The Remedy to Worldliness: Part 1 - James 4:7-10

The Remedy to Worldliness: Part 1 - James 4:7-10
Written by LaRosa Johnson
Wednesday, 25 June 2008

We have spent the first six verses of James 4 looking at the problem of worldliness and the trouble that believers can get into when they choose to chase after their lustful pleasures, instead of following the ways of the Lord. We have seen how it can lead to envy that can ultimately result in murder. This is far from the Christian way of life that God envisions for us. Now that the problem has been outlined in much detail, both on James' part and ours, we are ready to begin a look at the subsequent passage that outlines, what I call, "the remedy to worldliness." We can find this remedy in James 4:7-10, where James gives a barrage of instructions to his readers if they plan on overcoming these unregenerate tendencies. Our study today will consist of an overview of the passage and some of its intricacies before we delve into the verse by verse study. If our hearts and minds are right, let us begin by looking about our passage.

Quote :

James 4:7-10 (NASB) - 7Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

When looking at this passage, one of the first things that you will notice is that James' instructions appear to be rapid fire and very forceful in nature. This is rightfully so because James has already warned his readers of the worldly indulgences that they had allowed themselves to become a part of; and, his desire is for them to quickly turn their lives around and get back into proper fellowship with the Lord. As is the goal with any believer that falls into sin, they should desire to be back in fellowship with the Lord and His Holy Spirit as quickly as possible. As an apostle, James knew what steps needed to be taken to make this a reality, which is why he chose to give a detailed list of what needs to take place in order for a believer to escape the grasp of lustful pleasures. If you look closely at the passage, you will see that James gives ten (10) commands, that, if followed by these believers, will have them well on their way back to fellowship with the Lord.

This passage is given a certain measure of importance knowing that James has given ten commands in a span of four verses. When we carry this over to the Greek, these commands become all the more important in helping us to understand this passage and the commands that are being given. In Greek grammar, commands are better known as imperatives, and each of these ten commands in English correlates to a Greek imperative.

It would serve us well to take a brief moment for a lesson in Greek as it will aid in our comprehension of the text. The first thing that needs to be pointed out is that there are two kinds of imperatives: present tense and aorist. Present tense imperatives are those that indicate a continuous action. An example of this type of imperative would be, "Preach the gospel!" This imperative implies an ongoing action in the sense that I am not telling you to preach the gospel just one time, but I want you to continually preach the gospel. The aorist imperative does not carry this idea of continued action, so it would be something like, "Tie your shoe." You would not keep tying your shoe; you would tie it once, and then you're done. In our passage, all ten of these imperatives are in the aorist tense. Therefore, these imperatives from James are to be considered as finite or puncticular actions that need to only be completed once. This distinction is important because it is not clear from the English text alone, and it tells us exactly in which sense these imperatives need to be taken.

There is one more thing to note about these imperatives, along with one note about imperatives in general. Our next point about these imperatives from James is that they are all in the second person plural form. Imperatives come in two common forms; these forms are: the second person singular and the second person plural. The second person plural is used when you are talking to one person directly and you are telling them to do something; in English we use the word "you" to specify this person. For example, "Timothy, you preach the gospel." In this example, it is very clear that the imperative is only intended for a single person. The second person plural is simply the plural form of "you," so it would literally be "you all" or the southern "y'all" in an English rendering, indicating that a group of people are being spoken to. An example of this would be, "You (all) be quiet," which is something that I collectively tell my kids often. Bringing this back in context, James is speaking to his entire audience, and not just one person in particular; so, he uses the second person plural for all of these commands, thus making them applicable to all of his readers, including us. The final note about imperatives is that they are not always in the view of a command as we generally would think of them in English; instead, they can best be understood as pleas, requests, or exhortations. In other words, James isn't so much commanding these Jewish believers to do these things, but is rather forcefully pleading with them to follow his instructions.

It is passages like this where it really helps to have an understanding of the Greek language, as even just sharing this little bit has gone a long way in helping us to understand the words of James in this epistle. If we had simply relied upon our English texts alone, we could have very easily taken this any number of ways. This is why we must remember that there is only one interpretation of Scripture, which is why this kind of preliminary work is sometimes necessary. Knowing the verb tenses and the audience will go a long way in allowing us to go through each of these commands, see what James intended, and ultimately make it applicable in our lives as present day believers. With this miniature Greek lesson, we are now in a good position to move forward and start looking at these verses individually.

Next time, we will start with verse 7 and look at these commands one by one so that we can get the full remedy to worldliness. Until then, keep the faith!

devotion courtesy of Trailblazin Ministries
http://www.trailblazinministries.com/daily-devotions/06-25-2008.php