The Remedy to Worldliness: Part 5 - James 4:8

The Remedy to Worldliness: Part 5 - James 4:8
Written by LaRosa Johnson
Tuesday, July 29, 2008

In our previous study, we looked at what it meant for a Jew to be ceremonially clean and saw how that related to James' plea for moral cleansing in the lives of Christians when he stated, "cleanse your hands, you sinners." This cleansing does not stand by itself though, at least not in this context. Along with having clean hands, James tells his readers that they also need to purify their hearts. Today, our study will focus on the final words of James 4:8 as we see how this purification closely relates to the cleansing of one's hands under the Mosaic Law. So, if hearts and minds are prepared for the study of our Lord's truth, then let us once again look at our passage in James 4:8.

Quote :

James 4:8 (NASB) - Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Having already studied the first two-thirds of this verse in much detail, we will not spend time recapping those for you; instead, we will dive right into our text for today. Our study today consists of the final portion of this verse which reads, "purify your hearts, you double-minded." As in our previous studies dealing with this group of imperatives, the bulk of our study will focus on the imperative itself, in this instance the imperative is "purify." The word purify comes from the Greek word hagnizo (Strong's #G48) and only occurs a total of seven times in the entire New Testament. In these seven instances they all carry a meaning of making pure or cleansing, but in a moral sense. In its Septuagint (LXX) uses it brings out the ceremonial aspect of purity before the Lord, just as we had the instances of being ceremonially clean with katharizo.

In order to understand James' intent with this word, it would be wise to first look at a few Old Testament passages in order to get a glimpse of what it meant to be ceremonially pure. In the LXX the very first place that we find hagnizo used is in Exodus 19:10, which is a very significant passage in helping us understanding the concept of this word. Here, the Hebrew word from which hagnizo is translated is qadash (Strong's #H6942) and means to sanctify, hallow, or dedicate. When read in context, this Exodus passage tells of the preparation that needed to take place in order for the Israelites to be ready for their encounter with the Lord at Sinai. As a means of preparation, the Israelites had to undergo two whole days of consecration where they prepared themselves internally and externally, making sure that their heart was right, along with their physical appearance. As further clarification, an English definition of consecrate means to set apart or dedicate to the service of a deity. In this instance, the Israelites were preparing themselves to be dedicated to God as His people. What makes this passage so interesting is that it involved the entire nation of Israel, and not just the priests, as we see in other passages (Num. 8:21; 1 Chr. 15:14; 2 Chr. 29:16-17); it is this kind of event that shows how purity is something required of all of God's people, and not just His priests. Another passage that shows us a national purifying (qadash) is Joshua 3:5, where Joshua declares that the children of Israel need to consecrate themselves before crossing the Jordan River. The key thing to note about both of these passages is that they involved inward and outward cleansing in order to be acceptable in the sight of the Lord, which meant having pure hearts and clean bodies.

One of the things that I like about Old Testament Scripture is that many of the rituals that God instituted help to paint a vivid picture of New Testament principles, many of which help us in knowing how to serve God. This is clearly one of those instances with hagnizo and the idea of purifying one's self for the service of the Lord. What's more is that it ties in beautifully with the other two imperatives that were given in James 4:8, in that it requires purity and cleanliness in order to draw near to the Lord. Now, we said at the beginning of our study that James is speaking of a moral cleansing, and not so much the physical aspect; let us examine that now. Part of understanding James' idea of moral purity involves looking at what James' called his readers: double-minded. As we learned in James 1:8, a double-minded person is one who literally has their mind divided between God and the world, which we addressed at length in James 4:4 in being a friend to this world. There is no way that you can be morally pure if your allegiance is divided between God and this world's system of thinking. The basic idea of purity, as we see in 1 John 3:3, is that as we fix our eyes on Jesus, who is the very essence of purity, we too shall become purified. 1 John 3:9 also applies here because when our focus is fixed on Jesus and we are walking in fellowship with Him (with a pure heart) we will not sin. This is the heart of what James is getting at; he does not want for believers to be in a lifestyle of practicing sin, but instead walking in the Light of the Savior.

The question still remains though, how do we purify our hearts? Peter answers this question for us in his first epistle. In 1 Peter 1:22 he states, "Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart." Purity of heart comes through obeying the Word of God, which implies that we are ingesting it at regular intervals. Just as we feed our bodies food, we should constantly be feeding on the Word of God, and as we read, we should be obeying whatever it is that we have read. Through obedience to the Word you will sin less and become conformed more to His likeness, thus resulting in a pure heart. And, as we also see in our 1 Peter passage, this should also motivate us to fervently love our brothers and sisters in Christ with sincerity.

So, to close our study for today, we have seen just how important it is to have purity and the significance that it has to God. The Old Testament gave us many clear examples of consecrating yourself for the Lord, two of which showed that it was something that needed to be done by everyone. Our passage in James emphasized this point for present day believers, showing that it is just as important today to be pure of heart, just as it was then. Plus, it is all the more important when you are not walking in fellowship and need to take steps to get back into fellowship with the Lord, as we see here in our passage. And without clean hands or a pure heart, we have no hope of being able to approach God and draw near to Him. In our next study, we will start a look at another handful of imperatives in verse 9 and see how they play a role in genuine God-fearing repentance. Until then, remain pure of heart!

devotion courtesy of Trailblazin Ministries
http://www.trailblazinministries.com/devotions/james070.php