Draw Near to God
An Exhortation on James 4:8
by Errol Klein

Turn with me to James, Chapter 4: We’ll focus on verse 8. First, let’s read verses 7 – 10 for context.

James 4:7-10 – Submit yourselves, therefore, 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. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Verse 8 begins Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” Our God is not a God who is unavailable. He’s not like repelling magnets, where the closer you try to bring them together, the more they push apart. No. He doesn’t hide from us. The Bible says that if we seek the Lord with all our heart, we will find Him. He makes Himself available. In fact, He jealously longs for the spirit He has caused to dwell in us. And on top of that, as Christians, He has placed His spirit in us.

But, there are requirements to approach God. David asked, “who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?” He later gave the answer: “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.”

Interesting then, that James tells us next in verse 8, “Cleanse your hand, you sinners.” Ouch. Who’s he calling sinners? We’re believers, right? True. But James calls us sinners. He tells us to cleanse our hands. Cleansing is used here figuratively in that we should cleanse ourselves in a moral sense from sin.

In Isaiah, God tells His people “Wash yourselves, makes yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good . . . .”

Can I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer, but please think about it. Are you working on rooting out sin from your life? And if so, are you doing this work daily?

I’m not only talking about repenting. Yes, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But John also goes on to say that no one who is born of God will continue to sin.

Brothers, let’s commit today to cleanse our conduct. Let’s not become comfortable wallowing in sin like a bunch of pigs in the mud. Let’s work hard to eradicate the sin in our lives, replacing it with good works.

Okay. We can stop there, right? Wouldn’t that be nice?

But, if we stopped at this point, we’d merely be white-washed tombs. James takes it deeper. He goes on to say in verse 8, “Purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Ouch again! First he calls us sinners, and now we’re double-minded?

Can I ask you another question? Again, you don’t have to answer, but please think about it. Can you think of a sin that you enjoy? Something that you know is wrong, but, given the opportunity, you’d indulge in it? Do you see how this situation could compromise the effectiveness of your walk, your work, and your witness for Christ?

Brothers, we cannot love God and sin at the same time. That is being double-minded. It makes us unstable in all we do. In other words, it means we cannot be trusted. It means we need to purify our hearts.

The heart is defined as the seat of one’s desires, feelings, affections, passions, impulses. We’re talking about attitudes and motivations. About why we do what we do. Ask yourself, “Do I refrain from sin because I want to please God, or simply stay out of trouble? Do I engage in good works for God’s glory, or for my own? Please be honest.

Remember, the Bible tells us the heart is desperately wicked. It will seek to trick us, so as to fulfill its own selfish desires.

For this reason we must become intimately familiar with Scripture in order to know what God expects of us. We must pray to God that He would give us wisdom for each circumstance of the day. We must listen to the guidance and prompting of the Holy Spirit. Then we can conform our lives to God’s standards. As a simple test, in any situation, we can ask ourselves, “Does this bring God glory and honor?”

But even more, let’s take time to meditate on God’s great love and the abundant blessing He has poured out on us. Let’s gain a deeper understanding of what it is exactly that Jesus has done for us double-minded sinners, and of who we have become in Christ. Ultimately, it is only because of Christ that we can approach God.

This knowledge of what it is we really deserve, of what it is that Jesus has saved us from and God’s great mercy and grace – cannot help to transform our attitudes and motives. It becomes our heart’s desire to please the Father.

So, I encourage you brothers, draw close to God by cleansing your hands and purifying your hearts. And you can be certain God will draw close to you. Amen.