Jas 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.
Double minded.
Clarke's Bible Commentary states:
'A double-minded man - ???? d??????? The man of two souls, who has one for earth, and another for heaven; who wishes to secure both worlds; he will not give up earth, and he is loth to let heaven go. This was a usual term among the Jews, to express the man who attempted to worship God, and yet retained the love of the creature.
Rabbi Tanchum, fol. 84, on Deu_26:17, said: “Behold, the Scripture exhorts the Israelites, and tells them when they pray, ?? ???? ??? ??? ????? lo yiyeh lahem shetey lebaboth, that they should NOT have two hearts, one for the holy blessed God, and one for something else.” A man of this character is continually distracted; he will neither let earth nor heaven go, and yet he can have but one. Perhaps St. James refers to those Jews who were endeavoring to incorporate the law with the Gospel, who were divided in their minds and affections, not willing to give up the Levitical rites, and yet unwilling to renounce the Gospel. Such persons could make no progress in Divine things.'
Mat_6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Double minded.
How many people are caught between both worlds? Satan would have us ALL be caught there.
Luk 18:18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Luk 18:19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
Luk 18:20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.
Luk 18:21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
Luk 18:22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Luk 18:23 And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.
Do you suppose that the LACK in the ruler who would inherit eternal life was one of double mindedness? His riches- which are of the world, and his desire for heaven- which is of God. He was lacking ONE thing- HE was double minded because his riches distracted him from GOD!
Jas 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.
We are to desire the cleansing only Jesus can give us, in submitting to God we can be cleansed. We are to desire to have a purified heart, a heart that is NOT corrupted by the worldly things in our lives keeping us torn between both worlds. Full devotion to God, all through the blessings Christ makes possible.
We despair that we will ever be fully devoted, don't we? Why? Because we LIVE in the world and as such we take part of worldly things. We have our jobs, our families, our friends, society that all need our attention. We can't hole up in a monastery, we are called to be lights on a hill, not hid in some place where no one can see the light of God living in us.
We have to have God in ALL we do.
In our job, our families, among our friends we have to be witnesses and the ONLY way we can be witnesses is if we are God's.
Double minded.
Clarke's commentary stated that a man who has a double mind is continually distracted. Are we distracted from the things of God? Do we find it hard to put God into all we are doing? God must be with us in all we do. As we work, God must be with us. As we play, God must be with us. As we take part in our family activities, our family lives we have to have God with us.
We must choose God over all things and not hold fast to the world. We can't let the things of this world come before things of God, if we do then we are not wholly God's.
God first- in all things.
We must live our day to day lives, but we have to consecrate ourselves to God daily and truly lay ALL our plans at God's feet allowing for His will to be done in us. Allowing ourselves to be used by Him for all that He wills for us. We can make plans, but our plans must be subject to God's will. If God wills for our plans to change then we must follow whatever changes He wants for us. If we are double minded then we will consider things of the world that we shouldn't consider because GOD should be FIRST!
Please LORD, Satan would have us double minded. Satan would have us keep our hope in this world and he'll do all he can to that end. Please LORD, SAVE US, PURIFY US, CLEANSE US! We don't want to be among the double minded! HELP US LORD, HELP US!
All in YOU!
Double minded.
Clarke's Bible Commentary states:
'A double-minded man - ???? d??????? The man of two souls, who has one for earth, and another for heaven; who wishes to secure both worlds; he will not give up earth, and he is loth to let heaven go. This was a usual term among the Jews, to express the man who attempted to worship God, and yet retained the love of the creature.
Rabbi Tanchum, fol. 84, on Deu_26:17, said: “Behold, the Scripture exhorts the Israelites, and tells them when they pray, ?? ???? ??? ??? ????? lo yiyeh lahem shetey lebaboth, that they should NOT have two hearts, one for the holy blessed God, and one for something else.” A man of this character is continually distracted; he will neither let earth nor heaven go, and yet he can have but one. Perhaps St. James refers to those Jews who were endeavoring to incorporate the law with the Gospel, who were divided in their minds and affections, not willing to give up the Levitical rites, and yet unwilling to renounce the Gospel. Such persons could make no progress in Divine things.'
Mat_6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Double minded.
How many people are caught between both worlds? Satan would have us ALL be caught there.
Luk 18:18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Luk 18:19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
Luk 18:20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.
Luk 18:21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
Luk 18:22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Luk 18:23 And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.
Do you suppose that the LACK in the ruler who would inherit eternal life was one of double mindedness? His riches- which are of the world, and his desire for heaven- which is of God. He was lacking ONE thing- HE was double minded because his riches distracted him from GOD!
Jas 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.
We are to desire the cleansing only Jesus can give us, in submitting to God we can be cleansed. We are to desire to have a purified heart, a heart that is NOT corrupted by the worldly things in our lives keeping us torn between both worlds. Full devotion to God, all through the blessings Christ makes possible.
We despair that we will ever be fully devoted, don't we? Why? Because we LIVE in the world and as such we take part of worldly things. We have our jobs, our families, our friends, society that all need our attention. We can't hole up in a monastery, we are called to be lights on a hill, not hid in some place where no one can see the light of God living in us.
We have to have God in ALL we do.
In our job, our families, among our friends we have to be witnesses and the ONLY way we can be witnesses is if we are God's.
Double minded.
Clarke's commentary stated that a man who has a double mind is continually distracted. Are we distracted from the things of God? Do we find it hard to put God into all we are doing? God must be with us in all we do. As we work, God must be with us. As we play, God must be with us. As we take part in our family activities, our family lives we have to have God with us.
We must choose God over all things and not hold fast to the world. We can't let the things of this world come before things of God, if we do then we are not wholly God's.
God first- in all things.
We must live our day to day lives, but we have to consecrate ourselves to God daily and truly lay ALL our plans at God's feet allowing for His will to be done in us. Allowing ourselves to be used by Him for all that He wills for us. We can make plans, but our plans must be subject to God's will. If God wills for our plans to change then we must follow whatever changes He wants for us. If we are double minded then we will consider things of the world that we shouldn't consider because GOD should be FIRST!
Please LORD, Satan would have us double minded. Satan would have us keep our hope in this world and he'll do all he can to that end. Please LORD, SAVE US, PURIFY US, CLEANSE US! We don't want to be among the double minded! HELP US LORD, HELP US!
All in YOU!
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