“Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James 4:7-10).
Spiritual victory is never accidental. To successfully fight the good fight of faith, strategic battle plans must be made and carefully followed.
After describing the horrors of worldliness in 4:4-6, James writes ten action-packed commands. These terse imperatives are essential to defeating worldliness and need immediate—if not sooner—action.
The first three steps of God’s ten step plan for escaping worldliness and remaining free from it are: Submit to God. Resist the devil. Draw near to God. (See yesterday’s post.) Next two are:
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Cleanse your hands. Sin destroys all fellowship with God. For a close and intimate relationship with God to exist and flourish, personal guilt must be addressed and covered as per God’s plan and provision. Drawing near to God with your lips without cleansing your hands is a waste of your breath. Satan and worldliness are not defeated by such a double-minded approach to sin.
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Purify your heart. Reformation of your life is not the sum total of repentance. The only practical way to keep your hands from getting dirty again and again with sin’s guilt is to purify your heart of the love of sin. Anything less than the drastic fruits of repentance will not rid your heart and life of worldliness.
