spirits better than you do yourselves. The right way to speak of this is described in Acts 10:33, “We are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” We come to pray, to hear, to humble ourselves before God. The soul will have a double advantage from such thoughts: the work will be more spiritual, and more pure and upright. It will be more spiritual in that I am not to be humbled before man but before God. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Will this satisfy God? Is it the kind of fast he has chosen (Isaiah 58:5)? It will be more pure and upright in that whatever a person does to God, he will do it for God’s sake; religious duties will be performed for reasons of religion, not because they are customary or to join in what other people are doing, but for God and to God.

    Note2. The sight of God is a special help to humiliation. The soul becomes humble by the true knowledge of God and ourselves: “my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). When Job had a glorious vision of God, he vanished into nothing in his own thoughts. The stars vanish when the sun rises, and our poor candle is so slight that it disappears when the glory of God rises in our thoughts. We see our lack in God’s fullness; the ocean makes us ashamed of our own little drop. We see our vileness in God’s majesty. What is the dust on the scales compared to a mountain, and our wickedness in comparison with God’s holiness? Elijah pulled his cloak over his face when God’s glory passed by him (1 Kings 19:13). Similarly, Isaiah cried out, “Woe to me! … I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips” when God showed him his glory (Isaiah 6:5). Whenever God appeared to the faithful, men were filled with fear because of their own weakness and corruption.

    So then, this tells us how to be humble in our addresses to God: get as large and comprehensive an idea of him as you can; see his glory if you want to know your own baseness. People are feeble in duties because they have low thoughts of God. They offered the Lord a blemished animal because they did not consider he was a great King (Malachi 1:14). The elders who saw God in his glory “fell on their faces” (Revelation 11:16).

    And he will lift you up. What does this promise imply? It means any kind of happiness, including deliverance out of trouble (“You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted,” Psalm 10:17) or promotion to worldly honor or dignity (“A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor,” Proverbs 29:23). Though promotion brings us to slippery places, the humble will be sustained and upheld. It is the same with advancement in grace or glory: “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4); that is, he will have the most grace and glory.

    Learn from this that submission and humility are the true way to exaltation. This is often repeated in the Gospel: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11; see also Matthew 23:12). We are all by nature proud and want to be exalted; but the way to rise is to fall. God gave us a pattern in Jesus Christ: first, he “made himself nothing … he humbled himself and became obedient to death … on a cross! Therefore God exalted him … and gave him the name that is above every name” (see Philippians 2:5-11). So then, do you want deliverance? Humble yourself! Omnipotence will not be your terror but protection. Do you want grace? See more of God.

    Lastly, we may be encouraged from all this to wait upon God with a holy humility and confidence in our lowly state: “When men are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then he will save the downcast” (Job 22:29). When all your affairs go to decay, you may rely on these hopes. Peter says, “that he may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). Wait for God, and the promise will surely be fulfilled; only be humble. Gracious humiliation is a deep sense of our misery and vileness, with a desire to be reconciled to God on any terms.