Teks -- James 4:8 (NET)

4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Robertson: Jam 4:8 - Draw nigh to God

Draw nigh to God ( eggisate tōi theōi ).

First aorist active imperative of eggizō , late verb from eggus (near) as in Mat 3:2. With dative case again of personal relation. The priests in the sanctuary drew nigh to God (Exo 19:22), as we should now.

Robertson: Jam 4:8 - Cleanse your hands

Cleanse your hands ( katharisate cheiras ).

First aorist active imperative of katharizō , to cleanse, from dirt in a ritual sense (Exo 30:19-21; Mar 7:3, Mar 7:19). Here it is figurative, as in Isa 1:16; Psa 24:4. If we always had clean (from sin) hands and hearts?

Robertson: Jam 4:8 - Ye sinners

Ye sinners ( hamartōloi ).

A sharp term to strike the conscience, "a reproach meant to startle and sting"(Ropes).

Robertson: Jam 4:8 - Purify your hearts

Purify your hearts ( hagnisate kardias ).

First aorist active imperative of hagnizō , old verb from hagnos (Jam 3:17), ceremonially (Act 21:24, Act 21:26), but here morally as in 1Pe 1:22; 1Jo 3:3. Anarthrous use of kardias as of cheiras (wash hands, purify hearts).

Robertson: Jam 4:8 - Ye double-minded

Ye double-minded ( dipsuchoi ).

As in Jam 1:8.

Vincent: Jam 4:8 - Purify

Purify ( ἁγνίσατε )

One of the three instances in the New Testament in which the word is not used of ceremonial purification. The others are 1Pe 1:22; 1Jo 3:3.

Vincent: Jam 4:8 - Double-minded

Double-minded ( δίψυχοι )

Compare Jam 1:8.

Wesley: Jam 4:8 - Then draw nigh to God in prayer, and he will draw nigh unto you, will hear you; which that nothing may hinder, cleanse your hands

Cease from doing evil.

Wesley: Jam 4:8 - And purify your hearts

From all spiritual adultery. Be no more double minded, vainly endeavouring to serve both God and mammon.

JFB: Jam 4:8 - Draw nigh to God

So "cleave unto Him," Deu 30:20, namely, by prayerfully (Jam 4:2-3) "resisting Satan," who would oppose our access to God.

JFB: Jam 4:8 - he will draw nigh

Propitious.

JFB: Jam 4:8 - Cleanse . . . hands

The outward instruments of action. None but the clean-handed can ascend into the hill of the Lord (justified through Christ, who alone was perfectly so, and as such "ascended" thither).

JFB: Jam 4:8 - purify . . . hearts

Literally "make chaste" of your spiritual adultery (Jam 4:4, that is, worldliness) "your hearts": the inward source of all impurity.

JFB: Jam 4:8 - double-minded

Divided between God and the world. The "double-minded" is at fault in heart; the sinner in his hands likewise.

Clarke: Jam 4:8 - Draw nigh to God

Draw nigh to God - Approach Him, in the name of Jesus, by faith and prayer, and he will draw nigh to you - he will meet you at your coming. 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. The delicacy and beauty of these expressions are, I think, but seldom noted

Clarke: Jam 4:8 - Cleanse your hands, ye sinners

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners - This I think to be the beginning of a new address, and to different persons; and should have formed the commencement of a new verse. Let your whole conduct be changed; cease to do evil learn to do well. Washing or cleansing the hands was a token of innocence and purity

Clarke: Jam 4:8 - Purify your hearts

Purify your hearts - Separate yourselves from the world, and consecrate yourselves to God: this is the true notion of sanctification. We have often seen that to sanctify signifies to separate a thing or person from profane or common use, and consecrate it or him to God. This is the true notion of קדש kadash , in Hebrew, and ἁγιαζω in Greek. The person or thing thus consecrated or separated is considered to be holy, and to be God’ s property; and then God hallows it to himself. There are, therefore, two things implied in a man’ s sanctification

1.    That he separates himself from evil ways and evil companions, and devotes himself to God

2.    That God separates guilt from his conscience, and sin from his soul, and thus makes him internally and externally holy

This double sanctification is well expressed in Sohar, Levit. fol. 33, col. 132, on the words, be ye holy, for I the Lord am holy: אותו מלמעלה ארס מקדש עצמו מלמטה מקישין, a man sanctifies himself on the earth, and then he is sanctified from heaven. As a man is a sinner, he must have his hands cleansed from wicked works; as he is double-minded, he must have his heart sanctified. Sanctification belongs to the heart, because of pollution of mind; cleansing belongs to the hands, because of sinful acts. See the note on Jam 1:8, for the signification of double-minded.

Calvin: Jam 4:8 - Draw nigh to God // Cleanse

8.Draw nigh to God. He again reminds us that the aid of God will not be wanting to us, provided we give place to him. For when he bids us to draw nigh to God, that we may know him to be near to us, he intimates that we are destitute of his grace, because we withdraw from him. But as God stands on our side, there is no reason to fear succumbing. But if any one concludes from this passage, that the first part of the work belongs to us, and that afterwards the grace of God follows, the Apostle meant no such thing; for though we ought to do this, yet it does [not] immediately follow that we can. And the Spirit of God, in exhorting us to our duty, derogates nothing from himself, or from his own power; but the very thing he bids us to do, he himself fulfills in us.

In short, James meant no other thing in this passage, than that God is never wanting to us, except when we alienate ourselves from him. He is like one who brings the hungry to a table and the thirsty to a fountain. There is this difference, that our steps must be guided and sustained by the Lord, for our feet fail us. But what some cavil at, and say, that God’s grace is secondary to our preparation, and as it were the waiting-maid, is only frivolous; for we know that it is no new thing that he adds now to former graces and thus enriches more and more those to whom he has already given much.

Cleanse your hands. He here addresses all those who were alienated from God and he does not refer to two sorts of men, but he calls the same sinners and double-minded Nor does he understand every kind of sinners, but the wicked and those of a corrupt life. It is said in Joh 9:3,

“God does not hear sinners;”

in the same sense a woman is called a sinner by Luke. (Luk 7:39.) It is said by the same and the other evangelists, “He drinketh and eateth with sinners.” He, therefore, does not smite all indiscriminately to that sort of repentance mentioned here, but those who are wicked and corrupt in heart, and whose life is base and flagitious or at least wicked; it is from these he requires a purity of heart and outward cleanliness.

We hence learn what is the true character of repentance. It is not only an outward amendment of life, but its beginning is the cleansing of the heart. It is also necessary on the other hand that the fruits of inward repentance should appear in the brightness of our works. ¹³³

TSK: Jam 4:8 - Draw nigh to God // Cleanse // purify // ye double

Draw nigh to God : Gen 18:23; 1Ch 28:9; 2Ch 15:2; Psa 73:28, Psa 145:18; Isa 29:13, Isa 55:6, Isa 55:7; Hos 6:1, Hos 6:2; Zec 1:3; Mal 3:7; Heb 7:19, Heb 10:22

Cleanse : Job 9:30, Job 16:17, Job 17:9; Psa 18:20, Psa 24:4, Psa 26:6, Psa 73:13; Isa 1:15, Isa 1:16, Isa 13:15; Mat 15:2, Mat 27:24; 1Ti 2:8; 1Pe 3:21

purify : Psa 51:6, Psa 51:7, Psa 51:10; Jer 4:11; Eze 18:31, Eze 36:25-27; Mat 12:33, Mat 23:25, Mat 23:26; Luk 11:39, Luk 11:40; Act 15:9; 2Co 7:1; 1Pe 1:22; 1Jo 3:3

ye double : Jam 1:8

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Jam 4:8 - Draw nigh to God // And he will draw nigh to you // Cleanse your hands // Ye sinners // And purify your hearts // Ye double minded

Draw nigh to God by faith, which is a coming to God, Heb 7:25 ; by true repentance, which is a returning to God, Hos 14:1 Mal 3:7 ; and by fervent prayer to him for the help of his grace, Psa 25:1 .

And he will draw nigh to you by the manifestation of his grace and favour to you, particularly giving you strength against the devil and your lusts.

Cleanse your hands reform your actions, amend your lives. Hands, the principal instruments of bodily actions, being put for the actions themselves; cleanness of hands signifies the innocency of the outward conversation, Job 22:30 Psa 24:4 26:6 Isa 33:15,16 .

Ye sinners you that are openly and notoriously vicious, whose wickedness appears in your ordinary practices: so such are called, Mat 11:19 Mar 2:15 Luk 7:37 15:2 Joh 9:31 .

And purify your hearts your thoughts and inward affections, from whence the evils of your outward actions proceed, Isa 60:7 : see 1Pe 1:22 1Jo 3:3 .

Ye double minded either by the former he understands the profane, and by these, hypocrites, or the same by both, viz. such as had wicked hearts, and led wicked lives; only he shows wherein true repentance consists, viz. in the reformation both of the inward and outward man.

PBC: Jam 4:8

If it were not possible for us to draw nigh unto Him, we would not have been so instructed. When the power of God through the Holy Spirit indwells the child of God, he is able to do great things through Him that strengthens him. Our strength and our help come from the God of all creation.

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Haydock: Jam 4:8 - Purify your heart

Purify your heart from the love of creatures, so that your affections be not divided betwixt God and this world, like persons of two minds [3] or two souls. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Duplices animo, Greek: dipsuchoi.

Gill: Jam 4:8 - Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you // cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you,.... This must be understood consistently with the perfection of God's immensity and omnipresence: the saints draw nigh to God when they present their bodies in his sanctuary; when they tread in his courts, and attend his ordinances; where they always find it good for them to draw nigh unto him; and blessed is the man that approaches to him in faith and fear: they draw nigh to him when they come to the throne of his grace, for grace and mercy to help them; when they draw near to him in prayer with true hearts, and lift them up with their hands to God; when in the exercise of faith and hope they enter within the vail, and come up even to his seat; and lay hold on him as their covenant God and Father; and he draws nigh to them by granting them his gracious presence, by communicating his love to them, by applying the blessings of his grace, by helping them in times of need and distress, and by protecting them from their enemies; the contrary to which is expressed by standing afar off from them. Now this is not to be understood as if men could first draw nigh to God, before he draws nigh to them; for as God first loves, so he first moves; he takes the first step, and, in conversion, turns and draws men to himself; though this does not respect first conversion, but after acts in consequence of it; nor is it to be considered as a condition of the grace and favour of God, in drawing nigh to his people, but is expressive of what is their duty, and an encouragement to it:

cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded; the persons addressed are not the profane men of the world, but sinners in Zion, formal professors, hypocritical persons; who speak with a double tongue to men, and who draw nigh to God with their mouths, but not with their hearts; who halt between two opinions, and are unstable in all their ways: cleansing of their hands and hearts denotes the purity of outward conversation, and of the inward affections; and supposes impurity both of flesh and spirit, that the body and all its members, the soul and all its powers and faculties, are unclean; and yet not that men have a power to cleanse themselves, either from the filth of an external conversation, or from inward pollution of the heart; though a man attempts the one, he fails in it; and who can say he has done the other? Job 9:30. This is not to be done by ceremonial ablutions, moral services, or evangelical ordinances; this is God's work only, as appears from his promises to cleanse his people from their sins, by sprinkling clean water upon them; from the end of Christ's shedding his blood, and the efficacy of it; and from the prayers of the saints, that God would wash them thoroughly from their iniquity, and cleanse them from their sin, and create clean hearts in them: and yet such exhortations are not in vain, since they may be useful to convince men of their pollution, who are pure in their own eyes, as these hypocritical, nominal professors, might be; and to bring them to a sense of their inability to cleanse themselves, and of the necessity of being cleansed elsewhere; and to lead them to inquire after the proper means of cleansing, and so to the fountain of Christ's blood, which only cleanses from all sin.