Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (Jas 4:8) or Come close to God, and God will come close to you (NTL). What image comes to mind when you read this verse? Maybe you envision sliding over on the sofa and then God moving over next to you or God embracing you in an emotional experience as you would with your spouse. My method of Bible interpretation and application has altered over the years. This adjustment has brought greater clarity and understanding of scripture. Now, I focus on finding how a verse or phrase applies to practical life. What does it look like to draw near to God? What actions did James expect his readers to take to draw near to God?
The first step in all interpretation begins with examining the book as a whole. Who was the author, who was the audience, when and why did James write? He starts by telling us to whom he was writing. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings (1:2). James was the half-brother of Jesus, the brother of Jude, and the leader of the Jerusalem church. He did not send the letter just to one church but to Jews dispersed across other nations. James wrote from a Jewish mindset, and the style of the letter is like Proverbs in contrast to a discourse. Without a doubt, it is the least theological in the NT. It deals more with the practice of the Christian faith than with its precepts (Constable). With that information, I asked myself what image came to mind with a Hebrew when they read Draw near to God and He will draw near to you?
The first time a Jew living by the Law read this verse, they were probably shocked. They would think of Moses at the burning bush or their ancestors at Mt. Sinai. These best illustrates the concept of the old covenant. The Lord said to Moses, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exo 3:5). God told the people, “Moses alone, however, shall come near to the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him” (Exo 24:2). The priests were allowed to draw near only if they were cleansed and holy. “Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, or else the Lord will break out against them” (Exo 19:22). The Law instructed the priest how to consecrate themselves by rituals and offerings. But the Law was weak, useless, and made nothing perfect (Heb 7:18, 19). Even then, the nearest a priest could come was outside the veil that hid God. The Law taught that God was holy and man could not perfect himself and enter into His presence.
Note the change under the new covenant. God says: “Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you.” How can that happen? The Law was only a shadow or pattern of the good things to come and pointed us towards the way of righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. Jesus once for all offered His body and sanctified and perfected us for all time. An offering or a ritual is not something that a believer needs year after year. Now we can draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith . . . by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh (Heb 10:20, 22).
With this in mind, what does it look like to draw near to God? First, we need to determine what it is not. Drawing near is not a spatial occurrence. Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (Joh 4:24). It does not take place by seeking a subjective aesthetic experience. Others believe they can draw near through the accumulation of biblical knowledge. I had a man in Sunday School for years who knew as much about the written Word as I did. But he was an atheist and came to church because of his wife. Drawing near does not happen because we discipline ourselves to keep a set of legalistic rules. Twice Jesus referred to Isaiah 29:13; These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
Drawing near begins with having a sincere desire for truth. God’s truth is absolute and is irrefutable, unarguable, and unchanging. People may say they want to draw near to God, but when confronted with the absolutes of God’s Word, they rebel. Those who draw near have total confidence and trust in God. Living near to God is an act of faith. Faith believes what God has said and acts upon it. Abiding near to God is not a feeling. If we are living according to His Word, we are near Him.
For the immature believer or a non-believer, he writes, cleanse your hands the instruments by which people do evil. This means clean up our actions. Purify your hearts, the source of sin. And humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up (Jas 4:10).
Sustaining Word for the Week: You can draw near and live near God by what Jesus did for us.