One of the things I’m concerned about is what double-mindedness is.
Bella put the word "double-minded" in its scriptural context, as we all should, emphasizing that the apostle James was talking about doubting the promise of God, "wavering" in one's confidence in what God has promised. In describing what he meant, the apostle James used the metaphor of a wave of the sea that is always in motion, moving wherever wind and current direct. In contrast, the Christian is to possess an
unwavering, solid,
unmoving confidence in God and His word. Rather than being spiritually immature, shifting all about in our beliefs, rising and falling in our confidence in God, "carried here and there by waves, tossed about with every wind of doctrine" (
Ephesians 4:14), the Christian person is to stand by faith on God's truth, His promises to them, "rooted and built up" in Jesus and "established in the faith" (
Colossians 2:7).
How do you become a Christian who is not double-minded? Well, here's what the Bible says:
2 Timothy 1:12
12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.
The apostle Paul lays out in this verse how it is he came to a settled confidence in God's truth and promises: knowledge>conviction>action.
Paul first obtained the facts concerning Christ and the Gospel, being taught by Christ himself the doctrines of the faith (
Galatians 1:11-12). Paul's faith started with an obtaining of a
knowledge of the truth.
The most double-minded believers are, typically, the ones least familiar with the doctrines of their own faith, who have only a superficial knowledge of the contents of the Bible. They are the ones who neglect to memorize Scripture (
Psalms 119:11; Proverbs 3:1-3), who never sit down with a concordance, Bible lexicon, and several trusted commentaries, and study the Bible for themselves. All of their understanding of God's word comes to them second-hand, only through those they have adopted as their teachers and/or in a five-minute session reading a daily devotional. They have a "pre-chewed," superficial version of Christianity, that is often emptied of its spiritual nourishment.
Paul bent his
mind to deeply understanding the knowledge he had received concerning Christ and Christian doctrine. He didn't just shrug his shoulders at the difficult bits and discard them as too arcane to bother with. That would have been the attitude, the thinking, of a "babe in Christ," weak and wobbly, perennially staggering around spiritually, never coming to a settled conviction about the fundamental truths of the faith.
As Paul
considered the truth - God's truth - thinking it through, meditating upon it (
Philippians 4:8; Psalms 1), and in the process enlightened to the truth by the Holy Spirit, he grew solidly convinced of it, certain that it was the Truth.
Full, settled faith always manifests in corresponding action (
James 2:17-26); Christian faith inevitably results in behaviour that reflects what one believes. And so, Paul
acted in accord with the truth he had become to believe. This "finished" his faith; acting out his beliefs, his faith, completed the process whereby he was made deeply rooted and grounded in his faith, the opposite of the "double-minded" person of
James 1:6-7.
Here, then, is the way to avoid being double-minded:
1. Know God's truth well.
2. Consider God's truth carefully.
3. Live out God's truth daily.
