What Does It Mean to be Double-minded?

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8)

I think it’s safe to say that we lack wisdom concerning how to think and act seems especially hard to come by these days, with a raging pandemic upending all our plans, social unrest inflaming our newsfeeds, and wide-ranging differences of opinion troubling our relationships. If ever we have lacked wisdom, surely it is now. What do we do?

James simply tells us to ask for it.

Then he tells us two important truths. The first is that God gives wisdom generously to those who ask. The second is that God does not give wisdom to those who ask without faith, because they are double-minded. How then do we hope in the generosity of God when we have wavering hearts?

To shed some light on the picture James seems to be painting, God provided a story in Jeremiah chapters 41-43. There, we read of a time when God’s people desperately needed wisdom. Their land had been ravaged by the Babylonians, their leaders taken captive, and certain men had rebelled against Babylonian authority by committing atrocious murders. The remaining leaders fully expected the Babylonians to take vengeance on them for the horrendous acts of the rebels. Frightened and powerless, they prepared to flee to Egypt for safety. Before they left, they begged Jeremiah the prophet to ask God to give them guidance. They vowed, “Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God” (Jeremiah 42:6).

However, when the Lord told the people through Jeremiah to remain in the land, they angrily accused Jeremiah of conspiring against them to have them killed. Then they packed their things and headed out of town to seek refuge in the land of Egypt just as they had originally intended. Out of fear of the King of Babylon, they decided for themselves what was good. They did not believe that God would protect them, so they walked according to their own wisdom instead.

Proverbs 9:10 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” In other words, true wisdom is knowing and rightly fearing the Lord. It isn’t just God telling us what to do at every turn. It is knowing who God is, then acting according to who He is. The Jews in this story feared the King of Babylon more than the Lord, then acted according to their fear of the Babylon. This seems to me a case of double-mindedness. They asked for God’s guidance, but held on to their own assessment of the situation, as if God’s word was one opinion among many.

Double-mindedness can manifest itself similarly in us today. Prone to fear for our safety and success, we want to save our lives. We often assess situations from our perspective and set a preliminary course, just as the Jews did. We may want to have all the options presented to us, including God’s promises, so we can decide for ourselves what seems right. We come to God with fearful uncertainty, not really sure that he will do as he promised. This can be a dangerous place.

When we ask God for wisdom in any given situation, James admonishes us to ask in faith. That is, to ask believing that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. For James, that means that we are to believe he will give us actual wisdom, and we commit ourselves to walk accordingly. This is the faith of Abraham, who believed that God would do as He had promised, no matter how impossible the situation seemed. This faith moves us to the “fear,” or “reverence,” of God above all, even our own assessment, and sets us on a wise course of action. To ask for wisdom without a heart certain that he will give it and set on acting accordingly reveals double-mindedness.

Fortunately for us today, the Bible provides a running record of God’s faithfulness to fulfill his promises. I am grateful for this, because I am prone to waiver. Fear, doubt, and even straight-up rebellion plague my heart and mind. On what ground can someone like me stand to ask the Lord for wisdom?

That ground is his faithfulness, which was revealed to us throughout history and fully in Christ Jesus. Concerning the story in Jeremiah, even though the remnant of Judah disobeyed, God remained faithful. Centuries later, he sent his Son to rescue all of his fearful, storm-tossed, rebellious people to show us the way we should walk. As a man, Jesus demonstrated what it means to walk wisely by entrusting himself to God above all others, even to the point of enduring death on a cross. In turn, God raised him from the dead as promised so that we might see that those who put their hope in God’s faithfulness will not be disappointed. The disobedience of God’s people didn’t thwart God’s plan to give life to the world. As we see in Christ, not even death can thwart God’s plan.

Like the Jews, I have disregarded true wisdom and believed my own assessment of a situation. But praise God, because he is gracious and compassionate, I am not doomed to be tossed by the winds and waves of my own worldly understanding. I can run back to him time and time again in repentance. James reminds us that not only does he give wisdom to the needy, he gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).

Wisdom concerning how to think, even in this day and age, will always begin with believing that God is faithful. In James, we see that God is faithful to give wisdom to those who ask. Even when I am prone to doubt, true wisdom will always direct me to trust in God’s faithfulness. This is the way of the wise and it is generously open in Christ, even to fools like me.