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.
In light of the charges James has brought to the surface in his letter, he now addresses his readers as spiritual adulteresses and sinners in need of confession. What should they do? He may be speaking rhetorically to make his point, but we as Spirit-filled believers should read this personally. What should we do? We must humbly assess whether these charges are laid at our feet.
Not only must we submit to God, but we should also draw near to Him. The writer to the Hebrews invites,
“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:16)
James doesn’t invite us, but commands us. However, the result of our obedience is the same. God will draw near to us in grace and mercy. Our submission to God is not a religion of subservience but rather of relationship. God made us in His image, and just as He exists in perfect personal relationship within Himself as a trinity of persons, He desires the same kind of intimate relationship with His image-bearing creation.
Since we are not divine and are not intrinsically part of the trinitarian relationship, we approach Him on His terms, as invited guests. That is what submission means. However, we are not invited ultimately into a servile relationship, but one that deeply immerses us into the character of God.
Jesus prayed “. . . that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us . . .” (John 17:21). And it is there that we discover God drawing near to us. And from our position as outsiders coming in, we discover the embrace of His mercy and grace, we who are undeserving, yet the eternal recipients of His love.
However, to fully engage in relationship with God, we need to submit to the Holy Spirit’s searchlight that convicts us of our sin. We do this by changing our sinful ways (“cleanse your hands”) and focusing on the truth (pictured here as purifying our hearts from double-mindedness). We must genuinely repent (“mourn and weep”) and feel the full weight of that which separates us from enjoying relationship with Him. That is the entry point for submitting humbly to God. We put aside our self-efforts to gain what we do not have, and seek His presence. Then, and only then, will He exalt us.
Lord, I will seek You only and flee from my efforts at self-exaltation.
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