Come Day 14 Come To Fellowship: Digging Deeper
February 27, 2025
Discover the original intent of Scripture. Make good application to our everyday lives.
Become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
James 4:8-10
9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
The Original Intent
1) How can we draw near to God and He draw near to us? (verse 8)
James urges his readers to “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” (verse 8) Before Jesus brought salvation to the world (Romans 5:8), people didn’t have free, open access to God in this way. Priests and prophets brought the Word of God to the people and told them how to live a holy life (Exodus 33:7-11) Their nearness to God wasn’t dictated by whether they drew near to hear from Him; God spoke when He was ready to give instruction or warning.
But God designed us for full-access fellowship with Him and has been calling us into deeper relationship since the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 3:8-9) Joyce Meyer explains that “Jesus didn’t die so He could give us religion; He gave His life so we can have a close, personal, intimate relationship with God. We need to get comfortable with God . . . we should be confident that He loves us and that He wants to spend time with us.”
We were made to worship God, bring Him glory (1 Peter 2:9), and be conformed to His image through the work of His Spirit (Romans 8:29). All of these are accomplished when we draw near to God. When we read His Word and pray, we are actively drawing near to Him! When we still ourselves to listen to His voice, we are drawing near to God.
J. Alec Motyer suggests that nearness to God involves “regularity and discipline in Bible reading, prayer, private and public worship, feasting at the Lord’s Table, devoting ourselves to Christian fellowship, [and] cultivating every appointed avenue whereby we can draw near to him.” God draws near to us when He comforts us, instructs us, protects us, and empowers us.
Author Thomas Manton asserts that God is “Near to bless, to comfort, to give life, to guide, to support them. Let this encourage us to come to God—indeed, to run to him.” May we avail ourselves of the blessed privilege of unrestricted access to God for those who have entrusted their souls to Him through faith in Jesus!
The Everyday Application
1) How can we draw near to God and He draw near to us? (verse 8)
My father, a preacher, became a Christian when I was very young. He held various secular jobs back then, but he spent his free time in his study, reading and praying. I had a front row seat to his version of seminary. His Bible overflowed with notes and bookmarks and contained more hi-lights and underlined passages than not. If he wasn’t praying, he was reading books about prayer and the Christian life by E.M. Bounds, Andrew Murray, Watchman Nee, and J.I. Packer.
I cannot think of my dad in those days without remembering him bent over a book, scribbling on his legal pads, blasting Christian music or pacing the floor in prayer. I realize now that he was obeying the exhortation of James to “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8) It was like, “When a soul sets out to seek God, God sets out to meet that soul; so that while we are drawing near to him, he is drawing near to us.” (Adam Clarke)
By saturating his heart and mind with the Word of God and prayer, my dad was drawing near to the Lord, and the Lord was drawing near to him. I witnessed God’s nearness to him through the fruit of the spirt (Galatians 5:22-23) in my Dad’s life and in the prayers I heard him utter, and saw answered, before my eyes.
It was foundational to my own faith to see my parents’ relationship with God lived out in such a simple yet profound way. Despite the trials we faced, I had daily evidence that a life lived near to God brought contentment and joy! (Psalm 16:11)
The Original Intent
2) Why are readers exhorted to be miserable, mourn, weep, and turn joy to gloom? (verse 9)
James gave his readers the odd instruction, “Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom”. (James 4:9) James was describing ways of humbling ourselves before God in repentance for our sins. “It was a recognized tenet in Jewish theology that self-inflicted punishment of any kind was a means of reconciliation.” (Precept Austin)
James suggested these actions demonstrate our dependence on God as our source of everything (Philippians 4:19) and exemplify repentance for our sins of pride and rebellion against God (Romans 8:7). These descriptions aren’t instructing us to be sad, weepy, and depressive, rather, our hearts are to stop celebrating our sin and start being broken over it. Unless we can recognize and grieve over our own sins against the Lord, we are not in a position where we can welcome the nearness of God; we are too full of pride, having no need for a Savior.
David Guzik explains, “As we draw near to God, we will be convicted of our sin. So, we lament and mourn and weep as appropriate under the conviction of sin, and we are compelled to find cleansing at the cross.” James wanted believers to be grieved by their sin against God. He wanted them to recognize the gravity of their transgressions, so he recommended taking drastic steps to demonstrate being sorrowful over sin.
Charles Spurgeon suggests that James wrote to “the man that feels his sin and hates it, that mourns that he should have rebelled against God, and desires to find mercy. Now, God will come to such, because there is purity in that heart.”
We can allow James’ exhortation to make us mindful of our own unrighteousness and our open accessibility to ask God for forgiveness and accept His mercy and grace because of Jesus’ payment for our sin at the cross. (Ephesians 2:8)
The Everyday Application
2) Why are readers exhorted to be miserable, mourn, weep, and turn joy to gloom? (verse 9)
At 18 years old, I drove with a friend to an out of town wedding. We stayed late talking to friends, and when we headed home, my friend took a different route, assuring me this way was better. Her shortcut actually took longer, and we eventually needed to stop for gas. I wanted to find a pay phone (no cell phones back then!) to call my parents, who were already expecting me home. She convinced me there was no need to call since we would be home soon.
When I finally arrived, my parents were frantic with worry. My joy from the evening with friends turned to sorrow and distress for the anxiety I caused my parents. I think of that incident when I read James’ admonishment to “Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom”. (James 4:9) When I realized that I had caused my parents anguish, my joy turned to gloom as I contemplated the mistakes I made.
James wanted those who sinned against God, which is all of us, to mourn over how displeasing their sinful actions were to God. Dr. Edmond Hiebert asserts that James made “an urgent demand for open and thorough repentance. The intensity of the demand is startling, intended to shake these double-minded believers.”
We live in a sinful world, and it is easy for Christians to become inured to cultural norms that are not pleasing to the Lord. We must be vigilant to remember that, as Christ-followers, we are not of the world (John 15:19) and we must be watchful not to let sin creep into our lifestyles (1 Corinthians 16:13). Thankfully, we have a God who knows what we are going through and provides grace to help us. (Hebrews 4:15-16)
The Original Intent
3) Why does God exalt the humble? (verse 10)
James exhorted his readers to “humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you”. (James 4:10) James understood that the Lord loves a humble and contrite heart. (Isaiah 66:2) After all, it was pride that brought down Lucifer (Satan) (Isaiah 14:12-15), and pride that caused Adam and Eve to sin. (Genesis 3:6)
In trying to exalt themselves to God’s level or above, they brought about their own downfall, which is a tragic story repeated all throughout Scripture. James taught that the way up to God is actually down through humility.
Andrew Murray declares, “Here is the path to the higher life: down, lower down! Just as water always seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds men abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless.”
Jesus demonstrated this humility by coming to earth as a humble servant, God in the flesh, to take all our guilt and shame upon Himself, though He had never sinned. (Philippians 2:7-8) Jesus humbled Himself by taking on our sins so he could present us blameless to His Father. (Colossians 1:22)
When we humble ourselves, we become more like Jesus, and He raises us up to bring others to Himself. (Matthew 5:16) When we humble ourselves before God, He exalts us by filling us with more of Him. (Ephesians 3:19)
The Everyday Application
3) Why does God exalt the humble? (verse 10)
I enjoy teaching the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32 to kids in Sunday school. Not only is it entertaining (it has money, pigs, sibling rivalry and a big party!), but kids can easily relate to its story.
All kids have arrogantly chosen their own way and later repented of their pride, longing for the forgiveness and reconciliation the father gives his wayward son. Every kid recognizes that the son didn’t deserve the kindness shown to him by his father when he humbled himself, asking for a servant’s position in his father’s household.
The actions of the father in the parable prove the words of Jesus’ disciple, James, who said, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you”. (James 4:10) When the Prodigal Son humbled himself before his father, hoping to live as a servant in his home, his father instead rejoiced in his return with a giant party.
God exalts all who humble themselves in a similar way. According to author Andrew Murray, “Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue.”
God wants us to acknowledge our need for Him and stop trying to satisfy ourselves from our own resources. He promises that with Him as our Good Shepherd, we lack nothing. (Psalm 23:1) This includes our mental, physical, and spiritual needs. R.C.H. Lenski asserts, “Only an empty vessel can God fill with His gifts. And the emptier we are of anything that is due to ourselves, the more can God pour into these vessels His eternal riches, honors, and glories.”
When we decrease, God increases (John 3:30), and He exalts us by making us more like Him. (Ephesians 5:1-2)
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