8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Come near. There is something about getting close, very close to someone else that can be both comforting and disconcerting. When our kids get close to us, we feel warmth. When a stranger on a bus gets too close, it feels creepy. This is called proximity. We sometimes talk about our ‘bubble’ or our personal space. This verse says that if we move in close to God, He will move in close to us. This can be very comforting and very scary at the same time. If we move in close, there is no place to hide our secret sins. That is why James says we ought to wash our hands and purify our hearts. Washing our hands is about external removal of sinful actions. There are some things that if we do them, no matter what our internal motive, they are wrong. As an example, you can’t rape someone and have it be right. We are to clean up the obvious external sins. But James does not leave it there. It is not enough to just do the right things on the outside. We must also have our motives, our hearts, pure. This is where the Word of God really comes in. It is vital for us spiritually to be reading, studying and hearing the Word. The Scriptures work deeply into our hearts. They speak to the very core of who we are as human beings made in the image of God. They are able to purify our hearts. Otherwise we remain double-minded. I am sure you can identify with this concept. You want to do the right thing, but you end up doing the other. You notice the internal battleground. You know the course you should take, and you end up taking another one. That is double-minded. When we allow the Word to purify our hearts, then we become more and more single-minded, able to do and be God’s will in this world.
The Arnold Journey 