A double-minded person is divided in mind, faith, purpose and loyalty, wavering between faith and unbelief, and is therefore unstable and unsteady in all ways and in every part of life and conduct. The saying belongs to the promise that anyone lacking wisdom must ask God, who gives liberally to all without reproach and is abundantly able to remove perplexities and difficulties. The asking must be in steady faith without doubting or wavering like a wave driven and tossed, or nothing will be received from the Lord. Such double-mindedness is a heart divided between God and the world, selfish aims and sin, like trying to serve two masters, for God accepts no divided affections. Stability comes only by giving God the whole heart and accepting Him as Guide, fastening the soul to Him in prayer, taking His Word personally and serving Him with undivided faith.
Wisdom Asked in Faith
James 1:8 belongs to the promise that anyone who lacks wisdom must ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach for ignorance, and it shall be given. He gives encouragement to bring every perplexity and difficulty to Him for wisdom and counsel, because He is abundantly able to remove them and is mighty in counsel. Wisdom is therefore to be asked of God Himself, not of human finite wisdom, and the request is to be made directly to the Source of all grace and sufficiency.
The asking must be in faith, nothing wavering and without doubting. He who wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. That wavering is sometimes believing and then doubting, taking hold of faith and then giving in to every discouragement.
The double-minded waverer is unstable in all his ways, divided in mind and unsteady in everything he does and in all his conduct. Such a one, speaking faith at one moment and acting in unbelief the next, cannot expect to receive anything from the Lord when asking for wisdom without steady trust. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
Asking in faith means exercising faith in Christ and believing that He will give what has been asked. It means believing without questioning that God gives liberally and without reproach and that what was asked will be received, trusting Christ as personal Saviour to know and follow God's will. Asking and then doubting dishonors God; the one who asks should trust God to fulfill His promise, and continue praying, waiting and working in faith rather than speaking doubt. It calls for believing that wisdom will be freely given, then depending on God and letting Him supervise the life.
Double Mind Brings Instability
To be double-minded is to be divided in mind, faith, purpose and loyalty, wavering between faith and unbelief instead of asking God for wisdom in steady trust. The wavering asker does not hold faith firm but shifts and doubts, and such a one should not expect to receive anything from the Lord when asking. Asking rightly means exercising faith in Christ and believing without questioning that He will give what has been asked.
Such a divided person is unstable and unsteady in all his ways and in every part of life and conduct. This instability belongs to the warning against wavering in faith and asking God without trusting Him. It is linked to incomplete surrender to God and being strongly swayed by influences, and to failing to bring the heart to Christ in humility. The remedy taught with the verse is to walk carefully and prayerfully before the Lord, trusting Him to direct, for the chapter brings light and encouragement when so heeded.
The instability shows itself in speaking faith at one moment and acting in unbelief the next. It is being like a driven and tossed sea wave, sometimes believing then doubting, taking hold of faith then giving in to every discouragement, so that discouragement which lets everything go is itself the instability, while steadfast faith brings renewal. More broadly it appears as vacillation, unhappiness, irresolution and changeability. It can make promises and pledges unreliable and lead to distrust of those who would help, and to being religious at times and irreligious at other times. It also appears as shifting with feelings rather than acting from settled principle, as when one strongly defends confidence and then undermines it according to feeling.
Divided Loyalty Opposes God
The verse describes a heart divided between God and the world, between loyalty to Him and attachment to worldly business and cares, selfish aims, mammon, sin and Satan, which is like trying to serve two masters and cannot stand. Such a person may appear outwardly to serve God while the heart yields elsewhere, clinging to the world while claiming to serve Him, and therefore cannot be relied on. The whole heart with all its inclinations and desires must be consecrated to God and guided by His Spirit, for He accepts no divided affections, rejects deception, double-mindedness and lukewarmness, and a few righteous acts do not make a person righteous when He does not have the whole heart. Wholehearted, willing service means choosing Him and turning from the attractions of the world, which makes service to Him and the path to heaven easier, while division brings unrest and trouble.
Such division makes the Christian life difficult, weakens influence for good, harms and weakens believers, and leaves views and feelings fitted to the world rather than to self-denying followers of Christ. Those divided between the spirit of the world and the spirit of Christ resist plain testimony and correction that exposes personal wrongs. In a time of testing they must either be wholly converted and made holy and sanctified by obeying the truth, or remain with the world and share its reward.
Ministers and church members show this double mind when interests are divided between God's work and self, with worldly cares distracting from the sacred work and eyes not single to His glory. Selfish worldly pursuits and schemes stand between them and God, as when they fear the Lord will cease to care for them if they let go of the world, and so care anxiously and distressedly for themselves, holding large farms and adding more, and robbing God in tithes and offerings. A minister is double-minded when he serves self while trying to serve God, serving tables while the work of saving souls is miserably done, and when earthliness, selfish interest, filling houses with children and bringing burdens upon the wife divide home attention from the work when the end of all things is at hand. This selfishness brings spiritual dearth upon the churches and cripples God's work on every hand, and the call is to move in wisdom with eyes single to His glory, letting nothing come between, laying selfish interest aside and giving self as the apostles of old to searching the Scriptures and to prayer in close connection with God.
At its worst, double-mindedness is pretending to serve God while at heart serving Satan and self, with fair words and profession of righteousness covering a deceptive and deceitful heart in rebellion against God. Such persons act as Satan's allies whatever favorable view they have of themselves, for loyalty to God and truth requires standing firmly for what is right. They apparently unite with God's work yet remain connected with His foes, and when crossed in plans or reproved for sins they court the favor of enemies of truth, open to them all the plans of God's servants and the workings of His cause, and place every advantage in hands that use all knowledge to hinder God's work and injure His people, going over to the enemy to serve him as suits inclination. That secret enmity under profession is more to be feared and far more dangerous than fierce and cruel open opposition. Acting a double part also means scheming and conniving to bring in wrong principles by any possible methods while under deception, using testimonies to carry a spirit that offends God, making stumbling blocks for others while continuing in work and responsibility without first taking them up and making straight paths for the feet by clearing past tracks, a course that forfeits confidence and leaves one unsafe and unclear before God to stand as adviser and in authority.
God Alone Gives Wisdom
Wisdom must be asked of God, who gives liberally to all without reproach, and not of man, not of an overburdened brother, not of finite wisdom across the continent, not of human judgment, and not of lowland cisterns of human wisdom apart from Him. Leaning on human wisdom and human guidance is leaning on a broken reed and a snare, and turning from Christ to finite human beings for wisdom is unbelief that dishonors God and brings weakness where there should be strength, disappointment, misleading, and being driven and tossed and led astray, like trying to quench thirst from lowland cisterns instead of pure water. The asking must be in faith, nothing wavering, for he who wavers when asking for wisdom is double-minded and unstable and unsteady in all his ways and in all his conduct, like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, and must not think he shall receive anything of the Lord. This means not looking at difficulties and talking of them, and not carrying burdens to fellow men who are weighed down on every hand nor pouring complaints into human ears, but bowing on the knees before God who is nigh, taking burdens to the Lord in prayer, casting away unbelief, and going directly to the Source of all grace and sufficiency and strength. That Source is to be believed for pity and compassion as the One who knows the human frame, who loved enough to give His own life and bear in His body the strokes due for transgression of the law, so that sinners may become prisoners of hope, and impressions must be taken from Christ, prayer must be made to God and not to man, and His word “Learn of Me” must be obeyed, for He gives rest, wisdom to understand duty, His presence, and the influence of the divine Spirit on the mind, and His counsel is found by those who seek it and ask of God and not of man.
No human yoke is to be permitted to be placed upon believers, and no human mind is to take control of another person’s mind or spiritual responsibility. Those entrusted with a commission from God must look to Jesus for direction and ask God in faith without wavering, believing without questioning that He gives liberally and without reproach and that what was asked will be received, rather than depending on any human being for wisdom, merging God-given identity and commission into any human being, or submerging identity in another. Each soul must seek wisdom and direction from God, who knows the experience needed for its appointed work, and each heart must make its own direct petition to Him who is too wise to make a mistake and too good and merciful to do harm, taking Christ’s yoke and learning of Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart. To put weak and erring man in God’s place to learn duty and direction dishonors God, while God alone is the distinct source of strength, wisdom, light, and life for workers of different capabilities and gifts laboring together, and for those who feel duty to bear a message to the people and feel need of guidance; refusing to be driven about and led astray, they stay stable only by direct, unwavering dependence on God.
By contrast with the tossed waverer who receives nothing, stability comes when a person endures temptation by enduring trial, letting patience finish its work toward perfection, taking the Word of life personally, bringing God’s promises to Him and claiming them, and relying on the strength of the Lord instead of any human power. The one who so endures temptation and trial will receive the crown of life promised to those who love God.
Steadfast Life and Service
Wisdom is given on condition that God is accepted as Guide and Counselor, with plans laid before Him without wavering, and asking must be in faith rather than reliance on one's own judgment. The waverer is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, and will receive nothing from the Lord, and the remedy is not to look at difficulties and talk of them nor to carry burdens to fellow men who are weighed down, pour complaints into human ears, or seek wisdom from finite human beings and lowland cisterns, but to bow on the knees before God who is nigh, take burdens to the Lord in prayer, and go directly to the Source of all grace and sufficiency. Stability comes by enduring temptation and trial, letting patience finish its work toward perfection, taking the Word of life personally, bringing God's promises to Him and claiming them, and relying on the strength of the Lord instead of any human power. Receiving counsel and submitting the will to God are signs of dependence on Him, while self-sufficiency and resistance to counsel leave a person vulnerable to discouragement and error. Steadfastness comes from fastening the soul to God, walking with Him, seeking Jesus' counsel, humbly admitting weakness, bringing the heart to Christ in humility, and choosing a different course rather than following companions who lead away from what is right.
The first chapter brings light and encouragement when studied carefully, calling for walking carefully and prayerfully before the Lord with confidence that He will direct in all ways. Wholehearted surrender and trust in God's word allow Him to guide and give wisdom, rather than wavering in faith, giving in to human claims, and seeking excuses to avoid conviction and obedience. Asking must be in unwavering faith, believing wisdom will be freely given, then depending on God and letting Him supervise the life, using every God-given mental and bodily faculty wisely and intelligently under God's counsel rather than under Satan's dictation in order to do the work given to do.
The only safe course for developing the attributes of a true Christian is unwavering, undivided faith with no uncertainty, in which a person determined to do God's will serves Him with the whole self. During probationary time everyone who receives Christ by faith is to perfect a Christian character, and the work of the Spirit embraces the whole man, soul, body, and spirit, without unfittting him for the common duties of ordinary life and leaving no place for one religion for business and another for the church. When the Word is cherished as an abiding principle in the heart and held fast under every circumstance, the man with his entrusted capabilities is brought into subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ, with undivided powers, even thoughts, brought into captivity to Christ. This is true sanctification, in which all parts of the experience blend in complete harmony so that he is wanting in nothing, keeps no part back to do with as he pleases, knows he is bought with a price, and glorifies God in body and spirit, which are Christ's. Pure and undefiled religion in the heart will not remain double-minded and unstable, but changes the whole character and makes a new creature in Christ with a decided change in the whole life, renouncing everything bad in action, emotion, feeling and thought and purifying what was good from selfishness and every taint of impurity, as a brackish fountain made pure is known by the purity and sweetness of its streams. A divided purpose makes the whole life distorted and inconsistent and misdirects the faculties so as to prevent faithful service, and holding back any part of oneself leaves an opening for temptation where faith no longer clearly sees God as a barrier against sin.
A divided, undecided and unsettled person cannot be relied on to do what is right under every circumstance, seeks to avoid loss rather than commit fully to doing right, and has no firm place to stand in the day of trial. Those given great light and many opportunities must respond with zeal, steadfastness and devotion, for God calls for people of decided purpose and determined character to do His work, and in the last great work for eternity, when a people must be prepared to stand in the day of preparation, working at random instead of consecrating all powers without reserve cannot be afforded. The double-minded man leans to his own understanding, is impatient of the counsel of those of more experience, is self-sufficient and self-confident and wise in his own conceit, yet has no interior strength, no firm principle and no root in himself. He is pliant and accommodating, unable to say no squarely, and is readily led away from God by a stronger determined will to accept evil suggestions and form wrong habits. His division is shown by praying faintly and then forgetting the prayer, whereas prayer joined with watchfulness and care to keep frivolous, evil, fretful or harsh words from being spoken brings steady, earnest, hopeful peace of mind. It is also shown by agreeing with right counsel for decided reform and then wheeling right around while still speaking to present matters in a different light, making words of no effect and overturning all effort to change the existing order, and by lacking a well-balanced mind that can form plans, devise methods and put them into execution, so plans fall to the ground, the same work must be gone over again and again, resolutions mean failure because they are never carried out, leadership is uncertain and slipshod, and matters are left worse than before. Such a one is unfit to be united with others in responsible positions as minister, canvasser, colporteur, president or manager, and unless converted and transformed by grace and taught self-denial, self-crucifixion and the sanctifying power of the truth, Satan will overcome him through temptation and cause shipwreck of faith.
God has no use for double-minded and two-sided men who let others determine their course, hold to a wrong position once taken, dismiss the fear of God, pursue recklessness, depart from the Word, and fail of eternal life. Such a one can still be saved if awakened to peril and in the fear of God repents and is converted, for the Lord will hear him, while those who by departing from the Word help inexperienced double-minded souls in a wrong course will be chastised and greatly humbled, because the Word is to be the standard for all. Instability linked to repeatedly yielding to Satan and becoming confused, rejecting light, abusing conscience and speaking falsehood knowingly, is remedied only by placing oneself under God's control. A divided heart making a person unstable in all his ways is encouraged when burdens and perplexities are not brought to God, and the call is to come wholly to Him and live in harmony with Him.
A double-minded person is divided in mind, faith, purpose and loyalty, wavering between faith and unbelief, and is therefore unstable and unsteady in all ways and in every part of life and conduct. The saying belongs to the promise that anyone lacking wisdom must ask God, who gives liberally to all without reproach and is abundantly able to remove perplexities and difficulties. The asking must be in steady faith without doubting or wavering like a wave driven and tossed, or nothing will be received from the Lord. Such double-mindedness is a heart divided between God and the world, selfish aims and sin, like trying to serve two masters, for God accepts no divided affections. Stability comes only by giving God the whole heart and accepting Him as Guide, fastening the soul to Him in prayer, taking His Word personally and serving Him with undivided faith.
Wisdom Asked in Faith
James 1:8 belongs to the promise that anyone who lacks wisdom must ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach for ignorance, and it shall be given. He gives encouragement to bring every perplexity and difficulty to Him for wisdom and counsel, because He is abundantly able to remove them and is mighty in counsel. Wisdom is therefore to be asked of God Himself, not of human finite wisdom, and the request is to be made directly to the Source of all grace and sufficiency.
The asking must be in faith, nothing wavering and without doubting. He who wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. That wavering is sometimes believing and then doubting, taking hold of faith and then giving in to every discouragement.
The double-minded waverer is unstable in all his ways, divided in mind and unsteady in everything he does and in all his conduct. Such a one, speaking faith at one moment and acting in unbelief the next, cannot expect to receive anything from the Lord when asking for wisdom without steady trust. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
Asking in faith means exercising faith in Christ and believing that He will give what has been asked. It means believing without questioning that God gives liberally and without reproach and that what was asked will be received, trusting Christ as personal Saviour to know and follow God's will. Asking and then doubting dishonors God; the one who asks should trust God to fulfill His promise, and continue praying, waiting and working in faith rather than speaking doubt. It calls for believing that wisdom will be freely given, then depending on God and letting Him supervise the life.
Double Mind Brings Instability
To be double-minded is to be divided in mind, faith, purpose and loyalty, wavering between faith and unbelief instead of asking God for wisdom in steady trust. The wavering asker does not hold faith firm but shifts and doubts, and such a one should not expect to receive anything from the Lord when asking. Asking rightly means exercising faith in Christ and believing without questioning that He will give what has been asked.
Such a divided person is unstable and unsteady in all his ways and in every part of life and conduct. This instability belongs to the warning against wavering in faith and asking God without trusting Him. It is linked to incomplete surrender to God and being strongly swayed by influences, and to failing to bring the heart to Christ in humility. The remedy taught with the verse is to walk carefully and prayerfully before the Lord, trusting Him to direct, for the chapter brings light and encouragement when so heeded.
The instability shows itself in speaking faith at one moment and acting in unbelief the next. It is being like a driven and tossed sea wave, sometimes believing then doubting, taking hold of faith then giving in to every discouragement, so that discouragement which lets everything go is itself the instability, while steadfast faith brings renewal. More broadly it appears as vacillation, unhappiness, irresolution and changeability. It can make promises and pledges unreliable and lead to distrust of those who would help, and to being religious at times and irreligious at other times. It also appears as shifting with feelings rather than acting from settled principle, as when one strongly defends confidence and then undermines it according to feeling.
Divided Loyalty Opposes God
The verse describes a heart divided between God and the world, between loyalty to Him and attachment to worldly business and cares, selfish aims, mammon, sin and Satan, which is like trying to serve two masters and cannot stand. Such a person may appear outwardly to serve God while the heart yields elsewhere, clinging to the world while claiming to serve Him, and therefore cannot be relied on. The whole heart with all its inclinations and desires must be consecrated to God and guided by His Spirit, for He accepts no divided affections, rejects deception, double-mindedness and lukewarmness, and a few righteous acts do not make a person righteous when He does not have the whole heart. Wholehearted, willing service means choosing Him and turning from the attractions of the world, which makes service to Him and the path to heaven easier, while division brings unrest and trouble.
Such division makes the Christian life difficult, weakens influence for good, harms and weakens believers, and leaves views and feelings fitted to the world rather than to self-denying followers of Christ. Those divided between the spirit of the world and the spirit of Christ resist plain testimony and correction that exposes personal wrongs. In a time of testing they must either be wholly converted and made holy and sanctified by obeying the truth, or remain with the world and share its reward.
Ministers and church members show this double mind when interests are divided between God's work and self, with worldly cares distracting from the sacred work and eyes not single to His glory. Selfish worldly pursuits and schemes stand between them and God, as when they fear the Lord will cease to care for them if they let go of the world, and so care anxiously and distressedly for themselves, holding large farms and adding more, and robbing God in tithes and offerings. A minister is double-minded when he serves self while trying to serve God, serving tables while the work of saving souls is miserably done, and when earthliness, selfish interest, filling houses with children and bringing burdens upon the wife divide home attention from the work when the end of all things is at hand. This selfishness brings spiritual dearth upon the churches and cripples God's work on every hand, and the call is to move in wisdom with eyes single to His glory, letting nothing come between, laying selfish interest aside and giving self as the apostles of old to searching the Scriptures and to prayer in close connection with God.
At its worst, double-mindedness is pretending to serve God while at heart serving Satan and self, with fair words and profession of righteousness covering a deceptive and deceitful heart in rebellion against God. Such persons act as Satan's allies whatever favorable view they have of themselves, for loyalty to God and truth requires standing firmly for what is right. They apparently unite with God's work yet remain connected with His foes, and when crossed in plans or reproved for sins they court the favor of enemies of truth, open to them all the plans of God's servants and the workings of His cause, and place every advantage in hands that use all knowledge to hinder God's work and injure His people, going over to the enemy to serve him as suits inclination. That secret enmity under profession is more to be feared and far more dangerous than fierce and cruel open opposition. Acting a double part also means scheming and conniving to bring in wrong principles by any possible methods while under deception, using testimonies to carry a spirit that offends God, making stumbling blocks for others while continuing in work and responsibility without first taking them up and making straight paths for the feet by clearing past tracks, a course that forfeits confidence and leaves one unsafe and unclear before God to stand as adviser and in authority.
God Alone Gives Wisdom
Wisdom must be asked of God, who gives liberally to all without reproach, and not of man, not of an overburdened brother, not of finite wisdom across the continent, not of human judgment, and not of lowland cisterns of human wisdom apart from Him. Leaning on human wisdom and human guidance is leaning on a broken reed and a snare, and turning from Christ to finite human beings for wisdom is unbelief that dishonors God and brings weakness where there should be strength, disappointment, misleading, and being driven and tossed and led astray, like trying to quench thirst from lowland cisterns instead of pure water. The asking must be in faith, nothing wavering, for he who wavers when asking for wisdom is double-minded and unstable and unsteady in all his ways and in all his conduct, like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, and must not think he shall receive anything of the Lord. This means not looking at difficulties and talking of them, and not carrying burdens to fellow men who are weighed down on every hand nor pouring complaints into human ears, but bowing on the knees before God who is nigh, taking burdens to the Lord in prayer, casting away unbelief, and going directly to the Source of all grace and sufficiency and strength. That Source is to be believed for pity and compassion as the One who knows the human frame, who loved enough to give His own life and bear in His body the strokes due for transgression of the law, so that sinners may become prisoners of hope, and impressions must be taken from Christ, prayer must be made to God and not to man, and His word “Learn of Me” must be obeyed, for He gives rest, wisdom to understand duty, His presence, and the influence of the divine Spirit on the mind, and His counsel is found by those who seek it and ask of God and not of man.
No human yoke is to be permitted to be placed upon believers, and no human mind is to take control of another person’s mind or spiritual responsibility. Those entrusted with a commission from God must look to Jesus for direction and ask God in faith without wavering, believing without questioning that He gives liberally and without reproach and that what was asked will be received, rather than depending on any human being for wisdom, merging God-given identity and commission into any human being, or submerging identity in another. Each soul must seek wisdom and direction from God, who knows the experience needed for its appointed work, and each heart must make its own direct petition to Him who is too wise to make a mistake and too good and merciful to do harm, taking Christ’s yoke and learning of Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart. To put weak and erring man in God’s place to learn duty and direction dishonors God, while God alone is the distinct source of strength, wisdom, light, and life for workers of different capabilities and gifts laboring together, and for those who feel duty to bear a message to the people and feel need of guidance; refusing to be driven about and led astray, they stay stable only by direct, unwavering dependence on God.
By contrast with the tossed waverer who receives nothing, stability comes when a person endures temptation by enduring trial, letting patience finish its work toward perfection, taking the Word of life personally, bringing God’s promises to Him and claiming them, and relying on the strength of the Lord instead of any human power. The one who so endures temptation and trial will receive the crown of life promised to those who love God.
Steadfast Life and Service
Wisdom is given on condition that God is accepted as Guide and Counselor, with plans laid before Him without wavering, and asking must be in faith rather than reliance on one's own judgment. The waverer is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, and will receive nothing from the Lord, and the remedy is not to look at difficulties and talk of them nor to carry burdens to fellow men who are weighed down, pour complaints into human ears, or seek wisdom from finite human beings and lowland cisterns, but to bow on the knees before God who is nigh, take burdens to the Lord in prayer, and go directly to the Source of all grace and sufficiency. Stability comes by enduring temptation and trial, letting patience finish its work toward perfection, taking the Word of life personally, bringing God's promises to Him and claiming them, and relying on the strength of the Lord instead of any human power. Receiving counsel and submitting the will to God are signs of dependence on Him, while self-sufficiency and resistance to counsel leave a person vulnerable to discouragement and error. Steadfastness comes from fastening the soul to God, walking with Him, seeking Jesus' counsel, humbly admitting weakness, bringing the heart to Christ in humility, and choosing a different course rather than following companions who lead away from what is right.
The first chapter brings light and encouragement when studied carefully, calling for walking carefully and prayerfully before the Lord with confidence that He will direct in all ways. Wholehearted surrender and trust in God's word allow Him to guide and give wisdom, rather than wavering in faith, giving in to human claims, and seeking excuses to avoid conviction and obedience. Asking must be in unwavering faith, believing wisdom will be freely given, then depending on God and letting Him supervise the life, using every God-given mental and bodily faculty wisely and intelligently under God's counsel rather than under Satan's dictation in order to do the work given to do.
The only safe course for developing the attributes of a true Christian is unwavering, undivided faith with no uncertainty, in which a person determined to do God's will serves Him with the whole self. During probationary time everyone who receives Christ by faith is to perfect a Christian character, and the work of the Spirit embraces the whole man, soul, body, and spirit, without unfittting him for the common duties of ordinary life and leaving no place for one religion for business and another for the church. When the Word is cherished as an abiding principle in the heart and held fast under every circumstance, the man with his entrusted capabilities is brought into subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ, with undivided powers, even thoughts, brought into captivity to Christ. This is true sanctification, in which all parts of the experience blend in complete harmony so that he is wanting in nothing, keeps no part back to do with as he pleases, knows he is bought with a price, and glorifies God in body and spirit, which are Christ's. Pure and undefiled religion in the heart will not remain double-minded and unstable, but changes the whole character and makes a new creature in Christ with a decided change in the whole life, renouncing everything bad in action, emotion, feeling and thought and purifying what was good from selfishness and every taint of impurity, as a brackish fountain made pure is known by the purity and sweetness of its streams. A divided purpose makes the whole life distorted and inconsistent and misdirects the faculties so as to prevent faithful service, and holding back any part of oneself leaves an opening for temptation where faith no longer clearly sees God as a barrier against sin.
A divided, undecided and unsettled person cannot be relied on to do what is right under every circumstance, seeks to avoid loss rather than commit fully to doing right, and has no firm place to stand in the day of trial. Those given great light and many opportunities must respond with zeal, steadfastness and devotion, for God calls for people of decided purpose and determined character to do His work, and in the last great work for eternity, when a people must be prepared to stand in the day of preparation, working at random instead of consecrating all powers without reserve cannot be afforded. The double-minded man leans to his own understanding, is impatient of the counsel of those of more experience, is self-sufficient and self-confident and wise in his own conceit, yet has no interior strength, no firm principle and no root in himself. He is pliant and accommodating, unable to say no squarely, and is readily led away from God by a stronger determined will to accept evil suggestions and form wrong habits. His division is shown by praying faintly and then forgetting the prayer, whereas prayer joined with watchfulness and care to keep frivolous, evil, fretful or harsh words from being spoken brings steady, earnest, hopeful peace of mind. It is also shown by agreeing with right counsel for decided reform and then wheeling right around while still speaking to present matters in a different light, making words of no effect and overturning all effort to change the existing order, and by lacking a well-balanced mind that can form plans, devise methods and put them into execution, so plans fall to the ground, the same work must be gone over again and again, resolutions mean failure because they are never carried out, leadership is uncertain and slipshod, and matters are left worse than before. Such a one is unfit to be united with others in responsible positions as minister, canvasser, colporteur, president or manager, and unless converted and transformed by grace and taught self-denial, self-crucifixion and the sanctifying power of the truth, Satan will overcome him through temptation and cause shipwreck of faith.
God has no use for double-minded and two-sided men who let others determine their course, hold to a wrong position once taken, dismiss the fear of God, pursue recklessness, depart from the Word, and fail of eternal life. Such a one can still be saved if awakened to peril and in the fear of God repents and is converted, for the Lord will hear him, while those who by departing from the Word help inexperienced double-minded souls in a wrong course will be chastised and greatly humbled, because the Word is to be the standard for all. Instability linked to repeatedly yielding to Satan and becoming confused, rejecting light, abusing conscience and speaking falsehood knowingly, is remedied only by placing oneself under God's control. A divided heart making a person unstable in all his ways is encouraged when burdens and perplexities are not brought to God, and the call is to come wholly to Him and live in harmony with Him.