Draw nigh to God ...the Wayfarer 11/12/16

 ^{Draw nigh to God}

James 4:8 KJV

8.Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

The continual harangue has not ceased as the world remains enmeshed in the results of the strife between factions which all claim to want the betterment of nations and the peoples of those nations.

Riots in streets over choices made over leadership of nations, though minor by comparison to the wars that rage in other nations are in fact precursors of those same wars, reflections of the very cause of those wars that never seem to cease.

James reflected on those same circumstances that existed in the times he faced, reminding those around him of the true cause of all strife between men.

James 4

King James Version (KJV)

4 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

² Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

³ Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

Lusts, wants, not needs drive the thinking of most, and as I have so often stated, take precedence over those very needs, the greatest of which is to recognize those needs and strive to achieve them rather than the wants that have supplanted them.

The need most ignored, while the wants are pursued is the need to purify the heart of the pursuer, to achieve redemption by the simple means of repentance as taught by Christ Jesus.

James 4:1-8

King James Version (KJV)

⁴ Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

⁵ Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

⁶ But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

⁸ Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Cleansing of hands as spoken of by James is far more than the simple application of water and soap.

For hands to be clean, as is spoken of here, is to be found guiltless in the eyes of God, a cleansing that requires the purification of hearts as well.

Pilate washed his hands, symbolically attributing any guilt to be found in the crucifixion of Jesus to the Jews who insisted on His death. That symbolism did not transfer guilt, but called attention to the guilt of both the Roman government and the Jewish government as well. There was no mediation in any real sense, as both were implicated in the death of an innocent Savior whose only crime was that of love for all involved.

James 4:9-11

King James Version (KJV)

⁹ Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

¹¹ Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

Mankind selects its own judges, attempts to determine its own law. Yet once those judges and laws are selected, there is always an attempt to circumvent both law and judgment, each interpreting for himself the validity of those laws, and the veracity and validity of the judgment given.

There is, however, a Law Giver, and Judge that may not be supplanted by either man’s laws or man’s judges, One whose judgment is final and unquestionable, and whose judgment WILL prevail despite any attempts to thwart it.

James 4:12-17

King James Version (KJV)

¹² There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

¹³ Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

¹⁴ Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

¹⁵ For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

¹⁶ But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

¹⁷ Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

There can be none who do not recognize that evil does not produce good, and that evil actions taken in the name of good are only the more evil.

In summary, if we are to be doers of the law, doers of the word, we cannot be compelled to ignore the laws given us, but must rely on the LAWS given by THE JUDGE, remembering that HE alone is that judge, and it is up to HIM to grant what is right, and merciful through the grace already shown us.

As Paul said:

Romans 12:21

King James Version (KJV)

²¹ Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Look to the heart of each, look to the purification of that heart, first within self. Once that need has been met, then we may ask with confidence and assurance that all need, will be met, not by man but through Christ Jesus alone.

If we are to draw nigh to God, then we may only do so by accepting the grace given us, the grace exemplified by our Savior as we remember:

John 14:6

King James Version (KJV)

⁶ Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Amen and Amen

the Wayfarer