James 4:7-12
Scripture:
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee 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.
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Devotion:
The passage we will sit with this week begins with the word "therefore," a small word that pulls us back into the argument James has been building since the start of chapter 4. He has just described a church torn by quarrels and fights, where believers covet what they cannot have and pray with motives so tangled that their prayers go unanswered, and he has named the root of it all as a friendship with the world that amounts to hostility toward God. Into that painful diagnosis, James drops a line from Proverbs 3:34, reminding his readers that "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble," and everything in verses 7 through 12 flows out of that promise of grace.
What follows reads like a rapid series of commands, ten of them packed into four verses, each one pressing the reader toward God with an urgency that is hard to miss. Submit, resist, draw near, cleanse, purify, mourn, humble yourselves: James piles the imperatives on top of one another because he knows how easily a divided heart drifts, and he wants his readers to feel the weight of returning to the Lord with their whole selves. Tucked inside those commands are some of the most tender promises in the New Testament, including the assurance that the devil will flee from those who resist him and that God will draw near to those who draw near to Him.
The passage then turns, somewhat surprisingly, to the way we talk about one another, as James warns against speaking evil of a brother and asks a question that lands with quiet force: "Who are you to judge your neighbor?" This week we will walk through these verses using the HEAR method, and we will also spend time in Psalm 75, where Asaph celebrates the God who alone brings down the proud and lifts up the lowly, and in Matthew 7, where Jesus teaches His followers to deal honestly with the log in their own eye before reaching for the speck in someone else's.
For today, simply read the passage, and read it slowly enough that each command has room to settle. If you are able, read it aloud, and then ask the Holy Spirit to show you the word, phrase, or verse He wants you to carry into this week.
HEAR about it:
Highlight:
Write down the verse, phrase, or word the Holy Spirit highlighted for you. Why did it stand out? What might God be saying to you through it?
Prayer and Reflection:
Take a few minutes to sit quietly and reflect on the passage you read today. Let the Holy Spirit bring to mind what stood out to you and why. Then spend some time in prayer. Pray for the people around you, for your outlook on this day, and for the needs you are carrying in your own life.
Lord, thank You for the promise that You draw near to those who draw near to You. As I begin reading James 4 this week, help me slow down and pay attention to what You want me to see. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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