Mensa Otabil - Clean Hands (09/28/2025)
Welcome to a new week. Last week we talked about the heart, and this week we’re going to talk about the hand. We look at James chapter 4, verse 8: «Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.»
Well, «cleanse your hands"—we’ve become familiar with this during the COVID era of sanitizing and washing our hands. We understand that when the hands are infected, they can affect the whole body. While we learn to sanitize our physical hands, the hands the Bible is talking about represent our actions. Our passage today is from the book of James. If you’re familiar with the New Testament, James was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and a leader in the early church. His book is very strong-worded. The book of James has been likened to the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament because it is very practical and talks about living a practical life. He focuses a lot on living a righteous life and on our faith manifesting in reality.
So, he tells us here to cleanse our hands. In other words, as we say today, «get your act together.» You don’t just receive Jesus Christ into your heart as Lord and Savior, say, «I’m born again,» and then live however you please. The Christian life requires that we live a life that conforms to the faith and the presence of Christ that is in us. That is what James is addressing. After Christ has come into the life of the believer and we have begun walking the faith walk, we must endeavor to get our lives together. That’s what James calls «clean your hands.»
Now, if you listen to what he is addressing, he calls the believers very hard and harsh words—he calls them sinners and double-minded. He isn’t saying they’re sinners in the sense that Christ doesn’t live in them, but if Christ lives in you and you continue sinning, James calls you a sinner. If you say you believe in Him but are not living out your faith, he calls you double-minded. He says that faith must produce works; faith must produce actions.
So as we ponder the rebuke that the apostle James is giving us, I trust that each one of us will become doers of God’s work. While we are cleansing our hands and sanitizing, remember that your actions, thoughts, desires, and intentions must also be cleaned. We must allow Christ to cleanse us from our evil ways and also allow Him to live out the righteous life within us. I trust today that as we begin this week, this ancient rebuke to the early church will apply to us in modern times. It’s time to clean our hands; it’s time to get our act together. It’s time for Christians to live as Christians.
It’s time for you to say, «I am the righteousness of God.» You should actually practice righteousness in your life. May the Lord help each one of us to clean our hands as we present them to Him this week. Let us pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, I turn away from sin and what I know to be wrong. Help me to live the life of Christ. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.» May our hands be cleansed throughout this week. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.