A Man in the Middle
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. James 4:8
Doubleminded – Have you ever prayed for something but not received the answer you wanted? Perhaps you received no answer at all. Then some well-meaning person says to you, “You just need more faith.” A comment like that never really helps, does it? After all, you wouldn’t be praying at all unless you had faith. And faith is not like something you can buy at the store. You can’t increase your “faith” by working harder or relinquishing more. If you have faith, you have it. It’s a digital deal – either ON or OFF.
But when we come to a verse like this one, we could go away very discouraged. Which of us has never doubted? Which of us has never had a moment when we wondered about God’s mercy or benevolence? If we don’t understand what James is saying, we might think no one qualifies.
Dipsuchos is an odd word. It means “two souls” (two psyches). James uses it only one other time. But it has a synonym that helps us understand what it implies. That synonym is diakrinesthai. Why does this help us? Because this word shows us that “doubt” is not about intellectual decision or reflection. It is about failure to act! The root of this word is about a turning point where action is required. It is like coming to a fork in the road and hesitating, not because you don’t know which way to go but because you are tempted to take the other path even when you know it will lead away from your goal.
What James tells us has nothing to do with mental confusion or disturbance. We all experience that. Even Elijah, David, Paul and Peter encountered times of rational indecision. The kind of doubt James assails is the refusal to act on the basis of God’s word. It is doubt in God, not in human understanding. God reveals His pathway, but I hesitate. I say to myself, “Does God speak the truth? How do I know I can trust Him? Does He really care for me?” That is dipsuchos. It leads immediately to failure to step forward on God’s character. And, it is sin!
The synonym is used in James 2:4 in a most disturbing way. This kind of doublemindedness shows itself when we stand before the Lord, claiming to be His followers, and yet at the same time we despise the poor, acting according to the standards of the world and not according to the promise that God has given the poor. When we do not act on God’s truth, we doubt – in the full Greek sense.
