“Call to Repentance” (James 4:7–10)

Say we understand that we’re doing wrong, but we also have our demons to fight. What does the Bible say about getting on the right track? As we study through James, we’re seeing what repentance looks like in the Christian life.
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Manuscript:
“Call to Repentance” (James 4:7–10)
Series: “James: True Faith Works” #19
Text: James 4:7–10
By: Shaun Marksbury
Date: March 2, 2025
Venue: Living Water Baptist Church
Occasion: PM Service

I. Introduction
One of the most famous examples of repentance in Scripture would be that of King David. Though he was a man after God’s heart, in a moment of weakness, he fell into grievous sin. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and, to cover it up, orchestrated the death of her husband, Uriah. For a time, David tried to move on as if nothing had happened. But then, God sent the prophet Nathan to confront him.

Nathan told David a parable about a rich man who stole a poor man’s only lamb. Enraged, David declared that such a man deserved to die. Nathan pointed directly at him and say, “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12:7). David stood condemned.

At that moment, David could have hardened his heart, excused his actions, or clung to his throne in pride. But instead, he confessed, “I have sinned” (2 Sam. 12:13). His response wasn’t mere regret over consequences —he wrote in Psalm 51: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). His was true repentance.

David’s life reminds us that repentance is not just feeling bad about sin — it is turning from sin to God. It is agreeing with Him about our guilt and casting ourselves upon His mercy. And just as God restored David, He is always ready to restore those who truly repent.

Repentance is a foundational aspect of the Christian life. It is not merely a one-time event at salvation but a continual attitude of the believer’s heart before God. The Jewish believers to whom James wrote struggled with conflicts, pride, and worldly influences, and we similarly need times of repentance.

James, in this passage, presents a call to repentance in a series of ten commands, all of which are vital to receiving God’s grace. He presents these imperatives with urgency, showing that humility and repentance before God are essential for a right relationship with Him. Just like them, we need a return to God that involves both internal humility and external transformation.

So, what does repentance involve? This passage involves ten commands, and this evening, we’ll sum that into six principles of full repentance. Repentance involves submission to God (v. 7a), resisting the devil (v. 7b), drawing near to God (v. 8a), cleansing hands and purifying hearts (v. 8b), being sorrowful over sin (v. 9), and finally, humbling the self before God (v. 10). Let’s consider the first of those.

II. First, Repentance Involves Submission to God (v. 7a)
Submit therefore to God.

This really is the main command we need to hear when we go astray, for we have gone astray from God. If you have an LSB, it reads it as a middle command, “Be subject.” The Greek word for “submit” is a military term meaning “to line up under.”[1] It signifies a voluntary, conscious decision to place oneself under God’s authority.

MacArthur lists some ways in which it’s used in the New Testament. He notes, “Luke uses it of Jesus’ submission to His parents when He was a boy (Luke 2:51). Paul uses it to indicate a Christian’s responsibility to human government (Rom. 13:1), of a wife’s responsibility to her husband (Eph. 5:21–24), and a slave’s to his master (Titus 2:9; cf. 1 Pet. 2:18).”[2] These are images which we can use to consider ourselves under the rule of God.

This command presupposes that James’s audience was not fully submitted to God. That much is clear in the previous six verses of this chapter, which is why James says “therefore” here. They had allowed pride and self-will to dominate their lives. But as 1 Peter 5:6 reminds us, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time;” they needed to bring their will under the alignment of the Lord’s.

Submission is not optional. Some think that we can become Christian, asking Jesus to save us, only to later declare Him as Lord. However, as the Reformation Study Bible says here: “We are under His authority whether we submit to it or not.” Believer or unbeliever, we all are under His rule.

So, submission should be the fundamental posture of a true believer. It means yielding control to God, obeying His Word, and trusting His will. It involves rejecting self-rule and placing ourselves under the sovereign authority of the Lord.

This is the first command of this passage and our first principle.

III. Second, Repentance Involves Resisting the Devil (v. 7b)
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Part of submission to God means that we reject those things opposed to Him, such as the devil and his worldly ways. To resist means “to take a firm stand against” him. Satan is a defeated foe, though he still actively seeks to deceive and destroy.

Resisting the devil includes rejecting earthly, devilish thinking and adopting heavenly wisdom. That means repenting or turning 180 degrees from your former life. We turn from the royal me to trust in and submitting under the authority of God.

Believers often fear the enemy, the occult and the powers of darkness. However, Jesus already predicted the devil will be cast out (John 12:31). The devil has absolutely “no claim” (ESV) or “no power” (HCSB) over Jesus (John 14:30). Jesus is sinless, and through His death He rendered the devil powerless (Heb. 2:14). The devil might have bruised Jesus’s heel, but Jesus bruised his head! Because of Christ’s victory, we can resist the devil, and he will flee.

How do we resist? By rejecting worldly thinking and standing firm in the truth. Ephesians 6:11 commands us, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” The Lord provides our needed armor, and with it, we “able to resist in the evil day” (v. 13). Moreover, there is no need to fear, then, for “greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). We can have peace knowing that our victory over his evil is in Jesus Christ! The attack of the enemy may be imminent, and we must stand our ground, but the Lord has already promised us victory in Jesus.

Our resistance is not passive — it is an active engagement in spiritual warfare, standing firm in faith. Yet, we’re given this word of good news that the devil will flee from us. The nature of spiritual warfare is often pictured in the spectacular, casting out demons, but here we see that the devil flees with simple resistance in the power of the Lord.

This is a necessary part of repentance. As one commentary notes, “Like a magnet, the call for commitment has both positive and negative poles: submit … to God and resist the devil. … Take a stand against the devil, and he will flee.”[3] We are following the Lord’s ways when we consciously turn from the devil’s ways toward Jesus Christ. And that brings us to the next principle:

IV. Third, Repentance Involves Drawing Near to God (v. 8a)
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

There is some debate as to the realities of this passage. Some see the people in these verses as unbelievers only, and they certainly are living like unbelievers. The Lord is indeed far from sinners. Yet, these could also be believers who are not living in a right relationship with the Lord. So, for some reading this, James might be inviting them to salvation, but this is also a call for believers to renew their intimacy with the Lord.

In the Old Testament, drawing near to God was associated with the priesthood (Exod. 19:22). Yet, James extends this call to all believers. This is similar to Hebrews 10:22, which urges, “Let’s approach God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” Believers can uniquely approach God because of our relationship wrought in Jesus Christ.

While believers are never far from God, sin nonetheless creates distance — not because He moves away, but because we withdraw. For unbelievers, sin creates a complete separation. Either way, the call to draw near here is a call to repentance, a call to forsake sin, seek His presence, and restore broken fellowship.

The good news here is that God will always draw near to those who come near Him. He never turns a repentant soul away from Him. He is a God of great mercy and compassion. Let our thoughts be as Psalm 73:28 states, “But as for me, the nearness of God is good; I have made the Lord God my refuge.” He will be a refuge to us as we draw near.

Still, what does drawing near look like? Is it a flutter of the heart? We see that in the next principle and commands:

V. Fourth, Repentance Involves Cleansing Hands and Purifying Hearts (v. 8b)
Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

This is strong language for a people who have been stiff-necked. James’s requirements echo Psalm 24:4, which says, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart.” Unfortunately, they have neither, so they need repentance.

First, he says, “cleanse your hands” or “wash your hands” (NIV). This is more than a sign we would see in the bathroom! Cleansing hands represents external actions. There was a ritualistic element to this in with the Old Testament priests.[4] Here, James calls all believers to have clean hands or actions.

The other side to this is cleansing the heart. If hands represent our external activities, purifying the heart refers to correcting internal motives. They had love for the world, so their hearts needed to be changed. Repentance must address both the internal and the external.

This is humility — recognizing our hands as filthy, and our hearts torn between two opinions. When Isaiah sees the holiness of God, he confesses his unholiness and receive cleansing (Isa 6:5–8). This also pictures the first step to bridling the tongue! Our hands should no longer sin, and our hearts should no longer desire the amiss, if we only draw near and wash in the river of life.

James punctuates this call with a couple of strong terms. He calls his audience “sinners” — a term typically reserved for unbelievers.[5] Here, he rebukes professing believers who were living in worldliness. Their external lives were tainted by sin, and their hearts were divided in loyalty between God and the world.

He also calls them double-minded. This may also describe unbelievers, as it does in James 1:8. They are trying to live in two worlds, but it is not working. In fact, the person living in constant sin and duplicity is likely an unbeliever, so readers of James’s letter should take notice.

Believers still have the capacity for sin and doublemindedness. Believers could have wars and fights due to their own selfish desires (vv. 1–2) and can ignore God (v. 3). They could be adulterous with God by being friends with the world (v. 4) and proud (vv. 5–6). Thus, James says to submit to God and to resist the devil (v. 7), something only Christians can do. He says to draw near to God, to cleanse their hands and hearts, something only regenerate believers can do.

Repentance demands both outward and inward transformation. We must confess and forsake sinful actions and align our hearts fully with Christ. True repentance leads to holiness in both deed and desire, as we see next.

VI. Fifth, Repentance Involves Being Sorrowful Over Sin (v. 9)
Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.

Emotions can be complicated. As Proverbs 14:13 says, “Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, and the end of joy may be grief.” This verse is predicated on the fact that emotions are mutable, though; we can change how we feel based on what we think. When we are joyous in sin, we should repent and turn back to the Lord.

That’s what we see in this series of imperatives. Incidentally, if you were wondering why there are ten commands in these verses, but I’m, only giving six principles, note the number of commands here. These are all about changing our desires and developing a godly sorrow over sin.

The first is to “be miserable” or “lament” (NKJV). The second is like unto it: “mourn.” In places like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah, God repeatedly commands His people to weep over the state of their nation. Some of our problems arise from mourning the wrong things in our lives and ignoring the things we should mourn over (like our sin). The Jewish leadership would not have had Jesus crucified if their concerns were God’s concerns.

So, the third command here is to weep or “cry” (LSB). God’s true people should weep over things that causes God to weep, such as the injustice in this land and the loss of protections for the innocent.

These imperatives reflect genuine contrition. 2 Corinthians 7:10 distinguishes between worldly sorrow, which leads to death, and godly sorrow, which produces repentance. The latter is what James calls for — true grief over sin.

This does not mean believers must live in perpetual gloom, but that sin should never be taken lightly. Many today trivialize sin, but James reminds us that true repentance involves heartfelt sorrow. We see this in Peter’s response to his denial of Christ—he wept bitterly (Luke 22:62). True repentance does not brush off sin but grieves over it, leading to transformation.

Fourth and fifth, he says “let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.” As people pursue their sinful pleasures, it will spark laughter and even joy, but Christians should seek to find their enjoyment elsewhere.[6] There are external indicators for true repentance. This happens naturally when people hear the reading of the Law, though the good news of God’s grace is the answer (Neh. 8:9–10).

We will either change how we approach our lives, or the Lord will change it. In Luke 6:25, we read, “Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” We need humility before God, bringing us to the final point:

VII. Sixth, Repentance Involves Humbling the Self Before God (v. 10)
Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

This final command summarizes the previous ones.[7] Humility is the hallmark of genuine repentance. The verb means “to make oneself low.” This follows what James said in v. 6, “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ ” Isaiah 6:5 exemplifies this attitude — when Isaiah saw the Lord, he immediately recognized his own unworthiness. This is ultimately submission to God.

That is repentance, is it not? Instead of pride (which resists God’s authority), one turns to God in humility. A repentant person submits and draws near to God in humility.

Humility may be to make oneself low, but God promises exaltation here. Just as Christ humbled Himself and was exalted (Phil. 2:8–9), so God lifts up those who bow before Him. Again, as 1 Peter 5:6 affirms, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.”

VIII. Conclusion
We see that true repentance is more than an act of penance or a simple emotional response. It is a radical turning to God in submission, resistance against sin, and transformation in both heart and action. We must continually submit to God, resist the devil, seek His presence, cleanse our lives, grieve over sin, and humble ourselves before Him. As we do, God promises to draw near, to cleanse, and ultimately to exalt those who come to Him in humility.

The call to repentance is also a call to restoration. It is a restoration of our relationship with God and restoration of the joy of salvation. Let us take these words to heart and live lives marked by true, ongoing repentance.

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[1] John MacArthur Jr., Ed., The MacArthur Study Bible, electronic ed., (Nashville, TN: Word Pub., 1997), 1932.

[2] John F. MacArthur Jr., James, MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1998), 204.

[3] J. Ronald Blue, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, 1985, 2, 830.

[4] A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Jas 4:8.

[5] MacArthur, James, 208.

[6] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, The Nelson Study Bible: New King James Version, (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1997), Jas 4:9.

[7] MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, 1933.