Draw Near to God

Orange tea cup on wooden background

What is truly worth loving, and how do you know what it is? We know the answer to the second question based on what we fight for. It doesn't have to be a fistfight necessarily, but the things that we will put forward effort to defend are the things that we love. The motive of the soldier is love for the country. A father protects his children because he loves them. A person will defend their hobby and the time it takes to do it because they love it.

Unfortunately, some of that fighting gets quite literal. People love a clean house and get angry at family members for messing it up. People have desires for their lives that will destroy relationships along the way. This is what James puts his finger on next. We know the age old question, "Why can't we all just get along?" James tells us that we have met that enemy, and he is us. Our own desires get wildly out of control and lead to conflicts within and without.

In fact, we can get so embedded in this we can lose sight of everything else James has already told us. We can forget that chapter one told us that trials build us up and that our Father is the one who brings all good things unchangeably. We can forget and be partial to those who might be able to give us more. We can forget that mercy triumphs over judgment. We forget that what we say matters.

Last time we saw the difference between earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom, that which God promises to give to those who ask. Earthly wisdom was grounded in selfish ambition and jealousy and lead to every kind of evil. As we make the turn in the conversation in chapter 4, we find examples of what that evil is. We find that it leads to fights and quarrels, which are evidences of loving the world, which, chillingly, is described as spiritual adultery. Yet out of this darkest of moments in this book will shine the most encouraging light.

Worldliness Wounds

Fights and quarrels can seem minor things, because isn't this something we all have done? We then assume that this is no big deal. James' insight here is that fights and quarrels are actually the symptom of the real problem, your desires born of earthly wisdom. When we are obsessed with what we want when we want it, we produce fighting. James, likely with exaggeration for effect, is saying that people in the church are so upset, so self-loving about getting what they want, they will murder others to get it! That is why we can't get along. It's why nurseries and shipping lanes are chaos.

A further part of the tragedy here is the fighters aren't even barking up the right tree. Remember chapter one that ll good things come from God? We get so buried in what we think we want we ignore prayer entirely. Or if we do pray it is to God as vending machine. Gimme, God!

And when we do pray like that it reveals what we really love. You don't go to the vending machine because you love the vending machine. You love the snacks. So when we just pray for more selfish stuff, we show that our real friend is the world's sinful system. And by "world" we don't mean the planet or creation. What James means by that is the sinful world's system. The system of selfish ambition and jealousy is what Christians need to avoid. Because friendliness, or moral alignment with, the world puts us as an enemy of God.

Now, it is easy to just write this off as something that everyone does, but just because everyone does it here and there doesn't make it ok. We've heard sin rightfully described as cosmic treason, but here it is given a much more intimate, personal dimension, spiritual adultery. Again, this is written to Christians who have a relationship with God! But when those Christians start looking back longingly towards something else. Something that would satisfy our desires, we turn our backs on God. Desires doesn't have to be a sexual thing, it can be just the desire for anything self-serving (McCartney).

We don't like to think of our sin as spiritual cheating, but that is precisely what it is. And God isn't just sitting up there completely unmoved by that.
It turns out that God takes our relationship with Him very seriously. In fact, this passage describes God's approach as a jealous one. Now, James isn't always super precise with his terms, but this is a reference to the Old Testament where God describes Himself as a jealous God. This isn't God being a psycho boyfriend, demanding to check your phone messages. That sort of understanding actually drove Oprah away from God. God is acting like a loving spouse who rightly defends the relationship, who sees that His beloved going down this path isn't just destroying the relationship but also destroying herself because she is falling for an abusive partner. Sin, worldliness, is an abusive partner. If we were to uncover evidence of unfaithfulness in our spouses and the reaction was, "Well, that's what they do. I just want them to be happy." We would conclude that the relationship wasn't very important to them and neither was that person. God takes His covenant with us more seriously than we do. So for us to disregard Him is a double shame.

Now why does James paint with all this darkness? It is so that light can show through.

God Draws Near

We are quick to abandon betrayers, but God gives more grace. What? Grace for adulterers? Yes, if they humble themselves. It is when a person sees themself as the most unredeemable is exactly when God draws them in. So how do we receive this grace? We submit to God, meaning we put our desires under His. We don't live by our agenda anymore. We let the Lord set the agenda for our lives according to His word.

James tells us to resist the devil and He will flee, and then draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. These are two sids of the same coin. One commentator pointed out that resisting the devil is shown by fleeing sin. In other words, we resist the devil when we actually resist our sin. We don't go to that website. We don't say those things. We resist those selfish impulses. And the devil will flee.

One pastor very wisely said that this isn't an instant thing. It's not like you only have to say "no" to sin one time and the devil will go, "Welp, I'm out of ideas" and leave you immediately. In fact, the temptation may ratchet up in that moment. Or if it does go away, it'll come back in a weaker moment. That temptation will return when you've had a hard day, when you're tired or angry, or whatever your particular trigger looks like. Resisting the devil isn't a one-time deal. It is a pattern of life. But what will happen is that the longer you resist, slowly, the easier it gets. It's like lifting weights. You don't get stronger with one lift. In fact, the next day, things might be even harder to lift things because you are not used to it. But over time you will get stronger, and the weights you could barely get off the rack become your warm ups. In a similar way, the sins that used to just get you every time, slowly, the more you resist them, the more easy they become to resist.

But it isn't just resisting sin, it is drawing near to God. Come back. Come unto Me, all you who are worldly and adulterous, and I will give you grace! What's amazing is that when you repent and return to God, you notice that the text says that He draws near to you. It's like the the father of the prodigal son who came running out to meet his—well, there's really no other way to say this—utter failure of a son. It doesn't say, draw near to God, and He'll let you! He starts closing the gap because He loves you!

And what will you find there in God? Truly everything. Malcome Guite put it eloquently in his poem "O Sapientia":

I cannot think unless I have been thought,
Nor can I speak unless I have been spoken.
I cannot teach except as I am taught,
Or break the bread except as I am broken.
O Mind behind the mind through which I seek,
O Light within the light by which I see,
O Word beneath the words with which I speak,
O founding, unfound Wisdom, finding me,
O sounding Song whose depth is sounding me,
O Memory of time, reminding me,
My Ground of Being, always grounding me,
My Maker’s Bounding Line, defining me,
Come, hidden Wisdom, come with all you bring,
Come to me now, disguised as everything.

In other, less poetic words, when you draw near to God, you aren't just doing the right thing in the Christian worldview. Drawing near to God isn't a touchdown as if church were a sport. God truly is the ground of everything, and to prayerlessly chase after nonsense of the world is the high of foolishness as well as spiritual adultery.

So what do we do if we find ourselves in this path?

First, you recognize your sin for what it is. What that recognition looks like will be different from person to person. Crying at the front of the Church isn't necessarily the standard. But there needs to be some understanding that the sin you are working with isn't just a "mistake" or a "boo-boo." It has to be seen for what it is a betrayal against God. It is running out on a loving spouse to chase a shadow that will never love back. This is why James is so strong in verse 9. One commentator points out that we might think this is extreme because we don't fully grasp your sin.

Second, turning from that sin. Clean hands, clean hearts. That is the real proof of the proper understanding of step one. James tells us to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. Some commentators look at this as James telling us to be changed inside and out. It isn't limited to outward moral reform, though it is not less than that. It is also about a heart that loves to do the right thing. To love God and not the world's system.

This will be extremely practical. If you can't behave yourself on the smartphone, it is time to get rid of that thing. If can't control yourself around those friends, it is time for new friends. We are dealing with spiritual adultery here. We are dealing with declaring war on God, our husband.

Third, humbling oneself before God, which is to say submitting to His will for your life. It isn't just a Sunday morning thing. You don't marry someone and it only apply on the weekends.

But the promise is that God will draw near to you. I know, letting go of sin feels like letting go of oneself. Because it is. That sin used to be a comfort in hard times. It never really did comfort, but it sure felt that way at the time. You might have a lot in your life because of a sin. An abortion years ago allowed for life as it is today. Fraudulent finances might have built your business. Truth unsaid may be seemingly holding your marriage together. Calling the thing that comforts, holds, or even built your life an act of adultery feels impossible. It almost feels like a betrayal itself.

And even if we can get past that, it might seem like it being gone is impossible. The good life is dead now, and you killed it. But Jesus is in the resurrection business.

But God promises to draw near. He promises forgiveness. You don't have to pretend those sins from the past weren't sin. You don't have to keep trying to press that out of your mind. Instead, you can fall before God and say, Yes, I did those things, and now I want to follow you, and rather than God being disgusted with you and turning away from such an admission, it will be as if God says, "Finally! Welcome back. I have always loved you." Then you don't have to keep pressing that sin back. Now it is dealt with. It's done. Yes the consequences may remain, but the guilt doesn't have to.

Resist the devil, and he'll flee. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.