II. To these church-going non-believers, James gives 10 imperatives. Imperatives are commands in grammatical context. An example of Imperative would be something like the 10 Commandments. Hence, imperatives are not suggestions, but it is an injunction that must be obeyed with utmost urgency.
1. Submit to God: when a person submits to God, it results in salvation. Hence, James is rebuking the non-believers to submit before God by being genuinely saved.
2. Resist the devil: resisting the devil refers to opposing any and every demonic power as well as the influences from the world. It is also an evidence of genuine salvation; hence James is teaching that the mark of genuine salvation will be demonstrated by life that resists any and every type of ungodliness.
3. Draw near to God: drawing near to God refers to having intimate fellowship with God. The desire to have intimate fellowship with God is another evidence of genuine salvation; hence James is explaining that if there is no desire to have intimate fellowship with God, the salvation itself is questionable.
4. Clean your hands: This is from Exodus 30, and the symbolic implication of having clean hands is having blameless or sinless life. An example of this is Pontius Pilate's washing of his hands after handing Jesus over to the Jews in order to be free from blame or sin. This imperative is directed towards the "sinners" according to today's passage. Hence, James is literally commanding the non-believers, "stop sinning you sinners!"
5. Purify your hearts: This is taking one step further from cleansing our hands. Being pure in heart refers to being pure and clean from the inward, from the heart whereas having clean hands refers to having blameless outwardly life. The implication of this imperative is that people who are double-minded may seem blameless outwardly, but are filled with sin inwardly. Hence James addresses the people not to be double-minded, meaning be blameless from the inward.
6. Be miserable: this refers to the being broken and wretched over one's own sin. Genuine believers neither enjoys nor dwells in sin; rather, they are to be miserable over sin.
7. Be mournful: not only the believers are to feel miserable over sin, but they are to mourn over sin.
8. Weep: this is an expression resulting from feeling miserable and mourning over sin. It's not talking about just shedding some tears out of emotionalism, but weeping bitterly like apostle Peter when he realized he had betrayed his lord three times.
9. Be gloomy: the phrase "let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom" refers to the laughter of scoffers. James is sternly warning those who mock and jeer at God and his people that they are to turn from their laugher. They are to mourn and gloom over their sin. This is first spoken by Jesus in Luke 6:25 (Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep) as a warning. Same implication follows in today's passage.
10. Be humble: humility is the beginning of genuine salvation and James is addressing the non-believers to humble themselves so that they may be saved.
In today's passage, the ten imperatives are mainly directed towards the church-going non-believers; it's a command and a warning to the non-believers. However it also applies to the genuine believers; the genuine believers are to use these imperatives as a barometer to check the status of one's salvation. This passage was never meant to be used as a weapon to judge or condemn others. But it is given to us (believers) as means to observe ourselves continually according to the measure given by God, so that we do not lose sight of His precious gift. So let us continually challenge and test ourselves, according to the holy ordinances of God.
Application:
Be a genuine believer: being a genuine believer means having clear motive in serving and loving God.
Fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThank you Julian.