This verse picks up the thought expressed in verse 6. There the author assures his readers that “God … gives grace to the humble,” and now he appeals to his readers for humility: Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. Here the Lord refers to God. For people to be Humble before God means to recognize their own limitation and poverty on the one hand, and to acknowledge that their greatest need is God on the other. It is to submit themselves totally to God and willingly accept his absolute right to order their lives. Humility is self-abasement. Only if someone is willing to come to God with self-abasement will he or she be able to expect the joy of the great reversal: and he will exalt you. This reflects Jesus’ own teaching: “and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matt 23.12). Other possible ways to render this first clause are “Make yourselves low before the Lord” or “Consider yourselves to be insignificant [or, unimportant] and the Lord great.” The verb exalt means to put someone in a position of privilege and honor. The clause he will exalt you may be rendered “he will give you honor” or “he will honor you.” It is possible to restructure the two clauses in the following way:
• If you make yourselves low before the Lord [or, God], he will honor you.

Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .